Characters Speak and Move

Overview

In this third lesson of Stories Come Alive, students explore how a character’s voice, gesture, posture, and use of levels communicate thoughts and feelings. Building on earlier work with story elements and role-play, students compare possible character responses across different times and places while showing respect for cultures and avoiding stereotypes.

Learning intentions

• We are learning to use voice, gesture, posture, and levels to show a character’s thoughts and feelings.
• We are learning to make performance choices based on evidence from a folk tale or picture-book narrative.
• We are learning to compare how characters might respond to the same situation.
• We are learning to perform respectfully without mocking or stereotyping people, cultures, or traditions.

Success criteria

• I can change my voice, body, and position to communicate a character’s feelings.
• I can explain how one performance choice shows what my character thinks or feels.
• I can show a character from a different time or place respectfully.
• I can listen to and discuss another interpretation without saying that one culture or group is “all the same.”

Curriculum links

• Drama: using the elements of drama, including role, relationship, voice, gesture, body, space, and levels, to communicate meaning.
• Drama: creating and presenting short dramatic scenes based on stories and personal or imagined experiences.
• Drama: reflecting on and interpreting drama by describing how choices communicate thoughts, feelings, and perspectives.
• Drama: demonstrating awareness of respect, cooperation, and inclusive participation during drama activities.

Lesson structure (45 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Welcome and warm-up. Teacher opens with the opening question and warm-up slides and asks, “How can we tell what someone feels before they speak?” Teacher models a worried character using only posture, gesture, and level. Students silently copy three contrasting shapes: confident, worried, and curious, then identify the clues they noticed.

2. 5–12 min · Teach the drama tools. Teacher uses the drama tools slides to introduce voice, gesture, posture, and levels. Model one neutral sentence, such as “The path is over there,” in different voices and body positions; discuss how meaning changes. Students practise saying the sentence with a high/low pitch, fast/slow pace, open/closed posture, and high/middle/low level.

3. 12–17 min · Story situation. Teacher reads or briefly retells a familiar folk tale or picture-book scene in which a character must respond to a problem, such as meeting a stranger, losing something important, or deciding whether to help. Avoid imitating accents or inventing “funny” cultural behaviours. Students identify the character, situation, possible feeling, and one piece of story evidence.

4. 17–30 min · Partner exploration. Teacher distributes the character voice and movement planning sheet and assigns pairs a character and situation from the chosen narrative. Students choose a feeling, practise a short line or thought, and plan one voice choice, one gesture, one posture, and one level. Partners rehearse a 20–30 second frozen picture that comes alive when the character speaks. Circulate and prompt: “What in the story supports that choice?” and “How can you show the setting respectfully rather than exaggerating it?”

5. 30–39 min · Share and compare. Teacher opens the rehearsal, sharing, and comparison prompts and invites selected pairs to perform. After each performance, classmates describe observable choices before offering interpretations: “I noticed…” and “This might show…” Students then compare two possible responses to the same problem, including how a character’s time, place, relationships, or experiences might influence the response without assuming every person from that culture would act alike.

6. 39–45 min · Reflect and exit. Teacher displays the reflection and exit prompt. Students complete the final section of the character voice and movement planning sheet: “One choice I made was… It showed…” and “One respectful way to portray a character from another time or place is…” Invite two or three volunteers to share, then collect the sheets.

Resources

• Selected folk tale or picture-book narrative
• the complete Characters Speak and Move slide deck
• the character voice and movement planning sheet
• Open floor space
• Board or chart paper and markers
• Optional simple story props, such as a scarf, basket, or paper map
• Timer

Assessment

• Observe whether students deliberately vary voice, gesture, posture, and level during modelling and rehearsal.
• Confer with pairs using the prompts about story evidence, respectful representation, and clear communication of feelings.
• Review the worksheet reflection for a purposeful drama choice and an understanding that cultures and communities are diverse, not stereotypes.

Differentiation

• Provide picture cues and sentence starters on the worksheet: “My character feels ___ because ___” and “I will use ___ to show ___.”
• Allow students to communicate through movement, a narrated thought, or a short line; do not require an accent or extended speaking.
• Pair students strategically and offer rehearsal in a quieter space, seated or at a comfortable level, for students with sensory, mobility, communication, or performance needs.
• Extend confident students by having them perform the same line twice, changing one drama element and explaining how the meaning changed.
• For English-language learners, pre-teach feeling words with gestures and accept labelled drawings or oral responses instead of lengthy writing.