Understanding By Design Unit Template

Title of Unit Exploring Characterization Through History Grade Level 12

Subject Drama 30 Time Frame 7 Lessons

Developed By Shayla Alexander

Stage 1 - Identify Desired Results

Broad Areas of Learning
How are the BAL incorporated into this unit?

Communication is included in this unit as students will have to work at their communication skills in this unit in order to successfully
create strong characters. Speaking and listening go hand in hand and students will be required to participate in activities where this
becomes readily important. Because students will be creating characters out of historical content, they need to understand the aspects
that go into creating a strong character and what all goes into communicating their message, perspective, and/or feelings of the
situation they are trying to portray. Students will bring their experiences in the drama classroom, and their knowledge of
characterization will be built and stretched in this unit. Students will also be given the opportunity to reflect on their performance and
experience in a journal.
Numeracy will be included as students research and interpret their characters, and maps, and other helpful information written about
momentous moments in Canadian History. This research bit will help the students to create a more well-rounded character as they seek
to understand their context and how to portray that.
Critical and Creative Thinking is an important aspect to this unit as many students tend to have biass or misconceptions about what
happened in history. This unit asks students to create and portray a character whose experience would fit into a situation. Requiring
students to leave behind their judgements this unit asks students to approach characters thoughtfully and thoroughly. It asks students
to be creative and to also be able to give reasons or inferences about their decisions for portraying certain aspects of the character
they create.
Technological Literacy is fostered in this unit by asking students be a part of how they will be assessed and by including historical
content. In incorporating this content, students will also come to the awareness of how things are shaped by society, be it media or
personal communication. It is the hope in this unit that students will grow in their ability to extend empathy for others and develop
interest in the lives of others.
Personal and Social Values and Skills will be grown upon in this unit as students will work together in warm up activities and will have to
work in responding to one another in sensitive and creative ways. In this unit students will develop empathy for others as they research
and inquire into the lives of those they research. By listening to, watching, or personal interview, students will interact with individuals
outside of their cultures with an open mind in order to interact and build from their experience in coherent and accurate ways.
Independent Learning is encouraged in this unit as learning is not restricted to the classroom, but can be taken and explored in
meaningful ways outside of the classroom. Students are encouraged to bring their understanding and experience with similar, or the
same emotions that they hope to portray to add to their understanding of the way that their character might feel or respond to their
context and situation.

Cross curricular Competencies

How will this unit promote the CCC?

Creative Productive This unit requires students to create and produce a character perspective and point of view from their chosen
time period in Canadian history. Students will create a character sketch and monologue capturing the emotions and context of their
character and this will be performed to their peers and teacher. Many of the warm up activities in the unit will also allow the students to
create and interact in ways that are appropriate to the activities.
Cultural Historic Students will be looking at historical accounts in Canadian as they plan and create their characters. By interacting
with primary sources and history books students will come to an understanding of the historical context and the personal experience.
As students develop their characters they will understand the way that culture shapes the individual they choose to portray or
represent. Not all of the historical moments they study will be long-past moments, some of them could be recent moments in history,
such as the election of Justin Trudeau, or a report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada. This will also include First
Nations, Metis and Inuit content in which students will be asked to interact with, or respond to in the creation of their characters.
Critical Responsive Not only will students bring their thoughts into the way that they create their characters, but they will also be
asked to respond to their classmates performances and also with their own. Students will also view a play that speaks to the context
we find ourselves in Canada with many First Nations men and women, Where the Blood Mixes by Kevin Loring. Students will be asked
to respond critically to what they see and experience in viewing the play, this will be a written assignment.

Learning Outcomes
What relevant goals will this unit address?
(must come from curriculum; include the designations e.g. IN2.1)

1. Students will acquire increased understanding of others, themselves and the world around them
2. Students will develop self-confidence, self-discipline and self-motivation.
3. Students will acquire understandings and abilities in group processes
4. Students will develop an understanding of the processes and elements involved in creating works of dramatic art
5. Students will develop acting skills
6. Students will exercise critical thought and support opinions when responding to dramatic presentations
7. Students will understand the role of drama in various cultures, past and present

All outcomes found in Saskatchewan Drama Curriculum pg. 111-116

Enduring Understandings Essential Questions

What understandings about the big ideas are desired? (what you
want students to understand & be able to use several years from
now)
What misunderstandings are predictable?
Students will understand that...
In order to understand other peoples perspectives, student will
have an understanding of empathy that will help them to not only
create their character, but they will be able to engage in society in
meaningful ways. Students will understand the importance of
listening as well as speaking in communication. Students will
understand that they are capable to speaking in front of others, and
in being a part of something beyond themselves.
Related misconceptions
There may be sentiments of Racism from students when
approaching some topics of conversation within history. Other
students might think that there is no point to studying characters in
What provocative questions will foster inquiry into the content?
(open-ended questions that stimulate thought and inquiry linked
to the content of the enduring understanding)
Content specific.
How might this persons feelings affect their circumstance?
What kinds of connections can you draw to this situation, either
personally or by connecting it to literature you have read?
Why is it important understand the viewpoints of others?
How does understanding the view of others, help you
understand yourself?
What aspects of self, help to create a character?
history or creating one of their own therefor indifference might be a
common feeling towards the assignments. Some students might not
even have an understanding of empathy, or why that would be
important. Another common misconception in this unit might be
that students think they are able to rely on their acting skills and or
their abilities to portray emotion without including their own bias.
How does context shape character?
FNMI, multicultural, cross-curricular
First Nations content, and historical content, and current events
will be used for the student to study and create a character out
of those events.

Knowledge:
What knowledge will student acquire as a result of this unit? This
content knowledge may come from the indicators, or might also
address pre-requisite knowledge that students will need for this
unit.
Skills
What skills will students acquire as a result of this unit? List the
skills and/or behaviours that students will be able to exhibit as a
result of their work in this unit. These will come from the
indicators.

Students will know... Students will be able to

- what is required to create a good character
- how to communicate things such as emotion, feelings and
thoughts of the character
- how to decipher meaning and connections from written text and
will know how to create a person within that setting
- that they are capable of performing and creating a character from
a different time period
- to reflect critically about what they see when they watch a play or
watch other class mates perform.
- that empathy is a good way to relate with others
- how context and story influences the character they choose
- Work independently to research and create a character
- Participate in class activities that will help them to feel
comfortable to act or perform their monologue/ character
for the class.
- Work successfully in a group
- Identify the important aspects of character development
and use those to create a strong character for their
setting.
- Participate and listen respectfully and kindly with other
students and content in class.
- Give critique or analysis of other plays or forms of media

Stage 2 Assessment Evidence

Performance Task
Through what authentic performance task will students demonstrate the desired understandings, knowledge, and skills? (describes the
learning activity in story form. Typically, the P.T. describes a scenario or situation that requires students to apply knowledge and skills
to demonstrate their understanding in a real life situation. Describe your performance task scenario below)
By what criteria will performances of understanding be judged?
GRASPS Elements of the Performance Task
G Goal Students will create a monologue to be said as the character from a historical time or moment in
What should students accomplish by Canadas history. Students will all sides of a historical situation and they will then choose a
completing this task? perspective to represent. In order to represent an individual from history, students must study and
R Role create a personal experience from their study. They will have the option to choose from 5 different
What role (perspective) will your topics in history that will be given by the teacher for the student to respond to. Students want to
students be taking? work to create a strong character by studying context and making as many connections as they
A Audience can to the situation. They will complete a character sketch of their character and give insight to
Who is the relevant audience? their background and personal information as they understand their text. These character studies
S Situation will be performed in a monologue or dialogue with one other student for their peers in the class
The context or challenge provided to and their teacher. The challenge to this assignment is to have them try to empathize with another
the student. persons experience that is quite removed from their own. Their performance, though displayed in
P Product, Performance class is to be as complete as possible, given the time line to work on their character. Following
What product/performance will the their performance, students will be graded on a rubric, and with a personal reflection.
student
create?
S Standards & Criteria for
Success Attach rubric to Unit Plan
Create the rubric for the Performance
Task
Other Evidence Student Self-Assessment
Through what other evidence (work samples, observations, How will students reflect upon or self-assess their learning?
quizzes, tests, journals or other means) will students demonstrate
achievement of the desired results? Formative and summative
assessments used throughout the unit to arrive at the outcomes.

- Research progress- students are to keep their research so

that the teacher is able to see how they came to their - Journal reflections
conclusions - Personal reflection on projects
- Journal entries
- Personal reflection
- Observation of participation in classroom activities.

Stage 3 Learning Plan

What teaching and learning experiences will you use to:
achieve the desired results identified in Stage 1?
equip students to complete the assessment tasks identified in Stage 2?
Where are your students headed? Where have they been? How will you make sure the students know where they are going?
What experiences do the learners bring to the unit? How have the interests of the learners been ascertained? Have the learners been
part of the pre-planning in any way? What individual needs do you anticipate will need to be addressed?
Learning environment: Where can this learning best occur? How can the physical environment be arranged to enhance learning?
Students will be introduced to historical elements in which they would independently explore in the hopes to create a
strong character and monologue from their chosen moment in history. They will have already knowledge of how to write
a monologue and so that will help them in writing one with a character in mind. In the end the students will use their
experience in class, their historical research and knowledge and their ability to create a monologue to craft together a
convincing character. They will have a chance to choose the topic they desire or are most interested in of then will have
the chance to use their skills to create. The majority of the student interest will be ascertained in their choosing of the
time period.
Individual needs could be anything from physical limitations to intellectual disabilities. If needed assistance and further
scaffolding would be provided by the teacher for the student in order that they may participate. As a teacher it is
important that all students feel that they are able to contribute something to the assignment, and so it would be my job
to show them that if they have limitations or exceptionalities, they are still welcome and able. In showing students that
all throughout history peoples lives have been affected, hopefully there can be some way to perk interest as they make
connections to themselves. Another aspect to be aware of is those who are still affected by their cultural history today.
Being sensitive to First Nations content and ensuring an environment of safety and trust is held in the highest regard by
all students is key to success in that way. As for those who are completely uninterested giving them the option to work
as a group may encourage their work, and give them a less threatening or nerve wracking experience.
This learning can best occur in a classroom with the desks in a big enough circle for the class to do activities in the
middle of the room. In the classroom there should also be devices that students can use so that their research can
happen in one room so as to encourage collaboration with others who may be studying the same time period. Because
performance is not taking place on a theatre stage it is not necessary to have the class in a theater space.
How will you engage students at the beginning of the unit? (motivational set)

I will ask students about their knowledge about what goes into creating a strong character. I will ask them why these things have an
effect on the development of the character. I will ask them what is the purpose of a character in a story? After class discussion I will show
a video from youtube called How to Make the Audience Care about Your Characters by John Truby. After this video I will briefly discuss the
main theme of the unit, characterization through Historical moments in Canada, and then the first lesson, Ground Yourself will start.

PGP Goal:
2.4 Ability to use technologies readily, strategically and appropriately

What events will help students experience and explore the enduring understandings and essential questions in the unit? How will you
equip them with needed skills and knowledge?
# Lesson Title Lesson Activities CCCs Resources

1 CP; CR
Intro to 25 mins Introduction to Characterization
Characterizati - what do we know about Characterization? K-W-L chart on the board of students
on brainstorming.
- Why do we need Characters in drama?
- What is the point behind drama? Why acting?
- How do Characters help transmit story?
- If telling a story is one of the main parts drama what about those whose stories do
not get told?
- How do we make a character? How do we create one? What do we need to do as
actors or people in drama need to concentrate on when it comes to
characterization?
- This unit will go through steps to consider as we work towards the final assignment
of this unit.
- As we go through characterization, you will be given a topic in history to research.
You will create a character to fit this moment in history as you study primary
sources and get to know the context of the period. You will then create a
monologue from the point of view of your character in that time period.
- Some things we consider in drama as you create a character is
- 1) are you grounded in your character?
- 2) Do you know your topic/ the context or history of your character? Have you
studied them
- 3) Characterization Listen and build into what is being put forward
- 4) conflict what is the conflict your character feels, or is a part of
- 5) take risks/ make connections how are you as the actor able to connect with
the character? What types of risks are you willing to take with your character?
- 6) objective What are you trying to accomplish? What does your character want?
 20 mins activity
- HASH (happy-angry-sad-happy) ~5 mins.
- Have students choose a well-known character and get them to think about the
well-known things of that character. Students are not allowed to say who their
character is, but they will use euphemisms and clues to hit towards who the
character is. The other members in the class will guess what character they are.

5 mins journal reflection

- What time period do you want to research? Why?

PGP Goals:
1.1 the ability to maintain respectful, mutually supportive and equitable professional
relationships with learners, colleagues, families and communities
1.2 ethical behaviour and the ability to work in a collaborative manner for the good of all
learners
1.3 a commitment to social justice and the capacity to nurture an inclusive and equitable
environment for the empowerment of all learners
2.2 proficiency in the language of instruction
1.4 A commitment to social justice and the capacity to nurture an inclusive and equitable
environment for the empowerment of all learners

2 5 mins Discuss the importance of grounding yourself. Remind students that drama CP; CR Cards of
Ground requires their full attention and that deliberate presence of ones self can really add or Emotions/
Yourself take away from their performance. Physical
10-15 mins - Warm Up Activities Feelings;
- Breathing Exercise Journals
- Ways to Walk
- Pass the Posture
20 mins Split the class up into groups of two, tell students to walk around the classroom
until they hear the teacher yell out the word Atom when the teacher says Atom that is
their cue to find a partner.
- Once students are in groups they will be given a card. On that card will be an
emotion or physical feeling. The students are to ground themselves in that word
and display it to the class. Students watching will guess what emotion or physical
feeling the students had. This activity will be done in mime, so there will be no
talking allowed. Students may interact with their partner in this activity if they
choose, however they can also choose to perform separately.
5-10 mins- reflection discussion on how the activity went. What made it good? What was
hard about it? Did they have fun? What kept them from feeling successful in grounding
themselves. (~2 minutes to allow students to write a reflection of the activity in their
journal)

PGP Goals:
1.1 the ability to maintain respectful, mutually supportive and equitable professional
relationships with learners, colleagues, families and communities
1.2 ethical behaviour and the ability to work in a collaborative manner for the good of all
learners
1.3 a commitment to social justice and the capacity to nurture an inclusive and equitable
 environment for the empowerment of all learners
1.4 A commitment to social justice and the capacity to nurture an inclusive and equitable
environment for the empowerment of all learners

3 10 mins- Welcome to class/ Introduction to the topics CP; Journals

Intro to the - Each of these events are a part of a greater story CR;CH
Topics. - What is the story? Is there a story or perspective untold?
- Give students Assignment sheet.
10 mins- Warm up activities that are concentrated on telling a story
- Rainforest game requires students to listen to each other and consider the
context.
- Telephone story requires listening and adding to the story as it is passed along
25 mins- Real Life Situation (Pura, 2008, pg. 199)
- Groups of 4
- Could include Cultural Historic aspects of curriculum if students choose to partake
in a real life situation of the past.
5 mins- Reflection in journals on students thoughts on the importance of story and how
individuals create and portray story on stage.

PGP Goals:
1.1 the ability to maintain respectful, mutually supportive and equitable professional
relationships with learners, colleagues, families and communities
1.2 ethical behaviour and the ability to work in a collaborative manner for the good of all
learners
2.1 knowledge of Canadian History, Especially in reference to Saskatchewan and Western
Canada
2.2 proficiency in the language of instruction
2.3 knowledge of First Nations, Metis and Inuit Culture and History (e.g., Treaties,
Residential School, Scrip and Worldview)

4 5 mins- Welcome and introduction to Characterization CP; CR Character

Characterizati 10 mins- Hand out Character sketch Sketch
on - Emphasizing that these are the areas the students need to be covering as they hand out
create their character. Also that these topics will help them as they work through
information as they study their time period.
10 mins- Warm up activities
- Arms and legs count down from 10
- Downward Dog/Up Ward dog
- Lion Face/ Lemon Face
20 mins Taxi Cab Character over Characatcher
- Emphasizing that students need to listen, and build into the character that is being
put forward.
- They need to determine Who are they, what they are doing, and why they are
doing what they are doing.
5 mins Reflection in journal about what they found to be challenging or helpful in the
last activity

PGP Goals:
1.1 the ability to maintain respectful, mutually supportive and equitable professional
 relationships with learners, colleagues, families and communities
1.2 ethical behaviour and the ability to work in a collaborative manner for the good of all
learners
1.3 a commitment to social justice and the capacity to nurture an inclusive and equitable
environment for the empowerment of all learners
1.4 A commitment to social justice and the capacity to nurture an inclusive and equitable
environment for the empowerment of all learners
5 10 mins- Conflict Introduction CP; CH; Conflict
Conflict - What is conflict? CR cards
- How does conflict shape our characters?
- What kind of conflict are you seeing in your research? Tongue
5 mins- warm up activities twister
- Stretching (arms, legs, hips, back) examples.
- Vocal warm ups bitty, bitty, be
- Tongue twisters Stretching
10 mins- Conflict game guides
- Students receive a card with a type of conflict. Without out rightly saying what
their conflict is students must describe the surrounding events to their conflict. Conflict
They must describe their feelings and/or thoughts. Others in the class will guess Script
what the conflict was.
- This is a good opportunity for students to see how conflict shapes ones
perspective and circumstance.
- Students make up the surrounding circumstances for the conflict.
20 mins Conflict scripts
- Tape recorder example.
- Give students ~3 minutes to create a short conflict script.
- Have them act it out.
5 mins- Conflict reflection- is this challenging? Why is conflict important? What conflict are
you exploring in your research?

PGP Goals:
1.1 the ability to maintain respectful, mutually supportive and equitable professional
relationships with learners, colleagues, families and communities
1.2 ethical behaviour and the ability to work in a collaborative manner for the good of all
learners
3.1 the ability to utilize meaningful, equitable and holistic approaches to assessment and
evaluation
3.2 The ability to use a wide variety of responsive instructional strategies
6 20 mins- Work time CP; CR; Journals
Take risks/ - ~5 min welcome to class. CH
Make - Give students time to work on their research and character monologue
connections ~10 mins- intro to risk taking and making connections
- Why is it important for us to make connections to our characters?
- What kinds of things do we make connections with?
- How does making connections help us understand people?
- What do we do when there are no connections to make? Is there ever a time when
there are no connections for us to make?
20 mins Circle story
- Requires students to take risks and concentrate on what is being said in the story.
 ~ 5 mins - journal reflection
- Is it hard to take risks? Why?

PGP Goals:
1.1 the ability to maintain respectful, mutually supportive and equitable professional
relationships with learners, colleagues, families and communities
1.2 ethical behaviour and the ability to work in a collaborative manner for the good of all
learners
1.4 A commitment to social justice and the capacity to nurture an inclusive and equitable
environment for the empowerment of all learners
7 Objective- 10 mins - warm up CP; CR Different
What are you - Walk Around, displaying different emotions. emotions
trying to - Face stretches/ warm ups.
accomplish 10 mins Class discussion Face
here? - What does it mean to try to portray an objective rather than an emotion? stretches
- Why is this important?
- What emotions are you finding in your research? How are you going to reach those
objectives?
- How does understanding a characters back story help you to interpret these
emotions?
25 mins - Worst day of my life (Pura, 2008, pg. 201)
- This activity ensure that students listen to the story as told by their peer.
- They key is to not exaggerate the story but to re-enact it as it is told.
- This activity could include the whole class, with one person as narrator.
- Get through as many different stories as are able in class time reminding students
to listen for the story before they re-enact it so that they do not over do the
emotional traits.
5 mins journal reflection
- What are you trying to accomplish in your character creation?

PGP Goals:
1.1 the ability to maintain respectful, mutually supportive and equitable professional
relationships with learners, colleagues, families and communities
1.2 ethical behaviour and the ability to work in a collaborative manner for the good of all
learners
1.3 a commitment to social justice and the capacity to nurture an inclusive and equitable
environment for the empowerment of all learners
1.4 A commitment to social justice and the capacity to nurture an inclusive and equitable
environment for the empowerment of all learners
 Assess and Reflect (Stage 4)
Considerations
Required Areas of Study:
Is there alignment between outcomes, performance
assessment and learning experiences?
Adaptive Dimension:
Have I made purposeful adjustments to the curriculum
content (not outcomes), instructional practices, and/or
the learning environment to meet the learning needs and
diversities of all my students?
Instructional Approaches:
Do I use a variety of teacher directed and student
centered instructional approaches?
Resource Based Learning:
Do the students have access to various resources on an
Comments
Yes. Students have input on their assessment as well as are given a rubric that
outlines what is expected for their performance and grade evaluation. The
relationship between that outcomes are seen as students participate in class
discussion and activities whereby they will grow in their experience by
participating.
For struggling students:
- I might help students to choose a character or time period that they
might be able to have more personal experiences and connections with.
In this way the student will not have to infer so much and it might make
the research process easier for the student.
- I would give the option of working in partners to create and research the
same person and monologue rather than requiring each student to do
their own.
- For students who are confided to a wheel chair or who have other
accessibility limitations, I would work to show the students that their
perspective can be found in each of the historical situations. For warm
ups I might adapt the walk about activities to just have the students all
start out sitting and working on their expressions and body language, so
as to include those in wheel chairs.
For students who need a challenge:
- I would encourage students who need a challenge to seek out primary
sources in their research and to try to understand and know a specific
character, having them re-enact an actual person who lived through the
experience.
- I would encourage them to think about costume and physical
presentation in their performance, and what those elements add to the
experience.
There could me more room in the warm up activities as the unit progresses to
allow students to introduce a warm up and lead one.
Yes, students are able to research their topics and have access to information
ongoing basis? that will further their understanding and development of their ideas.

FNM/I Content and Perspectives/Gender

Equity/Multicultural Education:
Have I nurtured and promoted diversity while honoring Yes. I have included a variety of different topics.
each childs identity?

From: Wiggins, Grant and J. McTighe. (1998). Understanding by Design, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, ISBN # 0-87120-
313-8 (pbk)

Appendix:
1. Warm up Games
a. HASH- (Happy-Angry-Sad-Happy)
i. Sit in a circle and go through each emotion as you go through the circle. Creating a wave effect of emotion.
ii. Game is supposed to happen quickly and student are required to pay attention to those in front of them and those
behind them so that they might know what emotion they need to emulate.
b. Breathing Exercise
i. Start standing with eyes closed and concentrate on initial breaths. Have students spread out so that they can add
movement in their arms. As they breathe in get students to slowly bring both arms above their head. As they
exhale get students to slowly move their arms back to beginning posture.
ii. Next do a segment of short breaths so that students can feel the breath only in their chest. Get students to place
both hands on the chest to feel it fall and rise. Do 20 breaths
iii. Next, get students to place their hands on their stomachs. As they breathe in get students to concentrate on
filling the tire around their abdomen, ensuring that they do not breathe only in their chests. Chests should not
move as they did in the previous variation. IF students have a hard time feeling the movement in the abdomen,
get students to place hands on their kidneys to feel movement.
iv. Next have students to do a serious of loud breathing. Silent inhale, but as they exhale encourage students to get
the air all the way out. This may result in loud breathing.
c. Ways to Walk
i. Teacher calls out instructions for the way that the students are to walk around the room. Emphasizing that their
entire body must emulate that action, or word.
ii. Some words or ideas could be:
1. Walk like an elephant
2. Walk like a snake
3. Walk like your sick
4. Walk like you have been at sea for a long time
d. Pass the Posture
i. Have students sit in a circle or stand in a circle, making sure their shoulders are touching and that they have
contact with the person next to them so that they can feel even the slightest change in posture.
ii. You can have one person change the posture every time or take turns
iii. This warm up game requires the students to be really sensitive to the movement next to them.
e. Rainforest game
i. Requires students to listen to each other and consider the context.
 ii. Have students stand in a circle and one person calls out the context. Lets make the sounds you would here
______ it is in this blank that the individual would say, A rain forest, a city street, a library, a shopping mall, and
auto body shop, in the middle of the prairie etc.
iii. One at a time, have students make a sound that corresponds with this setting. Student maintain the sound or
action until everyone in the circle is making a sound at the same time.
f. Telephone story
i. Requires listening and adding to the story as it is passed along
ii. Have students sit or stand in a circle. One person starts the story and whispers it to the next person. The next
person does not change the previous sentence, but adds three words to the end of the sentence.
iii. As the story goes around the circle students have to LISTEN for what is coming to them.
iv. If the class is really large, break the circles into two that way it will help students remember the whole sentence
by the time it reaches the end of the circle.
g. Arms and legs count down from 10
i. Have students shake each hand, and foot one at a time, 10 times.
ii. Repeat but count down, so the next time would be 9, the next 8, so on until they get to 1.
h. Downward Dog/Up Ward dog
i. Have students stand with their feet a bit closer that shoulder width apart. Tell students to slowly bend over and
reach the floor with their hands. As their hands reach the floor, tell students to walk their hands forward on the
ground until they are making a tent with their body.
ii. The tent is call the downward dog. When in downward dog remind students to push their shoulders away from
their ears and to press their heels into the floor until they feel a pull in the back of their legs. Remind them to
breathe.
iii. Get students to lower their trunk to a flat position while they push their heads through the space where it is until
their chest is towards the sky. Legs and trunk should be off the floor with their toes making contact with the floor.
Get students to push back into down ward dog. Repeat. Reminding students to breathe.
i. Lion Face/ Lemon Face
i. Have students make a lion face.
ii. Have students make a face like they just ate a lemon.
iii. Repeat
j. Stretching (arms, legs, hips, back)
i. Arms
1. Shake arms to get blood flowing
2. Take one arm across your body and with the opposite arm pull the arm towards yourself. Repeat with the
other arms.
3. Get into partners and have one student put their arms behind them with their palms out. Partner will grab
their hands and pull the arms together until the other partner tells them to stop. Hold stretch for 30
seconds.
4. As you are let out of the stretch have the partner give some tension while the one with their arms back
pushes against the tension. Bit by bit have the one partner release their tension so that the one with their
arms back can return to normal standing.
ii. Legs
1. Lunges
2. Sit on the floor and bring feet together a you press knees and thighs to the floor
3. While standing, pull one knee into chest and pull foot off the floor. Repeat alternating legs
iii. Hips
1. Can opener have students lift one leg and make a 90 degree angle with their knee bent. With bent knee,
push hip outward, then return back to standing and do the other leg. Repeat 20 times each leg
2. Do the same motion but reverse. Start with knee out and bring it into the inside.
iv. Back
 1. Stand with your feet together. Grab your elbows with both hands. Slowly bend forward hanging your arms
where they hang. If need be, bend your knees slightly to get the full stretch. Stay in stretch for 30 seconds,
remembering to breathe.
2. Cat and cow- students on hands and knees. In Cat students arch their back pulling their abdomen into their
spine. Hold. In cow have students flex their back and bring their head up, drawing their chin toward the
ceiling. Hold, return to cat. So on. Repeat.
k. Vocal warm ups bitty, bitty, be
i. Enunciation exercise students sing a scale enunciating t and B can start high and go low, or start low and
go high.
l. Tongue twisters
i. She sells sea shells by the sea shore
ii. Timex wrist watch
iii. Sheena leads, Sheila needs
iv. How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?
m. Walk Around
i. Similar to (b) however students display different emotions without the use of words.
1. Happy
2. Sad
3. Mad
4. Ashamed
5. Nervous
6. Excited
n. Face stretches/ warm ups.
i. Start with having students massage their jaw and eye brow bones.
ii. Lip trills. Have students relax lips and blow air through them.
iii. Happy/Sad have students smile as big as they can and then have them make a sad face.
2. Handouts
a. Character Sketch handout
 Character Sketch
Name: _________________

Characters Info:
Name: _____________________
Age: _____________________
Home town: _________________
Occupation: _________________
Family Information: ___________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
Relationship Status: ___________
____________________________
Describe Physical Appearance:
Clothes: _____________________
____________________________
____________________________
Eye Color: ___________________
Height: _____________________
Weight: _____________________
Physical demeanor: ____________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
Characters Strengths:
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
Characters Weaknesses:
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
Characters fears:
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
Characters Conflict? Thought about it/ thoughts
about overcoming conflict.
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
Personal Life:
Sicknesses: _______________
Children: _________________
Old Relationships: ____________
___________________________
Responsibilities in the home:
___________________________
____________________________
____________________________
Religion or beliefs: ____________
____________________________
Political Preference: ____________
_____________________________
_____________________________
Physical abuse? ________________
_____________________________
______________________________
Mental health: __________________
______________________________
Hobbies/ Interests:
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________

b. Conflict Cards
i. Students receive a card with a type of conflict. Without out rightly saying what their conflict is students must
describe the surrounding events to their conflict. They must describe their feelings and/or thoughts. Others in the
class will guess what the conflict was.
ii. This is a good opportunity for students to see how conflict shapes ones perspective and circumstance.
iii. Students make up the surrounding circumstances for the conflict
Personal Intrapersonal Financial Living in a Political Divorce Car Crash- Roommate
Conflict Conflict conflict war zone Conflict You are at Conflict
fault

Conflict with Conflict in Moral Conflict Relational Religious Poverty Racism

nature traffic Conflict Conflict

c. Conflict Script
i. Recorder example
1. Tape Recorder Conflict https://www.teachervision.com/classroom-management/activity/2984.html
d. Different Emotions
1. Happy
2. Sad
3. Mad
4. Ashamed
5. Nervous
6. Excited

3. In-Class technology
a. YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt2PcwKHbxc

4. Evaluations
a. Personal Reflection

Personal Evaluation
Student Information
Name

Student Number

Date

Ratings
1 = Poor 2 = Fair 3 = Satisfactory 4 = Good 5 = Excellent

Research Quality- Do you show the teacher the

steps you took to get to the conclusions you
made about your character?

Comments

Character creation Does your character reflect

your research

Comments

Attendance/Punctuality
Class Participation
Communication/Listening Skills

Comments

Journal Entries Have you handed in your

journal complete with every response?

Overall Rating (average the rating numbers above)

Evaluation
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

GOALS FOR GROWTH AS A DRAMA

STUDENT

b. Rubric for Assignment

 Historical Character Assignment (Lesson 2)

Content Spoken as Content Written as Connections made in

Scor

Presentation
e

Character and Research Monologue

Is well thought out and
supports the assignment.
Reflects critical thinking
Has clear goal that is
related to the topic
4 Is accurate
Draws upon personal
experience and connections
Context is clear
Shows train of thought
Shows students consulted
minimum of 8 sources to
learn about the situation
surrounding their time period
and character
Connections are made to
research in final product
Monologue is focused in an Characterization is believable
organized and thoughtful
Monologue is memorized
manner that clearly
identifies the elements of Student is grounded in who they are
character Who, what,
when in character
where, when, why
Emotion, thoughts, motives, fear
Identifies the conflict of the
portrayed
character
Context is clear and is an element to
Historically accurate characterization
Personal connections
enhance the monologue

Is well thought out and
supports the assignment.
Reflects critical thinking
Has clear goal that is
related to the topic
3 Has minor personal bias
Draws upon personal
experience and connections
Context is clear
Shows train of thought
Shows students consulted
minimum of 6 sources to
learn about the situation
surrounding their time period
and character
Connections are made to
research in final product
Monologue is focused in an
organized and thoughtful
manner that identifies the
elements of character
Who, what, where, when,
why
Identifies the conflict of the
character
Historically accurate
Personal connections
enhance the monologue
Characterization is fairly believable
Makes 5 or less references to
Monologue
Student is grounded in who they are
when in character
Emotion, thoughts, motives, fear
portrayed
Context is clear and is an element to
characterization

Misses important aspects of
the purpose behind the
assignment
Reflects comprehension
thinking without the
exploration of critical
2 thinking
Context is unclear, but is
attempted
Good working ideas, but no
clarification of research
Shows student consulted 3
sources
Broad connections are made
Monologue is focused in an Characterization is attempted
organized and thoughtful
Makes multiple references to
manner that identifies some
monologue
of the elements of character
Who, what, where, when, Student falls out of character
why
Context is mentioned but not drawn
Identifies mention of the on.
characters conflict
Historically accurate
Personal connections
enhance the monologue
 Content Spoken as Content Written as Connections made in
Scor

e
Character and
Assignment does not reach
desired outcomes or goals.
Monologue is not reflective
of the character, but of the
student.
1 No connections are
No context, or historical
reference
Presentation
Research Monologue
No working ideas Monologue is unorganized Student reads from monologue
and there does not seem to
Consults 2 or less sources to No expression
be a main point
find information about time
There is no mention of Content is free of context and
period/ topic
elements of character conflict.
Zero historical reference Student is not willing to participate in
attempted
activity
Or personal connection
Weak characterization
Minimal effort

c. Assignment Handout

Drama Through History Assignment Handout

Through the study of Drama up until this point you have learned what is required in order to create a character
monologue. In this assignment you are being asked to research a time period in Canadian History. This time period might be
1885 or it could have taken place this year. Either way, in this assignment you will research this time period and the
conflicts going on during this time. Out of your research some perspectives may become more prominent than others. You
are being asked to create a character that could be indicative of this time period. You will create a character and a
monologue that will be performed in front of the class that identifies the character in their context and conflict. It is
important in this assignment that you are historically accurate and that you make connections as you to the people and the
time period you are studying. This is a creative assignment that gets you to interact with history in a way that will show you
that it is not as far removed from you as you think. You will be assessed on a rubric. You will be marked on: Content Spoken
as Character and Monologue, Content as Written Research, Connections Made in the Monologue, and Presentation.
As you research keep your thoughts and research available, because when you hand in your character sketch (which
you will receive at a later date) you will also be asked to hand in your research as well. The purpose of this assignment is
for you to interact with history to create a character.
 d. Journal questions
i. What time period do you want to research? Why?
ii. students thoughts on the importance of story and how individuals create and portray story on stage.
iii. what they found to be challenging or helpful in the last activity
iv. Conflict reflection- is this challenging? Why is conflict important? What conflict are you exploring in your research?
v. Is it hard to take risks? Why?
vi. What are you trying to accomplish in your character creation?
5. Research topics
a. Research/ topics
b. Completion of the Railway 1885
c. 1871- 1921 The Numbered Treaties
d. 1904 Canada sends athletes to the Olympics
e. 1918 Canadian Women get the right to vote
f. Prairie Women in the 1930s
g. 1939 Canada declares War on Nazi Germany
h. 1944 Canadians storm the beaches of Normandy helping in the victory
i. 1960s Sixties Scoop
j. 2005 Legalization of Same Sex Marriage
k. 2008 Stephen Harpers apology to aboriginals who suffered in Residential School system
l. 2016 Justin Trudeau Liberal Government Carbon Tax
m. 2016 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
n. 2016 Abortion Controversy
6. Resources
Pura, Talia. (2008). Stages: Creative ideas for creating drama. Winnipeg, MB: Shillingford Publishing