Half this course happens on your feet; the other half happens when you put what you saw and made into words. Writing about drama has one rule that does most of the work:
Describe before you judge
“It was good” ends a conversation. “The tallest performer stayed at the lowest level the whole scene, so the power felt upside down” — that starts one. Say what you saw, then what it did, then what you make of it.
The vocabulary is the toolkit
Use the course’s own words — that is what they are for, and using them correctly is itself a curriculum expectation. The difference is concrete:
| Instead of… | Try… |
|---|---|
| ”They stood in a cool way" | "The tableau used three levels, with focus on the seated figure" |
| "It got exciting" | "The flash-forward let us know more than the character did" |
| "She talked weird" | "She dropped her pace and volume, which read as a status shift” |
Sentence stems that unlock a stuck reflection
- The strongest choice I saw was… because…
- The moment the tension peaked was… because…
- If this group ran it again, one thing worth trying is…
- Playing that role changed how I think about… — which surprised me because…
Writing about your own work
The same rules apply to your Drama Journal, with one addition: name what you did, not just what the group did. “We figured out the ending” hides the learning; “I suggested we cut the last line, and the silence landed better” shows it. That is the evidence How Marks Work talks about.
Curriculum connection
B1.2
interpret short drama works and identify and explain their personal response to the works (e.g., analyse fairy tales, myths, or legends to clarify the feelings or motives of primary and secondary characters; use journal writing, writing in role, group discussion, and/or teacher-guided reflection to identify and clarify their ideas and opinions about a variety of drama works)
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B1.3
identify aesthetic and technical aspects of drama works and explain how they help achieve specific dramatic purposes (e.g., write a report outlining the technical and aesthetic strengths of a peer’s presentation, using appropriate terminology; describe how basic stagecraft has been applied in a drama; identify and explain or justify their own and others’ aesthetic decisions using journals, checklists, or rubrics)
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