During the year students keep a weekly journal reflecting on their experiences in class. They will be expected to write 1-2 pages every week.

New ideas, concepts or words we learnt this week?

What was the purpose of these activities?

What did I achieve in drama and how?

What suggestions could I make to improve my work (give example)

How did I find working with others?

What did I notice about others work that I observed?

What is my next goals for achievement in drama and how will I achieve this goal?

The following examples are just snippets of previous journal entries – the expectation is 1-2 pages a week;

Exemplar 1

“This week in drama we learnt how to do stylised mime and we also learned how to mime objects and how to give the effects of weight. Clear skills identified The purpose was to help us make our mime easy to understand. Justification

I learnt about different characteristics in mime such as the elevator and the push. Skills identified I could improve by making my movements more precise so that people can understand what I am doing. Clear self analysis I found working with others great as you could watch and see how things were supposed to look like which could then help me improve to. Established a way to help improve skills

What I noticed about other students was that you must be precise or even exaggerated in your movement so that others can understand what you are doing. Also in order for it to be realistic, you must use your whole body when moving. Clear example that shows an understanding of skills My next goal in drama is to achieve a good mark in our formative assessment. I will achieve this first by reading the criteria and by practising at home.” Achievable goal created.

Exemplar 2

“This week we learnt about pace, projection, volume, chorus and intonation.  Example of vocabulary/skills learnt

We did activities such as tongue twisters, hey buddy, row your boat (in chorus) and reading out different texts. The reason we did these activities was to use our voices in interesting ways Justifying the skills learnt, needs an example. When using the Karawane text I achieved being able to express my emotion without knowing what I was reading, by changing the pitch or tone of my voice. Clear example of voice skill

Working with others was cool but it did make it harder to concentrate on the words I was saying with all the noise around. Observing others, most people were really good at the voice work. Example needed My goal for next week is to make sure my voice is clear and projected in our practical work.” Clear goal, need an example of how this goal will be achieved.