Dragons Over Liverpool
Dragons Over Liverpool (ages 11-12)
Popular with students, this scheme of work uses skills such as frozen pictures, physical theatre and mime to interpret the tale of a metropolis under siege by dragons. The workings of the media and the response of the public is imagined and scrutinised through interviews. Creative exercises include developing sequences to music and an evaluation where students film and critique their own work. Although originally set in Liverpool it can easily be adapted to your local setting – London, New York, Toronto, Rome, Sydney – to add to the fun!
The scheme of work contains 6 drama lesson plans.
- Lesson 1: The Newspaper Office. Students create the breaking of the media story of the year through the activities ‘The Printing Press’, ‘The Sighting’ and ‘The Newsroom’.
- Lesson 2: TV News. The terror of the moment is enacted using frozen pictures and the story develops through TV interviews.
- Lesson 3: The Dragon’s Capture. Students learn to use music effectively as the dragon is chased by the army.
- Lesson 4: The Slayer. After the lively warm-up exercise ‘The Dragon Battle’ the class searches for a suitable slayer and devises the scene ‘Rising to the Challenge’.
- Lesson 5: Chasing the Dragon. Students use handheld shots to perform the chase sequence through the group activity “Film Crews” in this evaluation lesson.
- Lesson 6: Interview with a Dragon. Use of physical theatre to represent the dragon and understand its motivation.
Supporting materials include
- 2 pieces of music
Additional resources are included in the appendices
- Basic Drama Skills
- End Of Unit Self-Assessment Form
The download is supplied as a ZIP file. It contains the scheme of work (PDF, readable on most computers) along with 2 music files (MP3 format).
