Today you lock in the working notes that feed next lesson's KA3 review or report. You have already engaged with a staged performance: a school show, a trip, or a recorded piece watched in class. This lesson is not the viewing itself. It is the structured note-taking that turns what you saw into a pack you can write up next time.
Today's notes are not the banked KA3 piece. They are the working pack. Next lesson turns them into the review or report that banks.
If you missed the viewing, tell your teacher today. You can write your notes after the catch-up they arrange, or on another staged performance you really saw and can show evidence for. Never write notes on a show you did not see.
You will glance at a short sample under the five-part review framework, then fill that same framework for the performance your class attended.
A useful performance note is not a plot retell. It is a set of observations you can still trust a week later. Use these five headings every time.
| Heading | What you write | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Story | What the piece was about, in a few sentences. Name title, venue or setting, and roughly when you saw it. | A one-act drama about two brothers waiting for a late bus after a family funeral; almost nothing happens on the surface. |
| Production choices | Staging, direction, blocking, how moments were shaped. | When the older brother finally spoke about their father, he stayed standing while the younger sat. That height difference made the apology feel unfinished. |
| Technical elements | Sound, lighting, costume, props, scenery: name the tool and what it did. | Lighting stayed street-lamp yellow until the final minute, then shifted to cold blue. |
| Audience response | What you noticed in the room or among viewers. | The hall went quiet in the last exchange; nobody clapped until the lights came up fully. |
| Personal response | What landed on you, and why. One honest reaction beats a vague compliment. | I expected a big row. What landed instead was the silence after the apology. |
Worked shape under production choices: name the choice, then what it did. That is the shape your notes need under production and technical headings.
Here is a short sample under the five headings. Read it once, then lift one production or technical line that names a choice and what it did. That shape is what you will use in your own notes next. This is a quick model only, not notes on your own show yet.
Now write your KA3 working notes on the staged performance your class attended or watched. These notes feed next lesson's bankable KA3 review or report; they are not the banked piece yet.
Use the same five headings. Aim for 180-280 words across the whole note. Leave a final line naming your attendance evidence (programme, ticket, photo or screenshot) and where you keep it. Copy the finished notes into your Communication Portfolio as m4_l114_performance_notes_<your-initials>.
Talk this through with the person beside you, or sit with it quietly:
The longer thinking can go in your Reflective Journal after class if you want it there.
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