Tableaux Assessment

Here, in Woodlands Secondary School, the secondary 2 students have been told that a part of their CA grade (they do not actually have Literature exams here) will come from their performance of a tableaux dramatisation of the short drama text that they have been studying so far -- Gene Kemp's 'The Bully'. Prior to the start of the assessment preparation, they have read through the text and identified the various elements of drama -- characters and narrative structure.

Just before the commencement of the March holidays, they were told that they will have to select a scene from the text in which bullying takes place, and think of how they would re-enact it in the form of a tableau. In the first week of term 2, a lesson was dedicated to teaching them about stage blocking and getting them to brainstorm all the different types of possible emotions that the characters experience in their chosen scene, as well as the possible actions to express these emotions. After another two weeks of giving the groups time to discuss and prepare and fill in their pre-presentation worksheet (which served as scaffolding for the groups, but the contents of which will also be assessed as a reflection of their concept and planning), the groups will be ready to present their tableaux next week.

My CT designed the activity while I designed the worksheet and came up with the rubrics. The tableaux activity aims to assess the students on how well they have understood the play, and on their understanding of how drama, as a performance, functions. So far, having seen one group present, and having marked their pre-presentation worksheet, I've come to realise that the assessment is not yielding the results that I had envisioned. I don't think my CT is very pleased with the students' performance so far too, and I believe that very few groups will end up presenting effective tableaux. So far, the students have shown an awareness of the visual effect of drama in their visualisation of their various scenes, as well as their exploration of the various ways of positioning their actors. The activity has also given them the opportunity to focus on characterisation and character descriptions in making them act out the characters based on what they know of their physical description and the emotions that the face in the episodes of bullying. However, the students have not had enough time to study their chosen scenes in detail before, or in the process of, preparing for their tableaux performance, and the emotions that they have identified thus far consist mainly of very superficial ideas such as "sad"; "angry"; "scared", and "empowered". I guess the major flaw of this assessment is the fact that the students are neither highly motivated self-directed learners, nor are they very interested in the subject to begin with. Hence, the original plan of giving them only one week to discuss and prepare their tableaux had to be changed to two weeks because the students did not make full use of the time that was given to them and did not discuss outside of the lesson. Additionally, the students also did not take the time and effort to study their scenes in detail and come up with insightful interpretations of the characters and their emotions. Additionally, since almost all of the students have already made up their mind that they will not be taking Literature as a subject in the O-levels, most of them cannot be bothered to put in effort to their CA grades in the first place.

Given a more conducive environment in which there is a strong drama culture and support for Literature in the school, the tableaux would have been an effective and highly rewarding assessment activity. However, I do not foresee many good performances coming out of my school.