The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum
Achievement Objectives
Developing Practical Knowledge in Drama (PK)
Students will use elements and techniques of drama to explore dramatic conventions.
Developing Ideas in Drama (DI)
Students will initiate and develop ideas with others and improvise drama in a range of situations.
Communicating and Interpreting in Drama (CI)
Students will present and respond to drama, identifying ways in which elements of drama combine with ideas to create meaning.
The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 42
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/arts/curriculum/statement/dramal1_4_e.php
This teacher's intended outcomes were for the students to:
- build a role with a clear past
- working in a group, test a range of ideas collaboratively about the role
- reflect on the decisions the group makes about the role and the implications those decisions have for the future drama
- interpret the meanings and implications of the role for the drama.
The students and their teacher were involved in an eight-week unit in which they created a process drama using the found object convention. This exemplar shows parts of the work in the second week of the unit.
The teacher established roles for the students and herself as detectives who work on cases of missing persons. She introduced their newest case by revealing that a bag found on a beach belonged to Sarah, a girl who had run away. The bag contained a number of clues about Sarah and her motivations for running away, including a diary, a letter, a compact disc, and other personal belongings. After reading the letter and diary, the teacher and the students decided what they needed to investigate next.
In role as detectives, the students and the teacher worked together to create the role of the runaway. The students decided to use the convention of role on the wall to deepen their understanding and belief in the character, before working more directly with the role. As they discovered more about Sarah, they returned to the role on the wall to discuss and debate what they were learning about her and why she might have run away.
The students decided to interview Sarah's parents and other significant people in her life. They did this by using various conventions, including hot–seating, telephone conversations, and teacher in role.
Teacher-student conversations
Using the role on the wall convention:
| Teacher: |
What did you decide Sarah looks like? |
| Alicia: |
She has long hair, and she's quite pretty. |
| Michael: |
But she doesn't think she is. |
| Alicia: |
And she often feels like no one likes her. |
| Teacher: |
If you saw her sitting in the playground, how would she sit? Can you model that for me? |
The next learning steps for these students could be to:
- explore further conventions in relation to the role of Sarah (for example, speaking thoughts aloud or choral movement)
- move the narrative forward to when Sarah returns to school, and use a range of conventions to explore the feelings of the children in her class (for example, conscience alley or this way–that way)
- create Sarah, using costuming and props with a student in role.
Reference
Ministry of Education (2000). The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
TKI The Arts/Ngā Toi community
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