Montague Township School District
Theatre - Drama Curriculum Guide
Grade 6
2025-2026
Melissa Neamand
| Unit | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | ||
Description
Middle School Drama is a trimester elective that meets every other day for 40-minute sessions and serves grades 5-8. The course is structured around two units that reflect the artistic processes of creating, performing, responding, and connecting. Unit 1 focuses on character development, playmaking, and theatrical design through students' original productions. Unit 2 examines world theatre traditions, particularly Commedia Dell'Arte, and develops improvisation and comedic performance skills. Throughout the year, students build confidence, communication skills, and creative expression in a safe, supportive environment designed for all personality types.
Big Ideas
- Theatre is a product of many skilled artists whose collaboration is essential to create unity and harmony on stage.
- Character creation includes a writer's dialogue and action combined with an actor's physical, vocal, and emotional choices.
- Rehearsal and reflection are necessary for actors and other skilled artists to improve their craft.
- Theatrical spaces reveal the values of their audiences and are constantly evolving over time.
- Stock characters create opportunities for comedy when performers exaggerate physical and vocal choices.
Essential Questions
- How does a play become a play, and who contributes to that process?
- What are the fundamental tools that actors and writers use to create characters?
- Why do performers rehearse, and what is the value of reflection in the rehearsal process?
- How do theatres themselves reflect a culture, and how has theatre changed over time and space?
- How do improvisers work together to create comedy when their characters are in conflict?
Visual Arts - Creating
Visual Arts - Presenting
Students engage in collaborative discussions, present claims and findings using pertinent descriptions and details, and write narratives and arguments to develop real or imagined experiences and support claims about dramatic works and character development.
Students examine how theatrical spaces and traditions reflect cultural perspectives and values, analyze how different cultures express identity through performance, and research historical contexts of theatrical works including Commedia Dell'Arte traditions.
Assessment throughout the year combines formative and summative measures to track student progress in acting, writing, collaboration, and reflection. Formative assessments include improvisation games, scene writing, monologue performances, and peer reviews. Summative assessments feature a play festival culminating Unit 1 and an original improvised scene using stock characters in Unit 2. Evidence of learning is gathered through rubrics, written responses, oral performances, presentations, peer reviews, informal observations, and self-reflection. Teachers use a variety of tools including exit cards, quick writes, and examinations of student work to monitor understanding and provide timely feedback.
| Unit | Formative | Summative | Benchmark | Alternative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01Characters- Dramatic Essentials | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 02World Theatre Through Comedy | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coverage | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 |
| Unit | IEP | 504 | MLL | At-Risk | Gifted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01Characters- Dramatic Essentials | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 02World Theatre Through Comedy | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coverage | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 |