The second film offers strategies for adding depth to the developing drama, using as the context the history topic Victorian childhood, including children working in service in a Manor House.
The video
2. Continuing a drama
Drama workshop leader, Richard Sumitro, introduces the second video, which follows an upper KS2 class and their teachers in Leeds as they work their way through Session 2 of Framework 2: Victorian childhood.
Session 2 of the framework provides drama activities exploring what it was like to work as a child in service in a large Victorian house. In the video the pupils:
- Explore the conditions of servants working in a big house in the early Victorian era
- Develop an understanding of the technology of the time
- Share ideas and different perspectives as they negotiate their group drama.
The drama strategies demonstrated in the film are:
- Writing in role: pupils write letters to family members or a friend on the eve of taking up their new jobs; they share a line from their letters with the group
- Teacher and children in role: pupils take on roles in the Manor House and work alongside their teachers in role, responding to questions, explaining their actions, etc
- Improvisation / Small scene making: as the drama develops the groups improvise their own scenes, incorporating short sections of dialogue.
More information on the drama strategies used in the film can be found in Framework 2 and in the Teacher Notes. Use the Framework to deliver the drama, which references when to incorporate or share the additional resources linked below.
Duration: 13' 40"
Resources
The framework pdf documents include hyperlinks to the individual resources. For best performance it is strongly recommend that you download the framework pdf and then open it using a suitable program - such as Acrobat - rather than using the framework in your browser.
Framework 2: Victorian childhood. document
Exploring the KS2 history topic Victorian childhood. Accompanies Film 2: Continuing a drama.
Teacher Notes. document
Offers an overview of the content of the resources and more detail on the drama strategies included.
Resource 1: The Victorian era - context. document
Brief information on the Victorian era to provide context for the drama work.
Resource 2: Slideshow - Victorian children. image
Images showing Victorian children at work and at home
Resource 2: Victorian children - images. document
Images showing Victorian children at work and at home.
Resource 3: The lives of working children. document
Includes testimony of children working in cotton mills and coal mines in Victorian times.
Resource 4: Stop and Go - prompts. document
Suggestions for still images to make during Session 1.
Resource 5: Slideshow - The Big House. image
Use the slideshow to give pupils' context for their imagined roles in the Manor House.
Resource 6: Country house - floor plan animation. video
An animation showing the function of each room in a large country house.
Resource 7: Teacher in role - script. document
Possible script to use alongside the children in role at the Manor House.
Resource 8: Poster - reform child labour laws. image
A poster to use as part of the context for Session 3.
Resource 9: The campaign for children's rights. document
Context and possible teacher in role script for the labour law meeting.
Related resources from BBC Teach
The Victorians - short audio dramas about the Victorian era, including the lives of children working in service and in coal mines
