Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
DRAMA CURRICULUM for MYP YEAR 1 (grade level 7)
Significant
Concept
First
semester
Rudiments:
Introduction
To Drama and
Theatre
Content
Drama :
Defining drama; establishing
the nature of a dramatic situation ; basic terminology; timeline history of drama and
theatre; exploring the prehistoric period (origins, purpose
of theatre); introducing basic
creative drama skills and
techniques (pantomime, improvisation, tableaux, frozen
statues etc.); the idea of space
in drama;
Theatre:
Parts of the theatre (theatre
structure in the history, terminology ); parts of the stage
(terminology); the idea of
space on the stage ; types of
stage organization;
Approaches to
Learning
Individual research
Cooperation
Organization
Information literacy
Thinking
Reflection
Area of
Interaction
Human
ingenuity
Environments
MYP Question
1. What is the difference
between drama and theater?
2. How does the stage
affect the production?
3. What can the prehistory
of theatre tell me about
the world?
4. What are the types of
theatre structure and how
did they evolve?
Assessment
Research :
prehistory of theatre (concerning the origins, purpose) – individual and
group work; (Crit.A)
Test of Knowledge:
test of basic information
about the prehistory of
theatre (Crit A)
Theatre skills:
short scene with the use of
improvisation and pantomime ‘The Invention of
Fire’ (team work: planning
in the DW) (Crit B)
Developmental workbook
(DW):
short critical writing assignment; self and peer
evaluation of the team and
individual input; (Crit C,
D)
Interdisciplinary
Links
History (stone age)
English (building up
vocabulary)
Visual Arts (project,
exhibition)
Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
Significant
Concept
Second
semester
Greek Theatre
Content
Drama: timeline overview;
Greek idea of drama and the
dramatic text; origins of
tragedy and comedy and
their purpose; 3 unities
(time, space, action); Greek
costumes, props, masks,
shoes; Greek idea of acting
(Greek convention); the
structure of a play (Aristotelian structure; terminology);
Greek playwrights and their
impact upon drama; Theatre: types of stage; structure
and built of the Greek stage
(visual art project); famous
amphitheatres (art exhibition
of photography or drawings); skills: introducing
movement and voice projection basics (breathing);
script writing and performance of a Greek tragedy
(Aristotelian convention)
about Eratosthenes and the
way he measured the Earth
(as a part of a bigger thematic interdisciplinary project
with Maths and History,
titled:
Are we the cultural and
scientific successors of the
Ancient civilisations?
Approaches to
Learning
Individual research
Cooperation
Information literacy
Transfer
Communication
Team work
Self and peer evaluation
Area of
Interaction
Human
Ingenuity
Environments
Community and
service
MYP Question
Assessment
1. What is the nature of the
Aristotelian structure of the
play?
2. Where are the most
famous amphitheatres?
3. What are the main
sources of themes of the
Greek dramatic texts?
4. How do we project our
voice on the stage?
5. What is the nature of the
Greek concept of the
stage?
6. How to make use of
popular fairy tales for
Greek tragedy?
7. What is the nature of the
dramatic conflict?
8. Who was Eratosthenes
and what did he do?
9. What do we know about
the Alexandrian Library?
Research: Greek theatre,
stage, tragedy/comedy
structure, playwrights,
mythology – individual
and group work (Crit A,
D)
Test of Knowledge:
a. structure of the stage,
b. structure of the play,
c. playwrights (Crit A)
Theatre skills: as an
interim process – staging
of a short play ‘Flight of
Icarus’ ; ‘Fairy tale in
Aristotelian Mode’ –
writing script and staging
of a 8 minute performance; (Crit D,A)
Critical reading: annotated reading and discussing of the excerpts of
‘Antigone’ (Crit. A,C)
Developmental workbook:
planning for staging of the
Eratosthenes tragedy;
reflection and evaluation
of the collaborative artistic process (short paragraph); creative writing:
planning and writing a
script of Greek tragedy
‘Fairy Tale in Aristotelian
mode’ (Crit A,B,C,D)
Interdisciplinary
Links
History (Ancient
times; Alexandrian
Library)
English (building up
vocabulary)
Visual Arts (Greek
Stage project; Greek
architecture; amphitheatre exhibition)
Geography (Greek
cities; climate of
Greece)
Polish (‘Antigone’)
Maths (great Greek
mathematician and the
way he measured the
Earth)
Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
DRAMA CURRICULUM for MYP YEAR 2 (grade level 8)
Significant
Concept
First
semester
Theatre in
the Middle
Ages –
theoretical
aspect
Content
Drama: timeline overview (with
a drop of history); medieval liturgical drama;
genres in medieval drama (the 3
M’s: miracle, mystery and morality plays; discussion of themes
and motifs) medieval playwrights
and medieval texts (reading excerpts of Dutch
‘Everyman’ – critical writing;
reading a critical writing about
the play);
Theatre: types of stage (portable
and fixed), costumes and production; Skills:
non-verbal communication
(introduction to pantomime; object transformation; exercises on
imagination, creativity ); creating
a plot (contemporary morality
play); dramatic structure (recognizing and utilizing elements of
dramatic structure: theme, dramatic question, exposition, inciting moment, rising and falling
action, crisis, climax)
Approaches to
Learning
Individual research
Communication
Thinking
Evaluation
Team work
Area of
Interaction
Human
ingenuity
Environments
Community and
service
Health and
Social education
MYP Question
Assessment
1. What are the 3 M’s and
what are the major differences between them?
2. How do structure a
play?
3. How was the medieval
stage different from the
Greek one?
4.How to write a plot of a
contemporary morality
play?
5. What is the nature of the
object transformation exercise and how is it useful in
staging of a play?
6. What do we learn about
the morality play from
reading excerpts of ‘Everyman’?
Research:
medieval theatre, its origins, purpose and theatrical
principles, genres, playwrights – individual or
group work (Crit. A, D);
Test of knowledge:
genres, playwrights, stage
types (Crit. A);
Theatre skills:
improvisation and object
transformation, elements of
pantomime, writing a plot
with use of the principles of
dramatic structure (Crit A,
B,D)
Critical reading:
annotated reading of some
excerpts of a morality play
‘Everyman’ (Crit. A,C);
Developmental workbook:
evidence of research; creative writing: designing a
contemporary morality
play; evaluation and reflection upon the collaborative
artistic process; critical
writing: on the purpose of
morality play in the middle
ages and now (Crit.
A,B,C,D);
Interdisciplinary
Links
History (Middle Ages)
Visual Arts (medieval
art and architecture)
English (terminology)
Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
Significant
Concept
Second
semester
Theatre in the
Middle Ages –
practical aspect
Content
Drama: more detailed study
of medieval playwrights and
medieval texts (reading excerpts of one of the versions of
Dutch ‘Everyman’ – critical
writing; reading a critical
writing about the play);
Theatre: creating a plot (contemporary morality play);
creative adaptation of an original dramatic text of the morality play ‘Everyman’
;dramatic structure (recognizing and utilizing elements of
dramatic structure: theme,
dramatic question, exposition,
inciting moment, rising and
falling action, crisis, climax –
practical application of the
mentioned points in order to
create their own script for
further theatrical usage and
exploitation); Drama skills:
practiced during weekly rehearsals for the presentation of
the morality play ‘Everyman’
(drama exercises : voice projection, clarity, stance, movement);
Approaches to
Learning
Individual research
Communication
Thinking
Evaluation
Team work
Area of
Interaction
Human
ingenuity
MYP Question
Assessment
1. How to structure a play?
2. How to write a plot of a
contemporary morality
play?
3. What do we learn about
the morality play from
reading excerpts of ‘Everyman’?
4. How does creative approach to a medieval texts
enrich us and develop our
sense of fairness and honesty in life?
Research:
medieval theatre as represented by the text of the
morality play ‘Everyman’
(Crit. A, D);
Test of knowledge:
knowledge about the text of
‘Everyman’ (Crit. A);
Theatre skills:
improvisation elements of
pantomime, writing a plot
with use of the principles of
dramatic structure (Crit A,
B,D)
Critical reading:
annotated reading of some
excerpts of a morality play
‘Everyman’ (Crit. A,C);
Developmental workbook:
evidence of research; creative writing: designing a
contemporary morality
play; sketches of the characters, their costumes and
make up, evaluation and
reflection upon the collaborative artistic process; critical writing: creating a fully
stage-directed script of the
‘new’ ‘Everyman’ (Crit.
A,B,C,D);
Interdisciplinary
Links
History (Middle Ages)
Visual Arts (medieval
art and architecture)
English (terminology)
The second semester is fully devoted to preparation of a short 15 minute play titled ‘Everyman’ which is supposed to be a creative version of the traditional medieval morality play under the same title.
Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
DRAMA CURRICULUM for MYP YEAR 3 (grade level 9)
Significant
Concept
First
semester
Introducing
The Era of
Shakespeare
Content
Drama: timeline overview of the
period of Renaissance : 4 presentations about the period:
1.Renaissance in Europe – philosophical trends – great philosophers, thinkers, artists, writers; the
origins if the literary genres; theatre and stage;
2.Renaissance in England – he two
important reigns: Henry VIII (6
marriages and creation of the
Church of England – English
reformation) and Elizabeth I (the
secrets of highs and lows of the
Virgin Queen and her political and
military success;)
3.Elizabethan England – life in the
Elizabethan era in a magnifying
glass; architecture, lifestyle, social
conduct, fashion, education, entertainment , life in Elizabethan London;etc;
4.William Shakespeare and his
genius – literary output and the
Globe theatre;
Approaches to
Learning
Area of
Interaction
Individual research
Human
ingenuity
Cooperation
Environments
Information
literacy
Community
and service
Transfer
Communication
Team work
Self and peer evaluation
MYP Question
Assessment
1. What is the metrical
foot?
2. What is an iamb?
3. How do we establish the
rhythm to Shakespeare’s
lines?
4. How to read Shakespeare’s sonnets?
5. What were the words that
Shakespeare introduced
into English language?
6. What are the Necessary
prerequisites to writing a
scene script?
7. How is Shakespeare’s
love imagery different form
the contemporary picture of
love as presented in pop
and hip-hop music?
8. Is Shakespeare and his
literary output still relevant
in the teenage world?
Test of knowledge:
rhythm analysis of a chosen sonnet; (Crit. A);
Theatre skills:
body language, facial
expression, gestures,
pantomime (Crit A, B, D)
Creative writing:
writing a sonnet maintaining the rhythmical foot
and rhyme scheme ; writing a script for short scene
based on Shakespeare’s
linguistic input; writing a
love song as a combination of hip-hop lyrics and
words/lines from sonnets
and play excerpts (Crit.
A,C,D);
Developmental workbook:
evidence of research;
evaluation and reflection
upon the collaborative
artistic process; critical
essay: on the relevance of
Shakespeare in the contemporary artistic,
poetic reality (Crit. A, B,
C, D);
Interdisciplinary
Links
English (exploring
vocabulary, meanings
and their change, word
building, word etymology, reading literature in English – analyzing and making use
of poetic genre, sonnet)
Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
Significant
Concept
Second
semester
Discovering
The Shakespeare’s relevance
Content
1. Teaching iambic pentameter – “I
am a pirate with a wooden leg’ – the
technical aspect; exploring and mastering the iambic pentameter by
means of Sonnets (critical reading);
Contemporary Shakespeare: rapping
the sonnets; creative writing – composing the sonnet making use of iambic pentameter, rhyme scheme;
2. Exploring Shakespeare’s linguistic input – discovering words invented and introduced by Shakespeare
(based on sonnets and excerpts from
Romeo and Juliet ) – making use of
pantomime and body language to
guess the words or their meanings;
Contemporary Shakespeare; creative
writing: preparing a script of a short
scene upon one of the hot teenage
issues making use of the traditional
words of Shakespeare;
3. Shakespeare and love imagery –
exploring love reference and imagery
(Sonnets and excerpts from Romeo
and Juliet ; Contemporary Shakespeare: ‘Found be the Food of Love’
– juxtaposing the love imagery that of
Shakespeare with the one presented
in hip hop songs – writing the found
poetry using a line of hip hop and a
line of Shakespeare – demystifying
Shakespeare’s language;
Approaches to
Learning
Area of
Interaction
Communication
Human ingenuity
Thinking
Environments
Evaluation
Health and Social
education
Creation
Team work
MYP Question
Assessment
1. What is the metrical
foot?
2. What is an iamb?
3. How do we establish
the rhythm to Shakespeare’s lines?
4. How to read Shakespeare’s sonnets?
5. What were the words
that Shakespeare introduced into English language?
6. What are the necessary prerequisites to
writing a scene script?
7. How is Shakespeare’s
love imagery different
form the contemporary
picture of love as presented in pop and hiphop music?
8. Is Shakespeare and his
literary output still relevant in the teenage
world?
Test of knowledge:
rhythm analysis of a chosen
sonnet; (Crit. A);
Theatre skills: body language, facial expression,
gestures, pantomime (Crit
A, B,D)
Creative writing: writing a
sonnet maintaining the
rhythmical foot and rhyme
scheme ; writing a script
for short scene based on
Shakespeare’s linguistic
input; writing a love song
as a combination of hiphop
lyrics and words/lines from
sonnets and play excerpts
(Crit. A,C,D);
Developmental workbook: evidence of research;
evaluation and reflection
upon the collaborative
artistic process; critical
essay: on the relevance of
Shakespeare in the contemporary artistic,
poetic reality (Crit. A, B, C,
D);
Interdisciplinary
Links
English (exploring
vocabulary, meanings
and their change, word
building, word etymology, reading literature
in English – analyzing
and making use of
poetic genre, sonnet)
Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
DRAMA CURRICULUM for MYP YEAR 4 (grade level 10)
Significant
Concept
First
semester
Introducing
‘Romeo and
Juliet’
Content
1. Shakespeare and love imagery – exploring love reference and
imagery (Sonnets and excerpts
from Romeo and Juliet ; Contemporary Shakespeare: ‘Found be
the Food of Love’ – juxtaposing
the love imagery that of Shakespeare with the one presented in
hip hop songs – writing the found
poetry using a line of hip hop and
a line of Shakespeare – demystifying
Shakespeare’s language;
2. Feud for Thought – using
space and dramatic skills to explore the possible reasons of the
conflict between Montagues and
Capulets that creates the ominous
tension of the play – drama exercise : fight of two opposing
groups;
3. Tragic Love – power-point
presentation to Romeo and Juliet
- Setting and character list
- Synopsis of the play
- Why do we read this play today?
How does it connect to the lives
of teenagers of today?
- Tragic love – definition
- Tragedy – principles; contemporary tragedies
4. A contemporary representation of the play – a film by Buz
Luhrmann Romeo and Juliet (a
complete film watching) – ex-
Approaches to
Learning
Communication
Thinking
Evaluation
Creation
Team work
Communication
Thinking
Evaluation
Creation
Team work
Area of
Interaction
Human
ingenuity
Environments
Community
and service
MYP Question
Assessment
1. How is the tension in the
Play created?
2. Who are the main characters in the lay and what
is their relationship?
3. What is the definition of
tragic love as presented by
the play?
4. Why has R and J retained its topicality and is
read by teenagers?
5. How does Buzz Luhrmann alters the original
story?
6.W hat ploys does he use
to make the representation
of R and J more accessible
to teenage audience?
7. What are the principles
of a tragedy?
Research: reading critical
essays on the play and on
the film and comparing
them (Crit A, B and D);
Test of knowledge: quiz
on the synopsis and events
in the story; worksheets
upon the film (Crit A, B)
Creative writing; preparing a script based on the
film for a contemporary
theatre version of R and J;
(Crit A, B and D)
Developmental workbook: reflection upon each
single small step in script
writing; planning for the
rehearsals;
Interdisciplinary
Links
English (the development of language)
Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
Significant
Concept
Content
ploring the nature of topicality of
the issues of the play; assessing
the scope of contemporariness of
Luhrmann’s representation ; active comparison of the original
and the film – what makes the
film more accessible to teenagers?
Juxtaposition of current means
with the genuine Shakespeare’s
poetry in the film;
Approaches to
Learning
Area of
Interaction
MYP Question
Assessment
Interdisciplinary
Links
Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
Significant
Concept
Second
semester
Romeo and
Juliet active
workshop
(reading and
working on
a text alongside the
respective
Luhrmann’s
film representation)
Content
1. Prologue Lesson ‘Here’s
much to do with hate, but more
with love’ – guided close reading
of the prologue to the play; exploring the oxymoronic character and
referring that to the rest of the
play; Drama skills: voice projection (discovering the text via
emotion in the voice);
2. Hate, brawl and government
– close reading of the prince
Escales first speech in Act I, scene 1 – worksheets 43 and 44 (literature in the Language Classroom); Drama skills: using the
still frame to present the key moments in the speech;
3. The language of love – (a)
main aim: to sensitise students to
one are of language within the
play: the language of love and the
concepts and conventions that
underline it (what love is and how
it is expressed in the modern
world- by means of pop love
songs (worksheets 45 and 46);
(b) Romeo’s attitudes to love
before and after meeting Juliet
(Act I, scene 1, line 159 onwards
– worksheet 47); (c) Romeo and
the love at first sight (Act I, scene
5) Romeo meeting Juliet for the
first time – they express their
immediate love for each other in
the form of a sonnet, before reading it
- Drama skills; role play – a boy
Approaches to
Learning
Individual and
group research
Communication
Cooperation
Reflection
Evaluation
Team work
Area of
Interaction
Human
ingenuity
Environments
Health and
social education
Community
and service
MYP Question
Assessment
1.What is a figure of
speech? Provide examples;
Theatre skills: improvisation narration, split scenes
, voices in the head,
thought tapping, still
frame, (Crit. B, D)
Developmental workbook: evidence of reflection on some social issues:
teenage love problems, the
commitment, generation
gap then and now, obedience to parents or loyalty
to yourself and your love;
discussing teenage problems by means of theatrical ploys; peer evaluation
of a collaborative artistic
process, script writing,
worksheet solving (Crit. C,
A, B);
2.What is the nature of the
oxymoron, metaphor, simile?
3. How to use a still frame
to illustrate the key moments in the action?
4. What are the necessary
features of a good director/script writer?
5. How is the language of
love, if at all, different then
and now?
6. What are the features of
Buzz Luhrmann’s version
of Romeo and Juliet and
how does it differ from the
original version of the
play?
7. What might be the impact of the love at first
sight?
8. Point out the features of
a tragic love as presented
in the play.
9. How can we represent
confusion of the protagonist by means of the physical theatre?
10. What is thought
tapping?
Interdisciplinary
Links
Upbringing and psychological education –
exploration of a difficult social problem;
English - exploring the
language – figures of
speech, the emotional
language;
grammar – modal
verbs with perfect
infinitive, the conditional sentences;
writing skill – script
and dialogue writing,
both in contemporary
and instyle manner;
reading and listening
skills – working with
the literary text and
listening to the scenes
from the film
Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
Significant
Concept
Content
and a girl in a contemporary situation of a first encounter with a
strong emotional fascination, they
plan a scene with no more than 14
lines of dialogue, they write up
and then play their scenes to the
rest of the class (a discussion
about the language of love as
presented by the students ); (d)
reading and watching the Act I
scene 5 – with the help of worksheet 48 – a comparison of the
love language of Romeo before
and after meeting Juliet;
4. The Full Bodied Romeo –
drama skill: a physical theatre,
still frame, pantomime etc. to help
students understand Romeo’s
confusion at the beginning of the
play; understanding the text in a
kinesthetic manner;
5. The Balcony scene – listening
activity (reading the balcony
scene (Act II scene 2) – jumbled
summary to check the understanding – worksheet 49) by means of
Luhrmann’s film – students jot
down the most memorable /most
moving part of the scene; second
listening (paused this time) and
paired tasks (14 tasks slips, p.181)
+ a post slip task worksheet 50 –
answers substantiated by the text;
6. Tybalt and Mercutio fight or
Angel’s Advocates - (a) drama
skill: role play with the character
analysis (one group of approx. 12
Approaches to
Learning
Area of
Interaction
MYP Question
11. How does a still frame
and speech interruptions
in the Fight between
Tybalt and Mercutio affect
the tragic outcome of the
scene?
12.What is the nature of
the difficulty of the perfect
stage movement?
13. Is the tragic end to the
story of Romeo and Juliet
inevitable?
14. How does drama help
to change it?
Assessment
Interdisciplinary
Links
Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
Significant
Concept
Content
students); the other group - travel
through time into any moment
between lines 34 and 131 (Act III,
scene 1) to try to keep peace ;
drama skills: the elements of
Forum Theatre, thought tapping,
speech delivering, script/speech
writing (brainstorm of ideas to
write their speeches); (b) dramatic
performance of act III scene 1 –
timetravelling angels standing up
during the scene at the chosen
point to deliver their ‘peacefying’
speeches; drama skill: a still
frame – to all the official roles so
that the interruption could occur;
summary: discussion over the
impact of the interruptions and
consideration whether anything
could have prevented the two
deaths in the scene;
7. Plotting Movement – drama
skill: mastering the purposefulness of the stage movement and
its dramatic impact upon the characters reactions (Act III ) – Juliet,
alone after Romeo’s exit, has to
face her mother, her irate father
then the Nurse’s heartless advice
to reject Romeo (gradation of the
level of Juliet’s despair);
8. Towards the end – the ‘inevitability’ of the tragic outcome;
(a) song from a musical Oliver –
students fill in the worksheet 52 –
writing down things the singer
would do for his loved one; refer-
Approaches to
Learning
Area of
Interaction
MYP Question
Assessment
Interdisciplinary
Links
Gimnazjum Dwujęzyczne nr 50 w Warszawie
Middle Year Programme
IB School 000703
DRAMA
Significant
Concept
Content
ring the lyrics to the resolution of
Romeo and Juliet – are they mad
or unbalanced or immature or
deluded? In pairs/small groups – a
study of possibilities how to prevent the tragic outcome from
happening (p.189-90); students
chose 3 and place them in the
order of importance; they decide
upon one of the statements
(p.190) to fit their choices; Drama
skills: script writing - students in
groups write a script of a totally
different ending to the play; the
best alternative ending is chosen
and presented in the form of a
performance;
Approaches to
Learning
Area of
Interaction
MYP Question
Assessment
Interdisciplinary
Links