During my last year as a classroom teacher, I was asked to teach the middle school Drama class. Most of the kids who signed up for this class thought it would be fun, so giving students a lot of opportunities for games and play was important. However, our school district also had a required End-of-Course assessment that was required for the class, which was heavy on drama-related vocabulary.
When I started, the school did not have an established Drama curriculum. The previous teacher had left a lot of files and scripts, but there was not a plan for how to use them or how to address the required vocabulary.
I developed a curriculum to use during the semester-long class. The curriculum was organized so that the first few weeks focus on background information (such as history and staging) with vocabulary that will be used throughout the class. The next several weeks focused on body movement and facial expression – acting without words. After that, the focus became the words, with several weeks of voice and diction activities. The second quarter focuses on play production, tying everything together in a final performance.
Daily Bell Ringer Activities, short tasks students would complete at their desks when they first came into the classroom, were used to repeatedly address the needed vocabulary so students were getting regular practice while leaving the rest of the class period for drama games, practice, and more active learning experiences.
This curriculum plan describes the activities for each day of the semester. Materials and more detailed instructions were kept in files, as needed.
Curriculum Goals:
– Cover the required content and vocabulary
– Give students opportunities to have fun and to be actively involved in each lesson
