Transcript Being a Teenager - Part 4

KS3 Drama – Being a Teenager – Part
4
KS3 Drama
Being a Teenager – Part 4
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Teacher’s notes included in the Notes Page
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Accompanying worksheet
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2008
Learning objectives
Explore what it means to be a teenager.
Explore how the idea of this stage of life
developed during the 20th century.
Use a variety of drama skills and conventions
including improvisation, verbatim theatre and
script writing.
Investigate the use of music in drama.
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2008
Music
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Drama based on three songs
For the next section of this unit you will be creating a piece
of devised drama, using as your stimuli three songs from
different periods of time. Music can be very evocative and
is often a powerful stimulus.
You are going to dramatize a song. You should consider
carefully not just the song but also its context, in order to
show what that song meant to the teenagers of its time.
You may have found from your verbatim theatre interviews
that many adults’ memories of being teenagers are deeply
connected to the music they listened to.
The next three slides give examples of three songs which
explored the teenage experience in different generations.
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‘She’s leaving home’ – The Beatles
This is a classic song from the 1960s.
At this time many young people were
rebelling against their parents and looking
for alternative ways of life. Discuss the
ideas portrayed in the song – do they
reflect your concept of ‘normal’ family life?
The song has a clear narrative but there are
many questions which remain unanswered.
Why is the girl running away? What did she
write in her note? Did she ever come back?
You might explore the answers to these
questions in your devised drama.
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‘One More Brick in the Wall’ – Pink Floyd
This is a classic song of teenage protest against the
education system, and appears in the film The Wall. The late
1970s were when punk rock appeared and teenage fashion
became more aggressive and extreme.
The song does not have a
narrative, but it clearly
expresses the idea that
the education system is
designed to process children
to be obedient members of
society. You can explore this
idea in your devised drama
by using movement to suggest
the way in which teachers
attempt to make children conform.
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‘Teenager’ – Jordan Pruitt
This song describes
an easily recognizable
stereotype of modern
teenage life, self-centred,
lazy and materialistic.
But is this an accurate
portrait of teenagers today?
Look at images from teen
magazines. In what ways
do they support this view
of teenage life?
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How to set about dramatizing songs
Whichever songs you use, think about the atmosphere
the music creates in terms of its tempo, mood, volume and
pitch. How can you reflect this in your use of movement?
Rather than dancing to the music, can you use the rhythm
in timing your actions during the performance?
Are characters suggested in the lyrics? Is the song a message
from one person to another, or does it tell a story? Does it
describe a particular person or place? Answering these
questions can help you to form ideas for the plot of your piece.
Can you form links between the three songs in either the
development of mood, or with the characters, or the places
the songs are set?
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Attitudes and research
When watching the news or reading a paper, it is easy to see
the negative views modern society has of teenagers. Which
issues do you think the media associates with teenagers?
mugging
tattoos obesity
truancy
happy-slapping
drugs
knives
car theft vandalism
piercing
graffiti gangs
How long do you think this fear of teenagers has been felt?
In order to create a piece of drama comparing how teenagers
were viewed at the beginning of the 20th century with present
day attitudes, it is essential to do some historical research.
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How to research
School and public libraries are the best place to start
looking for material. Probably the most interesting present
day stories will be found in newspapers, particularly local
ones. The archives of many papers are now available on
CD-ROM and the Internet.
It is best to focus on one
area of teenage life, such as
Libraries will also be able to
leaving school, getting into
help you find books on local
trouble, fashion, or advice to
history which may contain
parents on bringing up
material about teenagers
teenagers. Look for material
from earlier generations.
that has dramatic potential,
Museums may also be helpful.
which describes action or
includes dialogue.
Three or four short passages
or photographs will be enough to work with.
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Documentary drama
Documentary drama has some similarities with verbatim
theatre. It is based on real events and often uses the words
of real people. However, documentary drama makes use of
other material in addition to interviews.
In order to make a drama from your research, you need to
find ways of linking together the information you have found.
One way of doing this would be to cross-cut between scenes,
going backwards and forwards in time. Another way to link
them might be to have a narrator.
As you work on dramatizing your material, think about the
language you use. The slang used by teenagers a hundred
years ago was very different to modern slang. For example,
cigarettes were called ‘gaspers’ rather than ‘fags’.
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Evaluating your performances
Write a 500 word evaluation of your work. Before writing,
use a spider diagram to brainstorm your ideas.
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Unit evaluation
You have learnt to use the following skills and techniques:
Devised drama
Documentary drama
Dramatizing songs
Essence machines
Freeze-frames
Improvisation
Scripting
Teacher-in-role
Thought tapping
Verbatim theatre
Writing an audio transcript
Writing in role
Write an evaluation describing
how you made use of one of
these techniques in your work.
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Useful websites
Recorded Delivery – information about verbatim theatre
http://www.recordeddelivery.net/technique.html
One man’s memories of being a teenager
http://www.johnsadventures.com/archives/2006/11/it_isnt_
easy_being_a_teenager_these_days.html
Fashion-Era – teenage fashion history
http://www.fashionera.com/1950s/1950s_4_teenagers_teddy_boys.htm
Need2Know - information about issues facing teens
http://www.need2know.co.uk/
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