Discussion questions
The images on poster 5 are intended to help younger students look at their beginning experiences of drama with different and more informed eyes.
Image 1, poster 5
- What can you see happening in this image?
- Where is this happening? How will the place affect the experience? Both positively and negatively
- When have you experienced this (type of activity)? For example: “When have you played games like What’s the Time, Mr Wolf?” “Who was in role in the game?” “How did you know when to run away?” You could talk about the contrasts of movement and stillness in this game – creeping up on the wolf and then freezing. “When you played shouting and silence, how did it make you feel inside?” “How can we create this kind of feeling in our drama?”
- Who do you think these people are? How can you tell? What are they doing? What are they carrying? When have you seen something like this in your life? What did you enjoy about it? How did it make you feel?
- What might the people be saying to each other?
- What costumes do you see the people wearing? How do you know that they are costumes? Why did they choose the particular colours? When have you dressed up in costume?
- When have you played at home or at school by pretending to be other people? Who did you pretend to be? What did you do when you were that person? How did you use your body and voice when you were that person? Who was in role with you? What stories do you make up when you are in role?
- What is your favourite TV programme or movie? Why do you like it? Who is your favourite character? What do they do that you like?
- Where could an audience watch what’s going on in this picture? In what ways would the performers have to change their performance if they were inside?
- What objects can you see in the picture? How are the performers using the objects? [In particular, with pictures that strongly feature technology, you might focus on questions that unpack the way the technologies work. For example: “How would the man get up onto these stilts?” “How does he stay up on them?” ”What problems might he come across?” “What do you think the stilts are made from?” “What do you think it would be like to be up on stilts like that?” “What would it be like to be at the bottom of the stilts?”]
- How do the performers use their bodies to show what’s happening?
Discussions around protocols for performances in particular spaces, such as marae, would be useful, especially if the children are going on a marae visit or are welcoming others onto the school grounds in a pōwhiri.
Some starter questions to use before or after viewing drama include:
- What works/worked well in the drama?
- What do you feel about …?
- I wonder what would happen if …?
- What do you think about when you look at …?
- How might you change this so that ….?
- If we changed the focus to [describe particulars], what would happen?
- How could you tell what was happening?
- I wonder why (a certain character) did that?
- What was (a certain role) thinking at that moment?