"A drama critic is a man who leaves no turn un-stoned". George Bernard Shaw
"Drama is like life with the dull bits cut out". Alfred Hitchcock

Introduction

Drama is a practical, artistic subject, which should be an enjoyable experience for all students. Through Drama, students recreate and examine people's actions, see how they might have come about and where they might lead.  By examining human interactions, Drama helps students to face intellectual, physical, social and emotional challenges. 

Drama is taught here to encouraging the students to question stimuli and evidence, to use their imagination, in performance, through directing, designing or writing. The nature of the subject allows them to work as a leader, a participator, an ensemble and as an individual. Drama is not only about performance and play, but culture, tradition and history. Avenues of cross-curricular development in ISB are encouraged, as well as utilising current issues, affairs and various forms of stimuli (aural, visual and spatial texts). Many of the schemes of work have been written to co-inside with other subject areas, such as English, History, ICT, Math's and PSHE. 

Teaching Time

• All students in the British Lower Secondary School take part in two 50  minute Drama lesson per week.
• All GCSE students take part in three 50  minute Drama lessons per week
• All IB students take part in  five 50  minute Drama lessons per week. 

Aims

1. The long-term aim of Drama teaching is to help students to understand themselves and the world they live in.

2. To recognise different cultures

3. And the importance of negotiation and teamwork

The following aims are for all year groups. To:

• Explore the imaginative potential of the individual and the group.
• Communicate effectively through the medium of Drama.
• Care for the individual and the group.
• Develop the ability to trust and be trusted.
• Foster co-operation and consideration.
• Foster problem solving and active learning for all students and all abilities.
• Foster awareness of dramatic culture and artifice.
• When appropriate, face up to gender based issues.
• Foster enjoyment and appreciation of Drama and Theatre as a vocation and a leisure activity.
• To recognize what political, social and historical areas can be learnt through the medium of Drama.
• To understand the importance of development, presentation and evaluation.
   

Objectives

The following are the desired objectives that make up the framework for the delivery of Drama in years 7 to 11. These objectives will be visited by the students at the appropriate time during their course and are not timetabled to specific key stages.

To:

1. Experiment with ideas, issues and themes.

2. Work in a range of real and symbolic roles.

3. Work in a range of real and symbolic situations.

4. Understand that drama can be intended to make statements and comments on a range of subjects.

5. Tackle challenges, unfamiliar roles/styles of work.

6. Show ability to develop and extend set work.

7. Show willingness to take on responsibility. Work in flexible group sizes.

8. Show ability to lead, direct or support others as necessary.

9. Show respect for others and thus become trusting and trustworthy.

10. Be supportive of the work of others within the group and thus become trusting and trustworthy.

11. Understand and demonstrate the concept of listening as active participation.

12. Work with any member of the group.

13. Develop a working vocabulary that includes an understanding of the following;

 

Recent Events

IGCSE Drama Performances

The Year 11 drama students put together an outstanding evening of performances as part of their IGCSE Drama examination. Each group were able to either perform a scripted piece of text or devise their own performance. The theme that the students had to stick to was ''A performance must make the audience think and watch". With this in mind two groups devised their own performances, one group performed an adaptation of "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller and the other group performed an extract from "Find Me" by Olwen Wymark.

Arts Week

As part of the Arts Festival in November 2012, the students at ISB took part with various drama performances. We had the clowns who created their ''inner" clowns and devised a comedic/clowning performance. Year 12 and Year 13 IB Theatre Arts students performed during an evening of drama during the week. The Year 12 students performed "Two" by Jim Cartwright and the Year 13 students devised their own performance based on how society view us as people, called "Black Porcelain". The Secondary Principal also directed a Harold Pinter play called "A Kind of Alaska", where three IB students performed.

Curriculum

At ISB students study Drama at the Key Stage 3, IGCSE Edexel and IB Levels

Lower Secondary

Drama work at Key Stage 3 is designed to give all students the opportunity of developing a series of skills that they can build upon over the three years. In Year 7, group practical and vocal work is the key to developing individual skills.

Learning simple lines, gaining an understanding of theatrical terms and use of space are introduced. These are developed further in years 8 and 9, and provide an excellent basis for GCSE study.

Lower Secondary Year Overview

Year 7 Schemes of Work

Year 8 Schemes of Work

Year 9 Schemes of Work

 

GCSE

Drama is offered at the GCSE Edexcel Level.  This is a two year program, which consists of three main units of dramatic exploration.

• In Unit One of the course, students will use drama to express their feelings and ideas about a range of issues extracted from different times and cultures.
• In Unit Two of the course, students will look at a play to see how a playwright expresses their ideas about a theme or topic and will explore ways of making the play work on stage.
• Students will have the choice of being involved in the performance of a play from an existing script or a devised performance.

Course Summary

In GCSE Drama, students cover three areas:

• Unit 1 - Using drama to express your feelings and ideas about a range of issues extracted from different times and cultures
• Unit 2 - Looking at a play to see how the playwright expressed his/her ideas about a theme or topic and explore ways of making the play work on stage.
• Examination - Students have the choice of being involved in the performance of a play from an existing script or can devise their own performance. This is marked by external examiners.

Assessment Summary

GCSE Drama is assessed by coursework and the final performance exam.

• Coursework - assessed by the teacher and moderated by the exam board; counts for 60% of final grade
• Written portfolio (20%)

Practical coursework sessions (40%

Examination - Play Performance - a practical exam which evaluates each student's individual performance skills; counts for 40% of final grade.

 

International Baccalaureate (IB)

IB Theatre Arts Years 12/13

New Course started in 2007 and first examinations took place in 2009

To follow the appropriate examination syllabus and endeavour to help each individual to maximise his or her achievement.

IB Theatre Arts programme first started in 2003 at ISB and the NEW course started in 2008 (first examination 2010).

Syllabus Aims

Although the Theatre Arts programme is divided into parts, there are strong links between each part. The skills a student is expected to have acquired at the end of the course should be gained from all areas of the programme.Having completed the course a student will be expected to demonstrate:

1. Knowledge of the major developments and techniques in the theatrical history of more than one culture.

2. An ability to interpre

t play scripts and other theatrical texts analytically and imaginatively.

3. An understanding of the art of the stage and of the essential nature of criticism in the theatre, particularly self-criticism.

4. An ability to perform before an audience, and to demonstrate an understanding of, and some skill in acting techniques

5. The acquisition of sufficient technical skill to produce satisfactory work in more that one of the theatrical arts or crafts, technical,    design, performance, directing or writing.

6. An understanding of the basic processes of theatrical production.

7. An ability to research independently and apply that research to both theoretical and practical work.

 

THE COURSE

The course consists of five elements, as outlined and explained below:

Theatre in Performance	A practical introduction to ensemble work, voice, improvisation, acting and characterisation and mime. Creating small performances or full length productions. They must also watch a minimum of 4 professional or armature productions.
Theatre in the World	Students look at historical, cultural and theoretical developments in theatre practice. Two or three contrasting areas of theatre are studied, from an international perspective.
Theatre in the Making	A detailed study of at least three play texts as plans for action, in the original or translation into devised work.  The plays are chosen from more than one theatrical tradition, culture or movement. This is studied from the directors, actors, designers or technician perspective. And students must look at least two disciplines.
Independent Project	A practical study of the basic principles and practices of theatre production. The student can take on the role as writer, director or choreographer and must lead a company of other through an independent project of performance study.

IB Theatre Arts topics you may study click here

IB Theatre Arts Course broken down into assessment units click here

 Theatre Movements and Traditions

 Recommended Reading for IB Theatre Arts students

The Glass Menagerie		Realise, Real Eyes, Real Lies		Waiting for Godot		Who Knows
Theatre Traditions		Theatre Movements		Accidental Death of Anarchist
		Last Words

Assessment Information

The goal of student assessment in Drama at ISB is to enhance learning and foster further student growth in the objectives of the program. Thus, the emphasis is on the developmental process; only one part of which is the external or public form that that the drama experience takes.

Students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their skills and progress in the dramatic arts; such as; group work, discussion, performance, journal reflections and written assignments.

The individual progress of each Drama student, is assessed using the following strategies:  Teacher Observations, Anecdotal Records, and Teacher, Peer and Self Evaluations.

Useful Links

http://www.ibo.org/
http://www.edexcel.org.uk/quals/gcse/drama/gcse/1699

 

By: Mark Randall
      Head of Drama