Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to drama.

This is exploring narrative poetry through drama.

And this lesson is called, The Lady of Shalott part two.

My name's Mr. Wood, and I'm your teacher for this lesson.

For this lesson, make sure you've got plenty of space, that you're taking part in this lesson inside.

Your shoes and socks are off, the floor you're using is not slippery, and you're wearing comfy clothing ready to move.

You can pause the video now, if you need to make those things happen.

If not, let's get started.

Today we're going to start with recapping our last lesson and moving on with a warm up.

We're going to look at the curse of the Lady of Shalott.

After that, we're going to explore the choices in the story, and we will finish by looking at an alternate ending.

So your key words for today's lesson are, soundscape, and that is a series of sounds layered together to suggest a setting or scene.

A curse, and that is a negative spell, which inflicts harm or punishment on someone.

Internal monologue, which is one I hope you recognise, is talking your thoughts out loud, as if no one else can hear them.

And Conscience Alley, that is a drama strategy used to help a character make decisions.

Do you remember what we looked at last lesson? We looked at the story of the Lady of Shalott.

Well done, if you said that.

We looked at visualising the setting, so where her story takes place.

And we also explored facial expressions and internal monologues to build on the skills, we've already worked on so far.

So now, if you can gather the space that I asked for a few moments ago, let's do our warm up.

We're going to start with some light jogging on the spot, okay? If you've got your space and you're ready, let's get going.

You can modify this if you're in a wheelchair, by very simply adopting how you lift your hands, okay? You can exaggerate that more.

Can now imagine that you are one of the repos in the field.

You are going to bring your arms up, into muscle gestures, and you're going to go up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down.

They're so strong because they're lifting all of the barley and rye, okay? Now we're going to imagine that we have a tool in our hands that is going to cut the barley and the hay, sorry, the barley and the rye.

Okay, so we're going to go from up here.

We're going to go, all the way down to a diagonal.

Up, down, up and down, and up, and down, up and down.

Oh no cramp.

We've got to swap to the other arm, are you ready? From this angle, down to diagonal, up, down, up, down, up, down, up.

Okay, we're going to refresh our memories on the Lady of Shalott and some of her activities.

So over here, we've got the bed.

Down there, we've got some laundry.

We need to pick the laundry up.

It's open, wide is a big bed sheet.

We then need to fold in half.

We then need to fold it in half again.

I'm going to put it onto the bed and fold it over.

We're going to repeat that gesture.

You're ready.

Picking up the sheet, nice and wide and fold it in half.

Fold it in half.

Put it on the bed and fold.

Last time, picking up the bed sheet.

Folding them up and then we've got fold him up, and then put on the bed and fold.

Okay, so we should be making nice arm movements.

Are we starting to feel warm? I think we can move on with just a little bit of a vocal warm up before we get going.

Repeat after me.

Me, me, me, me marvellous, me.

Me, me, me, me marvellous, me.

Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, it's all about me.

It's all about me.

Lovely, okay and last one we'll do a little bit of a tongue twister.

Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

Repeat that.

Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

Sally sold seashells by the seashore.

Lovely, okay, now it's time to move on with the lesson.

If you feel like you're not particularly warm, with the physical or the vocal, you can go over either of those activities, again.

Now we're going to begin talking about the curse.

This curse is what the Lady of Shalott is warned against, if she were to look out of her window.

The curse would take effect.

She was told she may only look at life through the shadows reflected in the mirror.

That is very clear.

If she was to watch live through the window or leave, the curse would take effect.

What do you think a curse would sound like in your own words? Does it have a distinct sound? Does it have distinct noises? Is there a phrase in it, perhaps? What do you think? Can you hear it in your head now? Does it help if you close your eyes? Can you hear a curse in your head? Let's imagine that what we're about to create is the curse that the Lady of Shalott hears inside the tower.

Now we need to start thinking about what sorts of noises or sounds might come into that.

Are they going to sound spooky? Are we going to hear nature sounds? In other words, the weather, like the wind? Are there animalistic noises, like caged animals fighting to get out? Are they going to be a mixture of loud and quiet and will they go back and forth between those two levels? And might we have some droning consonants? Some very guttural sounds coming through as well.

I feel confident that you will be able to combine a least four of these five bullet points.

Take a look now and think which one seems the easiest.

Okay, now pick the one that looks your favourite.

Which one do you think will be doable and pick one that you think will be a challenge.

There you go.

So you've got your four.

Now that you've got a rough idea as to the noises and sounds you might include, let's talk about a soundscape.

So let's discuss what that actually means.

And a soundscape is to do with the layering of different noises and sounds and when they are heard together or one after another, then that gives us a new idea to think about.

So for example, it could tell us that we are outside.

So tell us a new location.

It could be used between scene one and scene two as a transition to say we're going from one location to another.

It can help tell us an atmosphere or a mood of a scene.

For example, if things are tense, we might hear that in the soundscape, as it builds and builds and builds and builds until something new happens.

Okay? So there are many different uses for a soundscape and it does help keep a scene, interesting.

All right, now we're going to use this, to create the curse for the lady.

The moment when she looks out of the window.

So we need to consider what sort of noises might be interesting to us there.

Now, there is no wrong answer here.

You can't get this wrong.

All you need to think about, is combining four different sounds and or noises.

Okay? Give it your best go.

Don't forget the energy 'cause you're going to need lots of it to make this sound effective.

All you need to do is pause the video to complete this task and click resume when you're ready to move on.

Well done.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Now we're going to move on to have a look at choices.

Look at them.

Look at them.

How a happy life they live.

They get to go outside and touch the flowers and put their feet in the water, they're doing it, look, they're putting their feet in the water.

You don't know how lucky you are.

Look at you, pathetic.

Splashing water around.

What are you a child? Can you hear me? Of course you can't, you can't hear me.

I must be going mad.

Look at you, you've got no idea, I exist, do you? Although I am not sure.

Wonder, do you know about me? I don't know if you really are listening to me or not.

Do you know I'm stuck in a tower.

Can you help me? Hello! Hello! Can you help me, please! You can't hear me, can you? Of course you can't hear me, I'm just be stupid.

Now you are the Lady of Shalott.

I would like you to imagine that you're talking to someone through the mirror.

If there was someone there that could hear you, what would you say? If that opportunity arose, what would you do? You can use the visualisation skills from before.

So in our previous lesson, when we were thinking about what we could see, what we could hear, what we could smell, what we could taste and what we could touch.

Think about redeploying those skills here.

For example, would you tell them how much you really want to smell the fresh flowers, on the other side of the island? Would you tell them about wanting to hear the noises, as the men cut through the barley? Would you ask if you could touch the water to see how it feels.

Okay, so it's up to you what you say but the key point, is talking to someone through the mirror.

What would you say? You needs to pause the video to complete this task.

Once you had a go, click resume and we'll carry on with the rest of the lesson.

Well done.

How did you get gone? Was it clear.

Would I be able to imagine, exactly what it is you were thinking? I'm sure I could.

Now we move on to Conscience Alley.

This is a drama strategy that allows us to hear multiple opinions, when a character is presented with a tough decision or choice.

Now imagine that we have the Lady of Shalott in the room.

If we were going to be a voice of reason to her, potentially a conscience, what option would you suggest she does? Option one, go to the window, because blah-blah-blah or option two, don't go to the window because blah, blah, blah.

Okay, pick one of those options for me.

Now that you've chosen.

Here's what we are going to do.

I am the Lady of Shalott.

You are the voices in my head.

Some of them are trying to persuade me to go to the window.

Some of them are persuading me not to.

I'm in a bit of a dilemma here.

I don't know which decision to make.

Pick one and use the word because in your response.

For example, don't go to the window because you don't know what might happen.

The curse might take effect.

Go to the window because you really want to see what's happening down on that floor.

Speak clearly, use emotion in your voice, and once you've completed the task and clicked resume, we will do this together and we will have a dialogue, and you would have a chance to say why I should either go to the window or not go to the window.

So for now pause the video.

I don't know what to think.

What should I do? I want to look out of the window but I know I shouldn't.

Help me make my decision.

Go on, right, and you would do that.

It's easy for you to say you're not in my position right now.

So if you were, if you were in my shoes right now, you do that.

I'm not so sure I'm convinced, and you honestly think that this will work.

This is the best outcome? Okay, okay.

Well done, I hope you managed to get really creative in that last task.

There were so many potential ideas that could have been thrown around.

I wish I could have heard them all.

Now we're going to move on with an alternate ending.

So this is something which doesn't happen in the poem.

So you can now start to think about what ending, you would like this poem to have.

So if you could choose another ending for the Lady of Shalott, what would it be? Option one, she floats downstream to Camelot and finds her true love, not dead.

Option two, her boat sinks during the journey, she swims, she still finds her true love.

No death.

Option three.

She stays in the tower for the rest of her life.

Or option four, an option of your choosing.

Pick one of those now.

Now we're going to, re-imagine the ending of this poem.

One that didn't actually happen.

In the role of the lady, take your chosen option and combine the skills we've learned so far, to make a brand new ending.

Now you can be as creative as you like here.

You can imagine the setting through our visualisation.

What can you see? What can you hear? What can you smell? What can you taste? What can you touch? Okay, that can all go in.

You can incorporate still images, internal monologues and soundscapes.

Soundscapes don't have to be used for a negative like we did with the curse.

Okay, when she looked out of the window.

We can use a soundscape for a positive effect as well.

For example, here in the birds chirp.

Hearing light wind.

Okay, that can all go into it as well.

To do this, you need to pause the video.

This activity will take a little bit longer than the rest.

So don't rush it take your time.

Click resume when you're ready and we'll wrap up the end of this lesson.

Conscience Alley helps to get other people's opinions.

Do you think that's true or do you think it's false? Of course the answer is true.

It is super for making a decision.

It gives you lots of different perspectives.

Now we've come to the end of the lesson and you've worked really hard.

We have built a wide range of skills so far in the content we've looked up, both at the Pied Piper and the Lady of Shalott.

So well done, give yourself a pat on the back.

Now this is the end of the unit.

So I thank you very much for taking part.

Thank you for giving it your best effort.

And for now it's goodbye.

So if you would like to share any of your work, please go to your parent or carer and ask them to tag us @OakNational and #LearnwithOak on Twitter.

Take care.

Thank you very much, and I'll see you in another unit in the future.