GCSE Portfolio

Your Portfolio is in 2 units.

Each unit has 3 tasks.

For each task you may use a maximum of 2 sheets of A4 (4sides) or 1000 words. That makes a maximum of 12 sheets of A4 (24 sides) or 6000 words.

Task 1

Response

In task 1 you need to write about how the various drama activities that you took part in changed the way you thought or felt about the drama text (stimuli/play) that you used as a starting point.
It is better to write in detail about some activities than to write about everything without going into any depth.
To do well you must clearly focus your ideas and suggestions on the way that you used drama techniques, as well as showing your understanding of the way drama is used in the play itself.
You need to show that you really understand how drama can be used to explore ideas.
You also need to tell the examiner how you personally responded to the drama work by writing about your thoughts, feelings and ideas about the subject of the play and how these changed with different pieces of work.

Task 2

Development

In task 2 you need to write about how you personally made the drama work. You should focus on one piece of work.
You need to include a description and a script of a piece of drama that you created. And you need to give really detailed notes on the script explaining how you performed it and why. (If you are writing about a piece of text that you performed you do not need to write out the script)
To do well you need to show your ability to explore issues and ideas in an expressive, analytical, reflective and personal way.
And show that you can experiment creatively with forms, genres, materials and approaches.

Task 3

Evaluation

In task 3 you have to show your skills at evaluating drama. It is different for units 1 and 2.
In unit 1 you must write about what was effective in your own and other people’s work.
In unit 2 you must write about a piece of live theatre that you have been to see.
To do well you need to show a clear and consistent understanding and appreciation of the ways in which others use the elements and medium of drama in their work including lighting, staging, costumes, acting and directing.
You need to show that you can make judgements about how effective other people’s drama work is and you need to justify your ideas showing that you really understand how drama works. This is about other people’s ideas, use of drama conventions, their acting and performances
You need to evaluate the effectiveness of the drama constructively and objectively making judgements about the ways in which the social, cultural and/or historical influences are communicated.

Click here for more detailed notes to Unit 1

Click here for more detailed notes to Unit 2

Click here to see an overview of Edexcel's GCSE Drama course

Click here to go to the Edexcel website to download a copy of the specification