Marie L.

Bell
Cohort 23
GARED 5009 N9054 Drama and Critical Literacy
Instructor Helen Theodosiou
Drama Lesson Plan
October 2, 2009

Classroom Demographics:
• Grade 8
• Ages 12-15
• 16 students
• Individual Concerns: EH & autistic students

The Unit Being Enhanced by Drama:

My drama lessons are meant to enhance a written and oral communication unit.
In this unit, the students create personal totems containing symbols that show
who they are and what is important to them. Next they write an expository essay
explaining how the symbols on their totem represent them as a person. Finally,
they practice their public speaking skills by presenting their totem to the class.
The drama activities are meant to help enhance their public speaking skills.

Aims & Objectives of the Drama Lessons:

• to follow verbal instructions
• to learn simple strategies to relax their bodies
• to make them more comfortable being & speaking in front of a group
• to practice public speaking strategies such as eye contact, posture,
volume/voice projection, and expression
• treating the speaker with respect

(Although they are not present in these drama lessons, we also work on
speech rate and having the speaker treat the audience with respect.)
Lesson One: Treating the Speaker with Respect

Simon Says

• Sit like you’re really bored.

• Behave in a quiet way that shows you’re not paying attention.
• Behave in a loud way that shows you’re not paying attention.
• Show the speaker you loved her presentation.
• Try different ways to distract the speaker.
• Sit like you’re really interested.
• Show the speaker you didn’t like her presentation.

For fun, interject other commands that Simon does not say. For ex., Sit up
straight; clap your hands; blink really fast; swat at an invisible fly, etc . . .

Afterwards, have the students write a John Collins Type 1 response to these
prompts:

• What body language did you see that showed people were really bored?
• What quiet and loud behaviors did you see that showed people were not
paying attention?
• What did people do to distract the speaker?
• How do you think these behaviors make a speaker feel?
• What behaviors did you see that showed people were really interested
and appreciative?
• How do you think these behaviors make a speaker feel?

Share these responses aloud, and together as a class come up with a list of
etiquette for audience behavior, what we will agree to do to show that we are
paying respectful attention. Hopefully, they will come up with things like the
following:
• looking at the speaker
• listening to the speaker
• applauding/celebrating the speaker

Post these rules in a visible place in the classroom.

Lesson Two: Simple Relaxation

These relaxation activities are from the following:

Cassady, M. (1993). Acting games: Improvisations and exercises. Colorado

Springs: Meriwether Publishing.

• Stand with your legs 15-18 inches apart. Now reach straight up,
stretching your arms as far as you can toward the sun. If you can’t reach
it, stand on tiptoes and use all your strength to stretch further. Then drop
your feet flat on the floor and let your body sag forward, bending at the
waist. (p. 10)
• Imagine your arms are ropes, uncoiled at the ends to form your fingers.
Let them hang loose at you sides and then shake them. As you do, allow
any tension you feel in your shoulders and neck to flow down your arms
and through your wrists to the ends of your fingers. Shake away the
tension. (p. 10)
• Standing with your legs apart, let you head hang down, your chin on your
chest. Now roll your head the entire way around, first to the right and then
to the left. (p. 10)
• Stand with your legs apart. Hunch up your shoulders and then move them
forward and around in a shoulder roll. Repeat this. Then reverse the
direction. (p. 10)
 • Imagine that you are a balloon slowly filling with air as you breathe in.
Take in more air and more and more until you fill your classroom, your
town or city, your county, your state, your country, stretching up, feeling
and imagining yourself growing bigger and bigger. Along the way look
down at the countryside far below. Once you have touched the moon, let
your breath out slowly, shrinking, shrinking, shrinking till you fill your city,
your classroom, your body. (p. 15)

Lesson Three: Eye Contact

Next the students fill out a Public Speaking Discussion Guide that has the
following categories:

• Why do many people feel nervous about public speaking? In other words,
what physiological changes occur when someone’s nervous that might
embarrass them, and/or what are they afraid might happen? List 5
answers.
• List three public speaking experiences you have had. Next to each one,
put a plus if it was a positive experience, a check if it was an okay
experience, and a minus if it was a negative experience.
• For each category below, list at least one time in which you might need to
public speak: one happy occasion, one sad occasion, and one work-
related occasion.
• Which jobs require a lot of public speaking? List at least 5.
• Talk to your parents. Other than when they were in school, when have
they had to speak in front of a group? List their answers and have them
sign the sheet.

Before sharing their responses to the discussion guide, the students do the
relaxation warm up and play Point, Nod, and Walk. This non-verbal activity is
meant to get them to follow verbal instructions, to work together, to make eye
contact, and get used to being looked at by the group.

Point, Nod, and Walk

http://www.geocities.com/shalyndria13/warmups.htm

Have the students stand in a circle so that they can make eye contact with
everyone. Do not talk during this warm-up. Point to someone. When they
acknowledge you with a nod, you may walk to their place. The individual that
nodded to you must point to someone else and receive a nod before they can
move. Adjust your pace so you get to the place after it has been vacated rather
than while the individual that nodded to you is still there.

After this activity, the students sit in a circle and share their responses to the
Public Speaking Discussion Guide, making a point to make eye contact with at
least 3 members of the group when they share a response. The group also
should be practicing their agreed upon audience etiquette.

Lesson Four: Volume Projection

Before their next public speaking practice, the students have one volume activity
and one more eye contact activity.

Bean Bag
http://www.pacificsites.net/~kidsplay/free.htm

This exercise demonstrates to the students how important it is to project their

voices.

First do the relaxation warm up.

Place three bean bags in front of a row of students—one close to them, one in
the middle of the room, and one at the back of the room.

1. Look directly at the first bean bag. Say your name and the name of your
favorite animal. Say it so that just the first bean bag can hear you.
2. Say the exact same things so that the second bean bag can hear you.
3. Say the exact same things so that the third bean bag can hear you.
4. After all the class has addressed the bean bags, let them know they were
really acting in a play and projecting to the first three rows, the middle
rows, and the back rows of the theatre.

The students play Zing Zang. This, too, is to practice focus, following
instructions, and making eye contact.

Zing Zang
http://www.geocities.com/shalyndria13/warmups.htm

If this is not done directly after Bean Bag, do the relaxation warm up.

The entire group stands in a circle. One person begins by making eye contact
and clapping their hands toward someone else in the circle and saying "Zing!”
That person continues the game by looking at someone else, clapping, and
saying "Zang!" Continue this until everyone has been zinged or zanged.

Advanced playing rules: Cut out the vocal "Zing" and "Zang" and use only your
eyes and the clap to pass the focus.

After playing Zing Zang, the students do a public speaking practice called Formal
Introductions in which they stand by their desk, introduce themselves, and
introduce a classmate. For this exercise, a script is posted on the opposite wall
that they can follow if they feel the need.
For example: “Good morning/Hello/Good afternoon/Greetings and salutations! I
am _____, and I am here to introduce/happy to introduce, honored to
introduce/delighted to introduce my friend/my classmate/my fellow scholar/my
teacher, _____.” They then wait for that student to rise, look them in the eye,
and shake their hand before being seated.

They need to focus on making eye contact with the class and projecting their
voice. The class also should be practicing their agreed upon audience member
etiquette.

Lesson Five: Expression

This activity is meant to help students not to speak in a monotone voice when
they are speaking to their audience. You may start this in pairs and then move to
a larger group.

Do the relaxation warm up.

JELL-O Box
http://www.geocities.com/shalyndria13/warmups.htm

Get a JELL-O box. Turn it over to the back. Have students read the directions
according to the emotion card that they have drawn, such as bored, confused,
happy, angry, scared, etc . . .

After this activity, the students transition to a public speaking exercise called
Knock-Knock Jokes. The students draw a card with a knock-knock joke, keeping
it a secret from the rest of the class. They privately rehearse the joke, doing their
best to say it with expression. They come to the front of the class. Then they
introduce themselves, state their purpose in speaking, and tell the joke, with the
audience responding. The speaker closes the speech and thanks the audience.
They do their best to make eye contact, project to the whole class, and speak
with expression, and the audience does its best according to the agreed upon
etiquette.

Generic Dialogue

http://www.geocities.com/jp_collier/dialogues.htm

This is another exercise in expression and projection, and it’s an exercise in

working together.

Do the relaxation warm up.

Place the students in pairs. Have them choose who will be A and who will be B.
Have them practice reading the dialogues with different attitudes, noting how the
meaning changes with the inflection. Have them choose the attitudes they like
best and share their reading with the class, practicing eye contact, projection,
and expression.

Scene 1

A: Hi.
B: Hello.
A: What'd you do last night?
B: Oh, not much. How about you?
A: Just watched a little t.v.
B: Anything good?
A: Well, no. Not really.
B: See you later.
Scene 2

A: You're late.
B: I know. I couldn't help it.
A: I understand.
B: I knew you would.
A: I have something to give you.
B: Oh, really?
A: Yes, this.

Scene 3

A: Did you get it?

B: Yes, I've got it right here.
A: Did you tell anyone?
B: No.
A: Was it difficult?
B: I haven't had time to think about it.
A: How could you think of anything else?
B: I've had other things on my mind.
A: Well, now you've got it.
B: Yes, and now it's mine.

The students then transition to another public speaking practice called Fortune
Telling. The students draw the name of another student in the room, and they
draw a slip from a bag of fortunes. They come to the front of the room, introduce
themselves, state their purpose, and tell that student their fortune. The student
whose fortune was told comes to the front of the room, shakes the speaker’s
hand, and then continues the process with another student. All students should
practice making eye contact, projecting their voice, and speaking with
expression, as well as following their audience member etiquette.
Lesson Six: Posture

Before their next public speaking practice, the students do an activity to work on
maintaining a relaxed and confident posture when speaking to the group.

Circle Walk

http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/16133.aspx

Do the relaxation warm-up.

The Circle Walk is comprised of a series of activities performed while walking in a

circle. Instruct the students to walk slowly, keep the space between each other,
and keep the circle big.

Let them get started, and after a short time begin calling out directions. Allow the
students time to get used to each movement before calling out the next direction.

* Walk on your toes!

* Walk on your heels!

* Walk on the outer edges of your feet!

* Walk on the inner edges of your feet!

* Walk with regular feet!

* March, bringing your knees up high!

Add your own creative ideas to this section.

When the students are moving at a consistent pace, announce that they are
marionettes. There is a string on the very top of their heads. The puppeteer is
pulling up on it. Here, you should see straightened postures and possibly even
people on their toes. (You can tell them that the puppeteer is just pulling tight
enough to keep their posture straight, but not on their toes.) Now have some fun
with these directions, and any more you may think of:

* The string is attached to your nose.

* The string is attached to your chin.

* The string is attached to your belly button.

* The string is attached to your left elbow.

* The string is attached to your right knee.

* The string is between your shoulder blades.

* The string is back at the top of your head; the strings on your arms have been

cut and you can relax them naturally.

When they speak, they need to imagine that string at the top of their head pulling
them up into a straight and confident posture.

The students transition to a public speaking practice called Impromptu Favorites.

Each receives a card with a favorite on it: favorite color, favorite food, favorite
day of the week, etc . . . They have a short amount of time to decide upon their
favorite and write down three reasons to support it before coming to the front of
the class to present. They need to introduce themselves, state their purpose in
speaking, name their favorite thing, offer 3 reasons for why it’s their favorite, and
close their speech. They need to concentrate on their posture, as well as their
eye contact, voice projection, and expression. The audience needs to focus on
their etiquette.

(This is the first time that their topic is not known ahead of time and they do not
all have the same topic, causing them to have to think more on their feet.)
Do the relaxation warm up.

The students have a final public speaking practice in which to incorporate eye
contact, projection, expression, posture, and audience etiquette. It’s called Take
a Stand. Each student receives a card with a debate prompt on it. They have a
short amount of time to decide if they are pro or con and to write down at least
three reasons of support. They some to the front of the room, introduce
themselves, state their purpose in speaking, read their debate question, and offer
their reasons for support. They next take questions and comments from the
audience before closing their speech.

Now they are ready to prepare for their totem presentation.

Public Speaking Exercise Name _____________

Simon Says Date _____________

Type 1 Response Class _____________

• What body language did you see that showed people were
really bored?

• What quiet and loud behaviors did you see that showed people
were not paying attention?

• What did people do to distract the speaker?

• How do you think these behaviors make a speaker feel?

• What behaviors did you see that showed people were really
interested and appreciative?

• How do you think these behaviors make a speaker feel?