Drama

Course Overview

National 4/5 Drama provides opportunities for students to develop skills in creating and presenting drama. The course focuses on the development of drama skills and in using production skills to present drama. 

Drama Skills

Students will explore and develop a range of drama skills and ways of communicating thoughts and ideas to an audience. They will develop a range of skills as an actor. They will learn how to respond to stimuli, including text. They will also learn how to portray a character in a range of ways and develop knowledge and understanding of form, structure, genre and style. Students will also learn how to evaluate their progress and that of others. All students will have to act in front of an audience.

Production Skills

This work is based on script extracts where students will be expected to participate in acting and in a production role (lighting, sound, costume, props, and make up). Each student will be involved in developing knowledge and understanding through text materials. Students will evaluate their progress and that of others. 

Performance

The performance enables students to draw on, extend and apply the skills, knowledge and understanding they have learned during the course. 

The performance assesses the 

candidate’s preparation and performance of a textual extract through research and development of ideas. The candidate can be assessed in either an acting or a production role. 

Learning and Teaching Approaches

Students will be encouraged to learn progressively, work co-operatively with others, plan tasks and produce work to deadlines, produce imaginative and creative drama, make links to their existing knowledge and experiences as well as be involved in self-assessment developing their thinking and personal awareness.

Homework

You will receive homework on a regular basis. This might involve completing a log of class work, revising for assessments or undertaking research into investigation work. 

Assessment Approaches

Course assessment at National 4:

• Internally assessed with no external exam

Course assessment at National 5:

• Performance – 60 marks (60%) 

• Question Paper: 60 marks (40%) 

Scaling will be used to achieve the weighting indicated above.