Unique Character Journeys

Overview

Unit Title: Dramatic Performance Journey
Lesson Number: 3 of 9
Lesson Title: Character Development: Creating Unique Personas
Year Levels: Years 5 and 6
Duration: 50 minutes
Class Size: 27 students
Curriculum Link:
The Arts – Drama (Australian Curriculum v9)

• Years 5–6 Achievement Standard Focus:

  "Students develop and refine their expressive skills to portray different characters and emotions. They plan, create and perform drama drawing on ideas, beliefs and viewpoints from a range of contexts."

• Drama Strand: Developing practices and skills (AC9ADR6D01):

  Develop and refine expressive skills and techniques to communicate characters and situations.

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Learning Intentions

By the end of this lesson, students will:

• Understand how to create and develop a character for drama.
• Be able to construct a basic character profile including backstory, personality, and motivations.
• Apply their character to an improvised drama scenario using voice, movement and gesture.

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Success Criteria

Students will successfully demonstrate their understanding by:

• Creating a detailed character profile using provided prompts.
• Expressing their character physically and vocally in improvisation.
• Staying in role and reacting in character during a drama game.

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Materials Needed

• A3 character profile worksheets (printed, one per student)
• Costume/clothing accessory box (hat, sunglasses, scarf, etc.)
• Whiteboard and markers
• Timer or stopwatch
• Lanyards or name tags for character names (optional)

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Lesson Breakdown – 50 Minutes

1. Welcome & Learning Goals (5 mins)

• Welcome students into a drama circle.
• Briefly recap previous lesson (working with gesture and movement).
• Share today’s focus: “Today we’re going to invent unique characters and bring them to life through improvisation!”

Tip for Engagement: Introduce with a simple character switch – the teacher dramatically changes voice and posture to become “Professor Pumpernickel” and starts class in character, then explains the lesson as themselves. This models the transformation through performance.

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2. Warm-Up Activity: Walk As Your Character (10 mins)

Purpose: To activate students’ physicality and creativity.

• Students walk around the space as themselves.
• Teacher calls out character prompts gradually:
  • “Walk like an 80-year-old.”
  • “You’re a sneaky spy trying not to be followed.”
  • “You’re a child at a theme park.”

Add emotion and characterisation:

• “Now walk proudly!”
• “Now walk angrily.”

Focus Questions:

• How does this character feel?
• What are they thinking?
• Where are they going?

Encourage students to use facial expression, energy levels, pace, posture.

Differentiation Strategy: Teacher models ideas for students with additional needs. Pair EAL/D students with expressive peers to mimic and share responses physically rather than verbally.

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3. Main Activity: Character Creation Workshop (15 mins)

Objective: Build a strong, imaginative character.

Distribute Character Profile Sheets (one per student). Students create a character using the following areas:

• Name
• Age
• Occupation
• Favourite food, colour
• A secret no one knows
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Backstory (Where are they from? What's their family like?)

Mini-Brainstorm (Facilitator-led prompts on board):

• What makes a character interesting?
• How can we make our character unique?

Students complete sheets individually or with a peer to discuss ideas.

Differentiation Strategy: Use simplified versions of the profile sheet with sentence starters or visuals for neurodiverse learners. Provide examples or a partially completed template.

Extension Activity: Advanced learners develop a “signature phrase” or physical tick for their character (e.g. always adjusting glasses, humming, using a catchphrase like “Indubitably!”)

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4. Creative Play: “In Character Improv Café” (15 mins)

Set-Up:

• Transform the classroom or open space into an imaginary café.
• Students wear costume items (optional) and nametags with their character name.

Instructions:

• Everyone “enters” the café as their character.
• Teacher (as the waiter/waitress) hosts and invites students to have conversations.
• Students mingle and improvise greetings, orders, stories about their day, staying entirely in character.

Call freeze after 5–6 minutes and rotate who sits, who hosts, or new scenarios:

• "The power goes out!"
• "A famous actor arrives!"
• "Someone gets their order wrong!"

Teacher Role: Act as in-character facilitator, pause action with commentary like “What might your character do now?”

Differentiation Strategy: Allow shy students to observe the first round then enter. Assign speaking partners to support reluctant speakers.

Extension Activity: Students with strong improvisation skills can host “talk shows” where they interview another student in-character in front of the group.

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5. Reflection & Exit Ticket (5 mins)

• Gather in a circle. Ask:
  • “What made your character unique?”
  • “What was challenging about staying in character?”
  • “What would you like to develop further for your character next lesson?”

Exit Ticket Prompt: On the back of their profile sheet, write one sentence:
“My character is memorable because…”

Collect for next lesson’s devising work.

Optional for Advanced Learners: Begin a “character diary” as homework or early finisher task, writing a day-in-the-life entry in character voice.

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Assessment Opportunity

Formative Assessment through observation during:

• Improvisation performances
• Participation in warm-ups and group discussion
• Completion of character profiles

Feedback can be peer-led (students give each other one positive note and one question).

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Differentiation Strategies Recap

Learner Type	Strategy
EAL/D Students	Pair with fluent English speaker; use visual supports; mime options
Students with ADHD/ASD	Clear step-by-step instructions, visual cues, safe defined space
Advanced Learners	Add vocal work, signature gestures, complex motivations/backstory
Reluctant Speakers	Allow for miming scenes or use simplified lines/props for support

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Reflection for Next Lesson

The characters created today will form the basis for Lesson 4: Building Ensemble Scenes. Encourage students to hold onto and continue developing their characters, as they’ll begin rehearsing longer improvised vignettes using collaboration and co-constructing storylines.

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Prepared by:
Drama Learning Designer – Australian Performing Arts-focused Primary Program
Designed to inspire confidence, creativity and character-powered storytelling 🎭