Living with fear
£14.95
This scheme of work was created a couple of years ago when the school where I work decided that KS4 should start with Year 9. This was generally a positive move, but we were starting GCSE level work with students before they had time to absorb the terminology and practical vocabulary required of them. The scheme of work explores the drama strategies that Edexcel specifically wants the students to know, and a couple of extras, but it would work equally well for other boards. There is also some ground work for use of drama elements too. The scheme also explores an issue in the style of a Unit 1 – Drama Exploration.
The scheme is accompanied by stimulus materials and lists of elements, strategies and medium for classroom display. Throughout the scheme there are also references to visual resources from websites that you might find useful. It can be hard to model some of these techniques on your own, if the students are not familiar with them – and this scheme assumes they are not – so the film clips are very useful.
Each session has an element of written work built in to encourage that side of the work. It can either be done in the class or as homework. Decide as time allows or as the group seems to need. My experience is that students have not had much experience of writing about work at KS3, usually due to curriculum time restraints, and need to be taught to do this well.
Please note that what is referred to here as a session does not equal a lesson. Some of these sessions could be done in a lesson; some will take several lessons. You will need to break some of the work down to create plenary moments with each lesson but this will depend on the speed of the class’s working methods and the organisation of your lessons on the timetable.
The theme of the scheme was inspired by the Guardian article used in the scheme, and by meeting the mother of a friend who had developed Obsessive Compulsive Disorder following a serious road accident. It was a remarkable experience to see how this woman’s life was controlled and dominated by her fears; all so that she could regain a sense of control that the accident had robbed her of. It led me to think about the things that I do to control my world and that in turn led to the stimuli for this scheme.
Number of lessons: 6
