01/10/20

DSA Drama in action virtual workshop

Topics:
Structuring a Short Film Project
Developing Audience Skills
Ways into Shakespeare

Warm up game:

Concentration exercise – everyone closes their eyes and one person changes something about
themselves – students have to call out what has been changed

Structuring a short film:

Year sevens
Fits the project based learning model
Relevant to students as they are familiar with Tik Tok and YouTube
Opportunity for self-directed and collaborative learning
Can be done at home in case of the pandemic

Empathy: who is the audience? How is the audience going to receive it?
Hooking them in with a sample
The project must have a purpose such as an exhibition for the school community or a short
film festival, watching the videos together in the last lesson
Students are driving the learning – they need to figure out what they are going to do to make
things work and find solutions

Warm up - story development:

Yes and…

Students sit in a circle

Ask for suggestions for 2 or 3 characters with details
Ask suggestion for a setting or scenario
Add constraints (no one can die)
Teacher or volunteer starts the story: eg. krisha set off through the dark forest to meet her
friend syke
Students then take it in turns around the circle to add one more detail to the story
incorporating any of the characters

Gets students ready for building a story and to develop a script around it

Warm up - Preparing the project

Think of your favourite movie/show

Write down top five features of the movie and share with class
Did any two people have the same top five?
Leads into the discussion that no two people are alike, and that several features need to be
included in the film not just your personal favourite
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Structuring the project:

Hook them in with a video to generate more ideas

Giving students constraints so they can be successful

Time limit and resources they should be using eg. 3 minutes, paper or sock puppets

Give the project a purpose – mini film festival

Establish a clear timeline

Set deadline for each of the tasks in the project
Assign a grade for each task in the project so students can get credit for what they have done
even if it is incomplete at the end. They can have a grade for their planning work.

Use recyclable materials to encourage sustainability, encourage creativity and incorporate

STEM

Give the option for transferring skills from other learning areas:

Stop motion video

Animation apps
Elaborate puppets
Stage design
Media arts – camera angles and storyboard

Give feedback before grading each tasks

Reduces talking
Students can see what they need to work on
Can make improvements before a grade is given
They can see feedback even if you are away

Other considerations:

Reduce the tasks or increase the time they have to finish

Prompt students with questions about their plot – is it finished? Why is this character in the
story?
Suitable language and ethical behaviour of characters
Wide audience appeal
Allow students time to make changes after feedback

Developing Audience Skills

Primary school unit but can be adapted for early high school
explicitly teaching students audience skills

Using teacher assessment – checklist, observation, rubric

Peer assessments – verbal or written
Group assessments – verbal/drawn/written reviews
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Exploring what it means to be an audience member in a variety of settings

Warm up activity:
‘it’s me, judge’
One person is the judge at the front of the room with their back to the rest of the students
Another student is chosen to stand somewhere in the room
Person 1 – knocks on the table
Judge – who is it
Personal 1 – its me judge!
The judge now has three guesses to identify the mystery person

Showing students a selection of pictures of people being audience members

Choose one picture – students choose a character from that picture and need to recreate the
photo and turn it into a living picture
Students discuss differences between the pictures – what are people doing?

(Older students can be working with these pictures in groups)

Enact out what is happening

Students recognise that depending on the setting, there are different appropriate behaviours
for audience members

Becoming an audience member in a variety of settings

Using prompt cards

By changing audience behaviour, we are in the classroom listening to a story, but we behave
like we are at the football, discuss the impact on the class teacher, and individual students,
what might happen if you were at the cinema and behaved like that?

Create a chart with students to remind what makes a good audience member

Ways into Shakespeare

Year eight drama – introduction to Macbeth

Warm up activities that can be used as brain breaks:

The handshake:
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Allows everyone in the group to meet

The obstacle is you only have one minute to do it
You have to observe the person nodding or waving
Eye contact at all times

Rhythm game:
Building ensemble skills

Students are working together building up the ensemble

Tableux first to allow students to get used to working together
Students create freeze frames at the beat of a drum or hand clap
Players then form pairs - make shapes which respond to each other – creates a
sequence of movements that can be repeated

The play Macbeth is then introduced

Run through the first battle scene

Parts of the script are read out – introduction to the battle scene
Teacher narrates the battle for the students

Students then work in pairs - recall their work on the battle scene – remind
themselves of the sequence of the movements they created

Challenges surrounding drama teaching:

Students not wanting to perform or participate on stage.

Ways to overcome this include taking small steps such as allowing them to be
the director, having a back stage role, allowing them to join in on rehearsals

Behaviour management:

Working with groups of students doing different things in the drama space
Going to professional development workshops to gain new skills – speaking to
other teachers
Start with really structured activities with clear directions
Using freeze frames – still pictures you have better control over
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