Devising/Projects & Assessments

Journal of Ideas

• Project – To help students identify source material for creating dramatic work, have them keep a journal of ideas, situations, people, events, etc. that could be used for devising.  If necessary, provide prompts to guide the students’ writings such as, “Identify something you have seen today that could be further explored for developing material.  Why would this be worth dramatizing?  What techniques would you use to create material?”  This journal is intended to enhance student understanding of the development process and encourage them to readily identify sources of dramatic potential.  It could be used as bell work writing at the beginning of class or to reflect at the end of an activity or lesson.
• Assessment – Bi-weekly checks to make sure students are writing useful and thorough entries.

“I Am” Poems

• Project – “I Am” poems provide a list of prompts to help students write a poem that describes themselves.  A Google search of “I Am Poem” will return a number of templates.  For this project, have the students write their poems knowing that they will share what they have written with the class.  In small groups, students can create performance pieces based on one of or all of the poems.  These performances can include choral reading techniques, music, movement, props, etc.  They can be expanded into full scenes or monologues for more substantial devising work.  The groups will share their performance pieces with the class.
• Assessment – Final performance piece.

Alien Culture Improvisations

• Project – After discussing and learning about culture and how people belong to a culture (or several cultures), divide the students into groups to create their own cultures.  Give the students guidelines to follow, for example: they must include a tradition, dance, way of eating, language, dress and so on.  Encourage the students to be as creative and as “out of the box” as possible.  Then have the groups share and introduce their culture to the class.
• Assessment – Presentation of alien culture.

Newspaper Theatre

• Project – Have the students bring in articles that relate to a topic they have chosen to explore.  In small groups, have each group use one or several articles to create a short piece to share with the class.  The performance piece could use tableaux, movement, reading of the article, choral speak, improv of an event in the article, etc.  It is helpful to choose 3-5 theatre/devising techniques that the students are familiar with in development of the performance pieces.
• Assessment – Relevant articles and final performance piece.

Classroom Issues Drama

• Project – Brainstorm a list of issues that are important to the students.  After researching more on each of the topics as a class, narrow the list down to one key idea or theme.  Use a variety of drama structures to begin exploring the theme.  Depending on the work you develop, you will need to create an overseeing structure for the emerging piece and then flesh out material as necessary.  This performance piece may always seem like a work in progress so it is important to set and adhere to production deadlines.  Tour the devised performance to other classes in the school to open up more conversation on the chosen theme.
• Assessment – Development of final performance piece.  (It is also necessary to assess for continuity of the chosen theme within the performance throughout the process.)

Community Stories

• Project – To strengthen community relationships and give students a new understanding of their neighborhoods, identify an establishment, a current or historical event or person that has become a solid part of the community.  Ask the students to research the stories and people affiliated with this organization.  Record the stories and dialogue with transcripts and/or recording devices.  As a class, dramatize the stories, working from the original text.  Use dialogue, monologues, movement, etc. to create an original piece of work that has ties to the community.
• Assessment – Development of final performance piece. (It is also necessary to assess for continuity within the performance and adherence to the community story throughout the process.)