Professional Documents
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Social Theatre is a way to take the world of the stage and bring it to
the real world so to speak. Social Theatre focuses on current and/or
pressing issues affecting the world today. It allows for a role-playing
situation where audiences can be engaged in issues and debate
without really feeling any threat from these issues. It is a safe place to
test the boundaries of right and wrong, safe and dangerous.
The Social Theatre in this unit is based upon the Grade Seven and
Grade Nine Health curriculum, bringing forth issues that plague young
people today and presenting positive options on how to deal with these
issues. Everything from healthy eating habits to saying no to tobacco
will be covered in this unit. This will allow the students to take part in
safe reinactments of scenarios they may find themselves in and ways
of handling these situations.
Readers Theatre is the perfect vehicle for this type of theatre, as it
requires very little in terms of movement and technicality. Readers
Theatre allows the issues and dialogue to come to the forefront.
Throughout this unit students will be introduced to ,both, Social and
Readers Theatre as well as aspects of voice and sound production.
Students will use the skills and knowledge they have learned about the
voice and apply it to their final presentation on a social issue in
Readers Theatre format.
Overview:
This unit will focus on
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TERMS:
Resources/Materials:
o Health Line
www.healthline.com
o Shakespeare For Readers Theatre, by John Poulsen
o Various Childrens Story books
Assessment:
o Project, students will create a piece of social theatre, this
will be based upon topics that are presented in the Grade
Seven and Grade Nine Health Curriculum. Students will be
expected to create a Readers Theatre Piece based on a
twisted fairy tale that incorporates one of the previously
mentioned health issue. This will be assessed using a
rubric.
o Assignments, Journal, students will be asked to
complete a goal setting assignment that is done weekly.
This is focused on growth and personal development. The
subject will but up to the students discretion but could be
based upon the passages we read as a class. Anatomy
Worksheet, this worksheet will cover the basic anatomy
of voice production. During the presentation students will
complete this worksheet.
o Daily 4 mark, students will be marked daily out of 4 which
is specified in the course outline
Focus: This lesson will focus on introducing students to two new types
of theatre (Social and Readers Theatre) and to what those two types
look like, and how they can exist together.
Activities:
Exploration of Readers Theatre
o Students are asked to get into groups and present a
childrens story. They are given very little guidance, just
asked to prevent this story using the techniques that we
learned yesterday. Students are given free reign, but a
short time to prepare.
o After students are asked what they think readers theatre is,
what elements from the performances were useful and
what werent how do we communicate a story using only
words. Together, students and teachers come up with
criteria for Readers Theatre.
Explanation of the Assignment
o Students are introduced to the concept of Social Theatre,
what it is and what it looks like and how it and Readers
Theatre work together so well. Students are then told that
they will be performing their Readers Theatre skits for the
health students of St. Francis. We will be going to them and
presenting Readers Theatre shows on health issues.
Choosing the Groups and Topics
o Students choose their groups (Groups must have both
genders, as well as students from outside their friend
groups and have between 3 and 5 members.) They then
choose the common story/fairy tale they want to base their
Readers Theatre piece on. They are then asked to choose a
health issue to incorporate into their story. After this is
done, students will write a script with a full beginning
middle and end, talking about this health issue.
Rehearsal (if time)
o Groups rehearse their Readers Theatre pieces. The terms,
blocking and polishing will be used in describing what they
need to do.
Lesson Three: Readers Theatre Rehearsal
Time: 2 Hours and 40 minutes, September 30th 2015
Focus: This class will focus on giving students time to rehearse their
piece and polish it so it is performance ready.
Activities:
Rehearsal
o Students will be given the rest of class after their warm up
to rehearse their piece. If students finish early there can be
a previewing time where the class or the teacher watches