Exploring Real Stories

Overview

Year Level: Year 11
Subject: Drama
Lesson Duration: 60 minutes
Class Size: 18 students
Australian Curriculum Links:

Curriculum Area: The Arts – Drama, Years 9–10 (adapted and extended for Year 11 outcomes)

Relevant Content Descriptions:

• ACADRM049: Analyse and evaluate how the elements of drama are manipulated to communicate meaning by comparing drama from different cultures, times and locations, including the drama of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
• ACADRM051: Develop and refine expressive skills in voice and movement to communicate character and situation.
• ACADRM052: Structure drama to engage an audience through manipulation of dramatic action, forms and performance styles.

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Unit Title:

"Telling Truths: Documentary, Verbatim and Collage Drama"

Lesson Title:

"Researching Cultural Voices: Building the Web of Stories"

Unit Objectives Addressed:

1. Demonstrate skills of drama – particularly in devising and physicalising dramatic ideas.
2. Apply literacy skills to communicate dramatic meaning – through research, scripting, and sharing.

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Learning Intentions:

By the end of the lesson, students will:

• Begin independent research into major current issues affecting present-day Australians with a specific lens on cultural and linguistic diversity.
• Contribute findings collaboratively to a class-generated mind map.
• Make considered choices about the topic they wish to explore further through verbatim and collage drama forms.
• Reflect on how tension and dramatic focus can drive non-linear storytelling.

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Success Criteria:

Students will: ✔ Share relevant, sourced information about a current Australian issue
✔ Contribute at least 2 ideas or facts to the collaborative class mind map
✔ Choose and explain a personal area of interest for further research
✔ Demonstrate engagement with hybrid forms, dramatic focus and tension through discussion and preliminary planning

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Required Materials:

• Butcher’s paper or large whiteboard
• Post-it notes
• Markers (coloured)
• Devices for individual research (laptops/tablets)
• Printouts or PDF copies of pre-selected media articles (as scaffolds)
• Sticky label name tags
• Document template handout: “Performance Ideas Document”
• Props box (variety of symbolic/thematic items for potential improvisations)

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Lesson Breakdown:

0 – 10 mins: Challenging Perceptions Warm-up

Activity: “Statues of Truth”

• Focus: Activate dramatic expression, build ensemble cohesion, introduce cultural topics non-verbally.

Instructions:

• Students move freely around the space. On a cue (“Freeze!”), they must instantly create a statue or shape based on a word the teacher calls out (e.g., “Injustice”, “Migration”, “Home”, “Culture”, “Protest”, “Future”).
• Teacher asks for brief “tap-in” monologues (“In this pose, what are you thinking?”).
• Students tagged explain the character’s imagined voice/inner world in one sentence on the spot.

Purpose: Establishes focus, expressive physicalisation and thematic entry points.

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10 – 20 mins: Cultural Issues in Contemporary Australia

Activity: Mini-research and Think-Pair-Share

• Using short curated clippings provided (e.g., SBS News, The Guardian Australia, ABC Indigenous), students explore current issues linked to:
  • Multiculturalism
  • Immigration
  • Reconciliation
  • Refugee experiences
  • First Nations activism
  • Language/cultural identity loss
  • Racism and representation in media

Method:

• In pairs, students read and highlight key points, then discuss how the issue manifests dramatically (through personal stories, conflict, injustice, voice, or silence).
• Share brief pair findings with class.

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20 – 35 mins: Collaborative Mind Map

Activity: “Big Wall of Stories”

• Students write keywords, headlines, quotes, or statistics from their research on Post-it notes.
• Collectively add these to the "Big Wall" (butcher’s paper). Cluster notes by thematic links.
• Teacher prompts students: “What stories live here?”, “Who might be unheard?”, “Where is the drama?”

Challenge Element:

• Use two coloured markers only:
  • One colour = Facts/Events
  • One colour = Potential Voices/Perspectives

Reflection Questions:

• Which stories speak to you most?
• Where can we feel tension? Whose voice creates suspense or urgency?

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35 – 45 mins: Choosing and Narrowing Focus

Activity: “One Thread, One Voice”

• Each student views the completed mind map and chooses a specific path or cluster they’re drawn to.
• They note down:
  • The issue
  • One compelling fact
  • One imagined voice they might explore from that issue (this is not yet scripted)

Student Individual Work Begins:
Receive the “Performance Ideas Document”:

PERFORMANCE IDEAS DOCUMENT:

1. ISSUE TITLE:
2. KEY FACT/QUOTE (with source):
3. VOICE/PERSPECTIVE (e.g. refugee adolescent, elder activist, interpreter, migrant parent):
4. POSSIBLE SCENE IDEA:
5. HOW TENSION MIGHT BE BUILT:
6. NON-LINEAR/ STYLISTIC FEATURES TO EXPLORE:

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45 – 55 mins: Style Sparks and Hybrid Possibilities

Activity: Performance Provocations Game

• Teacher reveals 6 envelopes labelled with performance styles or dramatic conventions:
  • Verbatim
  • Collage
  • Symbolism
  • Physical theatre
  • Multimedia use
  • Silhouettes / Shadow work

In groups of 3: Pick an envelope and imagine a 10-second preview of how their selected issue/voice could use this style or device dramatically.

Share mini moments with class.

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55 – 60 mins: Reflect & Set Enquiry Path

Group circle debrief:

• One sentence round:
  • “A story that interests me is...”
  • Or: “One non-linear idea I want to try is...”

Assign as preparation:
“Your Voice on Paper”
Students are to continue their Performance Ideas Document at home, adding 3 more facts, one key voice line (imagined verbatim), and 2 stylistic ideas to explore.

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Differentiation:

• Provide scaffolded articles at a range of complexities for EAL/D support.
• Offer choices of written or verbal share options.
• Extension: Students may integrate a bilingual or multilingual perspective or propose a cross-cultural juxtaposition for a hybrid approach.

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Assessment Opportunities:

Formative:

• Observation during physical warm-up
• Contribution to mind map
• Performance Ideas Document initiation
• Verbal participation in the share moments

Literacy Links:

• Evaluating sources and summarising ideas succinctly
• Using language for dramatic interpretation
• Synthesising thematic content into character-based narrative ideas

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Teacher Reflection Prompt:

• Which issues ignited strong student engagement?
• Were students able to take abstract themes and locate dramatic potential?
• How well did they grapple with non-linear thinking and stylistic application?

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Extension Idea for Next Lesson:

Students use select headlines and verbatim quotes to structure a collage drama pitch, involving symbolic movement, hybrid forms like projection or paper sculpture, and dynamic group work.

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🎭 This is not just research – it’s rehearsal for truth-telling. Who hasn’t been heard yet? Give them focus. Give them dramatic tension.