Strand: Drama to explore feelings, knowledge and ideas, leading to understanding
Strand Unit: Exploring and making drama
The child should be enabled to
- enter appropriately and with facility, whether watched or unwatched, into the fictional dramatic context
enact a drama about green people from a dark world; engage, as in makebelieve play, with the feelings, emotions and thought processes of a person who has never seen brightness as he/she emerges into the light of day
in the same drama, enter fully and accurately into the prejudices of the first people to meet the green children
mar shórt cluiche, déan dráma as liosta focal a thugtar dóibh - extend playing in role and in character to include the ability to accept and maintain a brief that has been decided on by either the teacher, the group or himself/herself
as the friendly mistress of the workhouse, the child holds back until the appropriate moment the news that the family must split up
on entering the scene where the children of the family are planning to emigrate, the member of the group who is playing the mother is told: ‘Don’t say a word; just be suspicious of what they have been talking about’
accept the brief of looking at a character in terms of how he/she inhabits and moves in personal space (relate to dance) - discover how the use of space and objects helps in building the context and in signifying the drama theme
in a small-group Irish-language piece, arrange chairs and objects to represent an uninhabited house
discover how space and the placing of things and people in space can provide information about relationships and happenings
work from a picture of a Famine cottage to the layout of objects to represent it - explore how the fictional past and the desired fictional future influence the present dramatic action
the children of the Rhône valley, reading the signs of the wind that sweeps down the valley and knowing the danger of the wind, want to tell their parents to take precautions against it
the people of the island, knowing how the smugglers exploit them, have to decide whether their future is best assured by telling the police or by taking the law into their own hands
a group of scientists, deciding that the spacewoman should be allowed to stay, do an experiment on the composition of air to find out if she can live in this atmosphere - become adept at implementing the ‘playing rules’ that maintain focus in dramatic action
agree methods by which a drama in the dual setting of the sitting-room and the kitchen does not split into two separate dramas
help to create and maintain the atmosphere in the cold damp room in which they wait for the ghost to come
mar dhuine de na cailíní atá ag lorg a máithreacha, ceistigh úinéir na feirme faoin méid a chonaic sé/sí - help to plan dramatic activity to include the particular tension and suspense appropriate to the theme being explored
in a drama about honesty, explore how contrary physical and verbal signals can indicate deception
as the fishermen depart for three months, leaving their families on the quays, help create and be aware of the tension that comes from everyone trying to be cheerful
as members of a dance troupe in a drama about betrayal, make a dance that lets the queen know her secret is out - become comfortable with script and understand the basic processes by which script becomes action
ask the who, what, where, when and why questions in creating the action that a piece of script suggests
be aware of the basic conventions of play-writing through occasionally writing sections of script for other groups to make into drama texts
perform simultaneously a few lines of script to lead to a drama about the issue of family break-up during the Famine - distinguish between various genres, such as comedy, tragedy, fantasy
begin to appreciate that, just like different games, different drama worlds (other than naturalistic drama) can have their own rules
to lift a drama out of the naturalistic mode, do a silent scene depicting action in a labour camp while the remainder of the class juxtaposes the sounds of children playing by the seaside
do a drama in which the adults act like children and the children act like adults
invent an extra group of characters that Alice (in Wonderland) might meet, and do a scene she might have with them
déan dráma greannmhar faoi nathair san áiléar.
Strand Unit: Reflecting on drama
The child should be enabled to
- reflect on a particular dramatic action in order to create possible alternative courses for the action that will reflect more closely the life patterns and issues being examined
participate in hot-seating
write the poem the character might write at this time (it is sometimes useful to distance true emotion from the child) and then decide what course of action he/she is likely to take
decide as a member of a group whether the woman with the fur coat should be helped to meet the fur dealer who will repair it
decide, as a member of the group, whether to allow a soldier to pass on and possibly get killed or to risk one’s own life to save him/her. - learn, through drama, the relationship between story, theme and life experience
beginning with the finding by the police of an abandoned wallet, see where the investigation leads and how it must be shaped by the rules by which the police abide
explore bullying through a drama about a boy or girl, his/her mother and father, a dog and a gang who attack him/her going to school
explore a mathematical problem through a ‘mantle of the expert’ drama about a builder who wants to renovate a church - use the sharing of insights arising out of dramatic action to develop the ability to draw conclusions and to hypothesise about life and people
in a drama on board a sailing ship explore why the tired sailors might disagree with the captain and decide to take over the ship
as part of a group, make a wall chart about the insights gained during a drama about a pop group and the conclusions for life that could be drawn from it
as part of a group of Irish-speaking children, decide how best to teach the English girl to answer in Irish the questions the gardener will put to her.
Strand Unit: Co-operating and communicating in making drama
The child should be enabled to
- develop, out of role, the ability to co-operate and to communicate with others in helping to shape the drama
respond in small groups to the teacher saying, ‘Let’s make a short play about fear’
as part of a group, work out what kind of scene will communicate most clearly to others in the class the kind of life lived in our grandparents’ time
in a scene about a death at a wall-building project during Famine times, agree on when the focus should shift so that the story may unfold out of the action
decide whether the women of the island should let the strangers know that the flowers growing on the hillside are extremely valuable
decide who should undertake the various aspects of the research that is needed before proceeding with the drama - develop, in role, the ability to co-operate and communicate with others in helping to shape the drama
as ‘experts’ on local history, research the kind of lives people led in 1925
respond to the teacher’s probe, ‘Now that Celia has told the lie, can we tell the truth without seeming to let her down, or what will we do?’
for a drama about nomads and settlers, decide how best to arrange the wagons in case of attack - develop fictional relationships through interaction with the other characters in small-group or whole-class scenes as the drama text is being made
in a drama allow the relationship between a character and his friend, whom he wants to look at some birds, to develop physically and emotionally as the scene is being enacted
in a drama in which a man from outer space, a landlubber, and a person who has never seen the night try to fish the moon out of the sea, explore the relationships that develop between them
in a drama about the Famine, explore the relationships between the children who creep out at night into the potato field to see what their elders mean by blight - enact spontaneously for others in the group a scene from the drama, or share with the rest of the class a scene that has already been made in simultaneous small-group work
enact a scene that shows the reaction of a family to the news that they have won the lotto
as part of a drama on the bravery of peacemakers, enact the scene in which the hero or heroine says goodbye to his/her family before going on his/her mission
as part of a comic piece about people who care about nothing, show a scene in which the hurlers or camogie players are completely uninterested in the lecture from the coach before the game.