WR1: Shopping lists
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WR2: Public Statement. Ministry of
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Information
WR3: Public Information Leafl et.
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WR4: School lunch menu 2024
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WR5: World War Two rationing poster
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WR6: Say ‘no’ poster
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WR7: Item on radio and TV news
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Other resources
Essential: Placard making materials (large sheets of paper, cardboard, paints, marker pens) Optional: Drum, digital camera
When the Bees Died
Activity Drama strategy Purpose Teacher guidance Opportunities for writing
1. Vocal warm-up ‘ To establish focus and concentration To identify some of
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our favourite food items (this will help to emphasize the impact of ‘losing’ of these items later in the drama)
Standing alone and randomly around the space ask the class to think about food. Ask people to choose three things that they most like to eat. Walk briskly round the space and ask people to speak one of their items as we pass them. When you call ‘change’ they must swap to a different item from their chosen three. Call change a second time and hear the third item as we pass.
Now invite group members to move about the space quietly repeating one of their chosen food words. If they meet others who are saying the same word they must form a group and move together. After a while freeze the activity.
C. See if any groups have formed up and discuss the effect that this might have had on where people are now standing and on the rhythms and sounds which we heard.
Menus: writing to describe Look at restaurant menus and food adverts. Examine the ways in which writers use language to ‘big-up’
fl avours, textures and ingredients to make our mouths water. The task here in small groups is to take some of the food items which they chose in the warm-up exercise and describe them in this way.
S. We might fi rst want to create a bank of useful adjectives.
2. Discussion ‘ To introduce and discuss the collapse of the honeybee population and the impact which many experts believe this would have on the world’s food production
It is important to remind your group that although the drama we are going to start is a fi ction there are real life concerns that honeybees are in danger.
S. In some classes we will need to explain the basics of pollination and why the demise of the honeybee could have such an impact on food production. Ask the group to imagine a world in say 10 years time when all the honeybees have died and show them WR1 (p. 185) explaining that this is what many experts believe that our food options might look like in such a world.
Discuss how group members would feel about such a change in diet.
Activity Drama strategy Purpose Teacher guidance Opportunities for writing
3. Teacher in Role (TiR)
Mantle of the Expert (MoE)
To ‘enter’ the drama
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and start to examine some of the key issues from within a fi ction To take on
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imagined skills and responsibilities and to use those skills and responsibilities to carry out specifi c tasks
It is now 2023 and the honeybees have all died. The TiR here is that of the Minister of Food. He has recruited a group of special advisers. You might decide to use your role to hand on the MoE to the group saying something like. . . . ‘Thank you for coming to this emergency meeting. Yet again I am going to need your skills and knowledge. Many times in the past you have helped the government.
In the great droughts you advised us how to save water. When the wheat crops failed you showed us how to feed our people using other food sources. I know that you are very wise I am confi dent that you people will help me to avoid making mistakes in the current crisis.’
Tell the advisers that you have written a statement and you want them to look at it before it goes public. Show them WR2 (p. 186) and tell them that you’re worried about the impact that this announcement might have.
‘People might start panic buying.
There could be violence. I have to tell people something but is this the right statement? I’m really not sure.’
Explain your fears and worries to our advisers and then divide participants into subgroups with the brief to improve the statement. See writing opportunity.
Editing and rewriting (writing to inform)
Working in small groups the task here is to edit or rewrite the Minister’s statement to ensure that there is little or no panic in the country.
Writing to inform (for a specifi c audience)
C. An additional task could be to write a statement on the food situation which is aimed specifi cally at young children.
4. Writing in role Reading in role
Teacher narration
When the suggested editorial changes come in reconvene the advisory group and ask representatives from each group to read their amended statements.
In the light of these you might decide to make adjustments to the original statement. At the end of the session you need to teacher narrate ‘ That night the statement was read out on TV and radio. It was heard in every home in the land.’
Activity Drama strategy Purpose Teacher guidance Opportunities for writing
5. Still images ‘ To introduce a second role so that class members can experience the drama from both public and domestic perspectives
Now the smaller groups formed earlier need to become family groups. Groups need to cast their families. With this drama its probably useful to impose constraints about age for example
‘ no very small children or babies.
Everybody in this family is old enough to read the statement.’
The family has just received the statement from the Ministry of Food. Ask each group member to imagine how their character would feel on hearing this announcement.
S. We might suggest options such as fear, concern, anger, confusion, sadness, panic, reassurance.
The brief now is to make a still image of the family just after reading or hearing the statement.
The image should give us an idea of what each family member is thinking. One by one these still images can be examined and discussed by the wider group.
Diaries
We’re going to imagine that each family member keeps a diary. The writing task is to write a passage from a diary entry which covers the moment when the announcement was made.
S. An opening sentence might provide a prompt for some writers.
‘We switched on just in time for the news and there it was . . . the announcement.’
6. Thought-tracking
To share individual
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responses to the developing story
Groups now ‘reassemble’ their family images with group members entering the image one at a time.
As each person enters the image she briefl y states what her role is thinking. These thought-tracked images can be shown to the wider group as mini performances 7. Improvisation ‘ To develop family
roles and further explore the implications of the food crisis at a domestic level
Starting with the still image each group is now asked to improvise a very brief scene which gives us a glimpse of how this family might be affected by the crisis.
The scenes need to fi nish with a still image. Groups could decide to return to the starting image or create a new one.
Play scripts
Working together in their family groups writers are going to try turn their improvised family scene into a play script. If while they are writing they think of better lines than the ones used in the improvisation then it’s fi ne to make changes.
S. It may be necessary to look at some play scripts and see how writers have set them out (several formats are used).
C. Some playwrights provide lots of stage directions while others including Shakespeare offer hardly any. An additional task for some groups might be to include stage directions in their scripts. Remember that these directions are written to help actors and directors but they may also make important meanings for audiences.
Activity Drama strategy Purpose Teacher guidance Opportunities for writing
8. TiR
MoE
To increase tension
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and require the class to take on further responsibilities.
We now return to the roles of Food Minister ( TiR ) and her advisers.
Show the advisers the public information leafl et on household pets (WR3, p. 187) and insist that the advisers read the pamphlet very carefully before saying anything.
Then ask for their comments.
Explain that you are still deciding whether or not to send out this message and that you will carefully listen to the advisers’ comments and suggestions before making your fi nal decision.
9. Conscience alley
To examine the
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arguments for and against the decision to eliminate household pets
Having listened to the arguments class members are asked to decide whether or not they support the plan to ban and eliminate pets.
S. They could do this by completing one of the following statements:
a. We have to do this because . . . Or . . .
b. We cant do this because . . . C. Alternatively they could choose their own words entirely.
Group members then line up in facing groups of either a’s or b’s.
It is quite likely that many (possibly all) of the advisers will choose to oppose the plan. If that is the case simply go down the line and listen to each argument as you pass each adviser. You might choose to go back down the line offering opposing arguments; e.g. ‘Are we really going to put pets before people?’ It’s not a problem if a whole group takes a unifi ed stand but a counterargument does need to be heard.
10. Teacher narration
To move the
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narrative on To create a context
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for further decision making and problem solving
You might wish to use this narration or alternatively to write/improvise your own.
‘The Minister listened to the views of his advisers and ( OR Despite the views of his advisers the minister) decided to go ahead with the pet elimination scheme. These were diffi cult times and diffi cult decisions had to be taken. When the people read the pamphlet the next morning they were shocked. They’d known there was a problem but nobody had expected this.’
Letters. Writing to persuade Working as individuals writers are asked to write a letter in role as a pet owner to the Minister for Food. The letter is an attempt to persuade the Minister not to go ahead with the pet disposal plan.
C. An additional task could be to also write a reply to the letter from the minister himself.
Activity Drama strategy Purpose Teacher guidance Opportunities for writing
11. Writing/
drawing in role
To explore how
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arguments can be forcefully expressed using simple images, words and phrases
In their family groups people prepare for a peaceful demonstration to save the country’s pets. Make available large sheets of paper, cardboard, paints and marker pens and ask each family group to make a banner or placard to take with them to the demonstration.
The placards or banners need to use words and images to make their point as forcefully as possible. Should any family groups decide that they support the government’s anti-pet policy then they can be asked to make a banner in readiness for a counterdemonstration.
Chants and slogans
S. Look at some examples of football chants and political slogans. Look how rhythm and rhyme are used to make effective chants and slogans.
The brief for writers is to write slogans and chants which could be used to oppose the government’s new policy on pets.
12. Still image (whole group)
To share the work
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carried out on the placards and banners To create whole
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group performance
Ask class members to stand around the edges of the space holding their banners and placards.
One by one group members enter the space and adopt frozen positions gesturing or holding up placards or banners. Stress that this is to be a peaceful demonstration in which people are determined to make their point without using violence. Person by person the demonstration builds up. We could use a drumbeat to regulate the fl ow (e.g. a new person can enter the space on every third beat) and to build tension. Use a digital camera to record the fi nal image.
13. Soundscape ‘ To explore ways in which this moment can be captured and conveyed to others without use of visual representation
Ask the class to imagine that the group image they have just made is a scene from a radio play. The same intensity and meaning has to be conveyed to an audience through sound only. In the family groups they are now asked to fi nd ways to express the same meaning using just language and sound. This will work well if they have already completed the ‘chants and slogans’ writing task (see strategy 11). The whole group soundscape can now be built up adding one group at a time.
Eye witness accounts. Writing to describe
The task is to write an account of the demonstration from the point of view of either a demonstrator or an onlooker.
S. Stress the importance of describing sounds and feelings as well as movement and action.
Activity Drama strategy Purpose Teacher guidance Opportunities for writing
14. TiR
MoE
Group members
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return to their planning and advisory roles with new responsibilities
The Minister (TiR) starts this meeting by showing the advisers a copy of a school lunch menu (WR4, p. 188). It is clear that many children are getting an increasingly restricted diet while some families are still able to pay for some of the less available products. The Minister has decided that the time has come to introduce rationing. The advisers are shown a poster from WW2 (WR5, p. 189).
‘ What is it trying to do? How have the poster designers used images and words to make their point?’
15. MoE Designing in role
Still image
To bring an imagined
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expertise to a design brief
In role as expert designers and working in their small groups the task now is to create a 3D living poster announcing a new rationing scheme and persuading people that this is the right thing to do. The experts can use their own bodies plus found objects to make their posters. Like the WW2 example their poster might have more than one image. It will probably use language and so a caption will need to be written to accompany the image.
Captions
Each of the poster images needs a caption or slogan as well as an image. Look again at WR5 (p. 189).
Working as individuals writers must write a caption for the poster image they have made.
16. Performance (audience in role)
To share and evaluate
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a range of responses to the design brief
The design experts must choose which of their captions they are going to use. Groups then take it in turn to show their posters and captions to the rest of the group. (Captions can be written on large sheets of paper or spoken by a member of the group as the image is formed.)
We might decide to invite people to watch the display of posters out of role as themselves.
C. Alternatively they can return to their roles as advisers when they examine the poster display with a brief to recommend one to the Minister.
Evaluations (writing to advise) Having seen each of the posters writers are asked to advise the Minister in writing on which should be chosen.
S. The task can be supported by a checklist of things to include, e.g.:
Brief description of the image and
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caption..
Three things we like about the
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image and/or caption.
Why we think it would work?
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17. Essence machines
To examine in a
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stylized way the fundamental change that the food crisis would create
In designing essence machines (see Drama Strategies) the class is given the opportunity to work in a more abstract and stylized way.
Groups of three must capture the essence of a character or moment in a drama by choosing movement, sounds and fragments of language and then using their bodies to build a machine which repeats these elements in a continuous loop.
Activity Drama strategy Purpose Teacher guidance Opportunities for writing
The brief here is to make two contrasting machines. The fi rst is called Christmas 2012. The second is called Christmas 2024.
18. Essence machine performance
To observe, discuss
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and evaluate each group’s machine
There are a number of ways these machines can be ‘performed’. We might decide to look at all the 2012 machines before leaping forward in time. Or we might want to examine the differences with each group showing their two contrasting machines back-to-back.
C. Alternatively we might experiment with both approaches and ask the class to decide which is most effective.
Play scripts
Working in their essence machine groups as script-writing teams the task is to turn their two Christmas machines into short play scripts which could be rehearsed and performed at a later point . C. Variants of this task could be to produce scripts for radio, TV or fi lm.
19. TiR MoE
To examine another
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moral issue from inside the fi ction
In role (TiR) as Minister of Food remind your advisers that it is possible to pollinate some of the failing crops by hand. It would require hundreds of thousands of labourers and this solution has always been ruled out as too expensive. ‘But now the army are telling us that there might be people in certain parts of the world who could be “encouraged” to come and do the job. It could be a very cheap solution because we wouldn’t have to pay these labourers very much (if anything) and we could build simple secure camps for them to live in.’
You want to know what the advisers feel about this. Be deliberately evasive about how labourers might be ‘encouraged’
to come, why the army appears to be involved and what is meant by
‘secure’. Don’t mention the word
‘slave’ unless they do!
20. Conscience alley
To reach a group
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decision and to present that decision in a physical and visual way
Identify two areas at either end of the space. Label one area ‘Yes to Pollination Labour Camps’
and the other ‘No to Pollination Labour Camps’. Group members still in role as advisers must walk to one of the two designated areas.
Those who are unable to choose must stand in the middle. Discuss the issue again out of role and ask people to explain why they chose to go in one direction or another.
Press release: writing to explain If a majority of advisers decide to agree to the introduction of pollination labour camps then the brief is to write a press release explaining to the people why the government has chosen this route.
If the decision goes the other way then the press release must explain why the government has rejected this solution.
Activity Drama strategy Purpose Teacher guidance Opportunities for writing
C. After listening to each other’s reasoning we might want to conduct the ritual again this time out of role. Are there differences when we make decisions as ourselves as opposed in role?
21. Reading in role ‘ To introduce a new element into the drama which will require us to discuss key issues and make decisions
Ask participants to sit in their family groups. Display the poster (WR6).
Ask everyone to read the poster remembering that they are in role as a member of the family. When the reading has fi nished ask them to sit still and in silence for 1 minute and consider:
How does this poster makes you feel?
What questions would you like to ask?
What do you think you’d do if someone tried to sell you food?
22. Thought-tracking (human keyboards)
To share family
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members’ thoughts and feelings about the new poster
Standing in their family groups each participant must think of a word or phrase which is a response to the fi rst question.
How does this poster make you feel? Teacher now activates the chosen words and phrases by tapping group members on their shoulders. When tapped each person will speak their chosen words. Shoulders become keys on a keyboard . Interesting effects can be achieved by repeating the same
‘note’ or playing two notes at the same time. Invite members of other groups to play the keyboard.
Experiment with two players (four hands) or three players (six hands).
Repeat the process for the other two questions considered in strategy 21.
First person narrative. Writing to describe and inform
The task is to write a paragraph describing a break-in at the food depot from one of the following perspectives:
a. An eyewitness b. A security guard
c. A food member of the food robbery gang
S. Remind writers to think about sounds, sights, smells and most of all feelings.
C. Writers might undertake three back-to-back paragraphs describing the incident from each of the three perspectives.
23. TiR ‘ To confront the
class with a moral dilemma and perhaps encourage people to reconsider some of their previous assumptions
In this TiR you are a black market trader talking to the whole class in role as family members. Using your own words or the following suggestion explain that you’ve got ‘some very interesting food items at very reasonable prices. Some of the stuff is very rare indeed like sausages and steaks and fresh fruit including oranges and strawberries. And milk. Yes that’s right.’