Assessment

Assessment rubric that is aligned to the teaching outcomes specific to the assessment of hte drama sequence show how the teacher plans to give students writtenfeedback at the end of the drama sequence

Got told about this really great site which we could use to create our rubric! []

ASSESSMENT:

I don't know if we are meant to include formative assessment opportunities, but it might give us bonus marks if we do (just attach them to the different activities):
 * Ability to write in role (easily assessable and demonstrates student's understanding of a character's perspective)
 * Self evaluation strategies
 * Ask to depict 3 critical moments in the story - demonstrates an understanding of the text (if they can justify choices)
 * Reflection - maybe we could get them all to keep a journal throughout this mini unit?
 * Observation
 * Video recording
 * Photographs (of still images, combined with students' annotations)


 * Lynn McGregor - Assessing Drama, Some Implications. 1997. Educational Review, 29 (4).**

Page 267:

There are few tangible criteria for assessing the arts. Perhaps the two easiest features are those of the mastery of skills and techniques, in the case of drama, the use of the voice, the body, space, time and sound, and those areas of knowledge associated with drama such as history of the theatre, dramatic texts and stage management. Although these are aspects concerned with drama, they do not touch what drama is about. The acquisition of skills and knowledge and control of dramatic media are not ends in themselves. They are vehicles through which internalised understandings can be transmitted. It is argued by people like Suzanne Langer that one of the main functions of the arts is to come to terms with the world of subjective understanding. It is because of this that trying to assess the arts is so difficult.

Page 268:

Drama is seen as a multi-faceted complex process which includes a variety of activities and objectives. Drama involves the active physical, intellectual and emotional projection into hypothetical roles and situations. This can be done on a number of levels and for different purposes, e.g. as an activity in its own right or in order to present a finished dramatic statement.

Aims for drama depend on what teachers wish to achieve through drama which in turn will affect what criteria are used for assessment; what tasks are given and how lessons are structured. (//links to rubric if we decide to use this//)

page 269:

Four main components were given as a useful basis for assessment. They are content, media, forms of expression and social interaction. Depending on what kinds of learning are encouraged, one or more of these could be emphasised at any one time. The more competent children are at all these aspects in using the process, the more they can get out of for example, using drama as a tool for understanding particular themes, topics or issues, presentations or appreciating other people's drama. Drama can be assessed in many ways at many levels depending on what is being encouraged. Much more can be done to develop more refined analytical systems and to explore more fully the learning potential derived from experiencing drama. Few people observing a drama lesson would say there was no point to it. The problem is that often children are offered experiences in school that they lose sight of after school. If assessment or evaluation is to be taken seriously, then there are a number of issues that need to be  considered in a wider context. What happens to the child when he leaves school? How does development through drama help him then? Has the pupil himself learnt to use drama or to be critical or what he sees?

page 271:

(1)// Physical, emotional and intellectual projection into imagined roles and situations. // Pupils in drama are given the opportunity to identify with others and to respond in  different ways to various social situations. This should enable them to sum up situations they find themselves in and to have confidence in finding adequate ways to respond. Through acting-out a variety of characters and roles it is hoped that pupils would become aware of a wider range of people than they might normally come across. This should widen their general knowledge of people so that they are more able to come to terms with unusual or new situations. In other words what might be transferable would be the ability to empathise and to respond according to others. It is also possible that through drama an individual may become more aware and thoughtful about his own behaviour with relation to others. (2)// Creative problem solving. //   If children are given responsibility for all aspects of the process they would be expected to develop the following skills: the ability to define areas of interest; to draw on past experience, to select, reject, moderate and elaborate on ideas, to find relevant forms of expression to explore ideas at different levels, to shape a number of complex ideas into a form and to communicate to others. All these are necessary if children are to be competent at drama and are the same processes found in any art activity. Hopefully children would learn to tackle relevant problems through drawing on their experience of lateral thinking through drama and could learn a variety of ways of expressing attitudes and conclusions. (3)// Social Interaction. //   One of the main claims made for improvised drama is that children learn to interact with each other on two levels: the real and the symbolic. On the real level they learn to make decisions about the nature and quality of the activity. They learn to give ideas, to share and build situations together. On the symbolic level, they come to share understandings through the mutual development of the roles they create. Many children have said that the experience of doing drama together has brought them closer together as a group, has given some individuals in the group more social confidence, and has helped members of the group become more tolerant of each other. It is however, reasonable to expect that those children who have been working on drama in this way should be more able to get on with others more quickly, and should be able to make contributions more easily. Much more work needs to be done to establish how much is transferable beyond the effects that any one group may have when working together. It would also be interesting to find out whether those children who are educated to make decisions in schools, have difficulties when they find themselves in situations where they are meant purely to follow instructions and where opinions are not invited of them. (4)// Physical and verbal expression. //   In drama the main media used to express meaning are the voice and the body. Roles and characters are expressed through the way language is used, through gesture and movement. By giving children a range of roles and situations to act-out and respond to, they are having to extend their normal ranges of expression. How useful this is to the person outside the dramatic experience depends on his general confidence and how able he is to see connections between what he has done in drama and those situations which demand similar responses. Perhaps much which is gained is used subconsciously, but it is important for those teachers who emphasise language teaching through drama, to think of this problem. Ways could be found in which children are given real problems to cope with after having explored a range of parallel situations through drama.