Drama and Exploration: Tell me why

"In unit 1 of the new specification, students use stimulus material to explore a theme, topic or issue. There must be space within your teaching for students to choose explorative strategies to develop their own thinking and to communicate meaning to an audience. Experiential work must include a selection of drama mediums, and the students will reflect and evaluate their learning and understanding through their documentary responses which are captured throughout the process and then written up under controlled conditions.

The unit is worth 30% of the total GCSE mark. The practical exploration is double weighted. We hope that this scheme of work moves the drama beyond the confines of the examination, deepening our students’ understanding of the world in which they live.

In this scheme we have aimed to include questioning and plenary sessions that deepen understanding of the issues being explored, while encouraging students to develop their questioning of the world around them. At the end of each lesson we have suggested written work that should be completed, to ensure that reflection is captured to be used during the controlled conditions to prepare the documentary response.

Learning objectives:

To explore and reflect upon the following questions:

• What is meant by the term disaffected?
• How does disaffection manifest itself in everyday life?
• What do we think about school?
• What is destruction? What is destructive?
• To explore a text extract working for significance of action/object
• How can an individual disaffected by education express this and ask for help?
• What are the symbols of education and why do they exist?
• Use of thought-tapping as a theatrical device and a development tool in experiential drama
• Why does an individual become destructive?
• How do we react to violence – do we ever initially ask, ‘why was this done’?
• Is the current system of education right for young people today?
• To focus on the specifics of the narrative, and to respond to a song as a stimulus
• Are we moving closer to, or further away from, a tragedy like this happening in schools in this country today?
• Our current means of punishment and correction – are they adequate?
• Do they achieve their stated aims?
• How would society react to an action such as this?
• What would be their motivating force after the event?
• To develop our own dramas, it is possible to extend this work to become the basis of a devised performance for Unit 3 if the theme fits the brief
• To take the experiential work we have completed during the course of the module, and to develop it into drama