# Ten 25-minute Drama starts · Unit 1 Share

Use [original A–F](SCENE-CARDS.md) for practice and [new G/H](STUDENT-CHECKS.md) only on their check days. Before each lesson, offer acting, directing with paper markers, and script-analysis routes. Do not ask for a personal story, mimicry of a culture, a classmate’s experience, touch or recorded performance. The learner chooses a route without explaining why and may change it. For this starter, all three routes produce one **dramatic-language choice with line/space/time evidence and a bounded audience interpretation**; a school’s later assessed acting performance has different evidence needs. Use a stop/observe/reset option in any rehearsal. No one is required to improvise publicly.

### Day 1 · What does the text show?

**Target:** Distinguish four explicit facts in the original A scene from an audience inference, and make one evidence-led dramatic question.

**Prepare:** [A scene sheet](print/scene-a.svg), [exact text](print/TEXT-ALTERNATIVES.md), four blank line cards; no props beyond paper.

- **Launch · 2 min.** Say that every role is fictional and no learner’s life is requested. A partner can read while anyone follows silently.
- **Model · 4 min.** Read or point to A. Mark the blank card, last trolley in two minutes, available ledger and held door as stated facts. “The correct destination” is unknown.
- **Guided looking · 5 min.** Ask which exact line supports a choice to check, and which hoped-for outcome the text does not show. Place “known” and “inferred” cards beside a line.
- **Practice route · 7 min.** Learners perform a neutral reading, direct four line cards, or annotate the script. They choose an audience question such as “Will they check before the trolley leaves?” and cite one line.
- **Audit · 4 min.** Peer or self-check one factual statement, one labelled inference and no invented identity/background. Accept a quiet written route.
- **Exit · 3 min.** Collect the cited line and question; preview how stage space can change focus.

### Day 2 · Purpose, audience and context

**Target:** Keep A’s fictional facts but state a purpose and identify how one line could inform an audience before the unresolved ending.

**Prepare:** [A](print/scene-a.svg), [decision log](print/director-log.svg), cards reading PURPOSE, AUDIENCE, EVIDENCE.

- **Launch · 2 min.** Ask: “What does the audience need to know before any decision?”
- **Model · 4 min.** Offer one defensible purpose: inform viewers that verification matters under time pressure. The line “The ledger is here” and the two-minute deadline support it; the scene does not prove where the parcel belongs.
- **Guided looking · 5 min.** Contrast “to inform” with “to make everyone panic.” The first names a maker’s purpose; the second wrongly predicts every viewer’s response.
- **Practice route · 7 min.** Learner chooses an audience (someone watching this fictional counter for the first time), selects one A line to foreground, and acts, directs or annotates that emphasis. They write a possible effect with evidence.
- **Audit · 4 min.** Check purpose, context and text are named separately. No real courier or customer identity is invented.
- **Exit · 3 min.** Save the choice and line; ask what an audience could see if a card turns.

### Day 3 · A turn redirects focus

**Target:** Compare two B blocking choices and justify how a role card’s direction can shift dramatic focus while dialogue stays fixed.

**Prepare:** [stage map](print/space-map.svg), [B scene move](SCENE-CARDS.md#b--a-changed-focus-same-words), two role cards and paper ledger/door markers.

- **Launch · 2 min.** Establish the audience line on the map. A role card moves; no person must move.
- **Model · 4 min.** Keep A’s four lines. On “ledger,” turn MIN towards the ledger. On an alternate run, turn JO towards the door on “two minutes.” Never do both in the comparison.
- **Guided looking · 5 min.** Students point to what is now visible or attended to. A turn changes focus, not the text’s facts.
- **Practice route · 7 min.** Direct cards, opt-in rehearse a turn, or annotate the map. Learner chooses the better move for an informing purpose and cites the exact line/position.
- **Audit · 4 min.** Check that positions match the map and that a possible audience reading is not stated as certain.
- **Exit · 3 min.** Collect an arrow on the map and a reason; next lesson structures action over time.

### Day 4 · Three beats of action

**Target:** Order D’s three fictional action beats and explain how each beat adds information without inventing a resolution.

**Prepare:** [three-beat board](print/beat-board.svg), [D](SCENE-CARDS.md#d--three-action-beats-linear-order), three paper event cards.

- **Launch · 2 min.** Ask what an action beat changes for the audience.
- **Model · 4 min.** Place NOTICE → VERIFY → HOLD. At each, say only what is available: blank card; ledger option; door held with destination unresolved.
- **Guided looking · 5 min.** Remove the middle card. Ask what the audience loses and why the held door might become less clearly motivated.
- **Practice route · 7 min.** Learner arranges, narrates or annotates the sequence; then restores the middle beat or proposes another order labelled clearly. Cite one changed information point.
- **Audit · 4 min.** Check no invented destination, no mandatory physical performance, and an exact beat/evidence claim.
- **Exit · 3 min.** Submit three cards and a one-sentence purpose statement.

### Day 5 · Fresh G formative check

**Target:** Independently interpret a new fictional script, choose one focus or pause decision and justify a possible audience effect without altering its stated facts.

**Prepare:** [student Check A](STUDENT-CHECKS.md#day-5-check-a--the-folded-map-file-g), [new G sheet](check/fresh-g.svg), blank stage map. Keep worked feedback for after the first response.

- **Launch · 2 min.** Explain that the scene is invented, no role-play is required, and the learner can choose a soundless route.
- **Source access · 4 min.** Show/read the exact G dialogue and map/model labels neutrally. Explain only the task and not a preferred staging choice.
- **Independent plan · 5 min.** Learner marks what the script says and what remains unknown, then chooses a focus or pause.
- **Independent response · 7 min.** Learner directs paper markers, annotates a script or opts in to reading, and explains one possible effect with line/space/time evidence.
- **Self-audit · 4 min.** Check the choice preserves G’s facts and avoids a universal audience claim.
- **Submit · 3 min.** Save the first response, then discuss [teacher feedback](teacher/ANSWER-AND-NEXT.md). Extend response time locally for access.

### Day 6 · A cue or a visible silence

**Target:** Compare F’s optional tone cue with a counted silence, explaining how timing/sound can support or distract from the same fictional purpose.

**Prepare:** [F](SCENE-CARDS.md#f--optional-cue-or-visible-silence), [pause sheet](print/focus-shift.svg); optional original [soft](audio/cue-soft.wav) and [firm](audio/cue-firm.wav) tones at comfortable level. No device is needed.

- **Launch · 2 min.** Invite sound, low-noise or text-only participation. A tone is not a representation of a culture or person.
- **Model · 4 min.** Before JO’s “two minutes,” count a silent two-beat pause. Contrast a soft neutral tone there, keeping the script and blocking fixed.
- **Guided looking · 5 min.** Ask what changes (presence/timbre/intensity of a cue) and what stays (four lines, timing position, purpose). Do not call louder automatically better.
- **Practice route · 7 min.** Learner chooses soft cue, firm cue or silence; directs it in text, cards or opt-in action. They justify whether it helps an audience attend to the deadline.
- **Audit · 4 min.** Check that sound was optional, speaker volume was comfortable, and one exact line/time point supports the decision.
- **Exit · 3 min.** Save the cue decision and its limit; next compare story order.

### Day 7 · Start at the start, or later

**Target:** Compare D’s linear 1→2→3 sequence with E’s labelled 3→1→2 opening, identifying how order affects what an audience knows first.

**Prepare:** [order board](print/linear-order.svg), [D/E cards](SCENE-CARDS.md), three paper markers.

- **Launch · 2 min.** Say “non-linear” describes order here; it is not a cultural style label.
- **Model · 4 min.** Lay 1→2→3, then 3→EARLIER 1→EARLIER 2. In the second, the held door arrives before its cause.
- **Guided looking · 5 min.** Ask what the word EARLIER prevents: confusion about when the blank card and ledger events happen.
- **Practice route · 7 min.** Learner directs cards, quietly reads captions or opts in to a brief enactment. They choose an order for the purpose of inviting a question and cite event positions.
- **Audit · 4 min.** Check both versions contain all three events, the time shift is signalled, and possible audience curiosity is bounded.
- **Exit · 3 min.** Collect two orders with one evidence-led comparison.

### Day 8 · Script plus space: a small hybrid choice

**Target:** Combine one A line with a spatial/visual cue and evaluate how the combination may communicate a purpose more clearly than either alone.

**Prepare:** [A script](print/scene-a.svg), [stage map](print/space-map.svg), [director log](print/director-log.svg); no projection or recording.

- **Launch · 2 min.** Remind learners that “hybrid” here is a simple mix of text and visible stage arrangement, not a completed work or inherited style.
- **Model · 4 min.** Keep MIN’s “The ledger is here” and turn the MIN card toward the ledger. Together, language and direction make the verification option visible.
- **Guided looking · 5 min.** Compare text-only, map-only and combined versions. Ask which exact evidence each supplies; avoid assuming every audience sees or hears the same way.
- **Practice route · 7 min.** Learner selects a different A line and one paper-card move or marked pause. Write, direct or opt in to stage it; justify the combination.
- **Audit · 4 min.** Check the added cue does not create a new factual destination or require personal performance.
- **Exit · 3 min.** Save line + cue + purpose + limit in the log.

### Day 9 · Who may share this story?

**Target:** Identify source authority and permission limits for real theatre material, then make an independent directing choice in the original A scene.

**Prepare:** [first-authority source pathway](SOURCE-PATHWAY.md), text-only titles of Yirra Yaakin and Creative Australia pages, [director log](print/director-log.svg).

- **Launch · 2 min.** Say that the class will not perform, imitate or reproduce cultural material. Learners need not speak for a culture or share personal experience.
- **Model · 4 min.** Identify Yirra Yaakin as the publisher of its education page and Creative Australia as protocol publisher. A public page can guide a source question but does not grant permission to adapt a story.
- **Guided looking · 5 min.** Ask what metadata can show (publisher, description of its program) and what it cannot (the actual performance, community permission for our reuse).
- **Practice route · 7 min.** Learner records a source/rights question, then returns to A and writes/directs one original line/space/pause decision without borrowing any cultural content.
- **Audit · 4 min.** Check separation of third-party source fact, permission unknown and own creative choice. No third-party image or script enters the pack.
- **Exit · 3 min.** Collect the question and original log. The school must still select authorised published/professional theatre for the full unit.

### Day 10 · Fresh H formative check

**Target:** Independently compare two orders of a new fictional scene, create a clear change in dramatic focus and justify it with textual/spatial evidence and a rights limit.

**Prepare:** [student Check B](STUDENT-CHECKS.md#day-10-check-b--the-empty-hook-file-h), [new H sheet](check/fresh-h.svg), three blank position cards. Do not show the worked key before the first response.

- **Launch · 2 min.** Offer directing, script annotation or opt-in reading. No personal story or public performance is required.
- **Source access · 4 min.** Read H exactly or provide quiet text/tactile access. Explain hook, card and model as separate fictional objects without choosing an order.
- **Independent plan · 5 min.** Learner marks two facts, a possible audience question and an opening order change.
- **Independent response · 7 min.** Learner builds or describes two short orders, makes one focus/space/pause choice, and explains a possible effect with evidence and a limit.
- **Self-audit · 4 min.** Check that H’s model is not suddenly on the hook and that copyright/cultural permission is not assumed for a proposed third-party image.
- **Submit · 3 min.** Save first response, then use the separate teacher key. This public check cannot determine a QCAA Unit 1 result.