DRAMA AIMS

The course is designed to ensure that the students have acquired all the skills needed for GCSE drama by the end of Y9.

This includes:

Many of the skills below will have been acquired during the weekly year 6 lessons where we begin the Key Stage 3 skills. By the end of Year 7 students should:

• understand and demonstrate the basic and group skills necessary for meaningful drama to take place [listening, observation, concentration, co-operation]
• work individually and in mixed groups of varying sizes, developing the ability to negotiate and make decisions as part of a group
• understand how use of space, movement and voice communicate meaning and evaluate that use
• show a developing ability to devise, improvise and create credible characterisations
• structure a presentation with a clear beginning and end
• understand that the process of drama has its own worth and that performance does not always need to be the only aim  of the activity
• reflect and respond constructively to their own work and that of others in the class, with an awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses
• use and understand the following technical vocabulary:

still picture
monologue spoken thought
mime
body language
key image
facial expressions
eye contact rôle
empathy
suspension of belief
endowing
narrator
gibberish
soundscape
whole group image
spontaneous improvisation
theatrical convention

By the end of Year 8 students should:

• consolidate and deepen their understanding of how space, movement and voice communicate meaning and have the ability to evaluate that use
• work constructively and creatively alone and with other members of the class, consolidating the ability to negotiate, make decisions, select and apply a range of techniques and structures as part of a group
• understand and apply the skills required for effective spontaneous improvisation
• use a range of approaches to create credible characterisations, varying vocabulary and body language as appropriate
• develop the ability to use a range of skills and techniques to structure an effective performance
• understand and apply the common and discrete skills require during the process and the performance of drama
• discuss and analyse the issues and themes involved in their work, showing an awareness of their own experience and that of others
• demonstrate an understanding of the differences between spontaneous improvisation and prepared improvisation
• develop their ability to reflect and respond constructively and sensitively on their own work and that of others in the class, showing an awareness of the difference between form and content in their evaluations and analysis
• recognise and use the conventions and form of script when reading and writing scenes
• use and understand the following technical vocabulary:

status
accepting
blocking
building
teacher in rôle
forum theatre
flashback
hot-seating
characterisation
protagonist
objective
configuration
proscenium arch [open staging]
traverse
theatre-in-the-round
externalised conscience
non-naturalistic
duologue
genre
motivation
point of conflict
script

[Some of these aims will not be fulfilled exactly as stated in the schemes of work if the group performs the annual pantomime to Junior Schools in the area for the Health and Environmental Department, Durham City Council. However, the process involved in the construction of this enterprise inevitably covers most of these aims for the show to be a success]

By the end of Year 9 students should:

• use space, movement and voice with imagination, commitment and with minimum self-consciousness, to communicate and evaluate that use
• contribute positively to the development and realisation of ideas within a range of groupings and encourage others to contribute fully to the same group *
• recognise and apply the need to work in detail and depth, refining, editing and selecting when devising ideas for  presentation
• structure a presentation with the needs of a given audience in mind
• use a range of dramatic skills, techniques and conventions to express ideas and feelings effectively, with a clear understanding of the differences between naturalistic and non-naturalistic forms and techniques
• appreciate drama from different cultures and times and use elements of it in their work
• develop their ability to connect their own experiences with the world beyond *
• consolidate their ability to reflect upon and respond in depth and detail to their own work and that of others in the class, showing an ability to recognises quality and structure, to analyse application of skills required and what was communicated
• use and understand the following technical vocabulary

symbolism
naturalism
abstract
split focus
dramatic tension
convention
ritual
fourth wall
transformation
angels and devils
moment of choice
choreography

* some of the knowledge, skills and understanding [especially those listed with an asterisk above as outcomes] are accumulative rather than specific to particular units