GCSE Drama devised marking

[semb]

Hello
Dd1 is year 11, taking AQA Drama. I've been looking at the exam specification to try to understand how it's marked but I'm not clear. I know one part of it involves devising a performance piece in a group. Dd1 is having trouble with the others in her group. They are all agreeing to put Dd's scenes at the end of the piece - despite all being told that only the first 20 minutes are marked - so all members of the group need to have their input spread out across the piece so they all get a chance to have their performance assessed. Dd is very upset that as if they stop marking after 20 min then the grade she ultimately gets will be negatively affected because of this. She doesn't feel that she can go to the teacher, or persuade her group to arrange things more fairly. She doesn't want me to contact the teacher either.

I'm not sure how accurate this all is as I don't know anything about Drama and can't tell if what she is saying about the marking is correct from looking at the specification.

Does anyone know how the performance pieces are marked? It just seems strange to only mark part of the performance rather than all of it. If they only mark 20 minutes of it - why make it longer than 20 minutes at all??

Any info others can share from their experiences would be greatly appreciated!

[Guest55]

Presumably you have found this page: https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/drama/g ... assessment" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Which category is she being assessed under?

[semb]

That page is very useful thanks Guest55.

From that I see that the Devising Drama accounts for 40% of the GCSE. That's made up of the devising log and the devised piece. I can see that the log is marked out of 60 - so she can pick up marks here.

The devised piece is marked out of 20. I think she is being assessed under the Performer category - and that's where the problem lies as she is having trouble with the other group members in terms of the performance piece.

The only thing I can see which is encouraging is the bit that says

"Teachers must ensure that students have the opportunity to take an equal and active part in the creative and collaborative devising process regardless of their chosen specialism."

but I don't know if that actually means they will see the piece in its entirety beforehand to instruct the group to change things when they see Dd's bit is all at the end, after this apparent 20 min cut off. I can see from the specification that 20 minutes is meant to be the maximum duration so if they stuck to this it would be ok, because Dd's parts would come at the end, but still within the time frame that's assessed. Though if their piece is longer than 20 minutes and her part comes after that then she will be adversely affected.

I was happy when she chose Drama as I thought it would be nice to have a creative subject in amongst all the other gcse subjects - but I didn't appreciate how one person's grade could be affected by others when difficulties arise. I do hope I'm wrong on this and the teacher picks up on it.

[Guest55]

I think the teacher will ensure that the piece is not more than 20 mins and her log should show her contribution.

I used to line manage drama so know something about how it works

[edited for typo]

[semb]

Fingers crossed that you're right and the teacher picks up on it - thanks for the reassurance