Arts Skills and Processes: Lesson Plan

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Week Eleven: Seasonal Grouping

Student Outcome Statement: Arts Skills and Processes - Level Four – Selects from a range of specific skills, techniques, processes and appropriate technologies in presenting arts works for identified audiences or purposes.

Specific Areas:

Skills, techniques and processes: Students select, combine and shape drama elements (role, situation, voice, movement, space and time, language and texts, symbol, audience and dramatic tension), using a range of skills, techniques and processes when devising and completing drama works. They use appropriate tone of voice and choice of language in improvisation, speak with clarity and use pace, pause, pitch and volume to suit the performance space and enhance dramatic action. They use gesture, stance and ways of moving to indicate relationships, mood and dramatic tension. Students arrange and use the space according to the demands of the action, to indicate relationships

and status, and to focus audience attention. They work alone or in groups with teacher guidance. They interact with others in ways that are consistent with the role undertaken and develop consistent and motivated characterisation. Students use observation, research and improvisation to develop characterisation and undertake a range of production roles. They use warm-up and rehearsal to prepare for performance and are able to give and accept direction appropriately.

Technologies: Students design appropriate sets, costumes and props, use lighting and recorded sound under teacher direction to enhance performance. They are aware of health and safety procedures, and production roles and responsibilities: for example, they undertake specific roles such as ‘front of house’ duties with supervision.

The student selects from a range of specific skills, techniques, processes and

appropriate technologies in presenting arts works for identified audiences or purposes.

Further Outcomes:

- Arts Ideas – Level Four

Creating: Students choose and combine elements of drama (role, situation, voice, movement, space and time, language and texts, symbol, audience and dramatic tension) to create a range of simple roles, situations and dramatic action. They choose and combine ideas, drawing on familiar structures of drama and specific conventions. They use appropriate terminology to describe and give reasons for their choices.

- Arts Response – Level Four

Reflecting: Students record and categorise observations of own drama and that of others. They reflect critically on their choices of components, structure and concept, and consider alternative approaches to their creation and presentation. They accept direction from others, where appropriate, to interpret and enhance drama works.

Teaching/Learning Purposes/Objectives: To enable the student to:

* Develop skills in ensemble work for a specific audience

* Understand and use appropriate terminology and conventions to improve the performance

* Develop and adapt available materials to enhance audience communication

Background planning and requirements[1]

Major Purpose: The development of ensemble skills

Key Question: What is the most effective way to communicate to our audience?

The Hook: Imagine you’re part of the Backyard Blitz team

- What’s happening? Your team is arranging a surprise garden

- Who’s it happening to? Yourself as a gardener

- Where is it happening? In the backyard of a viewer

- When is it happening? Minutes before the viewer comes home

- What’s at stake? All four workers must maintain focus on each other’s progress, as well as complete their own activities. If someone does not finish in time, the surprise will be ruined.

Lesson descriptions

- Warm-ups – Focus on team building and group exercises. Specifically activities that rely on all bodies working together in order to successfully complete a scene

- Class Discussion – Introduce the ‘Hook’. Discuss aspects of teamwork, yet also individuality in each character

- Small Group Activity – Ask students to create a short scene, much like the ‘Hook’. Students must demonstrate a group of people working together to complete a united goal, yet highlight the need for different characters. Allow for rehearsal and performance time.

- Individual Activity – Ask students to reflect on their performance in the scene.

- Is every character in your group of equal status?

- How could your group present your voices or movements to convey the layers of status?

- How do you use the space to convey the overall meaning?

- What are some of the most important pieces of dialogue you need to present?

- How does your group vary this dialogue?

- Within your group, which character(s) are you scared of?

- Within your group, which character(s) do you like?

- How does your group’s conversation change when these characters (good/bad) enter the scene?

- Do you all respect each other, or do you plot against them?

- How do you communicate the status of each character to the audience?

- How does your group communicate a location to the audience (Symbol)?

- Class Discussion – Discuss the importance of individual characterisation in group productions, however highlight the need for a balance of characters. Everyone must be individually seen and understood, and at the same time be unified.

- Small Group Activity – Ask students to create a short scene based on the ‘Seasons’. Students can choose to present all seasons working together, or fighting with each other or just siting around playing poker. Whatever the scene, each character must be defined and, at the same time, unified to the consistent goal of the others. Highlight a need for students to create and adapt available technologies in order to communicate more successfully to their audience. Focus on costumes and props as a means to create some form of awareness and need to generate further meaning for an audience.

Lesson Evaluation:

Group performance marking key

Voice and movement –

Level 5 (-5) – The students frequently used appropriate manipulation of voice and movement to communicate a variety of characters and status

Level 4 (+4) – The students created some variety of different vocal qualities and gestures to create meaning

Level –4 (+3) – The students maintained a minimal use of voice and movement to distinguish differences in characters and status

Level 3 (-3) – The students showed little variation in movement or voice, making it difficult to distinguish between them

Use of space –

Level 5 (-5) – The students sought to use the space appropriately and deliberately to communicate character differences and story

Level 4 (+4) – The students demonstrated a sound use of space to communicate the variety of characters for the audience

Level –4 (+3) – The students limited their movements within the performance space, and in some cases used the space inappropriately

Level 3 (-3) – The students blocked others, showing little awareness of their position, as well as their fellow performers

Dialogue –

Level 5 (-5) – The students used dialogue to successfully communicate differences and status, as well as maintain depth to characterisation

Level 4 (+4) – The students made sound attempts to add specific depth and understanding of the characters relationships in the performance space

Level –4 (+3) – The students maintained a limited depth to their use of dialogue, and in some cases created inconsistent characterisations

Level 3 (-3) – The students created dialogue that lacked flow, allowing conversations to seem unauthentic and stilted

Interaction –

Level 5 (-5) – The students showed a professional understanding of other performers space and reacted appropriately to their characters

Level 4 (+4) – The students created clever interactions with others, yet in some cases seemed inconsistent

Level –4 (+3) – The students performances demonstrated a respect for other actors, yet lacked little in the way of variety or status

Level 3 (-3) – The students made little attempt to interact with others

Use of symbol –

Level 5 (-5) – The students frequently used appropriate symbols to enhance their characters and their interactions with others

Level 4 (+4) – The students created believable locations through a variety of materials, yet an inconsistency of symbol use was noted

Level –4 (+3) – The students developed a sense of locations and characters through technologies, however such incidences were poorly executed

Level 3 (-3) – The student created little in the sense of location of character through the use of materials and properties

[1] Some parts modelled upon ‘The Giant who threw Tantrums’ in John O’Toole and Julie Dunn (2002) Pretending to Learn: Helping Children learn through Drama, Longman French’s Forrest.

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