Grade 8 – Home task
Instructions
● Read the booklet carefully and answer all activities carefully
● If you are unable to print the booklet answer all activities on a
separate piece of paper
● If you have a drama note book you can write your answers in
it
● This will count as a assessment for either term 2 or 3. So I
want you to do it to the best of your ability. It will be due,
more or less, when we get back to school. Once we are back
at school I will send a message out to the registration
teachers, giving them a final date to give to you.
This will be marked ‘out of 100’ (100%).
Good luck and enjoy!
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Grade 8 – Home task
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A story is the telling of an event, either true or fictional, in such a way that the listener
experiences or learns something just by the fact that he heard the story. A story is a means of
transferring information, experience, attitude or point of view. Every story has a teller and a
listener.
There are many reasons why we might tell stories:
To entertain
To tell about our cultural history
To tell about our family history
To teach moral lessons
To explain how real things come to be – things that are hard to understand.
We categorise stories into different genre:
Myths
Legends
Folk tales
Fables
Fairy tales
Myths are fantasy stories that explain a real phenomenon that exists in the
world.
Like:
How day and night came to be
How the echo came to be
How the seasons came to be
These phenomena have scientific explanations, but those are too difficult for children to
understand and also, long long ago, these explanations had not yet been discovered. As
people we try to understand the world around us – think about when we listen to a song we
like, the way we try to imagine the story behind that song. Who has done what to whom,
what has happened?
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Legends are stories about important historical people, so the story has a
kernel of truth but over time it has been exaggerated and changed and the
person made more and more heroic.
Like
Robin Hood – there really was a Sir Robin of Locksley; King Richard had gone away
on the Crusades; Prince John did try to usurp the crown. He taxed the people mercilessly and
treated them cruelly. Sir Robin did steal from Prince John and give back to the community.
But fiction has grown up around it, so that it eventually is closer to a fairy-tale than a true
story.
Folktales are completely fictitious stories using people as characters in
situations to teach moral lessons.
Lessons like:
The 12 Dancing Princesses
Don't be disobedient
Jack and the Beanstalk
Don't be greedy
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Fables are completely fictitious stories using animals with human
characteristics as characters in situations to teach moral lessons.
Aesop's Fables: The Lion and the Mouse
Don't be proud
Fairytales are fictitious stories designed to perpetuate the current social
standards and expectations.
Cinderella - girls who are beautiful and meek, who do what they are told and work hard
will find a nice husband who will take care of them. Girls must not go out seeking their own
adventures, or trying to change or improve their lives because their rewards will only come if
they are passive and quiet and good.
Note: These genres are guidelines, there are often overlaps in these categories,
for example we may be uncertain whether a hero of an Ancient Greek Myth
actually existed;
and within a Legend we might be taught a moral lesson.
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When stories are told, we usually have 1 NARRATOR. This person tells us the
context and the content of the story.
Context means where and when the story takes place
Once upon a time, a long long time ago, there lived, in a kingdom far
away….
As well as the passage of time in the story
The kingdom was plagued with this problem for twenty years before help
arrived.
The narrator can be telling us their own story
It was in the autumn of 2020 that the Covid-19 virus swept through our
country, forcing us into an international lockdown. I was made to stay in my
home with my grumpy sister and the smelly dog. It was very difficult.
The narrator can be telling us someone else’s story
It was in the autumn of 2020 that the Covid-19 virus swept through the
country, forcing them into an international lockdown. Zama was made to stay in
her home with her grumpy sister and the smelly dog. It was very difficult.
When we change the story from the format of reading or telling to performing,
we can’t have the narrator anymore. We have to learn the context and the
passage of time through the action and the dialogue.
Example
Story Avukile gave birth to a healthy baby boy who grew, over the next 20 years, into
a handsome and accomplished young man. His parents were very proud of him.
Play Avukile:
born.
Sampson:
prouder.
I can’t believe it has been 20 years since our perfect baby boy was
He really has grown into a handsome young man. I couldn’t be
Story When her son didn’t arrive home by his curfew, Avukile began to worry. She
paced up and down the room wringing her hands and murmuring a prayer over
and over.
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Sampson was impatient. He was angry that their son, who is usually so well
behaved, had disobeyed them.
Play Avukile:
pacing up and down the room, wringing her hands murmuring a
prayer over and over Where could he be, Sampson? This isn’t like
him. What if something has happened to him? He could be lying in
a ditch somewhere, hurt, or even…. dead!
Sampson: harshly Sit down, Avukile! Really. I've had enough of this. If he
doesn’t get home soon he will wish he was dead!
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Own Script
For this activity you are required to choose a favourite STORY, after choosing your favourite
story you have to create a script for your story. The script has to be 3 - 4 pages, please look at
the example given in the previous page if you do not have an idea of what is a script. You may
choose to use an existing story, but you are required to change it. You can create a different
beginning or ending it up to you. This is your chance to use your imagination and be creative.
Please note: When you are choosing your story to change into a script, you may not choose a
movie or a novel. You may not have a narrator! Your story must fit into one of the categories
discussed above. At the end of your script you must say in what category this story is, and
explain how it fits the category. Also, you must write down what we learn from the story.
(50 Marks)
Costume
Now that you have finished your script, you get a chance to become a costume designer. For
this activity you are required to create costumes for TWO characters in your story. After
designing your costume include a justify for your costume choice for each character. Use the
template on the next page to guide you.
Design - 10 marks x 2 = 20
Justification - 15 marks x 2 = 30
(50 Marks)
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Justification:________________________________________________________________
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