Sessions four to six
The Civilian Evacuation Scheme in Britain during the Second World War Young children from the East End of London carrying their belongings, including their gas masks, as they set off on their journey to safer areas. Date between 1939 and 1945. Imperial War Museum.
These are sessions four to six in a scheme of work on the evacuee experience.
Ask students to revisit one of the characters they have played over the last few weeks. In pairs, two of these characters meet. Students show these improvisations to one other pair. Use hotseating to interview the characters – either pick volunteers to do this in front of the class, or ask them to hotseat in small groups.
Evacuee stories. Use one of the resources that records evacuee stories and share one of these stories with the group. Ask students to take on one of the characters from the story they have heard and in pairs improvise a scene from their lives. In small groups, students work on an improvisation of one aspect of the story. You can find resources online. For example, on the Time Witness website: http://timewitnesses.org/evacuees/list.html Next, ask students to write a page of a diary, in character as if they were an evacuee.
Evacuee Stories. Use the diary stories written by the students as the basis for a devised piece. In small groups, students decide which story or stories to use, both as a starting point and as narration. Take these as far as you like – they could even turn into scripted and staged performances.
Back to scheme of work overview
Back to resources for drama teachers