Communication Scheme of Work

(ages 11-12)

This practical six-week scheme uses a range of drama techniques to explore how people communicate across time, cultures and challenging environments. Lessons investigate miscommunication and communication barriers, including exercises that consider disability and accessibility. Teachers will find ready-to-use practical forms such as frozen pictures, mime, thought tap and Teacher in Role, alongside physical theatre, mirroring and gesture work. The unit is augmented by simple music and props to stimulate creativity and support ensemble devising.

What Students Will Learn

Students will examine different methods of communication, how messages can be misunderstood, and how context or disability affects interaction. Across the unit they will practise non-verbal and verbal dramatisation, develop character through maintenance and gesture, and use ensemble techniques such as mirroring, frozen pictures and physical theatre to convey ideas using music and props.

Week 1: Cave Paintings
This lesson introduces students to the cave paintings as an early form of communication through imagery. Students develop a series of frozen images to leave their own pictorial message.
Resources Include
Powerpoint Slides
Cave Paintings
Week 2: Cowboys and Native American Indians
A meeting takes place through role-play between landowners, the cavalry and the local tribe on the Indian Reservation where negotiations are undertaken, with each party having their own agenda.
Resources Include
Props
Cut out feather
Week 3: Communication at Sea
Physical theatre and music are used to explore other methods of communication used at sea.
Resources Include
Music
Sailor's Hornpipe
Powerpoint Slides
Phonetic Alphabet
Week 4: Disability and Communication
The issue is explored from the viewpoint of those who have visual or hearing impairments, senses that could hamper communication. The class explores and develops a better understanding of these conditions.
Resources Include
Resources
Location Cards
Week 5: Aliens!
Extraterrestrial visitors are used to exaggerate how easy it is for miscommunication to occur. Gesture and repetition are used to signal and convey meaning.
Week 6: Modern Day Communication - Assessment Lesson
This is an assessment piece based on the receiving of good or bad news through the multitude of communication methods available today. All key Drama forms learnt and revised in the topic are used to recreate their own story and characters and recorded for self-evaluation.