This lesson plan will enable Year 6 students to unpack social issues and aims to create empathetic relationships with other students by creating self awareness.  Thus this lesson provides the following areas of development: social, physical, cognitive and language.  The lesson is culturally inclusive and is predicated on role-play pertaining to anti-bullying.  The role-plays will be used on the school website, creating intrinsic motivation.

The Arts (Drama)

• Explore dramatic action, empathy and space in improvisations, playbuilding and scripted drama to develop characters and situations (ACADRM035)
• Develop skills and techniques of voice and movement to create character, mood and atmosphere and focus dramatic action (ACADRM036)

• Students start on the mat
• Teacher led ‘contract signing time’, students sign an imagery dramatic contract.
• Tuning-in activity ‘focused walking’ emphasising walking showing different emotions (use the teacher-side-coach role) (5mins).
• Students allocated into 4 groups (mixed ability to enable peer scaffolding). Teacher selects one student per group to play the role of the protagonist.
• Groups are provided with a scene (See Resources) focusing on a situation that uses the dramatic element of conflict.
• Teacher-led brainstorming for character development and storyline.
• Provide students with checklist to assess another student (See Resources) (10mins).

• Students to develop their role-plays, remind them of the drama room protocols (10mins)
• Groups to perform role-plays, teacher to use the teacher-in-role strategy.
• Teacher to record each role-play (25mins).

Conclusion:

• Triangle to end the session, give students Y Charts (See Resources) (10mins)
• Students to hand-in checklists and Y Charts.

Assessment:

• Formative notes during the lesson
• Are Y Charts engaging and detail empathetic feelings?
• Did students stay in character?

Resources:

• Anti-Bullying Scenes (DOC)
• Drama Rubric for Peer Assessment (DOC)
• Y Chart for Drama Assessment (DOC)

[wpfp-link]

If you like this lesson, or have an idea to improve it, please consider sharing it on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook or leave a comment below.

Feature Image Courtesy of: http://users.rowan.edu/~mossma97/antibullying.jpg