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Year 7 Drama Plans

Not everyone is going to be an actor, even at the G.C.S.E. level, but nowadays everyone needs drama skills in one form or another. This is the age of the 'presentation' where products and ideas are sold in a competitive market-place by the strength of the presenter and his powers of delivery. The scientist, the businessman, the engineer, the bank manager, the retail executive, the designer, none are exempt.

Even before this stage, many examinations have oral or presentation components. Jobs and further education often require interviews. There is an increasing need for a confident outward persona, an ability to speak with ease and audibility using the appropriate relaxed body language.

The Year 7, 8 and 9 Drama Lesson plans cover a range of skills. On the one hand, they prepare the student for G.C.S.E. drama exams and are an excellent platform for more advanced drama and theatre examinations in the sixth form; on the other they prepare every student for life skills that there may not otherwise be time for in a busy school schedule.


The Skills Specifically Addressed in this book for Year 7:

Life Skills:

Enhancing Practical Creativity:

Presentation and Performance Skills:

Hints for the Drama Teacher:

I am aware that many people teaching class drama at this level are not specialists; I have therefore taken care to explain everything - games, exercises, terminology - at the risk of irritating those specialists who are also delivering these lessons. I felt it was better to over-explain and to make clear the justification for each exercise than to leave anyone awash. For instance, there are many games used, but a lot of these are enhancing particular objectives such as working together, concentration or alertness and these have been identified. Drama teachers are used to justifying learning through games. I do not overuse them, tending only to begin sessions with one or two. Starting with some whole group activity is a way of drawing the group together and of starting in a disciplined way. Games are a useful part of the structure of the whole lesson quite apart from the individual skills also addressed by participation in them.

A drama teacher is a very unusual person; he must be prepared to join in and to demonstrate and consequently needs to dress appropriately, as do the children. You cannot expect inhibitions to go down or flexible movement and practical challenges in the realm of the imagination when restricted by tough unbending shoes, high heels, or short straight skirts. Just as for P.E. the student attending a drama lesson needs to feel that he is attending something with special requirements, out of the conventional restrictions of the normal class-room. I suggest that you make a firm ruling from the beginning that they wear trousers or tracksuit bottoms and soft shoes, plimsolls or bare feet. If you yourself need to deliver other more formal lessons, make sure that you, like them, have some tracksuit trousers to change into and are prepared to take off your own shoes.

Students new to the idea of drama are going to absorb a great deal from your manner at the beginning. That is why clothing is so important as is a relaxed but disciplined atmosphere. They must know that no nonsense is tolerated at the same time as feeling they can trust you and everyone in the group. If this sounds a frightening balance to the non-drama specialist, a lot will be solved by making sure there is plenty to do: the exercises don't flag but are moved quickly on from one to the other. The lessons in this book will help you here.

In addition, here are a few more ideas as to how to structure your drama lesson. They will very quickly become used to your way of working and will treat the structure with as much respect as a more formal lesson sat behind desks.

After changing, they move automatically into a seated circle in the centre of the room. It is better if this circle is seated on the floor, not chairs. Some games specify chairs but on the whole if I have said 'seated' I mean on the floor.

As soon as you join them in the circle they fall silent. That is the signal that the lesson is about to begin.

When you have indicated that an exercise has finished, they sit where they are on the floor, fall silent and listen to the instructions for the next exercise. They should never move - e.g. to get into pairs - until you have indicated that all the instructions have been given.

Lose no opportunity to promote the idea of tolerance and of working together to build a mutually supportive group.

Most of the last exercises of the lesson are 'performance' ones where the groups take turns in presenting their work to the rest of the class. Establish from the start where performances happen, i.e. on the stage or on the floor and where the group should sit in relation to them. At this early stage, I usually have them all on the same level as it is less threatening, so on the floor with the class sitting in a horseshoe shape, leaving one end clear for performance. The signal to get into this audience shape should also be a signal to silence, for concentrated listening.

Retain this shape for the ending session, where you can move into the open end of the horseshoe and lead the discussion as indicated at the end of every lesson.

This evaluative discussion is one of the most important areas of these lessons. The ability to analyse and evaluate not only the work of others but your own is a skill widely used in many subjects at examination level and one that they find hard, unless they have been trained in the habit early on, as these lessons propose. This can be kept to an oral form as indicated in this book, or, if you desire, you can give them an exercise book for the purpose and ask for a brief paragraph on what they have learned from each lesson plus the evaluation as discussed. Early on, encourage them to spend no more than a sentence or two describing the game or exercise whilst the main proportion of their writing should be what they felt about it, what they learned, what could have been improved and so on.

I have deliberately kept requirements to the minimum, because drama teachers often have to take lower school classes in strange spaces. I have listed what is needed at the top of each Plan but many do not need anything other than the ideas themselves and your energy and enthusiasm. You will sometimes need: a ball [tennis or large soft ball], some percussion instruments - home-made ones would be fine if you cannot borrow from the music department: lentils in tins and boxes, pebbles inside tubes, etc., saucepan lids and so on - it would be helpful to have one drum, tambourine or cymbal, though, to use as a signal or rhythm maker; strips of cloth as blindfold[s]; a tape-recorder with tapes of contrasting slow and fast pieces of music. These are the basics, but if possible add to this by having access to flowing larger pieces of cloth made from lightweight material, and a selection of inspiratory objects: hats, glasses, pipes, handbags, shoes and so on. I used to keep all sorts of assorted objects in a large box for emergency use.

Apart from these 'things', you will need a sufficient space uncluttered by chairs and desks, preferably with enough chairs stacked at the sides for use by a complete class if necessary. You do not need a stage or a raised level though clearly more work can be done on the advantages of different levels in stage presentation if you have.


Sample Pages from Year 7 Drama Plan:

Lesson Nine

needed: drum or tambourine

In this and the following lesson more specific dance/drama ideas are begun, which will culminate in Lesson Eleven with a short piece of Movement Theatre. Once again, boys and girls should feel equally happy with the work; there is not even any need to use music. A drum or tambourine for rhythm and, for Lesson Eleven, a variety of percussion instruments is all that is necessary.

1.* Warm-up with a quick game of tag - only with a difference. In this version, the chaser chooses the style of movement and each new 'it' must change the way of moving. Thus the first 'it' may choose hopping as his movement. Everyone needs to hop also to escape him. When someone is caught, he becomes the new 'it' and changes the movement to, for instance, wriggling on the belly.

2. Tags are always brief and active. Follow up with a tangle chain. Choose someone sensible as a leader and everyone links on behind so that the whole class is in one long chain holding hands. Moving slowly, the leader takes the whole class on a journey over, under and around each other. Tell them right from the start that the challenge is to continue as long as possible without breaking the chain or becoming so tangled up that no further progress can be made. It thus becomes an exercise in problem-solving as well, since the group must try to see how to untangle the knots without breaking the line. They should feel free to offer advice to each other.

The game continues until it is impossible to move any further or until the chain is broken.

3.* Hypnotism. With this exercise, the group needs to form into pairs, calling themselves A and B. A holds the palm of one hand up and B must put his nose very close to A's palm. [With an odd number an A can have two Bs and both palms up.] Remind them of their earlier mirror exercises; this requires the same kind of concentration and close working together.

Making sure that all movements are slow and fluid, A exercises B's body, by forcing it to bend this way and that, to go right down to the ground and up high. B is as if hypnotised by A's hand, and will keep his nose a consistent distance away from A's palm, wherever it goes. A must never try to catch B out; it must be a genuine partnership. After a couple of minutes, swap over so that each have a turn.

Now divide the class into smaller groups of around ten. Each group forms a circle around one volunteer. This volunteer bends and sways and slowly moves his whole body. Others in the circle fix onto a part of the central person's anatomy by which to become hypnotised / fascinated. Once they have watched for a little and have kept their eyes fixed on their spot as it moves in front of them, they move in and put their nose very close to that spot. Now whatever the centre person does with his body, those on the outside, keeping a consistent distance away at all times, move with him. Centre people must move at all times very slowly and evenly.

After the initial giggles, this exercise works very well and they quickly settle to It. It does a lot to further our mission of close co- operative work with no embarrassment about touching [even though touch does not actually figure here!]

4. Divide the class up into four large groups. Each group is to work on a still tableau depicting an outdoor sport, or outdoor sport in general, i.e. a single sport like football could be done by the whole group together, or several different sports could be represented at the same time by different members of the group within a single tableau.
See these.

Follow this by tableaux depicting indoor activities, e.g. cardgames, board games, watching television, darts, snooker and so on.
See these.

Now ask them to move their positions from one still picture to the other in six moves using a drumbeat as control. Try it again but in one slow-motion fluid change.

Watch both these and discuss the difference within the whole group. Once again encourage positive comments about each others' efforts.

This exercise is a good teaching point to demonstrate the importance of a whole stage picture. A tableau needs to look visually interesting and encourage the eye to wander over it. There is opportunity in these tableaux to use space inventively and to use a variety of levels: low, medium and high. Interest can be captured by strong facial expressions and a sense of action, albeit frozen. All these things need discussion and emphasis. Make sure that they know you expect them to be thinking along these lines for any further tableaux.

Now try the same kind of work with a couple more tableaux, seeing if they have learned from their first efforts. Ideas are:

Almost any idea can be done in this way and it is fun and satisfying to do.

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