You've met theme, plot, characterisation, setting and dialogue on a novel and on film. Today those five terms land on a drama text: a short scene written to be performed, not only read.
You will walk the scene once, then annotate it for all five terms. From those annotations you build your Drama Vocabulary Sheet, Part 1, and file that sheet in your Communication Portfolio.
You used these terms on your Module 1 novel and on film in Module 3. On stage they do the same jobs, but the audience meets them through speech and space.
| Term | What it means for you | For example |
|---|---|---|
| Theme: the big idea under the story | Name what the scene is really about, not just what happens | A row about a phone that is really about trust |
| Plot: the chain of events | Spot the moment something shifts | A text arrives and the plan for the night changes |
| Characterisation: how we know who someone is | Use what they say, do, and avoid saying | A person who cracks jokes when they are nervous |
| Setting: where and when it happens | Read the place as part of the meaning | A school corridor after the last bell feels different from the same corridor at lunch |
| Dialogue: the spoken lines | Hear what the words do to the other person | A question answered with another question, to dodge it |
Worked example (not the scene you will annotate):
A corridor outside an office. The lunch bell rings. Malik holds a folded letter.
MALIK: She said it would be grand.
MALIK: She said it would be grand.
The repeated line is characterisation through dialogue: he needs the words more than the listener does. The corridor and the lunch bell are setting doing quiet work around him.
This scene is about a leaving: read it straight, no need to make it neat.
Read The Leaving once cold. Use the two quick checks only to lock setting and plot, then turn to the person beside you for one short exchange:
Keep it brief. This pass warms the five terms; the full annotation in the next step is the piece you file.
Mark the scene in the tool. Drag across lines or stage directions, label each with one of the five terms, and write one sentence on what it does for an audience. Aim for at least one strong mark under each label.
Then fill the five slots and the novel/film link on the Drama Vocabulary Sheet in the box below, and copy the sheet into your Communication Portfolio as m4_l109_drama_vocab_<your-initials>. That copy is the piece your teacher initials; no second rewrite needed.
For the required link: think of one moment from your Module 1 novel or Module 3 film where a character showed who they were without saying it straight, or where the place did half the talking. A short answer is fine (for example, same as today: characterisation through action).
Talk this through with the person beside you for a minute:
If one of those answers belongs in your Reflective Journal, write it there after class.
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