I’m pretty sure that I don’t speak for myself when I share with you my dread of the options process every Spring. Each passing year seems to get more and more stressful. Every year the number of students needs to make a group viable seems to increase whilst at the same time every year there has been a decline in students taking Drama. Every year … Continue reading Strategies for the GCSE Options Process
What does Key Stage 3 Drama mean to you? How do you decide what to teach? How do you assess the students? Read advice on how to tackle planning and assessing your ideal Key Stage 3 Drama Curriculum. Continue reading Key Stage 3 Drama: Stepping stones from Process to Product
In many respects, the freedom of not being on the National Curriculum allows Heads of Drama to create a bespoke Key Stage 3 curriculum that caters for both the cohort and the expectations of the curriculum with regards to what syllabus the students do for Key Stage 4 and their likely outcomes. Continue reading The secret to a great Key Stage 3 Drama Curriculum
The first part of the process was to establish the timeline of Drama to teach. Starting with Greek Theatre, Commedia and Shakespeare in Year 7 and finishing with Melodrama, Naturalism and Epic Theatre in Year 8. Continue reading An example Key Stage 3 Drama Curriculum
I was thinking on the way home from work this week about what I would do if I had a group of students, perhaps a small group of between 10 and 20 students, who could opt to take an imaginary qualification that would be equivalent to 4 GCSE’s. Continue reading My ideal drama qualification
Returning to the idea finding a balance within the curriculum, I think that there needs to be a balance between knowledge and skills and I think that my previous schemes of work have probably been too focused on skills. There is no doubt in my mind that with the content requirements of the new GCSEs being so high, an increased knowledge of key terminology, concepts and … Continue reading Knowledge Based Curriculum: Finding the balance
