Lesson Plan

Day: M T W T F Date: _Feb-18__ Time: __(12:40)-1:00__ Year: __8__

Learning Area: ___Drama____ Topic: __Movement Class "Animal
Exercise"___
Curriculum content description: (from ACARA)

In the Western Australian Curriculum, students develop capability in critical and creative thinking as
they learn to generate and evaluate knowledge, clarify concepts and ideas, seek possibilities, consider
alternatives and solve problems. Critical and creative thinking are integral to activities that require
students to think broadly and deeply using skills, behaviours and dispositions such as reason, logic,
resourcefulness, imagination and innovation in all learning areas at school and in their lives beyond.

Students prior knowledge and experience:

Students are aware of neutral stance

Students have done movement and imagination exercises prior
Students have good knowledge of 'Labans Movement' principles

Learning purpose:

To give the students a understanding of animalistic characteristics of man.

To develop students imagination and movement skills.
To apply it to their performances.
Give the students a chance to focus on their observation skills

Learning objectives:
On completion of this lesson, students will
be able to:

Have a better understanding of animalistic

characteristics and its relation to human
characters.
Be able to utilize those characteristics in
their performances of Lord of the Flies.

Evaluation:

Observing the students results in their

interpretations and movements in the space.
Questioning the students on how the animal
characteristics can be used in conjunction
with 'Labans Movements' to create
meaningful characterisation.

Preparation and Resources:

The students will require a cleared space.

The school provides their own small hall for these exercises.

Catering for diversity

Speak to mentor to Identify any students with non-typical learning needs (none)
Identify any students who speak English as a second language (none)
Identify whether any students have allergies (none)

Learning Experiences:
Timing:
30 min

Introduction:

5 min

10 min

10 min

Teacher will take the class through the preparation for the beginning of this lesson, I will
assist once the class has commenced, he will pass through their warm up exercises and
go over what they had learned previously
Gain attention
I will then introduce myself "I am a student teacher, I will assist your teacher today by
taking you through the animal exercise"

Sequence of learning experiences:

1. I will begin by re-introducing Labans movements "Can you recall all of Labans 8
movements" whether they can recall them or not
Accept range of answers, comment on each
2. Wait for the answers as follows, or correct and advise "Glide, Flick, Dab, Press, Punch,
Wring, Slash, Float"
3. Ask the students to stand in neutral in the space
wait for the students to spread out and make them focus on me
4. Begin with starting movement exercise to reinforce the Labans principles "I want you
all to move around the space, choosing one of Labans movements to focus on"
Allow the students time to move around the space, then stop them.

5. Start second stage of exercise "Ok, now I want you to do a new movement, while you
are doing it I want you to observe the students around you, you recall your teacher
spoke to you of this, I want you to see what they are doing and try to identify which of
Labans movements they are utilizing."
Commence their next movement, after a minute, make them change the movement,
remind them to continue to observe their classmates.
6. Allow the students to move through their exercise, observing their movement styles
Stop the students regain focus to me, get them to move towards me in the room.

7. Quiz the students on their observations, ask for individual answers "Can anyone tell
me someone else they observed and what movement style they were using?"
Accept range of answers and comment on each, paying attention to their observation
skills and how it relates to the teachers earlier lesson.,
8. Introduce the "Animal Exercise" explain the purpose "This exercise will use all of your
movement skills but the main aim is to engage your imagination. You will need to create
an animal in your mind and sustain your belief in it"
9. Relate it to their learning objectives "Animals are useful to relate to a character in
your performances, particularly for your performance of Lord of the Flies"
Explain why an animal is useful reference use the Lion example e.g. Proud, Powerful,
Leader, Lazy
10. Ask the students to use some animal characteristics to describe the main characters
in Lord of the Flies in relation to animal characteristics "Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon"
Accept range of answers commenting on each
11. Send the class to their neutral positions re-iterate "you will need to create an animal
in your mind and sustain your belief in it"
Wait for focus and neutrality
12. Begin exercise, allowing time between steps for attention and focus
"Choose an animal that you wish to re-create"

5 min

"Lie on your back with your eyes closed and imagine the animal. What is it like?"
"Imagine that it is asleep and you are able to move around it without fear of waking it
up. See it clearly in your minds eye"
"Observe how it breathes and start to breathe in rhythm with it"
"Imagine your skin becoming the animal's skin and then slowly take on the sleeping
animal's posture. Keep your eyes closed."
"Imagine that the animal is dreaming of its food. What does it normally eat? Does it
forage or hunt for food? How does it eat? Does it need to protect its food from other
animals?"
"Slowly imagine that you are the animal waking up, but keeping your eyes shut. Does the
animal stretch?"
"Imagine the animal has left some food near where it went to sleep. Eat the food in the
manner of the animal. Still with your eyes shut begin to move about slowly so that you
do not need to move out of the space you were lying in. Explore how the animal moves."
"After eating, your animal feels like a nap so slowly put your animal back to sleep."
Assess by walking around and observing the students whether the students are
succeeding in this task, take my time and patient soothing voice.

Lesson conclusion:

13. Get the class to gather around again sitting on the floor
14. Begin debrief questions
"Were you able to sustain your belief in what you were doing?"
"How did you do this?"
What exercises did you make?
Was the exercise easier with your eyes closed? Why or why not?"
Accept range of answers and relate them to the learning topics, particularly how the
animal characteristics could be related to their performance of Lord of the Flies
Accept answers, ask for questions and give feedback

15. Tidy-up classroom, gather belongings, get class ready to leave

Lesson Evaluation:
More detailed notes in my reflection diary
Class was a success, the students answers surprised me, they seemed to get a lot from the exercise and were
able to very intelligently relate it to the learning objectives and their future performances of Lord of the Flies, I
think the lesson worked almost perfectly, behaviour was exemplary.