S1-S2
Pupils are engaged in a variety of language and movement based activities, including improvising and experimenting with movement, speech, physical objects and sound. Pupils are given opportunities to develop their understanding of themselves, their relationship to others and their relationship to real life events. Assessment is continuous throughout the course and the final level is an holistic assessment of the pupil's performance throughout the year.
STANDARD GRADE
Welcome to Standard Grade Drama. This exciting two year course includes a wide range of activities which will provide you with a stimulating, varied and satisfying course.
What you will learn:
- To work with others in a positive way
- To explore relationships through language, movement and theatre activities
- To explore your own and others opinions, attitudes and values
- To increase and develop your interest, awareness and understanding of Drama, theatre and other arts media
- To develop practical skills in creative Drama
How you will learn:
Most Drama work is practical. You will be asked to use your imagination and contribute ideas in groups of various sizes. You will also be involved in role playing, characterisation and improvisation. Through language, movement and theatre activities you will explore themes and issues.
How the course is structured:
The course is designed as a series of Units in which you will learn Drama skills and use them in a variety of ways. You may work with the whole class or in smaller groups devising and acting out situations from stimulus material. Although most Drama work is in groups there will be opportunities for you to work as an individual.
It is important that you reflect and judge the quality of your work and the work of others, so evaluation is an important element of the course. This is ongoing throughout every unit and also takes the form of two extended folio pieces.
You will find that as the work progresses over the two years you will be given more responsibility and a wider range of choice.
What you will be doing:
The content of the course consists mainly of activities such as role-play, characterisation, improvisation, language and movement. You will learn and develop performance skills such as acting and directing and also use theatre skills such as lighting, sound, set design, costume, make-up and props to enhance your presentations.
How you will be assessed:
Over the two years your teacher will be assessing Creating and Presenting.
CREATING involves working in a group discussing, planning and trying out a piece of Drama. When you have decided what you are trying to do then prepare it to show to an audience, (this audience can be members of your class) this is called PRESENTING. During the course you will often be asked to EVALUATE your work. Your EVALUATIONS will be marked separately. A written paper at the end of the course will examine your KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING of Drama.
You will also be expected to keep a folio of class work and there will be written assignments.
You will be awarded a STANDARD GRADE CERTIFICATE at Credit, General or Foundation level according to your attainment at the end of the course.
What use is Standard Grade Drama?
It is appreciated that very few of you will continue with Drama as a professional career but Standard Grade Drama develops skills and knowledge that are extremely useful whatever you choose to do after you leave school.
Communication Skills:
It is difficult to imagine any job that does not involve some communication with other people. Drama helps you to become confident and competent in speaking to others in both formal and informal situations. Any job that one deals with the public either face to face or over the telephone makes communication skills of prime importance. The Drama course encourages you to think carefully about the language you use in particular situations and to speak clearly.
Organisational Skills:
Because you will be given the opportunity to make decisions about how you will set up a scene or how you will present a particular idea, organisational skills will be developed which should be useful in both the work and the home environment.
Negotiation Skills:
Drama is essentially a group activity that involves discussion and arguing of ideas, negotiating with other pupils and the teacher and decision making in a group. This encourages you to learn how to present your own point of view and how to arrive at a democratic decision or compromise within a group of people. These skills will be useful in both the work and social context.
Personal and Social Skills:
You will be asked to enter imaginatively into certain situations and to assume certain roles that you may experience in post school life. Therefore Drama can, to an extent, prepare you for personal and social demands which may occur in real life as you progress into adulthood.
Drama as Leisure:
In a society where there is an increasing amount of leisure time, it is important that you are introduced at school to a range of leisure activities that you may wish to pursue after you leave school. Drama can provide leisure actively, in a Drama Club (acting or backstage) or passively, watching productions at the theatre, on television, film and DVD, or listening to the radio.
Further Study:
If you enjoy Drama and want to continue studying the subject at school a Higher Still Drama Course can be taken up in 5th year. Many universities and colleges now offer Drama as a separate course and you can take a degree and other professional qualifications.
Drama and Theatre Related Careers:
For those of you wishing to pursue careers in theatre, film, broadcasting or educational Drama Standard Grade Drama will provide grounding in the creative and technical skills required by these professions.
DRAMA - HIGHER
The course has three mandatory units as follows:
Investigative Drama (H)
credit (40 hours) |
1 |
Study of a Text in its Theatrical Context (H)
credit (40 hours) |
1 |
Contemporary Scottish Theatre (H)
credit (40 hours) |
1 |
This structure allows both progression and the possibility of integration as the units may be taught sequentially or concurrently.
RECOMMENDED ENTRY LEVEL
The candidate would normally be expected to have attained one of the following:
- Standard Grade Drama at Credit Level
- Intermediate 2 Drama
- Other appropriate prior experience in drama
RATIONALE
Higher Drama develops the central concept of exploring relationships and promotes knowledge and understanding of theatre. The course focuses on the skills of acting, directing and investigating in a variety of dramatic contexts.
Higher Drama is an excellent medium for personal and social development. The subject’s links with personal growth have long been acknowledged: drama methodology is founded on the development of a fuller understanding and awareness of self and others, and on the promotion of personal and interpersonal skills in communication, co-operation and relationships. These relationships may be between people, between people and ideas or between people and the environment.
COURSE CONTENT
Unit 1: Investigative Drama
In this unit, students will, as a group, use creative drama skills to investigate and explore a theme, issue or topic. They will devise their own drama and present the end product to an invited audience. Each student will be responsible for the organisation and direction of an identifiable section of the drama. Students will be engaged in language, movement and theatre.
Unit 2: Study of a Text in its Theatrical Context
Students will explore a range of texts (prescribed by the Scottish Qualification Authority) from the perspective of an actor and of a director in preparation for a production. Both skills and knowledge and understanding of the arts of directing acquired and used in Investigative Drama will be further developed in this unit.
Students will use their studies of the text to conceive a directorial interpretation of the play and to develop the characterisation, in practical terms, of one chosen dramatic role.
Unit 3: Contemporary Scottish Theatre
A minimum of three contemporary Scottish plays, which may be texts or productions, will be studied. Plays/productions will be explored from both the perspective of the actor and that of audience in terms of communication of meaning and perceived impact. Students will explore the interpretation, characterisation and acting of one character from a contemporary Scottish theatre text which may or may not have been used by the student in the specified areas of study. The knowledge and understanding from this will be used to inform the acting of the character in performance.
Acting:
Acting is an important and integral part of all three component units although it does not feature as a discrete unit of work at Higher Level. Specific exercises will be devised to develop particular acting skills but these skills will be used in the context of portraying characters. In Investigative Drama, the student may be developing characters to act from improvisation, from a dramatic role card or from a detailed scenario or devised script provided by another student. In a Study of a Text in its Theatrical Context and in Contemporary Scottish Theatre, the emphasis will be on the interpretation of character from text. For all units, it will be necessary for students to develop and use characterisation and performance skills. Although acting is essentially a practical activity, students should also develop the knowledge and understanding to be able to describe the acting process using appropriate technical vocabulary.
ASSESSMENT
To gain the Final Award of the course, the student must achieve all the component units of the course as well as the external assessment. External assessment will provide the basis for grading attainment in the final course award.
The award of Higher Drama will be based on a combination of internal and external assessments.
Internal Assessment
Each unit is assessed on a pass/fail basis. Students will be required to provide evidence of the achievement of each of the learning outcomes for each component unit. Opportunities will be provided for those who fail unit tests to re-sit them.
External Assessment
The external course assessment will consist of one question paper and a practical examination of acting.
| Component of the Course assessment |
Marks |
| Question Paper |
| 1 essay on Prescribed text |
20 marks |
| 1 essay on Contemporary Scottish Theatre |
20 marks |
| 1 Dramatic Commentary |
20 marks |
Marked as follows: A set plan of 4 marks with opening positions, entrances, audience, key moves and interpretative notes for actors: 7marks
Justification: 7 marks
Technical effects: 2 marks
Total duration 2 hours and 30 minutes
Acting Examination
- Role 1 20 marks
- Role 2 20 marks
Marked as follows:
5 marks for characterisation skills
5 marks for voice
5 marks for movement
5 marks for impact on audience
Total 100 marks
(A conversion table is used to equalise the marking of each section)
The Final Award will be based a weighting of:
- Question Paper 50%
- Acting Examination 50%
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