Understanding by Design Unit Template

Title of Unit Teenagers and Growing Up: Much Ado About Stage 1 (Year 11)
Clubbing
Curriculum Area Drama Time Frame 6 Weeks
Developed By Imogen Misan
Identify Desired Results (Stage 1)
Learning Requirements
- demonstrate and explain skills and techniques related to on-stage roles and/or offstage roles
- work both independently and collaboratively to conceive, create, develop, interpret, and express dramatic works
- communicate dramatic ideas to an audience through a variety of forms and methods
- demonstrate and communicate knowledge and understanding of the theories, skills, techniques, and technologies of drama

Assessment Design Criteria

Knowledge and Understanding:
KU1 Knowledge and understanding of practical skills and techniques relevant to specific practitioners’ on-stage or off-stage roles.
KU3 Understanding of the theories, skills, techniques, and technologies of drama.

Application:
Ap1 Selection and application of methods, forms, and techniques related to on-stage roles and/or off-stage roles.
Ap2 Experimentation with, and exploration of, appropriate creative methods and techniques to conceive, develop, create, interpret, and express
dramatic works.
Ap3 Collaborative and/or independent work through a range of dramatic forms and processes as an on-stage or off-stage practitioner.

Analysis:
An1 Investigation and analysis of the student’s own dramatic works and the dramatic work of others.
An2 Integration of skills, techniques, knowledge, and understanding related to on-stage or off-stage roles.

Understandings Essential Questions

Overarching Understanding Overarching Topical
Students will explore teenage issues of family, mental health, bullying, What issues face teenagers in How can we explore and represent
friendship, growing up, partying and drugs & alcohol through exploring 2019? sensitive teenage issues through
the themes in Andrew and Polly Peters’ play Much Ado About Clubbing theatre?
How do teenagers deal or cope
Students will engage in character development exercises to strengthen with these issues? What dramatic conventions can be
and further their characters beyond the play used to explore character in depth?
Why is it important to explore these
Related Misconceptions
issues in a safe environment? How can character backstories be
“Exploring themes of partying, drugs and alcohol is inappropriate in a developed?
schooling setting” How can characters be further
developed and discovered? How do Stanislavski exercises allow
These themes will be explored in a safe environment as successful school characters to be placed in
alcohol and drugs education places a focus on skill development and situations of growth?
educating students to make healthier and more informed decisions for
their own and others’ safety and wellbeing (Meyer & Cahill, 2004).

Knowledge Skills
Students will know… Students will be able to…
- Issues facing teenagers: puberty, family difficulties, parents, - Develop a strong character for performance (body language,
friendships, partying, peer-pressure, drugs & alcohol, depression voice, facial expression, personality, identity)
& anxiety, self-esteem and body image issues, social media - Engage in character exercises building to a performance of the
influence, cyber bullying, societal pressures, sexualisation of comedy play Much Ado About Clubbing
young men and women, eating disorders, stigma of mental health - Work collaboratively to develop improvisations
and chronic medical conditions, LGBTQI and sexual identity, - Discover and demonstrate knowledge of character backstories
bullying and cyber addiction. - Rehearse and perform the play as a collaborative class
- Stanislavski and associated exercises for building character - Show knowledge and understanding of issues facing teenagers in
2019 through creative self-devised performances
Assessment Evidence (Stage 2)
Performance Task Description
Assessment Type 1: Performance. Students undertake one major performance: Much Ado About Clubbing by Andrew and
Summative task
Polly Peters’.
Unit Overview
Week 1: Exploring lives of teenagers in 2019
Week 2: ‘Growing up’ group improvisations
Week 3: Group self-devised performances exploring issues
Week 4: Play introduced, cast assigned and character backstory building exercises
Week 5: Hot seat and Stanislavsky exercises
Week 6: Blocking and rehearsal with warm-ups

Week 1
This class discussion and the unit in general may bring
about personal or class student sensitivities. In
delivering this unit, the teacher must be aware of
school and community issues that may impact class
members, and be cautious of these or choose to not
explore them entirely.
This lesson could be booked into the library or
computer room if students do not have their own
devices with internet access.
Teacher to monitor group work in class ensuring
students are on task.
Learning Plan (Stage 3)
Students are introduced to the unit on teenage issues and growing up.
- Students told a summative class play will be introduced in Week 4 and that the cast
do not have set personalities, so students will have the opportunity to develop their
own unique characters as the unit progresses.
Class Discussion:
- Students questioned on what they believe are common issues impacting students
their age in 2019. Brainstorming on the board will be useful.
- Prompt students with the following examples: puberty, family difficulties, parents,
friendships, partying, peer-pressure, drugs & alcohol, depression & anxiety, self-
esteem and body image issues, social media influence, cyber bullying, societal
pressures, sexualisation of young men and women, eating disorders, stigma of
mental health and chronic medical conditions, LGBTQI and sexual identity, bullying
and cyber addiction
- In groups of 2 or 3, students explore an issue discussed in class or one of the
examples above and complete research for a short assignment on the issue that will
be presented to the class at the end of the week
Assignment:
- Students complete background research into the issue including statistics, facts and
examples
- Students explore strategies that can help to manage and assist the issue OR stigma
around the issue
- Students use lessons to research with their group and make notes or create a
PowerPoint presentation
- Homework time may be needed for students to finish research
- Students present their findings to the class in a formative casual presentation at the
end of the week
- Opportunity for further discussion is given after each presentation (other students
may want to add ideas to the issue or provide further clarification)
Week 2
This week’s improvisation may again bring about
personal or class student sensitivities. In monitoring
these improvisations, the teacher must be aware of
school and community issues that may impact class
members, and be cautious of these or choose to not
explore them entirely.
Improvisation groups should be chosen at random
throughout the week, with students having various
opportunities (at least 5) to be involved in different
improvisations.
Week 3 activity can aim to be introduced at the end of
this week if time permits to give students a head start
on their self-devised performances.
Begin by re-capping with students on what the assignments from last week found on
common issues for teenagers in 2019. Ask students which issues they believe are more
problematic now than ever before, and why they believe this is?
Group Improvisations:
Through out the lessons this week, students will be involved in various improvisations that
require them to engage in and resolve situations that teenagers can encounter. The
following improvisations prompts will be explored in groups of 4 and allow scope for
students to improvise the exact problem and resolution themselves, with the location and
issue provided:
- Peer-pressure: Clubbing scene
- Cyber addiction: Principals office with parents and a student
- Sexual identity: House party
- Social media influence: Parent talking to their teenager before bed
- Sexualisation of men/women: A English classroom debate
- Depression & Anxiety: A school locker-room
- Friendship: Football match
- Cyber bullying: School Corridor
- Medical Condition: School yard lunch break
Sentence Starter Improvisations:
Students are given sentences or sentence starters as prompts for improvisations in groups
of 4 or 5. Students instructed to identify and resolve an issue facing teenagers that the
prompt leads them to. The improvisation must start with the given sentence:
- “How Embarrassing! Did you all see that photo that’s been sent around...”
- “Does anyone know why Charlie has been away for so long?”
- “OMG! I’m going to die if…”
- “She is such a …”
- “My parents are fighting again…”
- “We’ve noticed you keep forgetting your lunch”
- “I’m not talking to him because…”
- “Why don’t I look like her?”
- “I don’t really wanna go…”
Students reflect on the issues explore and how they went about resolving (or un-resolving)
certain situations. Discuss characterisation, relationships, objectives and world building and
the effects of those on improvisations.
Week 3
Teacher may need to re-fresh students on certain
styles if they wish to create a symbolic play when
exploring their issue.
Performances may need to run into the first lesson of
week 4 if students require more rehearsal time.
Week 4
Teacher to divvy up any extra unnamed lines when
casting characters and assign lines to those students
during read through.
As students have begun to read through and familiarise
themselves with their assigned characters, they will
now begin to explore them through responding to
situations in which their character is tested.
The teacher may select pairs randomly OR choose
similar, like-minded characters to be together (i.e.
pairing the ‘lads’ together) OR completely different
characters together (i.e. pairing a bouncer with a
parent), depending on student’s confidence with the
task.
Group self-devised performances:
This week students will create, block, rehearse and perform self-devised plays in groups of 4
exploring an issue that stood out or appealed to them over the last few weeks of the unit.
- Each group should choose a different issue
- Groups can devise their own issue or a previously unexplored issue and negotiate this
with the teacher as appropriate
- Students can opt to perform and also take up tech roles with their group: organising
lighting and sound if appropriate
- Plays should be approx. 5-7 minutes in length and students should have 3 lessons to
develop their plays
- Costuming and tech should be simplistic with a focus on dialogue and story
- Teacher can re-fresh students on story arch (orientation, climax, resolution) if required,
however students do not have to follow this arch and may create more symbolic pieces
- Students have the option to create symbolic theatre making use of include non-linear
stories, a series of continuous tableaux, Brechtian theatre and Poor theatre (these
practitioners and styles have been previously explored by the class in a previous unit)
- Students to perform their plays to the class in the last lesson of the week
- Class feedback will be encouraged after each performance.
Students are introduced to class play Much Ado About Clubbing and provided with scripts.
- Initial read through as a class
Students have been assigned characters after teacher observation of the first few weeks of
improvisations and activities
- Students second read through with assigned characters
- Continue to become familiar with lines for homework this week
Begin Blocking scenes using students’ initial interpretations of characters. Students
encouraged to explore and experiment with body language, facial expression and character
voice.
Character Development Activity: Better Backstory (suitable for a double lesson)
Using assigned characters from Much Ado about Clubbing:
Part 1:
- Have students sitting with a partner on stage
- Students told the task is to start to bring their characters to life
- Ask students - what are the given circumstances of your character? i.e. (My name is
Jim, I am friends with Jack and I like this girl called Sophie)
- These are the given circumstances that students know from the play script
- Ask them… What info is provided from the play in the dialogue, blurb or character
list about their character? Where is the play set and what does this mean for their
 character?
- Students discuss & answer these questions with their partners (10 mins)
- Students can look in playscripts to find further information.
- Moving around the circle, each student will share all their known given
circumstances to the rest of the class. At this stage, this may not be much.
Part 2:
- In the same pairs, students now receive a handout with the below questions.
Students must discover the answers for their character.
These answers will help build each character’s - How many siblings do you have?
backstory, encouraging students to think about their
- What is your family like?
character more widely.
- Where do you live?
- What subjects do you enjoy at school and what are you good at?
- How do you behave at home VS out having fun (clubbing!) with friends?
- What are your hobbies?
- What do you look like? Visualise your character.
- How would you walk around the school yard VS at home?
- What is your main goal/objective/motivation in the play and why?

- Students should try their best to come up with an answer to each question for the
character (15-20 mins)
- Prompt students to think outside the square

Part 3:
- Students now use their recently discovered character backstory to be introduced to
the class through improvised scenes
- Place 2 chairs and a table aside each other to resemble a ‘café’ style meeting place
- Students create an audience to observe each other and learn about each others
backstories
- Each pair is selected to have their characters meet at the ‘café’
- The two must pretend they are strangers and get to know each other… like a speed
dating game. Both have to take it in turns asking each other questions to get to
know each other. Students can ask the same questions that were on the handout to
find out these factors, or can simply say: so tell me a little about yourself…
- Students can build these café scenes to have interesting or ridiculous outcomes.
- Each pair has between 5-10 minutes to perform.
- If a pair produces a quality scene that continues to build, feel free to extend this
time limit.

Week 5
*Important note to class before this lesson –
Students to bring some of what they have brought
for lunch to class as it will be used in this exercise
and eaten in character.
The certain incidents will need to be pre-planned
before this lesson with certain students - and other
teachers (if possible).
It is important that students are told that the
events that will occur throughout the live
incidents are not real and to not be alarmed, as
Conclusion: De-brief with students in a class discussion about how the backstory exercise
enabled them to explore their characters in detail, and how/why this will enhance their
character performance in the play.
Students engage in character development activities this week.
Character Development Activity: Hot Seat
- Students given time (5 mins) to individually prepare themselves and ‘get into character’
- Students make a circle and are instructed that all but the character selected are
interviewers who must ask questions to find as much information about the character as
possible
- Each character will have to think on the spot, using their background knowledge that
was discovered in the lessons last week, or by improvising further previously unknown
information
- Examples of questions include: What are your hobbies? What would you do if you had a
million dollars? Where do you live? What was your childhood like?
- Each student will have a turn (approx. 5 mins per student) to be in the ‘hot seat’
Character Development Activity: Stanislavski based character exercises responding to
live incidents (suitable for a double lesson)
As students have begun discovering their Much Ado about Clubbing characters, this
exercises aims to further develop their characterisation skills.
- If possible, use a regular classroom for this exercise
- Teacher asks class to be comfortable sitting randomly at tables with their brought
food*, waiting further instruction.
- Students are informed that they must act as their Much Ado about Clubbing
characters for the lesson
Teacher introduces task by reading the following extract:
“You are all completing your First Aid Training, you are all strangers who have opted to do
their training on a particular day as your different schools or workplaces have required it. It
is now lunchtime, there is a cafeteria. You don’t know one another apart from the
workshop this morning, but must all sit and eat lunch together. However, a series of events
will begin to occur, whatever happens - you will need to try your best in character to deal
with them….”
they have all been pre-planned with students or
other teachers.
The warm-up will slowly prepare students for the
main exercise.
Although unrealistic in nature, incidents 2 and 3 are
playful and imaginative and will test how seriously
students respond in character when caught off
guard.
Warm-up:
Students instructed to begin eating. Teacher continues reading extracts: “Sit and focus on
how you would eat your food or drink as your character. This is just going to get us
thinking about our mannerisms, slowly transporting us back into the minds of our Much
Ado About Clubbing characters. Forget about school, we are no longer in drama class as
actors we are genuinely eating our lunch after at a First Aid Training course in the cafeteria.
We have just had 3 hours of information on resuscitation, trauma, emergency response,
temporary bandage making, and so on and we are now eating our lunch. We all just met
this morning because we randomly choose to do our first aid training on (insert the real
date of this lesson i.e. Wednesday 3rd April)” (5 mins)
Setting up the exercise:
“Now I would like you to think about how well you were actually paying attention during
the first aid presentation, and whether that information was retained or already forgotten.
Or maybe you struggled to comprehend the concepts altogether, the information going
completely over your head? Maybe you already knew most of this information, but had to
renew your certificate and receive the latest training qualification. So maybe you are not
happy to be here, and this is a waste of a day for you. So while eating your lunch, take a
moment to think about what your characters’ response would be to this mornings session.
How is that affecting your mood right now, as you’re eating your lunch? Was there
anything in the presentation that affected you, perhaps reminding you of trauma witnessed
or that you were apart of in the past.” (5 mins)
Incident 1: The following has been pre-planned with students and is NOT real: (10 mins)
- One character will fall to the ground choking and uncomfortable. The characters
must use their recently learnt knowledge of CPR to act out what to do.
- Other characters must respond to the incident
- The student is previously told to take their time waiting a few minutes to recover
properly (they can pretend to pass out and therefore lie comfortably on the ground)
- Just as the student eventually begins to recover….
Incident 2: The following has been pre-planned with students: (20 mins)
- A student will enter the room screaming ‘help, help, there’s been a zombie
apocalypse – someone help’
- The student will then go on to describe an epidemic taking over the human race
outside
- They will describe the epidemic and the ‘diseased like people’ that were seen – how
people would suddenly catch the disease and begin to turn zombie like – detailing

Incident 4 will be pre-planned with a fellow teacher
at the school who would be interested in
participating.
This task deals with sensitive issues that may bring
out personal sensitivities for students. For this
reason, the teacher must be sensitive to student,
school and community potential emotional triggers,
and certain incidents may need to avoided or
changed.
how horrific it was. They will tell everyone to stay inside and keep the doors
locked.
- Students must react to the incidents in character accordingly.
Incident 3: The following has been pre-planned with a student:
- After the hysteria dies off, another student will begin to come down with the
zombie-like disease, having somehow caught the epidemic.
- The characters will need to work out what to do with him to keep themselves safe.
They may decide to move him out of the room.
Students continue to improvise responding to the situation until teacher draws exercise to a
close.
Incident 4: If students have built enough of a basis of their characters and responded well
to incidents 1-3, they can move on to incident 4 (teacher to judge how they have been
responding to the tasks).
Announce to students that there will be a SETTING CHANGE: (20 mins)
- Students told they are acting as their characters again but now waiting at an airport
to pick up loved ones
- Ask characters to think about who they are waiting for and picking up specifically &
their relationship to that person
- Tell students the plane should have landed an hour ago and they have now been
called into this room over loud speaker by an airline manager, where they are
anxiously waiting
- A fellow teacher at the school enters playing the role of a spokesperson for the
airline
- The guest teacher shares the news that the plane has gone missing, mid-air
- Characters must react appropriately and as realistically as possible
De-brief and discussion: (10 mins)
- Students and teacher de-brief and discuss the various incidents, how they were caught off
guard and how this affected their acting and characterisation.
- Students discuss how eating warm up allowed them to develop and exercise associated
character mannerisms.
- Reflect on how the two different styles drew on the character’s two different emotional
levels... Panic, Stress and Sadness/Despair
- General de-brief about the three situations.
Students need to be settled before moving to their
next class as heavy and lengthy improvisations are
emotionally draining and can bring about stress.
Week 6
From: Wiggins, Grant and J. Mc Tighe. (1998). Understanding by Design, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
ISBN # 0-87120-313-8 (ppk)
Relaxation before heading to next class: (5 mins)
Students find their own place on the floor and listen to meditation music for 5 minutes to
calm and relax before being dismissed.
This week students continue blocking and rehearsal of Much Ado About Clubbing in
lessons.
- All scenes should be blocked during this week
- When students are not involved in the scene being blocked, they can practise
dialogue from other scenes in groups
- As students have been character building over the last week, they may need a
refresher of Week 4s blocking
- Each lesson should include one of the following warm ups to build energy levels and
get students in touch with their characters again:
Warm-up: Teacher plays various genres of music and students pretend they are at a party or
‘clubbing’ in character. Students improvise their character’s behaviour in this setting, which may
include dancing or mingling etc. When the genre of music abruptly changes, students must alter
their behaviour to embody the music, whilst continuing on with whatever activity they were
engaging with.
Warm-up: Students form lines and nominate a dance captain which rotates so each student has
a turn. Students follow the dance moves of a dance captain who must dance to the music in
character in whatever style their character would dance, whilst the rest of the class follow the
dance moves to their best ability.
Play rehearsal continues in weeks leading up to performance. Play is performed to audience of
others students, parents and friends on Thursday evening of Week 9.