Sample Lesson Plan #3

LESSON PLAN
General Information:
Teacher: Peter Vooys Grade 8 Drama -Improvisation Lesson Three April 13,
2016/ 50 min

GLOs
- To acquire knowledge of self and others through participation in and
reflection on dramatic experience.
- To develop an appreciation of drama and theatre as a process and art form.

SLOs
- TSW communicate a clear beginning, middle, and end in spontaneous
scenes. (Improv #9)
- TSW use essential story elements in spontaneous and planned scenes.
(Improv #10)

Objective: Assessment:
TSW create, in partners, a scene -TSW be formatively assessed on offers,
with rising dramatic tension. accepting, building, blocking, and
wimping.

Materials & Equipment:

Big empty room, creativity
Learning Resources:
Alberta Junior High Drama Program of Study

PROCEDURE
Introduction games: 10 minutes

Activity: Ball Game (5 minutes), Yes lets (5 minutes)

Discussion (10 minutes):

Teacher: Alright class, lets talk about conflict.

One of the keys to using conflict in improv is that all actors onstage recognize the
conflict, and work together to build it up to be bigger and more tense, then
resolve it and end the scene.
Sometimes a great conflict might come to you for the scene, and someone else
starts a different conflict before you can act on your impulse. This can be tough,
but you should play along with the existing conflict. Having multiple unrelated
problems pop up can be draining for the audience.

Last class we had a great setup with an environmental explosion in a waterpark,

but we had trouble running with the conflict, and building on it. If I recall correctly,
there was a shark and dog attack at the pool.

How could we have built up this conflict?

-The sharks eat a character. The rest of the characters try to find higher ground.
- The pool starts to flood so that no one is safe, in or out of the water.
- People try to escape the waterpark
- The management locks everyone in to contain the situation.

All of these will raise the stakes for your characters. Once we have a very tense
situation with high stakes, we can try to resolve the situation.

How to resolve it:

-Someone dies, and the talking sharks tell the people theyll eat one of them
every five minutes. The lifeguard who cant swim knows where some weapons
are. He has to be brave and jump in the water, and after almost drowning, finds a
strength inside and somehow instinctively is able to swim. He swims to the hidden
underwater cache of weapons, which the cast uses to fight off the sharks and
dogs.

-One of the characters has an enzyme in her blood that is poisonous to sharks and
dogs. A shark starts to bite her, and dies. The other characters see this, and fill
Ziploc bags with her blood, making poison bombs. The last shark is too big. The
girl heroically sacrifices her leg, getting her comrades to cut it off, and throws it at
the shark. It devours her leg and dies. She hops on one foot out of the waterpark,
supported by her new friends, and the knowledge that she saved everyone!

Or my favourite resolution

-One of the characters turns out to be a grizzled war veteran who fought sharks in
Iraq. He gathers several characters together to make a stand against the sharks
(and dogs). One character dies in their first battle and gives an impassioned
speech telling his comrades to save the kids, for him. Someone sheds a tear. They
resolve to destroy the sharks, and christen their attack Operation Harpoon, or
Operation Tidal Storm. In climactic battle, they destroy the sharks. The
overprotective mother kisses the war veteran, everyone leaves the pool.

Demo scene (3 minutes):

Do a demo scene.
Gum on my desk.
-Janitor comes in to clean desks.
-Try to scrap it off with a paint stirrer.
-Try to cut it off with an exacto knife.
-Try to use a jackhammer to get it off.
Moment of frustration.
-Kid comes in, removes it effortlessly. Oh, sorry, I was saving that gum for math
class.
End scene.

Scene work (15 minutes):

Spend 3 minutes by yourselves doing a scene like the one we just showed you.
Have three bumps: the initial conflict, an escalation of the conflict, and the
conflict becomes dire. Well show a few of these at the end of class.

Spend 10 minutes in threes doing a scene with a conflict. Have three bumps:
the initial conflict, an escalation of the conflict, and the conflict becomes dire.
Well show a few of these at the end of class.

Repeat after me: I give myself permissionto take risksto look badand make
mistakesits all goodits how we learn.

Thats awesome, if you guys can build a culture of taking risks and supporting
each other when you screw up, youll all become better performers.

Possibilities:
Zoo, The Mall, Detention, Kindergarten class, Space Station, Scuba diving, Family
Dinner, etc

Performance (8 minutes):
Several student groups perform scenes

Closure:
Thank you grade 8s for a great class. Weve looked into ways to raise the stakes
in the conflicts in our improvised scenes, and well be working more on resolving
our conflicts in improvised scenes next class.

Sponge: There will not be time for a sponge activity!