Character Embodiment Lesson

Name of Lesson Plan:

Grade Level: 8

Subject:

Drama

Overview & Purpose Students will be asked to practice the art of embodying someone
else. The improvisation of a certain character will allow a student to gain confidence in
front an audience doing something they are not necessarily comfortable with. This
lesson will guide the students to realize the importance of specific traits when creating
a character profile in drama.

Teacher

Prepared By:

Kourtney
Fesser

Date:

Broad Areas of Learning: Cross Curricular

Competencies:
- Sense of Self, Community and Placethey are looking at the idea of identity
in more detail

Students

Outcomes/Indicators
(Learning tasks; Specifies
strategies, processes, and
knowledge that will be
learned. Approx. 1-3
outcomes from the
Saskatchewan Curriculum that
could be assessed)

Assessment
(Steps to check for student
understanding must assess
outcomes.)

Accommodations/Modificat
ions

Demonstrate how dramatic

characters interact in relationships
within the drama and/or collective
creation.
Improvise, compose, and perform
(e.g., with voice, instruments, and
technologies) a selection of pieces
in contrasting styles.

Keep notes about how well

the students are working
together in group discussions
Assess if every student is
active in the production
( each student must have a
part in the skit- speaking
part)
Keep a piece of paper that I
have personal notes for each
group on
Certain students in the class
have problems working
together with other students.
Allow them to get up and
perform a scene of a certain
character by themselves.
(Brecken)
Some of the students are too
shy to get up in front of their
classmates; if it is necessary
allow certain students to
perform their skit to me at a
later time ( Alice)

Demonstrate awareness of how focus is

maintained and shifts during pair, small,
and whole group drama work.
Demonstrate confidence and curiosity
when assuming different kinds of roles in
drama work.
Improvise simple pieces around a given
structure.

Discussion of how their peers

skits went
Allow group discussion after each
group presents where there is
opportunity to have structured
feedback for each group
Discuss how well they could tell
what character was being
portrayed

Materials
Needed
pen
paper

scissors

Procedures

Start with a class discussion

about the importance of
characters in the previous
activity we did ( movie scene)
Reiterate the importance of
showing characters traits in
the skits
Introduce the new
assignment of wanting to
work on the students
becoming a character
( embody the preson,
impressions)
Have the students choose
one famous person out of a
bag of names already
prepared
The famous individuals can
be singers, politicians,
athletes etc..
The students must create a
skit ( whatever they want)
that incorporates the
characters so we can guess
who is supposed to be
portrayed
The one rule is that the
students cannot use names in
the activity
This rule ensures that
students are practicing
embodying another
individuals personality
Then the rest of the class
must guess who was being
portrayed in the skits and
have a class discussion about
how their peers performances
went

Listen to the directions

Contribute to the class
discussions
Work collaboratively with your
group being sure that everyone
is involved
Contribute to class discussion of
peer reviewing other classmates
work (be constructive)

Other Resources
- Cell phone/
computer
( look up
clips of the
characters)

Closure
(Reinforce the lesson)

Reflections
(What went well; what could
be improved)

Have a major class discussion

at the end where you discuss
what worked and what didnt
Ex) did people use accents,
body language, hand
gestures, etc
First time I did this exercise it
flopped since the students
were just saying lyrics of the
famous person and were not
actually embodying the
character
The second round went way
better when I explained and
gave examples of what I was
looking for and I also cut their
prep time in half which forced
the students to create better
efficient skits

Be engaged in the class

discussion

Additional Notes
- Make the
rule of no
lyrics
- Maybe
allow the
students to
all act out
a certain
character
at the
same time?