Key Stage 3 Drama prepares students for the demands of the practical performances and for the rigours of GCSE study. Students will learn a wide range of practical skills and develop their knowledge of drama, allowing them to analyse and evaluate performances.
Course information:
Year 7:
Students will begin their study exploring Greek Theatre, learning to work collaboratively with others, and applying basic drama techniques such as still images to a performance. As students progress onto Pantomime, they learn to identify different stock characters in British theatre. They will then move onto the play Sparkleshark learning about character motivation, working as an entire class to perform an extract of the play. Students go on to explore another staple in British theatre, Charlie Chaplin and mime. They will focus on their physical skills, creating a performance without the use of voice. Year 7 concludes with an exploration of theatre history. Students will be able to explore theatre from different time periods and cultures including, Japanese, Chinese, and Indian theatre.
Year 8:
Students begin year 8 with a challenging morality play from the dark ages that has been modernised. This play explores themes of kindness to others and being a positive influence on society, as well introducing techniques from the theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht. They move on to look at the performance style naturalism, created by Konstantin Stanislavski. Students will learn to perform an extract of Goodnight Mister Tom in a way that looks close to real life. After this students are challenges with the exploration of the Shakespeare play Macbeth. They learn about Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty and use Macbeth as a stimulus (inspiration) to create their own pieces of theatre. Next students explore physical theatre, learning about a range of physical theatre companies such as Complicité, Trestle Masks, Frantic Assembly and British theatre practitioner, Steven Berkoff. Year 8 concludes with an exploration of musical theatre. Students will be able to explore snippets from different musicals, looking at the different roles of theatre makers such as directors, choreographers and costume designers.
Year 9:
Students begin Year 9 with the repertoire scheme which introduces 8 published works from theatre makers in the industry. They look at how to stage these extracts using different genres, practitioner techniques, blocking, lighting and sounds. Next students create their own pieces of theatre based off stimuli (inspiration). They must apply theatre practitioner techniques that they will explore in a series of 8 workshop style lessons which recap key techniques for each style. Lastly, students explore the text DNA by Dennis Kelly which looks at the challenges of socially deprived areas and peer pressure, reflecting the difficulties found in real life.
Assessment:
Lessons include knowledge retrieval questions to assess prior learning. Lessons involve the active use of mini whiteboards to check for understanding to deal with misconceptions quickly. Students will complete practical assessments during the academic year, reflecting on these performances. They will be given a grade for their collaboration (working with others), creativity (adding techniques), confidence (voice and body skills), and contemplation (analysis and evaluation). Students will sit a mid-year test in January and an end-of-year test in the summer term.
Contact:
For further information/clarification about KS3 Drama please contact Mrs B Byrne.
