Darkwood Manor SOW

Aims and objectives of the scheme

To use a range of drama skills and strategies to develop storytelling To be able to work both independently and as part of a group To use elements of drama and the drama medium in order to show tension and create believable characters To develop understandings of physical theatre and use effectively in performance To evaluate own and others work, using subject specific vocabulary, enabling work to be improved. To improve and extend the use of spoken English during whole class, group and paired discussion. Speaking and

Listening. To promote British values through the use of empathy and genre.

Key Skills:

Still image Thought tracking Physical theatre Narration Hot seating Role-play

Assessment focus:

Responding in role to Teacher-in-role Developing and exploring ideas using key skills, with particular focus on demonstrating character through vocal

skills Evaluating the effectiveness of own work and that of others, using subject specific vocabulary and concise use of

spoken English.

Differentiation strategies:

By task (teacher support) By groupings EAL support strategies to improve use of spoken English, teacher to encourage weaker students to become

involved in discussion By resources Use of lead learners (to support less able and extend more able students)

NB – This scheme of work is designed so that you can adapt and use sections that you wish. It is fairly long for this reason and it would not be expected that all lessons are taught over a half term.

Subject:Drama

Year:Year 7 Curriculum (2016-17)

Lesson 1/2 – Things that go bump in the night….!

Resources:

Low lighting (if available) ‘Spooky’ atmospheric music Jaws theme tune Selection of short ghost stories

Objectives:

To understand how tension and atmosphere can be built in performance To be able to demonstrate this understanding using still images, movement and voice To use spoken English clearly when rehearsing, performing and evaluating.

Teacher to have already set up the drama space with low lighting and ‘spooky’ music playing at low volume. Students to enter the space and sit in a circle.

1) Whole class discussion – how do you feel in the room at the moment? What factors are contributing towards that feeling? Discuss the use of music and how it helps to create a particular atmosphere? What does atmosphere mean? What is the atmosphere in here?

2) Play the Jaws theme tune. How does this make you feel? What is it about the music that makes us think that something is going to happen?

3) Ask if anyone has a ghost story that they are willing to share with the group. (Teacher to have one prepared just in case!) Student to tell story and class are to identify what that person is doing in order to create tension. Use of voice, facial expression, use of pause, pace, volume. Can you only create tension and atmosphere with music playing and certain lights etc? Discuss briefly, student opinions.

4) Students to get into pairs – each pair given a ghost story to read. Students to sit opposite each other and practise using their voices to build tension. Students to swap over and assist each other so as to improve their work. Ask for volunteers to perform. Discuss and evaluate.

5) Class back into a circle – The focus is now going to be on using physical theatre and how using just ourselves, we can still create an atmosphere and build tension.

6) Ask for a volunteer to stand in the centre of the circle. Another volunteer is then asked to mould the initial student, into a door. Describe the door as very big and old and that it belongs to a very big and frightening house, (the kind you see in the movies!) When this is done, ask if anyone can make it better – student into the circle, change the door. Add movement and sound to the door – what effect does this have? Add a ‘real’ person to go through the door. Do they walk through as if it is McDonalds? How can build tension by the way they walk through?

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7) Quick discussion – what things could have happened in a big old house to make it haunted? Encourage students to think realistically, no monsters or zombies! i.e ‘The butler poisoned the lady of the house’, or ‘The husband murdered the wife in the study’ (Think Cluedo!)

8) Students into groups of 5/6 – they are to create the door to one of the rooms in the house. This must open, with sound effects, on its own. Behind it will be revealed something that happened in the house many years ago. Discussion on how crime and punishment has evolved since then. Teacher to model how use of proxemics/levels can create tension and help to build it. Students to identify which one is more effective and consider this in their performances. (Showing someone being stabbed in the back, holding the knife above them –about to stab them, standing away from the other person and looking at the knife) Perform and evaluate.

9) PLENARY: – What have you learnt this lesson? What is tension? How can we build tension in a performance using elements and mediums of drama? Is it possible to create tension and atmosphere using just our bodies and sound?

KEY WORDS : Tension, atmosphere, build, physical theatre, proxemics

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Lesson 3/4 – The challenge…Welcome to Darkwood Manor!

Resources:

Homework: To create a ‘challenge poster’, offering a 100,00THB prize for spending the night at Darkwood Manor

Objectives:

To use characterisation skills in order to create a believable character To be able to sustain your role as a character who is going to enter Darkwood Manor To use subject specific vocabulary and key words when evaluating your own work and that

of your peers. To consider the money offered and whether this is a British value – is it a goog use of money

(where could the money of come from?)

1) Teacher in Role as the estate agent charged with the sale of Darkwood Manor. Teacher to invite students into the meeting room where he/she will give them some more information.

‘The house lies on the top of a hill in the village of Darkwood. It has been derelict for many years but was once owned by Lord and Lady Darkwood who were the local landowners. The villagers are afraid to go near the house because of all the rumours surrounding it. Some say there was a great fire, others say that a small boy drowned…there are numerous stories. All say that the house is terribly haunted. The present owner desperately wants to sell the house and has instructed me to handle the sale. As you can imagine, this is proving quite difficult and that is where you come in. Thank you for responding to the advert in the local paper, looking for volunteers to spend the night in the house. I’m sure that the 100,000THB prize has encouraged you to make this step! Ladies and Gentlemen, I need you to prove once and for all that this house is not haunted.’

2) Teacher out of role – asks students what they understand to be happening. Teacher then to tell students that they are going to be developing characters this lesson, who will be going to spend the night at Darkwood Manor. Explain that each has a different motive for going in. Some may be sceptical and want to prove that there is no supernatural presence, some may be journalists after the next big story, and some may just be in need of the cash!

3) Whole class stand in front of teacher in neutral (Dance class style) Students to close their eyes and visualise their character. Think about the way they look, stand etc. How old are they? (Stress that they can’t be younger than their current age), how does this affect their character? How might they speak? Why do they want to go in the house? What is their job? Are they confident? Shy? etc.

4) Teacher to explain that they will count down from 5. By the time they reach 1, students are to have created a solo still image which shows how their chosen character may stand. Encourage good use of physicality and facial expression. Explain that you want them to give

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away some non-verbal clues as to what kind of person their character may be. 5..4..3..2..1..FREEZE. Teacher to comment on several students.

5) Explain that you are going to tap some students on the shoulders and ask them to provide a thought track, demonstrating what their character is thinking about the prospect of spending the night in Darkwood Manor. Choose several students to thought track

6) Walk around space as their character – when teacher says stop, students to go to nearest person and introduce themselves in role. Consider the way voice is used etc.

7) Students relax and sit down. How did that exercise help you to start to develop your characters? How was the process layered?

8) Teacher to set up whole class role play where students interact with each other in role. Their objective is to gather as much information about other characters. 5 mins. Feedback to group.

9) Depending on time, you may want to hotseat some characters after recapping on the strategy.

10) PLENARY:– Pupils in circle, each one to introduce themselves in role, giving the reason they want to go into the house. Focus on characterisation. What have you learnt today? How have we fulfilled our objectives?

KEY WORDS: Characterisation, role play, voice, physicality, hot seating

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Lesson 5/6 – Are those statues looking at me?

Resources:

Dr Who – Angel clip (on w drive) ‘Spooky’ atmospheric music Images of gargoyles or scary statues Studio lighting (if available)

Objectives:

To understand how dramatic tension can be built using elements and mediums of drama To physicalise the statues in the grounds of Darkwood Manor, communicating emotion and

using movement to build tension. To use clear spoken English when evaluating and during discussion tasks. To understand how ‘Dr Who’ is part of British tradition/genre of ghost stories. (British

values)

1) Pupils to recap their understanding of tension and how it can be built in performance

2) Class to watch Dr Who clip on IWB. Teacher to ask that students focus on how dramatic tension is created and what strategies could be applied to a theatrical performance as well as a TV/film performance. Discuss how the clip made them feel and why. Are the statues scary? Why?

3) All students to find a space in the room and face the teacher. Explain that we are going to look at physicalising our own statues based on the film clip. Ask students to avoid being stereotypical or predictable in their images, considering levels, use of space and facial expression. Three images, all students create together. Count down from 5 – 1, by 1 all students frozen. First image FEAR second image LONELINESS third image EVIL. Students are asked to think about tension and atmosphere and scaring their teacher!

4) Identify some willing volunteers to showcase their work – discuss and evaluate.

5) Students into groups of 3 – task to create 3 images depicting FEAR,LONELINESS and EVIL. Each student to physicalise the same emotion in each group image. They are to become statues of their own. Recap proxemics and remind students how this can affect the image and create more tension. Some groups to perform and peer evaluation to take place.

6) Ask if students can explain what is meant by transition. Once clear, ask students to return to their groups and think about 5 second transitions between their images. Encourage interesting movement and changes of levels. Rolls, turns – not just stepping from one to the other.

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7) Bring whole class together – ask groups to find their own space in the room, making sure that all the space is used. Everyone to perform first, second and third image together, instructed by teacher. Then they are to attempt to do it without the teacher, counting to 5 in their heads before all transitioning together. If this is successful you can loop the performance, returning to image one and then repeat the motif.

8) Tell students that you are now going to add music and change the lighting. Play music, repeat performance and ask for feedback about whether this helped to create an eerie atmosphere.

9) Able student or willing volunteer to be removed from his/her group. Advise rest of group to continue as if he/she was still there. Ask student to take on the role of a visitor to the garden. They are going to walk around the space and become part of the performance. Ask them to respond accordingly in role. It might be nice to film this performance so that the whole class can evaluate.

10) PLENARY: Discuss how you created tension and created an atmosphere. What have you learnt, what skills have you learnt/developed?

KEYWORDS – Motif, movement, phyicalisation, transition, statue, emotion.

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Lesson 7 – Village gossip!

Resources:

Objectives:

To understand how rumours can be exaggerated To use characterisation skills to create new characters that live in Darkwood village and to

show relationships between characters. To use sentence starters during evaluations and plenary discussions, in order to construct

more analytical responses.

1) What is a rumour? Volunteer any rumours you may have heard? i.e at my primary school there was a rumour that if you used the end cubical, a lady would grab your feet from next door! Are rumours usually true? Why not? Discuss radicalisation and the PREVENT strategy when dealing with rumours. (British values)

2) Whispers game- Students still in a circle, teacher to whisper something to the student to their left. This must be whispered to the next person and so on until it is back to the start. Hopefully it shouldn’t have changed too much. Repeat but this time the teacher (or student you have mentioned this to earlier) sits half way round the circle and changes what is whispered slightly. Discuss at the end what has happened.

3) What has usually happened to rumours? Exaggeration? Made to sound worse because it is more exciting?

4) Discussion – What might the villagers of Darkwood be like? Generations of families? Important members of the village etc.

5) Groups of 4/5 – create individual characters – discuss their names, characteristics, relationships with other members of the group etc. Feedback this information to the rest of the class.

6) In your groups you are to devise a short scene (2-3 mins) which shows these characters discussing rumours about Darkwood Manor. Choose a location for the characters ie. Hairdresser, bank, bus stop and police stations (British values). Show how the rumour has become exaggerated. Consider entrances and exits of characters and how they interact with one another. Is there any tension between characters or maybe a blossoming romance???!

7) Perform and evaluate using sentence starter cards.

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PLENARY –Pair/Share: What have we learnt today? Ask individuals how they have improved and what their target may be to improve next lesson? Language based target?

Lesson 8/9 – The journey begins…!

Resources:

Laminated narrator cards (w drive) Atmospheric lighting (if available)

Objectives:

To use physical theatre, role play, narration and still image as storytelling devices, having an awareness of building tension in the performance

To respond to action narration with commitment, sustaining a given role To use spoken English during rehearsals, performances and evaluations, showing a

developed use of subject specific vocabulary.

1) Introduction - Students to recap some of the rumours that surround the inhabitants of Darkwood Manor. How did they explore this last lesson? What skills did they learn/use?

2) Whole class action narration task – What is action narration? Teacher to model with able/willing student. Model good and bad action narration, ie narrator talking too fast, student rushing or waiting for the next instruction.

Ask students to find their own space in the room, facing you. Explain to them that you will soon be narrating the next part of the story and that they will be miming. They are going to return to the characters they created in previous lessons. All students will follow the instructions at the same time.

‘You slowly awake from a restless night’s sleep; it seems you are more nervous about your impending challenge than you thought. As your eyes become used to the daylight poking its way through the curtains, you slowly sit up and stretch. You glance down at your watch/alarm clock…goodness, is that the time? You realise you haven’t got long before you have to meet the others at the hotel. Your suitcase…where is your suitcase? You search under your bed, behind your bedroom door…where is it? ON TOP THE WARDROBE! You stand on your tip toes, desperately trying to see on top of the wardrobes…there it is! You stretch as far up and across as you can and drag down your battered old suitcase. It lands on the floor with a thud. It is only 8am and already you are exhausted!’ FREEZE

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3) Q&A – How did it feel doing that? What would have made it more successful? What was difficult etc. Did you find yourselves stopping and waiting for the narrator to continue or did you stay in role?

4) Students into pairs. They are going to continue the story, freezing the action again at the point when their character is about to leave the house for the hotel. Label A and B. A will narrate, B will mime the action. Stress that you want students to consider how they are going to make this an effective piece of theatre. Where will the narrator position themselves etc? Spotlight a few pairs and evaluate.

5) Teacher to read the following extract:

‘After a quick talk with the Estate Agent, you are all ready to leave the hotel and begin your challenge. Everyone decides to meet at the bottom of the hill. From here you can see Darkwood Manor, covered in mist; the highest part of its roof seems to have completely disappeared! You find yourself in a small group as everyone else has started to make their way up the hill. After initial introductions, you discover that one member of your group is very frightened and wants to go back. The rest of your group persuade him/her to continue and eventually you begin to climb…’

6) Students to create a short scene depicting the above – groups of 3/4. The focus should be on dialogue and creating an atmosphere of suspense. The scene should freeze and end with the group reaching the gates of Darkwood Manor. It would be interesting to see some relationships developing between characters. Is there some tension here? Are there personality clashes? Who is the caring member of the group etc. Perform and evaluate using sentence starters.

*This is a good place to break in order to begin the next half in a new lesson

7) Teacher to explain that the class are going to create a piece of whole class theatre. The next part of the story is going to be created using story telling techniques – Role Play, Narration, Physical Theatre and Still Image. Divide the group into 5/6 smaller groups (or keep same groups as last activity). Each group to have a different responsibility:

The gate to the garden – which must open and close and have sound effects. A group of statues – that move when people look away The door to the house – functions as a normal door, complete with a knocker or doorbell A group of ‘real’ people – who are entering Darkwood Manor for the night.

8) Each group to work in a separate area and focus on their part of the performance. ‘Real’ people are to rehearse their dialogue/decide how they are going to manoeuvre around the space in order to create a performance. As they reach each of the areas/objects, it will come alive with sound effects. As they walk away, it will freeze again. They are to respond

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appropriately. Teacher to divide narration cards between the groups to be used as part of the performance.

Rehearse and evaluate until you have a solid whole class performance using storytelling strategies effectively in order to create tension and atmosphere. Music can be added if you wish. This lesson could be filmed and watched with a focus on evaluation, next lesson.

PLENARY – How effectively did you build tension and create atmosphere? Was it difficult for the ‘real’ people to respond to the areas of the house created using physical theatre?

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Lesson 10 – In Darkwood’s clutches…!

Resources:

Blindfold Atmospheric music

Objectives:

To show an understanding of how the use of voice, spoken word and movement can build tension and create suspense

1) Teacher to play atmospheric music as students enter the room. Low lighting also if available. When students are in a circle, explain that we are going to be exploring effective ways of building tension and suspense, using our bodies and voices.

2) Quick warm up – STOP-JUMP-GO-CLAP3) All into a circle, lying down with feet in the middle. Explain that you are going to experiment

with voice and think about how we can build tension. Students to think about what they will change/attempt with their voices in order to achieve this. Teacher to set the scene of a dark forest or a spooky old house etc. Teacher can conduct the students somewhat, asking them to increase/decrease the volume.

4) Evaluate – what worked and what didn’t? How were people using their voices to create tension? What did you all automatically do as a group at the beginning?

5) Next we are going to consider how adding movement can assist with creating tension.6) What have we already learnt about still image and movement and how it can effectively

show a build in tension/atmosphere?7) Introduce the idea of an ESSENCE MACHINE.

All students to stand in a space. Individually they are to consider a movement/gesture that they associate with the theme of horror. Teacher to model – it could be someone raising their hands to their mouth in shock, it could be someone reaching up to stab someone (a la psycho!). Explain to students that they are going to repeat their action over and over again. Ask them to consider the speed and way in which they perform the movement.

8) Students are now to think of a sound that they can add to their movement/gesture. Think about the initial exercise. What was effective in the way voices were used? How might you build tension with the way you use pitch, tone, volume, pace and pause? Teacher to model and then move around the room as students rehearse.

9) Students back into a circle. Explain that we are going to create a whole class ESSENCE MACHINE. What is a machine made up of? Many parts. You are each going to become the

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parts. Our machine is a HORROR machine and together we are going to build tension and atmosphere using voice, spoken word and movement.

10) Willing volunteer to start …

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