Students are regularly placed in groups during the drama classroom and asked to devise performances for assessment.

How may technology help to guide the process of devising drama for KS3 students?

This year, I have been developing a process where students make use of collaborative software such as Google Docs or One Note to focus their group work more efficiently. The aim is to reduce the chances of cognitive overload and focus their attention on specific tasks, whilst always keeping the “big picture” in view.

Here’s where I’m at:

Firstly, I create a Google document for each group with a scaffolded template to guide them through the process. It features areas such as;

  • “roles and responsibilities”
  • session schedule
  • the “brain dump”
  • feedback
  • the script
  • costume
  • set
  • props
  • sound

These areas of the document allow students to work collaboratively and keep their ideas in one place. It is also a useful way to track the contributions that students are making to the group (which is often part of the assessment). I ask students to place their names in brackets after they make an entry, so that I may see who is contributing. You can also make use of the edit history function on Google docs, which is a great way to track student engagement.

In the “roles and responsibilities” area, I place creative and technical positions that students can undertake in addition to their performance roles. These are roles such as “focus keeper”. This student helps to keep the group on track and acts as a mediator to ensure that each group member has time to speak and contribute. Other roles are based on sound, lighting, props, costume, marketing etc. There is a clear role description provided so that students can see what is expected of them. This information provides them with clear expectations a bit like accepting a job in a real organisation.

Students are encouraged to make entries to their “session schedule” so that they take ownership of the process. I then check their group document before each lesson and also place some targets in to help keep them on track and focused.

You may have come across a scenario where early in the devising process a group is really enthusiastic and having a great discussion, but when you listen in, they are debating what colour trousers character X should have or what type of hair character Y should have. Whilst it could be useful to have these discussions later in the process, at the start it can be a waste of time for the group and provide decision fatigue early on, thus leading to a less productive session.

The use of this collaborative scaffold document tends to help alleviate this because the teacher is able to provide specific tasks for students to complete in a pre-thought-out order, helping students to focus their energy in the correct place. It also allows for differentiation because each group will require slightly different targets and tasks. It tends to make the students more accountable for their practical work and allows them to see that the teacher is watching the process closely.

There is also a great opportunity for providing feedback within this document. Often drama teachers tend to give a lot of verbal feedback on practical work, however, does this get lost or forgotten? Something I am currently trialling is the use of a mini-whiteboard in front of each group. I then rotate the groups and note down some targets from my feedback to leave them with. This again helps them focus on what they need to do to improve. At the end of the lesson, one group member takes a photo of the mini-whiteboard to store in the group document or they can also type it in. This is a way to keep track of feedback and re-visit it in future sessions to track progress.

Another benefit that I have noticed from the document is that students can use it to collaborate asynchronously at home. Some of the homework set involves, editing the script (with the updated version always accessible by all group members), and researching costume/ props/ set ideas. This can be done at home and all group members can view it, leading to more time for practical work in the lesson.

The document is ever-evolving, however, click here to see an example of the current version as of November 2022.