Drama

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Drama Department

National 5

Why Drama?

Drama gives you the opportunity to use your imagination and express yourself in a creative and practical way. It helps you to develop important skills such as problem solving, communication, planning and creative thinking. It is particularly suitable for those who love being creative, getting their ideas across in a dramatic way and communicating their ideas with others.

Entry to the course

Entry is at the discretion of the school.

Course Outline

Drama is a practical, hands-on subject that develops your creativity and imagination, and your artistic skills. You will learn how the use of voice, language and movement can develop your ideas for drama. You will also learn the skills and techniques involved in planning, producing and presenting drama. You will also find out how actors and writers work, and how the environment and culture affect their work.

The course has two compulsory units, plus the added value unit that assesses your practical skills. The units are the same as those for National 4, but you will have to produce a higher standard of work.

Drama Skills

In this unit you will:

  • Develop your drama skills and ways of communicating thoughts and ideas to an audience
  • Learn how to respond to stimuli (things that prompt ideas for drama)
  • Develop your understanding of how to portray character
  • Learn about form, structure, genre and style when creating and presenting drama
  • Reflect on your own progress and that of others

Drama: Production Skills

In this unit you will:

  • Explore and develop your production skills and use these skills to present drama
  • Use problem solving skills in order to generate ideas for presenting drama

Added value Unit: Drama Performance

In this unit you will:

  • Apply your production skills in a drama performance

Your work will be assessed by your teacher on an on-going basis throughout the course. The course is not graded. You will be assessed as pass or fail.

You must pass all three units, including the added value unit, to gain the course qualification.

The added value unit will be assessed through a drama performance in which you create and present a drama.

If you complete the course successfully, it may lead to:

Higher

Why Drama?

This course allows you to develop practical skills creating and presenting drama, as well as drama production skills. Learning Drama encourages you to exercise imagination and creativity. As you develop practical skills creating and presenting drama, you will also develop knowledge and understanding of the cultural and social influences on drama. You will analyse and evaluate how the use of self-expression, language and movement can develop your ideas for drama. You will develop critical thinking skills as you investigate and develop complex drama skills.

Entry to the course

Entry is at the discretion of the school or college but you would normally have achieved National 5 Drama

Course Outline

In this course you will develop your creative skills, and learn how to use complex drama skills. You will experiment with presenting through portrayal of character and by using complex production skills. Through creating and presenting drama, evaluation skills will also be developed as you evaluate your own skills and progress, and that of others. You will also consider the cultural values, identities and ideas which influence drama.
The course consists of two compulsory units and the course assessment unit

Drama Skills

In this unit you will:

  • Explore and develop complex drama skills and ways of communicating thoughts and ideas to an audience
  • Learn how to respond to text, including stimuli
  • Learn how to develop character in a range of ways
  • Develop understanding of form, structure, genre and style when creating and presenting drama
  • Develop knowledge and understanding of the social and cultural influences on drama
  • Learn how to evaluate your own progress and that of others.

Drama: Production Skills

In this unit you will:

  • Develop complex production skills
  • Use these skills to enhance drama when presenting
  • Use problem-solving skills in order to generate ideas for presenting drama.

The course assessment has two components:

  • A question paper (40 marks)
  • A performance (60 marks).

The question paper will assess your breadth of knowledge, understanding and skills accumulated across the course. The question paper will be set and marked by SQA.

The performance will involve creating and presenting a drama. The question paper will require demonstration of a depth of knowledge and understanding from the course.

Your work will be assessed by your teacher on an ongoing basis throughout the course. You must pass both units and the course assessment to gain the course qualification.

The course assessment is graded A-D. Your grade will depend on the total mark for all the units in your course.