Reading and performing scripts
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Why this why now
This unit uses and builds on pupils' knowledge of the text from the Year 2 unit 'The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark: reading'. Here, pupils engage with play scripts for the first time, building their understanding of play script conventions, how casts work and what improvising is. Pupils read and discuss scripts based on three different texts and they learn some fundamentals around how to improvise in a group. This unit prepares pupils for further play analysis in the Year 5 unit 'Shakespeare's 'Macbeth': narrative and soliloquy writing'.
Prior knowledge requirements
- Speaking loudly and clearly is important when talking in front of an audience.
- Speaking with volume helps to hold an audience's attention.
- Strategies to reduce nerves include rehearsing and practising calm breathing.
- Using a varied tone helps to engage an audience.
- Using body language and gestures to engage an audience will help to keep their attention.
- Rehearsals help us to reflect on our performance and improve before delivering it to an audience.
- Successful listening includes paying close attention to a performance.
Why this why now
This unit uses and builds on pupils' knowledge of the text from the Year 2 unit 'The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark: reading'. Here, pupils engage with play scripts for the first time, building their understanding of play script conventions, how casts work and what improvising is. Pupils read and discuss scripts based on three different texts and they learn some fundamentals around how to improvise in a group. This unit prepares pupils for further play analysis in the Year 5 unit 'Shakespeare's 'Macbeth': narrative and soliloquy writing'.
Prior knowledge requirements
- Speaking loudly and clearly is important when talking in front of an audience.
- Speaking with volume helps to hold an audience's attention.
- Strategies to reduce nerves include rehearsing and practising calm breathing.
- Using a varied tone helps to engage an audience.
- Using body language and gestures to engage an audience will help to keep their attention.
- Rehearsals help us to reflect on our performance and improve before delivering it to an audience.
- Successful listening includes paying close attention to a performance.
Reading, writing & oracy
Reading and performing scripts
In this unit, pupils read, engage with, analyse and act from play scripts for the first time. They learn about the conventions of scripts, directors and actors' roles within a cast and how to improvise at the end of the unit. Pupils also build their performance and oracy skills.
4 lessons in unit
slide decks, worksheet PDFs, quizzes and lesson overviews. You can select individual lessons from the Reading and performing scripts unit and download the resources you need, or download the entire unit now. See every unit listed in our primary english curriculum and discover more of our teaching resources for primary english programmes.