Drama

year 7 Course content:

The Drama course provides students with a range of opportunities to participate in performance. The focus of lessons is to use drama to develop students’ creativity, confidence and ability to collaborate effectively. Students will also learn how to evaluate their own and others work. In addition to these skills, students develop an understanding of the principles of Drama and an awareness of how drama communicates to an audience. In Year 7 Drama is taught on a rotation basis alongside other arts subjects. Please find the course content below: Topic One: Silent Movies – Devising Students will study a variety of Silent Movies, focusing primarily on the creation of narrative through the use of placards as well as how to include effective comedy. This unit allows students to develop their physical skills and understanding of the importance of facial expressions and movement. Topic Two: Oliver Twist – Scripted Students will focus upon developing their characterisation skills, especially vocal and physical. This unit allows students to perform in groups and p

Key assessments:

Students are assessed twice during the rotation in Drama. These assessments cover the three key components of Creating and Developing, Performing and Evaluation and Understanding which link to the GCSE criteria. For the silent movies unit, students are assessed via their practical performance and a written exam paper. The success criteria for the practical performance assesses students abilities to create a practical piece based upon previous texts. The written exam paper tests students knowledge and understanding of the silent movie genre. The assessment for Oliver Twist has three elements. Students are asked to present their research, practical piece and produce a written evaluation of their own performance.

Year 8 Course Content:

The Drama course provides students with a range of opportunities to participate in performance. The focus of lessons is to use drama to develop students’ creativity, confidence and ability to collaborate effectively. Students will also learn how to evaluate their own and others work. In addition to these skills, students develop an understanding of the principles of drama and an awareness of how drama communicates to an audience. In Year 8; Drama is taught on a rotation basis alongside other arts subjects. Please find the course content below: Topic One: The Murder of Charlotte Dymond – Devising/Improvisation. Students create drama through the ‘investigation’ of the murder of Charlotte Dymond. Students are asked to re-create the events leading up to the murder and adapt as appropriate when more information is revealed. Topic Two: Devising from stimuli. Students are presented with a form of media (a poem, song lyrics, a painting, a photograph, a quote) and are asked to present their own piece of drama based upon this

Key Assessments:

Students are assessed twice during the rotation in Drama. These assessments cover the three key components of creating and developing, performing and evaluation and understanding which link to the GCSE Drama criteria. The assessment for topic one allows students to present a final practical performance where they will be assessed by the teacher as well as their peers. The assessment for topic two involves students being assessed by a practical performance and a written evaluation. This mirrors the devising unit of Drama GCSE.