Finding suitable plays for students to perform

Solving the problem of finding suitable plays that meet GCSE Drama exam board criteria

One of the most frustrating and time consuming problems associated with GCSE drama classes is the seeking out of suitable plays for the students to perform.

There are, of course, many plays around, but not so many that have the right amount of engagement per candidate and the right number of pupils involved within the cast.

What’s more, given the restriction that some exam boards now impose on the taking of scenes from published plays and the need for the play to have a unified sense, finding suitable plays is getting more difficult – especially if one wishes to avoid using the same plays as last year.

This is the problem that “Here comes Godot now!” by Lindsay Jones solves. It contains 12 plays each containing multi-roling and the variety of theatrical techniques that exam boards now seem to love.

The plays particularly engage with themes not often found in other sources, such as dark comedy, fantasy, horror, humour and urban myths. Thus the themes in this volume avoid the social topics such as drug taking which other volumes (and indeed assemblies and PSHE lessons) will already have covered extensively.

As for performances, the plays are written for a variety of combinations of participants from two boys or two girls up to four boys and four girls. Because the volume is photocopiable (or printable from a CD rom) only one copy of the book need be bought, and it can be used among the class without further cost.

ISBN: 978 1 86083 856 9 Order code: T1820emn – please quote with order.

Sample pages incorporating one complete play can be viewed at http://pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/drama/T1820.pdf

  • Photocopiable book, £29.95 plus £3.95 delivery
  • CD with school-wide rights: £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
  • Both the book and the CD £36.94 plus £3.95 delivery
  • Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report…

The Virtual Physics Laboratory

These 3d immersive experiments use games technology to give realistic laboratory experiences. They are based on years of research into teaching science on-screen. They are ideal where resources are limited or where you want to give your students a wider experience of experiments that they would not normally do, such as measuring the acceleration of gravity on the Moon, firing an AK47 at a ballistic balance, using an Airtrack to verify Newton’s Second Law.

The 3D immersive experiments can be used in a variety of ways:

  • By the students directly to prepare for a laboratory experiment by familiarising them with the equipment to be used and the methodology of the experiment. ·
  • To give experience of an additional experiment for which there would not normally be available laboratory time. ·
  • To give experience of getting a particular result in a different way to what they have used in a practical laboratory lesson which allows the students to compare methods and better understand the essentials of an experiment. ·
  • As a substitute for an experiment that might be too dangerous or impossible for a student to undertake. · As general supporting material for science theoretical work. ·
  • As revision for an experiment that has previously been performed in the laboratory. ·
  • As a personal experience of an experiment normally only performed by the teacher in front of the class.

Experiments include: Velocity, Acceleration and Newton’s 3nd Law using an Airtrack, Conservation of Momentum using a ballistic balance, Moments, Rutherford’s Gold Foil experiment, I/V Characteristics, Magnetic Field of a Coil, Specific Heat, Mechanical Equivalent of Heat, Diffraction, Hooke’s Law and Young’s Modulus, Capacitor Charge and Discharge, Planck’s Constant. See www.keylinkcomputers.co.uk for latest list and more details including videos.

A perpetual site licence costs £399 plus £2.50 pp + VAT at 20% (£481.80)Email to: orders@keylinkcomputers.co.uk or send to Keylink Computers Ltd, 2 Woodway House, Common Lane, Kenilworth CV8 2ES quoting order code HH15.

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