Grade Six: A Model Unit for Teaching Drama in Context

The teacher in role tells them that a floor plan of Sask. Place will be easy to get.(Note) The police records are not obtainable as the case is considered "Confidential". He says their budget should permit them to interview just about anyone they believe must be heard from. He asks what they'll want to ask of the people they contact and he records their responses.(Note) They say they'll want to ask:

He asks whether they can think of anything else they should consider before they get underway. The investigators say they think they have plenty to start with.(Note)

Interviews/Drawing -- Pairs and Small Groups

The students will:

• make connections among their own experience, their imaginations and the dramatic situation
• demonstrate confidence and curiosity by assuming different roles in their drama work
• demonstrate the willingness to work effectively in pairs
• demonstrate the ability to use a range of strategies within their dramas
• use questioning as a tool to further their own and others' understanding (C)
• co-operate with each other in order to enhance their understanding through sharing information (IL).

He asks the other students to work in pairs, which he assigns. He asks each pair to decide between them who will continue in role as investigators and who will agree to assume the role of one of those people listed on the chart to whom they believed they must speak. He asks the investigators to question each individual carefully using the list of questions posted on the chart and to record their answers in point form.(Note) He asks the others to concentrate carefully on the questions and to do their best to offer any help they can. He hopes that someone will come up with something that will provide a fresh lead. The teacher allows the interviews to continue as long as the students in role seem to be engaged in their task.(Note) He then asks the students who were being interviewed to work as investigators and those who were investigators to take on the role of another individual on the list. He repeats his previous instructions regarding the task. He asks the students to keep their notes and to bring them to the next class. (Note)

Student and Teacher in Role/Meeting/Reflection in Role -- Whole Group

The students will:

The teacher in role again chairs a meeting of the investigators who have assembled to provide him with a progress report. Referring to the list of people to be interviewed, the teacher asks the students to state which of the people they contacted and to provide a brief summary of what they learned. Several spoke to family members, Bryan Adams' banker, members of his band and the limo driver. Three interviewed his chef; two, his agent. One talked to a caretaker at Sask. Place; one, to Tina Turner; one to the Saskatoon Star Phoenix reporter who broke the story; one, to a police investigator who, he says, owed him a favour; and two, to Reveen.

The teacher notes that they have come up with a wealth of information. He also comments that much of it is contradictory! He asks them to consider everything they have heard and to pick out things that seemed to have been agreed upon by everyone who was interviewed.(Note) After a moment, the investigators say that everyone who was interviewed seemed quite certain that Adams was currently quite happy with his life. No one had spoken of any particular enemies, although one had mentioned that a year ago a concert in Los Angeles had been cut short by a bomb threat. Everyone was becoming more concerned about his disappearance as the weeks passed, particularly as it was very unusual for him not to let friends and family know about his whereabouts at all times.

In light of contradictory evidence regarding the state of his finances, his plans to take a long break from the concert circuit, and the mood he was in the day he was last seen, the teacher in role asks the investigators if they would like to ask further questions of any of those people they had spoken to earlier. The investigators say they think they should talk to his banker, his chef, his brother, the limo driver and members of his band. The teacher asks for volunteers from among those who had taken on these roles in the previous interviews. He asks them to come forward one at a time, to repeat briefly what they told the investigator who originally spoke to them, and to answer any further questions that the investigators would now like to ask them.(Note)

This done, the teacher asks if there is anything else they should consider at this time. A spokesperson for the small group responsible for making the floorplan says that it is ready to be displayed. She says none of the security staff at Sask. Place had reported anything unusual about that particular evening. However, they will see from the drawing that the star's dressing room is very near a back exit, which she tells them is never particularly closely guarded. The teacher in role thanks her and her staff for their work and the bell rings as the investigators take a closer look at the drawing.(Note)

Students and Teacher in Role/Meeting -- Whole Group

The students will:

The teacher in role greets the investigators and tells them he is very pleased that they could all meet at such short notice. He says that since they were last together, many of them had probably been thinking about this whole baffling business and some may well have uncovered new clues or information. However, he says, this morning when he arrived at the agency he found a plain brown envelope lying on the floor just inside the front door. In it was a computer-written note which he would like to read to them.(Note) He takes the envelope out of his jacket pocket, removes the note and reads:

Confidential

It may interest you to know that Bryan Adams is safe and has been in the hands of Chief Inspectors at Scotland Yard for the past three days. Only a select number of top-level police investigators in Britain, the USA and Canada have been given this privileged information. This evening at 10:00 pm CBC News World will break the story in a half-hour News Special. Trust you and your staff will tune in! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a reliable source

The teacher in role asks whether they have any comments. One investigator asks whether they have any reason to believe an unsigned note. The investigator, who earlier claimed to have a friend on the police force, says that perhaps his friend sent it. He says, if this is the case, he understands why the note was not signed. He says his friend would risk losing his job if he openly spread privileged information. Another investigator asks where and what Scotland Yard is. Another wonders whether Bryan Adams had somehow found his way to England or whether he had been found somewhere else. Another says they really don't know that he was found, perhaps he had turned himself in. Finally, one of them says that if they are to believe anything in the note, they should tune in to the 10:00 o'clock news. The teacher says that they should probably all watch the news special together as, if the note does prove to be true, this could well mark the end of their investigation.

Prepared Improvisation -- Small Group

The students will:

The teacher steps out of role and tells the students that they now have the opportunity to pull the evidence and their thinking about the whole case together. He asks them if they will agree to work in small groups. He reminds them that as the work has unfolded, he has been keeping notes beyond those which are posted around the room on charts.(Note) He says that he has placed each of them in groups of three, four or five, attempting to create groups that contain those who have expressed some similar impressions of the case. Each group will be required to work closely together and to come up with a series of news items of the sort that are seen on news broadcasts. These news items will, of course, be developed in the context of the News Special mentioned in the note.(Note)

He asks if they have any questions before he reads out the names of those in each group. One student asks whether this means they are no longer investigators. The teacher replies that some of them may decide to continue as the investigators they were or as other investigators, perhaps those at Scotland Yard or members of the RCMP, for example. He says that some might work as television journalists, while others might be various other people who had a hand in either Bryan Adams' disappearance or his reappearance. Another student asks whether one person in each group could be Bryan Adams. The teacher replies that that would be a possibility but is not an absolute necessity. He asks if there are any other questions and, as there are not, he reads the lists of names and asks them to set to work. He suggests they might begin by taking turns describing their individual theories about the case and then deciding what they would like to include in their news items. He says he will circulate among the groups as they work and answer any further questions that they may have.

The students work in their groups for the next two periods, organizing their ideas, choosing roles for themselves and developing a series of interviews and film clips which express their thinking about the case. They want to know whether they can use costumes and music, whether they should write "scripts" for their news items, whether they will be performing them for the others, and whether they can videotape their work.(Note) The teacher suggests that they do their scenes with a minimum of costumes, using only costumes pieces that they believe are absolutely necessary. He says using music is a great idea. He advises them not to spend their time writing actual lines, but that an outline of the series of news items they develop would be a good idea. In fact, he says each group should come up with such an outline to hand in. He says that they will be presenting them for each other and that the idea of videotaping the work is something they can all decide after they've had a chance to see it.(Note)

When the series of scenes are presented by each of the groups, the audience learns that Bryan Adams was suffering from exhaustion and had been hiding out at Sting's country house near London. He, Sting and Rod Stewart were soon to record "All For Love", the theme song for The Three Muskateers, and Bryan needed to rest up. They also learn that Bryan Adams had been working on the production of a new hit video and the whole affair had been a publicity gimmick designed to coincide with its release. In one item, they learn that he had been able to leave Sask. Place with the help of Reveen after hiding in a closet full of cleaning supplies for twenty-four hours. In another, they heard that he had voluntarily entered a Buddhist monastery in India and that Scotland Yard had tracked him down there. They see interviews with band members, the Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard, various friends and family members, a doctor and hospital staff, Reveen, Sting, a Sask. Place security guard,(Note) Bryan Adams' agent, and Bryan Adams himself. All of the groups used Bryan Adams' music in some way. Two groups used parts of songs to begin and end their presentations. One group taped a medley of hits that was played in the background whenever the person in role as news anchor wasn't speaking.

Reflection Out of Role -- Whole Group

The students will:

• demonstrate a willingness to reflect on their work, publicly
• begin to perceive, describe, analyse and interpret their own works of dramatic art and to make informed judgments only after reflecting on their findings
• discuss their own work in relation to their lives, their culture and their society
• examine the impact of the mass media on their own drama work
• explore and express the purpose for and the meaning of undertaking the exploration of ideas within a dramatic situation (C).

One student asks whether they can do their scenes again and if they can be videotaped. When the question is put to the whole class, just over half of them express that they would like to do that. The teacher says that because this is their first work of the year, he is willing to spend one more class on this drama and to tape their work. He adds that if any group wishes to videotape their work in out-of-class time, they are welcome to do that as well. He says that he will keep the videotapes safely on file and that next June they will look at them again and compare this work with what they will be doing then, after a year's work in drama. He asks those who hadn't voted to have the work videotaped, if they will reconsider in light of what he has said. Most of them agree. (Note)

Journal Writing -- Individual

(Note)

The students will:

• record their reflections on their drama experiences in an ongoing drama journal
• begin to examine the various functions of drama
• begin to examine the role and influence of drama in their daily lives
• explore their own thinking processes (CCT)
• reflect upon and provide evidence for a conclusion (CCT).

2. What roles did I assume? Which did I enjoy most? Why?

3. What is the most interesting thing about what I did?

4. What did I learn about myself? Others?

5. What problems did I have to solve while I was working? How did I solve them?

6. What did I do that was new for me?

7. What would I like to have done differently?

8. What have I learned from this experience?

9. What advice would I give the teacher if he was considering doing this drama with another class?

10. What would I like to do other dramas about this year?