Course Syllabus

Faculty

Course Description

Drama is a highly social activity which forces students to rely on the good will and co-operative spirit of their classmates.  Building self-confidence and developing trust are essential for any student to enjoy success in this subject.  Also, students need to participate at a high level if they are going to experience the learning outcomes of various drama activities.  This course is about challenging oneself, about allowing creative forces to have free reign, and about empathizing with others.  Certainly, along the way, students will gain some insight into developing believable characters; they will consider how characters speak, move, think, feel, and listen.

This course moves beyond the experiential, social aspects of previous drama classes and begins to focus and the serious, intellectual aspects of acting: literary analysis, psychological character study, relationship diagnosis, objectives, and motivation.

Instructional Aims

Based on the B.C. Ministry of Education curriculum, students will learn through the following experiences:

• Movement & Vocal Exercises
• Character Exploration and development
• Script Analysis
• Presentations and Performances
• Viewing
• Receiving and Providing Critiques
• Journaling & Reflections

Learning Outcomes

Based on the B.C. Ministry of Education curriculum, students will learn and be evaluated on the following knowledge and skills:

• • Clearly express ideas and emotions in rehearsed performances 20%
  • Create drama for a specific audience by purposefully using its

  conventions and features 20%

  • Purposefully use props, processes and technologies 5%
  • Improvise and take risks to express meaning, ideas and emotion 10%
  • Describe, analyze, and respond to drama using drama-specific language and demonstrating a knowledge of time, place, and action 15%
  • Apply feedback to develop and refine ideas, symbols, and
    
    performances 10%
  • Make meaningful personal and social connections and

  respectfully/responsibly create, perform, and respond

  to dramatic performance 10%

  • Examine the influences of social, cultural, historical, environmental, and personal contexts on dramatic works 10%

Assessment and Evaluation

A student's final mark will be determined by evaluation of their ability to demonstrate proficiency in these skills and learning these concepts.

Please see above for weighting of the Learning Outcomes.

Major assessments for this course include: 

• Movement/Blocking exercises
• Status and character relationships
• Theatre Terminology and Dramatic Conventions
• Theatrical Forms
• Monologues
• Scene Work
• Play building
• Year-end Curriculum Theatre Performance

Skills 

• Character Analysis
• Finding Character Motivation
• Script Analysis 
• Character Exploration and development. 
• Playing Specific Objectives
• Designing/Implementing Blocking
• Character Specific Voice, Movement, Facial Expression, & Gesture
• Critical Viewing
• Providing Constructive Feedback
• Articulation and Visualization
• Problem solving
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Rapid thinking
• Expression 
• Live Performance
• Writing

We anticipate adjustments may be made throughout the year due to the extenuating circumstances we are facing. Any adjustments will be posted here and discussed as a class.

Both the school’s assessment expectations and supports that teachers provide can be found online. Academic dishonesty to any degree is not acceptable.

There are a variety of academic supports available at St. George’s for students. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the range of supports available to them which include:

• Faculty support
• 5th Block
• Head of Grade
• Student Success Centre
• Personal Counselling

First Peoples Principles

We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We are honoured to live, work, and play on this land together.

As part of contribution to reconciliation, this course makes First Peoples Principles of Learning visible in class by:

•  Exploring the artistic work of First People of Canada. 

Literacy/Numeracy

This course makes literacy/numeracy visible by using the following comprehension tasks and strategies:

• Reading scenes and sides. 
•  Writing scenes and sides. 
• Blocking work line counting adding/subtracting/multiplication/division

Contacting Me

As the teacher for this course, I can be contacted in the following ways:

• Name: Mr. Wes Boise
• Office: 125A
• Email: wboise@stgeorges.bc.ca

I am available for contact during these times: M-F 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM

Course Expectations

St. George’s School expects all students at the Senior School to be interested and motivated in achieving their personal best while at the School. We expect students will be engaged in their endeavours, responsible to their studies, classmates and teachers, and demonstrate integrity in their pursuit of learning.

Workload

Drama is an experiential course and most of your learning will happen in class time.  That having been said, there will be some well planned and carefully spaced out work that you will have to do from time to time outside of class:

1. line memorization
2. character profiles
3. relationship diagrams
4. script analysis charts
5. reflections
6. reviews