Wk 8: Planning for Learning in Drama

The class was based on an article called ‘Dramathink’ that we had looked at during the week but it was not really thoroughly looked at. The coversation moved on into asking about the imigration museum, convicts and also a red leather suitcase that a poor lady who had lost everything bought with her wedding ring, her suitcase was given to the museum along with her history.

The game we played based on immigrants, it was a game based on a captain who would order the immigrants around and the last one to do the order was excluded out of the game. It was climb the crows nest, scrub the deck, the captains coming (salut the captain) , pat the parrot (who is sitting on the left shoulder). this would get students thinking in terms of boats, as many who immigrated to Australia or other countries did it via small boat.

then Jo showed everyone some photos of London and other places 19th century. Jo then took the role of a woman leaving one of the inns in the picture, we asked her many questions about what she was doing and where she was going, it ended up being that her husband had lost his job to a machine, she was asked if she had heard of Australia and she had a pamphlet but couldn’t read it (which i guess is normal for those days). then we did role plays based on the woman and her husband talking about why they should leave and why they shouldn’t. then we made a tunner of people and one at a time someone would walk through the tunnel and each side of the tunnel would have a reason for or against them leaving. At the end of the tunnel the person walking through would say they were going or they wern’t going. Then we could have done a character profile of an immigrant: Name, age, occupation, reason for leaving, family.

At one point we stood in a circle and held hands, swaying from side to side and making boat noises, this was to create a feeling of what it would be like to be on the boat.

Then we looked at the Port Official, the one letting on the immigrants looked at what he would look at. Looking at if people were sick or diseased, looking at their teeth, making sure they wont die on the long journey. Making students understand how hard it is to immigrate and what sorts of things people have to go through.

We then finished the class off by looking at making tableau’s of saying goodbye at the port, arriving in Melbourne, soundscapes on the noises of the ship, things people would say. Look at a picture of London and Melbourne and discuss the differences between the two pictures. Then we briefly spoke about what we were doing at the Primary School.