Pukekohe High School
NCEA Level 1 Drama
Course Description
Head of Faculty - Kaihautuu: Ms N. Taylor.
There are many ways in which Drama education leads to your success:
Social Awareness - Legends, myths, poems, stories, and plays used in drama teach students about social issues and conflicts from cultures – past and present – all over the world.
Self-Confidence - Taking risks in class and performing for an audience teaches students to trust their ideas and abilities. The confidence gained in drama applies to school, university, careers, and life in general.
Imagination - Making creative choices, thinking of new ideas, and interpreting familiar material in new ways are essential to drama. Einstein said: ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’.
Empathy - Acting roles from different situations, time periods, and cultures promotes compassion and tolerance for others’ feelings and viewpoints.
Cooperation & Collaboration - drama combines the creative ideas and abilities of its participants. This cooperative process includes discussing, negotiating, rehearsing, and performing.
Communication Skills - Drama enhances verbal and nonverbal expression of ideas. Listening and observation skills develop by playing drama games, being an audience, rehearsing, and performing.
Concentration - Playing, practicing, and performing develop sustained focus, body, and voice, which also helps in other subjects and courses, and, again, life in general.
Problem solving - Students learn how to communicate the who, what, where, and why to the audience. Improvisation fosters quick-thinking solutions, which leads to greater adaptability in life.
Fun - Drama brings play, humour, and laughter to learning; this improves motivation and reduces stress. Emotional Outlet - Pretend play and drama games allow students to express a range of emotions. Many drama activities reduce stress by releasing mental, physical, and emotional tension.
Self-discipline - The process of moving from ideas to actions to performances teaches the value of practice and perseverance. Drama games and creative movement improve self-control.
Course Description
This is a practical course that explores four key areas of Drama:
* developing skills in using the elements, techniques, conventions, and technologies of Drama;
* developing ideas through innovation, imagination, and personal experience.
* learning how to co-operate and collaborate with others to generate ideas and turn them into action.
* learning how to communicate and interpret ideas.
We learn these things in Drama in a variety of ways: through playing drama games, participating in workshops, learning how to devise our own drama, and through studying and performing scripted plays. We discuss and write about our own and others’ work and prepare for a Drama exam.
What will I learn and How will I learn?
This Level 1 Drama course builds important foundation skills in Drama. Students must be willing to actively participate in all activities. You will work in groups, learning to co-operate and collaborate. You will develop knowledge and awareness of dramatic techniques, elements and conventions, and how to use these to create performance work. You will develop acting and theatre skills, learn how to devise drama and how to interpret a script. You will learn how to perform in front of others using different theatre forms, elements and conventions. You will learn about drama technologies and how to use these as important elements in performance works.
Course Overview
Term 1
Apply Drama techniques in a scripted context.
In this unit of work students will develop important drama skills using voice, body, movement and space. They will then apply these techniques in performance of an excerpt from a scripted play.
Term 2
Use features of a drama / theatre form in a performance.
In this unit of work students will learn about a specific theatre form, such as clowning or melodrama. Students will develop their knowledge of the selected theatre form and apply that learning to their performance work.
Term 3
Devise and perform a drama.
In this unit of work students will learn about the conventions of drama. Conventions are techniques used in creating a drama that enable a story or ideas to unfold. Examples of drama conventions are slow-motion, flash back, still-frame, narration, split stage, aside, monologue, chorused movement. After learning about how to apply these in performance, students will create their own short performance work in groups.
Term 4
Demonstrate understanding of the use of drama aspects within live performance.
Students develop understanding of live theatre performance they will have have been to see during the year as a whole class. At the time of going to see the play, students will discuss and analyse the performance and learn how to talk about it in written form.
Recommended Prior Learning
This course is open to any students who have a genuine interest in Drama, and who will commit to actively participating in performance work in class. Students do not need to have previous experience in Drama. Year 10 Drama or Dance are ideal foundations for this course, or experience in Drama and Dance outside of school.
Pathway
Studying Drama at school develops a wide range of highly valuable communication, relationship skills, creative thinking skills and confidence - dispositions which are important in any future pathway. Study of Drama also connects directly to tertiary courses and careers in performing arts, the media industries, events and hospitality, sales, and human resources.
Assessment Information
Students are assessed once per term using NCEA Achievement Standards. Assessments take the form of performance work in small groups. Performance skills and knowledge of Drama will be assessed.Credit Information
You will be assessed in this course through all or a selection of the standards listed below.
This course is eligible for subject endorsement.
This course is approved for University Entrance.
Total Credits Available: 15 credits.
Externally Assessed Credits: 10 credits.
Internally Assessed Credits: 5 credits.
External
NZQA Info
NZQA Info
NZQA Info
Pathway Tags
Early Childhood Teacher, Youth Worker, Secondary School Teacher, Teacher Aide, Information Technology Helpdesk/Support Technician, Actor, Art Director (Film, Television or Stage), Artistic Director, Film and Video Editor, Dancer, Entertainer, Film/Television Camera Operator, Journalist, Communications Professional, Editor, Make-up Artist, Director (Film, Television, Radio or Stage), Radio Presenter, Media Producer, Production Assistant (Film, Television, Radio or Stage), Lighting Technician, Primary School Teacher, Television Presenter,
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