home

Unit One - Introduction to Drama
Module 1: Basic Skills
Lesson 3- Status and Conflict

Introduction: The purpose of this lesson is illustrate the ways in which we show high and low status, including posture, tone of voice and expression.

Objectives:
- to work cooperatively in groups of all sizes
- to understand and apply the concept of status
- to convey relationships with other characters in a scene

Resources:
on-line quiz

CELs:
TL, Com, PSVS

Components:
Creative/Reflective, Critical/Responsive

Activities:

Activity 1 - Brainstorming

Brainstorm issues surrounding status and conflict until you have working definitions of each. Discuss why there is no drama without conflict and explore how status adds to the conflict in any scene (10 min.).

Activity 2 - Scene Work
The students should break into small groups and develop short scenes that illustrate conflict and status. These scenes should be practiced for about ten minutes, then performed for the class. (15-20 min. total). The class should discuss whether the conflict and status are successfully portrayed by each group. Scenes that need additional work can be further developed by the group (10 min.).

Activity 3 - Quiz and Journal

Have students view these pictures and take the quiz to find the low and high status characters. (2-4 min.) Correct as a class.

Teacher version
of quiz

Student QUIZ

 In their journals, students should record one incident when they were high status during a conflict and another incident when they were low status. Each incident should be discussed in at least half a page, and the focus should be on the student's emotions and thoughts during the situation. These incidents provide the basis for sense memory of the event (20 min.).

Activity 4 - List
As a class, create a list of the traits of high and low status characters. Post your list. Include the following where possible:

High Status:

posture
level of eye contact
tone of voice
pace
speed of dialogue
proximity
movement
relationship to others
facial expression
emotions

Low Status:

posture
lack of eye contact
tone of voice
pace
speed of dialogue
proximity
movement
relationship to others
facial expression
emotions
avoidance

Brainstorm all the types of conflict you can in five minutes. Then group the conflicts into types of conflict with common characteristics. Record the types of conflict for future reference in improvisational scenes (10 min.).

Instructional Strategies:
Computer assisted instruction, brainstorming, role-playing, reflection, concept mapping

Evaluation:
There is no formal evaluation for this lesson. Teacher evaluation of class participation may be used.

Online Activity Alternatives:
Brainstorming can be done by a streamed discussion over a week or as an individual in the form of a journal article. The characteristics of high and low status people can be developed in pairs at the home schools, then e-mailed to the teacher or posted to the class web site. Individual scenes could be done at the home school and evaluated by a third party. If the scene is done well, it should be easy for someone with no drama background to identify both status and conflict.


Next Lesson / Student Lesson / Previous Lesson

 

 

Status is the relative importance of one character or person in relation to another or to the group.

 

Conflict is the source of the problem within a play or scene.