Zoe’s Blog of Joy

Planning for Learning in Drama 

This week we used the Morgan and Saxton article in the reader, “Dramathink” to plan drama activities based on a theme or topic. Jo had planned a unit of drama on the theme of immigration.
Firstly she brought in a basket of stuff that was related to the theme of immigration, and asked us to think of other objects that could be put in the basket. We thought passports, birth certificates from a different country of birth, cultural artefacts, photo albums and such things would be good stimuli. We looked at how a single object can tell a story and contain meaning and significance. Jo gave the example of a red suitcase which is kept at a museum. The story that goes that a woman immigrating to Australia came to out shores with nothing but the clothes she was wearing, and she didn’t want to appear as though she had nothing so she bought a red suitcase with the very little money she had, but she had nothing to put in it so she and carried the empty case around with her.

Jo told us about the immigration museum in Melbourne, where there is a permanent exhibition called the Journeys Gallery, which features a replica ship where visitors can experience the changes in sea travel first hand from the 1840s to 1950s.
Jo showed us a picture of London in the 1800’s which showed life on the streets. Jo took on a teacher in role as one of the women in the picture who is shown in front of an inn and holding a baby. In role, she explained her situation in England and the difficulties she was facing. She then pulled out a flyer which was advertising opportunities to go to Australia and work. She explained that she could not read and had the class read and explain it to her.
Jo then led us through an activity called thought or conscious tunnel, which is used when there is a choice or conflict and gives the students an opportunity to voice the thoughts of the character in relation to this choice. In this case the choice was whether to stay in London or take the opportunity to go to Australia.
The next activity involved getting into pairs with one student playing the role of the woman in the picture and the other playing her husband. The role shows what the characters would talk about in regards to this opportunity.
Next, the students create roles (name, age, why immigrating etc) and the teacher assumes the role of the port official choosing people to go on the boat to Australia, by assessing their health, strength and courage.
Other activities which Jo suggested, but which we did not do due to time restrictions, would be to write letters home from the new country, to make a captains log, and to compare life in Australia with that in the old country (Jo showed us a picture of Melbourne which illustrated this).

At the end of this week’s lesson, we started planning our inventions lesson which we will be taking to Essex Heights Primary School in a few weeks. We used the “thematic networking” approach which is suggested in the “dramathink” reading by mapping out a brainstorm on the broad topic of Inventions.

My dramathinking…

Inspired by Jo’s immigration lessons, I couldn’t help thinking about a possible text which I’d love to teach in English, which is the mini-series “Marking Time” by John Doyle, which is essentially a love story about a young man, Hal, who falls in love with Randa, a young Afghani asylum seeker. It is set in a small country town during the Sydney Olympics and the Centenary of Federation and the September 11 attacks on the world trade centre form a backdrop to the story. I think drama could be used to explore broad questions about the film such as: why do people seek Asylum in Australia? How were different Australian communities effected by the bombing of the world trade centre?

I was thinking that the “Time before, after and within” model of taking the source apart which is suggested in the “dramathink” reading would be useful here.
For “time before”, you could look at Asylum seekers in their home country, what is happening to make them leave. Using the “A-Z of drama conventions and techniques” reading (by J Neelands) I thought that activities that could be used to explore this would be creating a tableau or a news report of the events happening in the country.
For “time after” you could get explore how Asylum seekers either get accepted as being legitimate refugees or are sent back home. Students could develop scenes in which they show the asylum seekers having their refugee status approved or being granted permanent residency, or being rejected because they haven’t provided the right documents. You could get students into groups and they are given a letter and the group improvises their response to this letter.
For “time within” you could look at Asylum seekers who are living in Australian communities, like the family in the movie. You could explore the racism that is shown towards Muslim or Afghani people in communities and workplaces in reaction to the bombing of the world trade centre. You could use gossip circles to show what is happening in the community, and get them to assume different roles in the mini-series (e.g. a racist young person, someone who attacks the shop, Randa’s father etc) and hot seat them to explore different motives, beliefs etc.

Other activities could include the conscious alley just like the activity Jo ran in class (Asylum seeker deciding whether to go to Australia, also on other choices in film: the main character on whether he should act on feelings towards Randa, the father on how he should react to knowledge of relationship). You could also do a teacher in role as an asylum seeker in order to introduce the students to some of the issues faced by refugees. You could then have students create a character than explains why he or she is seeking asylum, perhaps is applying for a visa to the government. You could also use this, and the film, for a SOSE class.