Work - Drama Keystage 3

1. Using the stimulus 'Seasonal work' from the section Children at work.

In small groups, use the final paragraph to create a series of frozen images, depicting the boy leaning over the pool and falling in. The others should be his friends and should show clearly how they feel about what he is doing in each picture. Either play appropriate music or narrate the text to the changing images. Find an effective way to move, as a group, between images. Rehearse and perform. (suitable for Year 8)

2. Read the page Into Service, and explore status through playing 'Master and Servant':

In pairs, one person, as master, sits on a chair and orders the other, the servant, to do tasks e.g., 'make me a cup of tea'. The servant has to obey but must ask the master for help to get him/her out of the chair, e.g., 'I can't reach the sugar, can you help?'. The master has to help when asked as soon as they get out of their chair, the servant sits on it and takes over as master.

• Extention - discuss the notion of status as power. Who has the most status in school or in Brighton and who has the least? How do you know? As a class, list the things that show somebody has high or low status e.g., job with power. Include things that show somebody has personal status (is able to be assertive) e.g., clear, confident voice, upright body language, eye- contact etc. Do the same to identify somebody with low status. 
• You could ask the class to demonstrate a frozen picture of someone with high, low and medium status (perhaps in groups of three, so they can be compared in one image). 
• Agree on ten different levels of status, with ten being the highest, one the lowest, and five in the middle. Ask individual students to demonstrate, say status level three or seven, with the class's help.
• When these levels are clearly understood, in groups of three, pupils devise a short scene set in a house in the 20s. One person is the master or mistress, one a lesser member of the household e.g., the cook and one a lowly servant girl or boy. The pupils should choose an appropriate status for their character and the scene should make their status clear. This scene should make the point that status depends on the others in the scene and can change. What would happen if the king turned up in the household, for instance?
• Next, go round the groups and give each student a status between one and ten, regardless of the character they are playing. Ask them to re-devise the scene, making the new status's clear. What happens? This exercise draws their attention to how status can be achieved through voice and body- language as well as being an excellent way to create an effective character. (suitable for Year 8)