Devising From Questions

Overview

This is lesson 7 of 18 in the Contemporary Drama Ensemble Lab. Students launch a collaborative inquiry project by selecting a non-confessional question and generating initial dramatic material through image, sound, movement, objects, found public information, and fictionalization. Grade 9–10 students use structured prompts to shape material; Grade 11–12 students facilitate inquiry, test assumptions, and make purposeful dramaturgical choices.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• Explore how a question can become the starting point for a dramatic work.
• Select and combine dramatic elements, forms, and conventions to communicate meaning.
• Use dramaturgical tools including motif, juxtaposition, chorus, montage, transition, and frame.
• Plan an ethical, accessible, collaborative inquiry for an intended audience.
• Reflect on how identity, place, culture, society, and belonging influence dramatic work.

Success criteria

• I can develop a focused, non-confessional question that matters beyond my group.
• I can use at least two dramaturgical tools to generate and shape material.
• I can contribute safely and respectfully without requiring personal disclosure.
• I can document roles, access needs, influences, and sources clearly.

Curriculum links

• Explore and create dramatic works through imagination, inquiry, collaboration, improvisation, and purposeful risk-taking.
• Intentionally select and combine character, time, place, plot, tension, mood, focus, contrast, balance, movement, sound, image, and form.
• Reason and reflect using drama-specific language, constructive feedback, and revision.
• Demonstrate personal, social, cultural, and ethical responsibility, including awareness of cultural appropriation, plagiarism, and audience.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–6 min · Hook and audience contract. Open the question hook and audience contract with the prompt, “What could our school or community learn to see differently?” Students silently write two possible questions, then discuss what makes inquiry safe: no forced autobiography, no impersonating lived experiences, respectful language, permission before using personal material, and the right to fictionalize or pass.

2. 6–16 min · Dramaturgical toolkit. Use the dramaturgy toolkit slides to introduce each tool with a brief classroom example: a prompt starts action; a motif repeats an image, sound, object, or gesture; juxtaposition places contrasting ideas together; a chorus creates a collective voice; montage assembles short fragments; a transition connects moments; a frame establishes how an audience reads the material; and an audience contract sets expectations. Students identify one tool they could use and explain its possible effect. For Grades 9–10, model a simple question such as “Who gets to feel welcome here?” For Grades 11–12, ask which assumptions that question contains.

3. 16–24 min · Question studio. Distribute the inquiry project planner. In groups of four or five, students generate questions connected to school, community, environment, migration, technology, belonging, work, or access. They test questions using three checks: Is it non-confessional? Does it invite more than one answer? Can it be explored through drama rather than only explained? Groups select one question and draft a relevance statement. The teacher conferences with groups and redirects questions that demand disclosure, stereotype a community, or rely on unsupported claims.

4. 24–40 min · Material generation lab. Groups create three short, non-verbal or lightly verbal fragments responding to their question: one image or freeze, one sound or spoken phrase, and one movement or object action. They then combine at least two fragments using a motif, juxtaposition, chorus, montage, transition, or frame. Found public information may be used only when its source is recorded; students may fictionalize names, circumstances, and viewpoints. Grade 9–10 groups choose from a visible list of tools. Grade 11–12 groups must justify why their chosen form challenges or complicates an assumption.

5. 40–50 min · Share and response. Groups present a 45–60 second draft. The audience observes silently, then offers feedback using: “I noticed…,” “I wondered…,” and “The dramatic choice that shaped my response was….” Presenters identify one moment that communicated meaning and one moment requiring refinement. The teacher listens for use of drama vocabulary, ethical choices, and equitable participation.

6. 50–57 min · Project submission. Groups complete the remaining sections of the inquiry project planner: roles, access plan, intended audience, initial dramaturgical tools, and source log. Roles may include performer, facilitator, dramaturg, designer, researcher, documenter, or access lead, with roles shared or rotated. The access plan should consider physical space, sensory load, language, mobility, privacy, and audience participation.

7. 57–60 min · Exit reflection. Return to the closing reflection slide. Each student submits or shares: “Our question is…,” “One choice that made the work more dramatic was…,” and “One assumption or access issue we must keep examining is….” Collect group planners for the next rehearsal.

Resources

• the complete devising lesson deck
• the inquiry project planner
• Open floor or cleared classroom space
• Neutral objects, paper, tape, and classroom-safe sound sources
• Board or projector
• Pens, pencils, and access supports requested by students

Assessment

• Confer with groups during question development and material generation, checking focus, ethical framing, participation, and purposeful use of dramatic tools.
• Use the draft shares to assess whether students can communicate meaning through image, sound, movement, object, and structure, then apply audience feedback.
• Collect the group planner and exit reflection to assess the question, relevance statement, roles, access plan, and source log.

Differentiation

• Provide Grades 9–10 students with question stems, a tool-choice menu, worked examples, and a three-part rehearsal sequence; invite Grades 11–12 students to lead facilitation and challenge the group’s assumptions.
• Offer sentence starters, visual tool cards on the board, rehearsal time before sharing, and options to contribute as performer, designer, researcher, writer, or observer.
• For EAL learners, allow home-language brainstorming, paired explanation, visual responses, and vocabulary support for motif, juxtaposition, chorus, montage, transition, and frame.
• For students with anxiety, trauma, mobility, sensory, or communication needs, reinforce the right to fictionalize or pass, provide a quiet planning role or alternative presentation mode, reduce sensory demands, and confirm access needs privately.