TEACHING CONTEXT

School and Board: Bayridge Secondary School; Limestone District School

Board
Location of School: Kingston Ontario
Grade Level: Grade 11 University/College
Subject: Drama
Composition of Class: 20 students
Curriculum Unit: B2. Drama and Society; second week of unit
Purpose of lesson:
Implementing this lesson into the end of the second week of this unit
would provide the students with an excellent framework to summarize how
drama can be used to explore the community around them while also
preparing them for a more advanced summative assessment in the following
week. This unit is extremely important in the framework of a drama class
since it will push the students to explore multiple viewpoints and to
question the norms of societies from the past and today. This lesson in
particular, which deals with an equity issue in the education system, will
challenge the students to question where they stand on the socio-economic
ladder and to understand that the system is flawed. It will push them to
question the system they have been placed into and to figure out ways to
act upon the norms of said system. The goal of this lesson is to have
students begin to become actively aware about the diversity of the world
around them and to recognize these dichotomies in their own communities.
Hopefully the students will challenge themselves further if the lesson
touches them, as I hope it will, to further educate themselves about socioeconomic issues that are faced in many aspects of our culture, and to work
to amend them in the future.

Daily Lesson Plan

Miss Martin

LESSON PLAN: SOCIO-ECONOMIC EQUITY ISSUES

Date:
December 5, 2014
Class:
Gr. 11 University/ College
Class Length: 76 Minutes
Course:
Drama
Overview & Purpose
This activity will challenge the creativity of the
students to use their bodies for expression. The
central aim of the lesson is to have students
experience different perspectives on SES equity
issues within the education system and to
become actively aware of these issues which
pertain to their community as a whole.

Prior Knowledge
Needed
-proper blocking/
staging techniques
-proper stretching
techniques
-indicators of mood

LEARNING GOALS:
Learning Goal
-Students should be able to
effectively warm up their bodies.
-Students should be able to
communicate throughout movement
only to highlight multiple
perspectives on the given issue
-Students should be able to actively
think and be aware about the SES
diversity within their own
communities and understand their
role within.

-Students should continue to

question that system after the lesson
has wrapped.

Coded Expectation
C3.1 identify and follow safe and
ethical practices in all drama
activities
B1.2 analyse drama works to
determine how they
communicate ideas about issues,
culture, and
society
B3.2 analyse their use of the creative
process in
drama activities, and explain what
they learned
from it and how that learning can be
applied in
work and other social contexts
B2.3 identify ways in which drama
can influence
the broader community
B2.2 identify ways in which drama
can influence
personal growth, relationships with

2014

Daily Lesson Plan

Miss Martin

2014

others, and
aesthetic judgement

LEARNING SKILLS:
Responsibility
Self-regulation

Collaboration
Initiative
Organization

Notes: Students must have access to two empty spaces for this activity to
allow the groups to effectively experiment with their own movement
pieces. Music can be used if the students ask to incorporate it, but it is
not necessary.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

OF

OVERALL LESSON:

-students will be shown a video of life in two different schools

-they will then be separated into two groups (or 4 if a large class) and
asked to create a movement piece for one of the stories in the video
-the movement piece is to be based in the feeling of attending one of
those institutions, it should not be a realistic representation about life in
that school
-group discussion will follow
Time
(minut
es)
3

Segment

Description

Resources

Hook

-Students will be separated as

soon as they enter the
classroom. The teacher will
count them of as either a 1 or a 2
(add in a group 3 and group 4 for
a large class.)
-There will be a designated area
in the room for each group to
congregate. Make it very clear
that there is no talking to anyone
in the other group.

-labelled
section of the
room for each
group number

Assessment for
Learning:

-Have a quick discussion about

what they experienced when you
had them enter the room in this
particular fashion.

Daily Lesson Plan

12

Delivery of New
Ideas:

Miss Martin
-Students will watch the video
found on BLM 1.1
-Assign group one the depicted
privileged school
-Assign group two the
underprivileged school

2014

-laptop and
projector with
a screen or
blank wall to
project onto.
-Youtube video
found in BLM
1.1

-Explain to them that their task

is to create a movement piece
that evokes the feeling of being
in their assigned schools. Make
sure to emphasize that they are
not to create a realistic
rendering of life in that school,
but must instead a movement
piece that highlights the essence
of what it would be like to attend
that school. How would they feel
as students within?
-Show the video one more time,
and have the students warm up
their bodies.
13-15

Learning Tasks: -Send group one to the

alternative space so they can
work alone in there while group
two works in the classroom
-The two groups will work to
create their movement piece
thats roughly 2 minutes long

-the two groups will come back

together and each perform their
movement pieces. Class will give
constructive feedback on each
piece for 1 minute after each
group presents.

10
-Now the teacher will instruct
the students to switch the
schools they were focusing on
and they must create a new
movement piece to expose the

-Two spaces
for the groups
to work in (if
you only have
access to one
space just
have them
work on
opposite sides
of the room.)

Daily Lesson Plan

6

Miss Martin
essence of what attending that
other school would be like.

2014

-the two groups will come back

together and each perform their
movement pieces. Class will give
constructive feedback on each
piece for 1 minute after each
group presents.

15

-A class discussion will occur

after the final performances.
Some questions for
discussion:
-How did having to change which
school was your focus affect you?
-What was the main issue
between these two schools?
(Socio-economic status is the one
you want)
-Where else do you see this
issue?
-Where in the community is this
issue directly present?
-How can we work to overcome
this issue?
-How does this issue effect the
school were in, our community,
our world?
*really work to have the students
become actively aware about this
issue in schools and also in the
world outside of the classroom.*

Instructional
Strategies:

-The teacher will walk between

the two groups and observe their
progress while they are creating
their movement pieces. Can step
in to push them creatively and
make sure the groups are on the
right track.
Individual/pair/group work
Hands-on activity

Notes on

These instructional strategies

Assessment as
Learning:

-notebook and
pen if
handwritten
notes are
preferred to
mental ones

Daily Lesson Plan

Instructional
Strategies:

Assessment of
Learning:

Miss Martin

2014

will help foster a sense of

children being responsible for
their own learning and provide
more experience working with
different people. The hands-on
nature of the activity allows
them to be immersed in the
subject matter and to experience
it kinesthetically as well.
-Through a class discussion after
the final presentations students
should be able to articulate how
they felt changing perspectives
on the issue.
-The students would have
effectively portrayed the
feeling/essence of the schools
they were tasked with.

Wrap Up/End of
class:

-Students would have been able

to engage in a meaningful
conversation about where this
issue is present in the world
around them.
-Summarize how this issue is
prevalent in the education
system and how it effects the
learning experiences of different
students.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION

AND/OR

-stats. if you
find them
helpful

ACCOMMODATIONS:

Adjust the complexity of the task and the level of support provided
Adjust the assessment criteria or type of assessment for the task
Provide alternate medium or location for student to demonstrate
learning

REFLECTION/NOTES:

Daily Lesson Plan

Miss Martin

BLM 1.1
YOUTUBE

VIDEO LINK

HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=5XDFVAPVV9A

2014

Daily Lesson Plan

Miss Martin

2014

CRITICAL REFLECTION
I believe that this lesson will allow students to truly connect on a deeper
level to an aspect of the experiences students in both privileged and underprivileged schools. Bayridge strikes a balance between the two schools in the
video, so through channeling the essence of the impact of funding through their
bodies and really working to express emotionally I hope this lesson allows the
students to experience another perspective. One of the most effective tools of
understanding the whole picture is to comprehend all involved perspectives and
to then challenge the ideas presented to them.
If this lesson hits home with some of the students then the lesson has been
successful. It is through creating people who are actively aware of the issues in
society that we can begin to make changes. If people dont understand what is
wrong, in this case with socio-economic equity issues, then they are not driven to
make change. Hopefully the lesson impacts the students to want to notice these
issues in their own school and community, or at least to become aware that this
is an issue that is faced by many within the educational systems.
This lesson could be enhanced through integration into the community, or
by visiting schools similar to the ones in the video. Interviews could be
conducted so getting to understand the real students views on their educational
experience first-hand could be really powerful. On a more practical level though
students could record where they notice socio-economic dichotomies around
their community and discuss these discoveries with the class. This way they

Daily Lesson Plan

Miss Martin
2014
would be a witness to the equity issue within their community after this lesson
has hopefully taken root in their minds.