The aims are to:

• enable students to see how situations develop and how people can react
• develop a range of drama techniques
• help students develop an understanding of structure and character
• provide opportunities for group work.

By the end of this project, students are expected to:

• be able to work in a variety of groupings
• understand and use appropriate drama techniques
• understand the consequences of actions
• have developed confidence for performance
• have developed rehearsal skills.

The skills covered in this project include (but are not limited to) abstract drama, freeze frames, hot seating, marking the moment, prepared improvisation, role play, sound collage, spontaneous improvisation and thoughts aloud.

The techniques which are covered in lessons in this project include:

• abstract drama
• freeze frames (linked)
• hot seating
• marking the moment
• performance
• role play
• sound collage
• thoughts aloud.

The key words which are used in this project include:

• abstract drama
• cyclic movement
• duologue
• freeze frame
• hot seating
• improvisation
• marking the moment
• performance
• rehearsal
• self-evaluation
• sequence
• sound collage
• thoughts aloud.

The text which students encounter during this project includes information about the roles of characters for an improvisation and a range of expressions used for persuasion.

This series of lessons has cross-curricular links with Citizenship and English.

Students should be assessed in this project on the extent to which they:

• participate and perform in an improvisation
• create relevant and meaningful characters
• participate in discussions.

Web sites which could be used for further information on this topic include:

	KidsHealth: Dealing with Peer Pressure

	Teen Life Q & A

	Reach Out! – Peer pressure

This project meets the following recommendations from Drama in Schools (Second Edition) (Arts Council England, 2003). For a complete mapping, see Managing: Drama in Schools.

Level 4: Responding

• Discuss the themes or issues in the drama and the way they were presented

Level 5: Making

• Explore and interpret ideas, issues and relationships in their drama work, and structure it using appropriate dramatic forms, eg documentary drama, and conventions such as the use of the aside