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David Porter » Entries tagged with "drama teaching"

School Productions from Devised Drama

My School Productions from Devised Drama, is a teaching resource for the drama teacher looking to experiment with developing devised dramas into full school productions as a change from the usual scripted suspects schools so often use. It’s now available. Based on real experiences of devising a range of ideas developed into public shows at both Benjamin Britten High School, Lowestoft and Kirkley High School, Lowestoft it provides over 200 starting points, development grids, character ideas, themed approaches, drama teacher ‘block buster’ suggestions and research references galore. School Productions from Devised Drama is published on TES Resources with a free detailed Introduction followed by 13 separate sections: 1. Getting started, getting excited 2. Using (local) history 3. Using the 1960s 4. Using teenage angst 5. Using tradition 6. Using the generations 7. Using literature, TV and film 8. Using characters to drive … Read entire article »

Filed under: Drama Teaching

Drama Resources for Drama Teachers

Drama resources! Drama resources! Drama resources! It’s the common cry of under-pressure drama teachers in all kinds of settings.   Through this website and my published articles about drama teaching and often when I visit schools as part of my exam work, I find I am asked frequently about easily available and accessible drama resources. I have no problem sharing the articles I have published on here with ideas that have been tried and tested. Of course, lack of finance is very much part of the issue. I do think many of the books written to support teachers and students directly with ideas in general and exam oriented material in particular are good value as they should last years. But can I recommend anything else? For material aimed at students of drama directly from Key Stage … Read entire article »

Filed under: Drama Teaching

The Principle Elements of Examining Secondary School Drama

The assessment criteria for examining secondary school drama is quite simple: give students a vocabulary and clear framework for what works and let them learn by experiment. This article was first published on Suite 101, January 2013. In the 1960s and much of the following decade, where there was British school drama going on it was unstructured and delivered by a handful of inspired devotees who had seen the enormous potential of getting teenagers to roleplay, simulate and make-believe.Nobody thought it was possible to evaluate significantly drama work for examination purposes. When the National Curriculum arrived in the late 1980s drama was not included in the 10 core subjects, but curriculum drama began to come under pressure to come up with some examinable criteria. The Arts Council report Drama in Schools (2003) … Read entire article »

Filed under: Articles at Suite 101, Drama Teaching

How Second World War Still Fascinates, Horrifies and Educates

  People love historical battle re-enactments, but WW2 has unique appeal. There are vast quantities of artifacts to stir memory and teach the next generation. There are lots of aphorisms about people learning from history, including that people don’t learn from history; that people learn about history not to make the same mistakes, and that those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. True or not, the fact remains, people are endlessly fascinated by the Second World War’s history; and many feel that younger generations need to know it too. It’s guessed that the length of time devoted to footage of and about that War on British television alone has already exceeded the length of the actual conflict, 1939-1945. That’s without counting movies, diaries/recollections, historical books and novels that have … Read entire article »

Filed under: Articles at Suite 101

Ideas, Plans, Themes for Drama Teaching

After many years of drama teaching to British high school students (Key Stages 3-5), I have started to put together some of the ideas, themes, warm-ups, games, productions that I have worked through with students. Some are articles published at Suite 101. Some will be unique articles published here. Eventually, some teenage performance/production ideas will be available to download from here. These are the Suite 101 articles on drama teaching, so far: Using Masks as a Creative Teenage Drama Tool  First published on Suite 101, 24 September 2011     The mask as a device to support teaching of theatre history, culture diversity and improvisation techniques in Key Stage 4 (ages 14-16), is second to none. The mask is a versatile object. For protection (industry; fencing), for prevention (infection), for disguise or grotesque effect (to … Read entire article »

Filed under: Drama Teaching