The Arts
Grade 6
*Drama*
Why Teach Drama?
Teaching drama in the general primary school classroom provides a multitude of benefits to student learning. Through drama education, students learn so much more than the dramatic elements and skills. Through drama education students learn self confidence, collaboration, concentration, social awareness and memory, just to name a few (Basom, 2005). Through performances students learn transferable skills such as voice projection and word articulation. The integration of music with literacy, numeracy, science and other domains of the curriculum is beneficial when considering lesson engagement, student learning and the general bulk of Australia’s new National Curriculum.
Unit Overview - Movement & Voice
The series of lessons within this unit are designed somewhat sequentially. The first three lessons can be delivered in any order however lesson four can not be completed until students have a sound understanding of character development through the use of voice and movement. Throughout these lessons, there is a core focus on voice adaptation and controlled movement. Each lesson is a build up of skills for which students will draw upon in their final assessed performance. There is no need for extensive props or costume throughout these lessons as the idea is for students to portray character through their dramatic skills rather than with costume/props. Once students are familiar with the notion of movement and voice, the next step would be to introduce space and timing, and finally tension.
Each lesson begins with a warmup focussed on refining students voice projection and word articulation.
ACARA
The Arts.
Years 5 & 6: Develop skills and techniques of voice and movement to create character, mood and atmosphere and focus dramatic action (ACADRM036) Students develop character through voice and movement and extend their understanding and use of situation, focus, tension, space and time.
