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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2013

Teaching Drama

TEACHING DRAMA IS NOW AVAILABLE IN DIGITAL FORMAT!

- For the digital version of the magazine, click here and search for 'teaching drama'

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For downloadable SCHEMES OF WORK (including account set-up) and supporting material,
please scroll to the bottom of this text, and click on the tab labelled 'schemes of work'.

Teaching Drama, written for teachers by teachers, practitioners and playwrights, is a unique twice-termly magazine resource for anyone involved in drama and performing arts education. Published just before the start of each term and half term for maximum benefit, Teaching Drama offers a dynamic mixture of news, features, schemes of work and in-depth reviews. It offers inspiring ideas and advice for all drama teachers, whether you're newly-qualified or a head of department.

Our schemes of work section (now available online for subscribers) provides material you can use directly in your own teaching, while the features section keeps you abreast of current debates, developments and initiatives within the drama teaching profession, as well as providing innovative ways to expand and enhance your teaching.

Each issue contains six substantial schemes of work, covering KS2, KS3, GCSE, AS, A2, IB, BTEC and the Creative and Media Diploma. Some are specific to certain exam boards; others can be used more widely.

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Welcome to the Teaching Drama online schemes of work. Teaching Dramas schemes of work are an essential resource for all school drama departments as well as drama practitioners, offering easy-to-follow plans full of inspiring ideas. They cover KS2, KS3, GCSE, AS, A2, IB, BTEC and the Creative and Media Diploma, with some being specific to certain exam boards and others suitable for wider use.

What to do next?

If you're a subscriber to Teaching Drama+, you can get free access to the last 12 months' resources by logging in
with your Web ID
If you are not yet a subscriber, you can subscribe here
If your subscription includes the print magazine only, you can upgrade here
You can access any additional materials mentioned in the resources by clicking on the 'Supporting material' tab
You can view a sample of the online resources by clicking on the 'Sample pages' tab
Finally, if you are looking for past schemes that are more than a year old, you can buy bundles of the best of our
older resources here

To download the content below, you need to login with your Web ID.

Your Web ID is an 8-digit alphanumeric code which is displayed on the address label that comes with your magazine and on any written communication from us. If you can't find your Web ID then please contact us on +44 (0) 1795 592 818 and we'll let you know what it is.

Online schemes of work

Please note that Teaching Drama’s online schemes of work will be unavailable at the following times owing to essential hardware maintenance and upgrades:

Saturday 18 May between 9am and 5pm
Saturday 8 June between 9am and 8pm

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Schemes of Work

Issue 48 (Summer Term 2 - 12/13)

Key Stage 2: A storytelling project based on a Chinese tale

Author: Patrick Salvadori

Storytelling is one of the earliest art forms. Children love a good story. They respond very imaginatively and engage with the characters, the issues and the moral confrontations within the story. They especially enjoy becoming actively involved by participating physically and emotionally in activities so that they can make choices, explore themes and take the story in different and interesting directions. Read less...
Key Stage 3: One-off workshop: The news event

Author: Mat Walters

This lesson traces the process of a newsworthy event, from eyewitness statements through interviews into dramatic reconstructions aimed at particular age groups. It can also form the basis of work specifically designed for children''''s theatre. Students will work as witnesses, interviewers, television news presenters, police officers, victims and will create a version of a news bulletin aimed at a specific target audience with an appropriate reconstruction of the event. Read less...; The Time Machine

Author: Katherine Noble

This scheme of work concentrates on drama activities around the theme of a time machine. It explores the use of teacher in role, movement, expression, role-play, hot seating, thought tracking, historical research, and knowledge of current issues and technologies to generate a future. The overall objective is that students explore and share history through drama, explore and share ideas about the future through drama, using collaborative drama skills. This scheme is built around the KS3 Drama Objectives. Read less...
Key Stage 4: Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

Author: Alicia Pope

This scheme of work uses Nights at the Circus to give students ideas for their own practical work. The scheme uses both on and off text work, and focuses on a range of skills including monologue, devising, improvisation and ensemble work. The activities included will inspire students to create their own dynamic and innovative theatre. The work can be used as an introductory scheme into students'' devising or can be used as an initial exploration into scripted work. Read less...; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time adapated by Simon Stephens

Author: Gail Deal

The highly acclaimed National Theatre production of Simon Stephens'' adaptation of Mark Haddon''s award-winning novel entitled The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is currently enjoying sold out performances at the Apollo Theatre, London following its original production at the National Theatre in the summer of 2012. Read less...
Key Stage 5: Political Performance

Author: David Porter

Teaching practitioner theory can challenge both students and teachers. This scheme suggests practical ways of teaching OCR’s Performance Studies A level Unit G403, Political Performance, 1914 - present day, a written paper. It is also suitable for any practical senior level work on politics and performance. Read less...; The Chairs by Eugéne Ionesco

Author: Naomi Morgan

Studying post-1900 texts at A level can sometimes be a little tedious, as with limited exam board choices students often do not get a chance to study exciting plays that challenge and expand their theatrical knowledge. This is why, when given the choice of texts from the WJEC post-1900 set list at AS, I chose Eugéne Ionesco''s absurd, farcical and simply wonderful play The Chairs at AS level. The aim of this scheme of work is for students to explore and understand The Chairs through practical class work and exploration of acting challenges, directing opportunities and stage design in order to answer the written question on the DA2 paper. The intention is that students will learn not only the historical and social context of the play and its author, but that students will delve into practical work with a view to applying this to their written paper. Read less...

Issue 47 (Summer Term 1 - 12/13)

Key Stage 2: Macbeth: An introduction to Shakespeare through storytelling

Author: Patrick Salvadori

The following series of workshops based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth is designed to enable students in Years 5 and 6 to appreciate and enjoy a Shakespeare play without feeling inhibited by the language or cultural ‘weight’ of the text. I have found storytelling to be the best way to approach a text with young students because they engage instantly with the twists and turns of a narrated plot, and empathise with the characters through their emotional highs and lows. Read less...
Key Stage 3: Free? Celebrating human rights

Author: Alicia Pope

Free? is a collection of short stories celebrating human rights and was put together to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There are many well-known authors included in the collection, which covers a range of themes, each one specific to an item from the Universal Declaration. Read less...; One-off workshop: Shakespearean insults

Author: Mat Walters

This lesson encourages students to begin to understand and enjoy Shakespearean language, and to find new and entertaining ways of bringing it to life. It aims to remove the fear of Shakespeare’s dialogue and to encourage development of the skills needed to decipher what key words mean. Read less...; The Plague

Author: Katherine Noble

This scheme of work explores drama skills through the theme of the plague and the village of Eyam. It offers cross-curricular experience through research of history, and explores the use of expression; movement; the role of a director; freeze frame; split screen; Conscience Alley;
improvisation; devising and performance. The overall objective is that students can understand and communicate factual information through drama in a historical context, as well as achieve KS3 drama objectives. Read less...
Key Stage 4: Edexcel introduction to explorative strategies: Too Much Punch for Judy

Author: Naomi Morgan

Before students undertake Units 1 and 2 of the Edexcel specification they need to explore the full list of explorative strategies, drama mediums and elements as part of their programme of study. This practical scheme of work will help them learn about, and try out for themselves, all of the explorative strategies listed as part of the Edexcel specification. This will also help students to understand how they contribute to dramatic form and help them feel confident about using them during the practical elements of Units 1 and 2. Read less...
Key Stage 5: A Servant to Two Masters: Approaching the characters of Truffaldino and Smeraldina and developing comic business

Author: Mat Walters

The aim of this scheme of work is to give AQA A2 Drama and Theatre Studies students an understanding of the key themes and aspects of the play A Servant to Two Masters. The specific focus is on how to develop characterisation for the servants, Truffaldino and Smeraldina, to reveal their role, function and developing relationship. It will focus on a director-based question, in order to highlight the pace of the action and methods of developing lazzi that are appropriate for the style and comic nature of the play. Read less...

Issue 46 (Spring Term 2 - 12/13)

Key Stage 2: Roald Dahl’s The BFG: A look at the book through drama

Author: Helen Day

Roald Dahl’s The BFG was published 20 years ago, but remains as engaging to children today as it ever was. At moments hilariously funny, it also tells of fear, adventure, heroics and friendship, and is a fantastic source of classroom drama work. Read less...
Key Stage 3: One-off workshop: Living haikus

Author: Mat Walters

The haiku syllable structure of five, seven, five forms the basis of this lesson, built around the idea of creating a form of theatrical sign language, where words are brought to life through imaginative gesture and movement. The words delivered must help the audience to understand the concept behind the words. Read less...; The Diary of Anne Frank and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Author: Alicia Pope

This scheme of work is based on two compelling stories in which the protagonists are children during the Holocaust. Anne and Bruno are both fascinating characters from opposite sides of the fence and to some extent both are oblivious to the true horror that surrounds them. This scheme of work uses a variety of dramatic techniques with both on and off text work to explore the characters, their stories, their environment and their relationships as well as giving lots of opportunity for students to explore their own ideas about the stimulus material. Read less...
Key Stage 4: Which memories matter? Devising based on the play 100

Author: Jennifer Bartel

This unit asks students to investigate what we remember and why, and which moments define people’s lives.
This scheme is for use with AQA GCSE Drama students for one of their Unit 2 controlled assessment projects. By reading the play and exploring its themes and issues, students can start to examine which moments in their own lives have meant most to them and why, and then create their own play, borrowing elements of plot and structure from 100 and bringing in lines and songs from their own research and exploration. The lessons contained here could alternatively lead to a piece of improvisation inspired by the play. Read less...
Key Stage 4/5: 'Can you dig it?' Drama from the cool, hip 1960s

Author: David Porter

The 1960s are endlessly fascinating to today''''s teenagers. People don''''t need to have been there to feel an affinity, an interest and some emotion about that era. The 1950s hangover until about 1964, the new pop-youth culture of 1964-67 and the hippies from about 1967-70, all offer distinct, drama-rich ideas and stimulus. Not everyone enjoyed it, but the era marked a turning point in society.
Here are five lessons focused on the end of the decade using specific themes to explore ideas, issues and feelings through drama in historical, social and cultural contexts. They also act as a template for devising a production. Read less...
Key Stage 5: Uncle Vanya

Author: Naomi Morgan

The aim of this scheme of work is for students to explore and understand Anton Chekhov’s famous text Uncle Vanya through practical class work and exploration of stage design in order to answer the written questions on the DA4 paper from the WJEC exam board. The intention is that students will learn not only the historical and social context of the play and its author, but that students will delve into practical work with a view to applying this in their written paper. Read less...

Issue 45 (Spring Term 1 - 12/13)

Key Stage 2: Cover Lesson - A picture is worth a thousand words

Author: Sarah Nunn

George Seurat’s painting, ‘A Sunday Afternoon’ will inspire students to imagine the stories of the people, animals and objects that appear to be frozen in time, locked in silence into the canvas. Read less...; The Vikings are here!

Author: Helen Day

A study of the Vikings offers much in the way of rich material to springboard into drama. The very word ''''Viking'''' conjures up an image of an adventurer, a traveller, a powerful warrior. KS2 students will relish the opportunity to breathe life into the imagined characters of this period of time, and in doing so they will be able to look behind the clichès, and see the impact that these conquerors had on the shape of British history. Read less...
Key Stage 3: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Author: Katherine Nobel

This scheme of work concentrates on activities mainly set around the first scene of Romeo and Juliet. It explores the use of chorus, status, language and voice, placement of actors, movement, expression and role play. The overall objective is for students to be able to understand, communicate and translate Romeo and Juliet in its original and contemporary form, as well as, achieve Key Stage 3 Drama Objectives. I teach this scheme to Year 9. Read less...
Key Stage 4: Devising: Witchcraft

Author: Alicia Pope

Witchcraft is a vast and detailed topic on which to base a scheme of work. Such a variety of material available means that the stimuli can be really interesting. The scheme is aimed at GCSE students who are devising their final pieces of work or students beginning an AS course. There are opportunities for improvised and devised work, ensemble work, physical theatre and stylised movement pieces, as well as on and off text exploration of Medea, Macbeth, The Crucible and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. Read less...; Making drama from the weird and wonderful

Author: David Porter

Teenage students often like the dark side, some sci-fi, mysteries, the unsolved/unknown, eccentric, horrors and the bizarre. The off-beat and unusual frequently inspire their drama, without necessarily turning to comedy. This scheme is built around the dramatic possibilities of these themes with emphasis on drama skills and characterisation. Read less...
Key Stage 5: Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker: approaches to the play

Author: Mat Walters

Our Country''s Good is a challenging text. Its style immediately suggests epic theatre, yet it uses mostly naturalistic characterisation. Productions have often used multi-roling and this can be used to emphasise the nurture versus nature debate. It is clearly a political play, making a passionate plea for a tolerant approach to convicts, but is also highly comic and genuinely touching at times. It has several key themes: the redemptive power of theatre; the power of language; punishment versus education; and a clear opinion on colonialism and its impact on indigenous populations. It is a historical dramatisation based on fact, so students need to remember which characters wear red military jackets and which wear blue. Also, the locations of the scenes change rapidly, posing key challenges to set, sound and lighting designers. Read less...; Theatre in context: compare and contrast 1564-1720

Author: Blayne Cooper

This externally examined written unit requires the detailed study of one prescribed play and one prescribed historical period of theatrical development.
The unit is divided into three sections. For this scheme of work we are going to look specifically at Section C, which requires students to study and research the original performance conditions of a play written and performed in one of three given periods of theatrical development. A live production of the chosen play, at which students respond as a member of the audience, will be at the centre of this section. Read less...

Issue 44 (Autumn Term 2 - 12/13)

Key Stage 2: Commedia dell’Arte: Plotting, lying, deceiving and cheating, but all’s well that ends well

Author: Patrick Salvadori

Commedia dell’Arte began in sixteenth-century Italy and France when travelling players improvised performances for local festivals and carnivals. The companies used a set of stock characters to improvise scenarios with a very clear structure. They employed masks, physical theatre and acrobatic skills to tell their stories, and entertained the spectators with visual humour, slapstick and satire based on recognisable figures of authority. Read less...; Jacqueline Wilson’s Double Act: A look at the book through drama

Author: Helen Day

Jacqueline Wilson is a hugely popular children’s author, her books examining genuine dilemmas and issues faced by young people in real life. She is not afraid to tackle harsh situations head on, and her writing is therefore a natural springboard for classroom drama work, with easy links to PSHE. Although she is generally more popular with girls, I have taken care to make this scheme of work accessible to mixed classes, and to ensure that the key themes (family life, sibling rivalry and friendship) can be explored through drama by both boys and girls. Read less...
Key Stage 3: When I get older

Author: Jennifer Bartel

I developed this scheme as a KS3 unit on age and status, after colleagues commented that whenever our students were asked to play an elderly character, the usual response was ‘Have you got a walking stick I can borrow, Miss?’ followed by some enthusiastic and entirely unconvincing hobbling and groaning. At GCSE, it is important that students can understand age and status, and convey these aspects of a character without using stereotyped or pantomimic acting, and we felt that our curriculum didn’t offer opportunities to refine these skills at KS3. Read less...; Youth Crime

Author: Rosalind Gould

This scheme of work consists of a series of six lessons based on the exploration of youth crime. It is hoped that through practical exploration, students will gain a greater understanding of youth crime, the types of crimes that young people commit, and most importantly why. Read less...
Key Stage 4: Two by Jim Cartwright

Author: Siobhan Foster

This scheme of work has been designed in line with the requirements of the Edexcel Unit two practical examination. This scheme allows students of all abilities to explore the relationships and themes within the text and gives opportunities throughout to apply the use of key drama skills. There are also plenty of exercises on which students can reflect in their written documentation, which will evidence their use of explorative strategies, drama mediums and elements of drama. Read less...
Key Stage 5: Devising - Martin McDonagh

Author: Alicia Pope

This scheme is designed to offer a range of ideas for getting students started on devising their own work focusing on some of the work of controversial playwright Martin McDonagh. The scheme uses both on and off text work based on The Pillowman, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. As the sessions can be used to form a scheme of work over several weeks or as stand-alone lessons, the timings for each session are flexible. Some work may take 30 minutes or can be extended over a number of lessons. You can adapt and adjust things to your students who can also continue to explore work in their own rehearsals. Read less...

Issue 43 (Autumn Term 1 - 12/13)

Key Stage 2: Roald Dahl's Matilda: A look at the book through drama

Author: Helen Day

Roald Dahl''s Matilda is an enduringly popular story, and has come very much to the fore recently due to the popularity of the RSC''s stage adaptation, which is currently playing to packed houses in the West End. A delightful book with a dark edge, it has plenty of characters and themes that lend themselves beautifully to exploration with KS2 groups. Unacknowledged talent, bullying, fear, friendship, loyalty and trust they are all here, and can be used to springboard into very interesting drama work.
I have written this scheme with a leaning towards chronological order, so if you are reading the book with the class you could deliver the lessons as you go along. However, it can also be used with groups who have already read the whole story. The scheme uses games, drama exercises, improvisation and role-play to explore the characters and themes of the book, and broadly covers all aspects of the KS2 National Curriculum drama objectives. There are also links to the speaking, listening and group discussion and interaction objectives within KS2 English, and the scheme can be used to inspire creative work across the curriculum. Read less...
Key Stage 3: Cover Lesson - The Olympic opening ceremony

Author: Mat Walters

This lesson is built around the creation of a small-scale Olympic opening ceremony. The aim is to provide a snapshot of a wide range of Olympic sports through the use of simple physical theatre. Read less...; Making drama from the daily news

Author: David Porter

A few years ago there was a TV advert for insurance with the strapline, ''We don’t make a drama out of a crisis''. In fact, a crisis is the ideal thing from which to make drama! Using the news as stimulus for drama devising means there is plenty of material and it comes daily, even hourly. On a ''slow'' news day, they make something out of what there is, recycling/re-angling, appealing to different interests. This scheme of six lessons does just that, showing how news is relevant and absorbing for teenagers, how it matters and opens the door onto challenging and original drama. Read less...
Key Stage 4: Devising with music

Author: Alicia Pope

Music is an integral part of theatre and can have incredible impact in the creation of mood and atmosphere. However, when devising and rehearsing at GCSE, music can become a secondary concern and is often overlooked. This scheme aims to offer a range of ideas, stimuli and plans for using music as the basis and foundation of devised work, rather than something considered afterwards to complement it. The aim of this scheme is to help students explore how to devise both naturalistic and stylised drama using music as their central focus. The music used is an eclectic mix of tracks, all widely available on iTunes. Read less...
Key Stage 5: AS Professional practice: skills development

Author: Gail Deal

This unit can be run for a term and entered in January or run throughout the year and entered in May. Students can choose either a performance or a production pathway to work on three pieces of repertoire, e.g. a monologue, a duologue and an ensemble piece for drama. Two of these will be works in progress and one will be complete and performed in front of a live audience. Students nominate several skills which they want to develop while working on their chosen repertoire and they must take on lead and supporting roles. Production students must demonstrate ''projects of mounting complexity with increasing independence'' (OCR specification). In both pathways, students will learn how to work with others and ''adopt methods that are consistent with the health and safety of all concerned'' (OCR specification). Read less...; National Musical Theatre

Author: Mat Walters

This is an introductory 12-week scheme of work for an Edexcel BTEC National Musical Theatre course focusing on the Musical Theatre unit for use in conjunction with the units on Developing Movement Skills and Singing Skills for Actors and Dancers. The aim of this scheme is to structure an introductory term of musical theatre practical and research work to enable students to cover successfully the unit content for Edexcel BTEC National Unit 14 Musical Theatre Performance. This scheme of work also provides opportunities to develop methods of assessment for Unit 30 Singing Skills for Actors and Dancers and also Unit 49 Developing Movement Skills.
Each unit has a BTEC credit value of 10. The focus will be on helping teachers to plan, and research, written and performance work at a pass, merit and distinction level. It will involve a teacher-choreographed dance piece in the final performance, and therefore expects the teacher to be able to replicate some dance aspects of the style of Bob Fosse, and teach them to students. Read less...; Playwriting workshops as part of the devising process

Author: Tim Armitage

The aim of this scheme of work is to provide an alternative way of approaching devising work for the Edexcel A2 Unit 3 based on playwriting tools. The scheme has been influenced by participation in the New Views playwriting project for 15 - 19 year olds at the National Theatre, run by Mark Londesborough (Secondary Education Co-ordinator) where teachers are trained to support students writing their own plays. The same approach is suitable for Edexcel GCSE Unit 3 as part of the ''third way'' type of group performance projects, which have become increasingly more text based.
So much devised work these days in both schools and the professional theatre are adaptations, rather than truly original works. Plays can provide not only the stimuli, but the model on which to base devised work. So, perhaps, rather than explore a theme or genre from an abstract set of pictures, music and poems, the time has come to turn to plays as the primary catalyst for devised work. Read less...