Wicked follows the story of Elphaba, a young, talented and headstrong witch. She encounters many challenges, prejudices and heartbreaks in her quest to use her powers for good. We see Elphaba encounter these challenges, and as she overcomes each one, we see how her courage, risk-taking, ambition and friendship affect her life s path. Using Wicked as a model to explore students spiritual, moral, social and cultural responses, the exercises below are designed to support your teaching of your PSHE curriculum. There is a range of exercises here which will cover elements of the PSHE curriculum from KS2-KS4. HEALTH & WELLBEING: KNOWING YOURSELF Who Am I /Activity 1: Use the lyrics to the song For Good in the Script Extracts Pack & Listen to the song Class Discussion As a class, discuss the character of Elphaba and her qualities. On the board or a large piece of paper, draw a simple outline of Elphaba. Within the outline, write qualities which are her internal qualities, those which she might feel about herself. Outside the outline, list how other people perceive her. Highlight words which are STRENGTHS, and those which are WEAKNESSES. Activity 1 Now working individually, students should repeat the exercise, but looking at themselves. What are their internal qualities, and how do others see them? What are their strengths and weaknesses? If students feel comfortable to do so, share back with the class. Do other class members agree with what they have written about how they are perceived? It may be helpful for the teacher to share some example about themselves to begin. Link to For Good & Read the Lyrics provided in the Script Extracts Pack What does this song tell us about Glinda and Elphaba s friendship and their influences over each other? Activity 2 Now look again at Elphaba s sheet. In a different coloured pen, write down what external influences affect her and how she acts, for example, her friend Glinda, her father s opinion of her, the fact that she is green. Students should repeat this on their own sheet: what external influences affect them and influences how they act? 2
Ethical Decisions Elphaba is an interesting character as she is both self-confident and ethical whilst also being shy at times. Look at the following moments in the play where a character has to make an ethical decision: Glinda decides to join Elphaba as she dances at the Ozdust Ball Elphaba and Fiyero witness cruelty towards the lion cub in class Glinda decides not to go with Elphaba when Elphaba enchants the broomstick Elphaba wants to join the Wizard, but then finds Dr Dillamond imprisoned at the Wizard s Palace Glinda tells the people of Oz that Elphaba is wicked rather than tell the truth about the Wicked Witch In groups, students should consider: How do you think you would act in each situation What external influences are pushing them towards one decision or another? Do you think the character made the right decision? Why? Inspiration & Ambition In Wicked, Elphaba is inspired by the Wizard of Oz. In the song, The Wizard and I, she sings about how she will strive to make good in order to work with him. Use the lyrics to the song The Wizard & I in the Script Extracts Pack & Listen to the song Give pupils a copy of the lyrics to read along with as they listen to the song. Discussion Points: Is there anything that you want to achieve in your life the same way Elphaba sings about? Using the song, identify what stops Elphaba from achieving her potential at that moment. Examples might include: No father is not proud of you No sister acts ashamed She dreams that the wizard will de-greenify her What might stop you from achieving your potential? Share back your answers with the class. Elphaba discovers that the Wizard is not the person she thinks he is in the end: how does her dream change, and how does she find the strength to fight him? Who else inspires her? Who Inspires Me? Working on their own, ask students to think about someone who inspires them. Create a poster / collage / presentation which introduces this person to the rest of the class, explaining how they inspire you and what qualities and values they have that are inspirational. Future Self Interview Get students into pairs. One will play a TV reporter, the other will be themselves in the future, having achieved their ambition. The interviewer should ask what they have achieved, how they feel, what they have overcome and who they would thank. Share back some examples. 3
RELATIONSHIPS Friendships It might be helpful to refer to the character outlines in the Wicked: Introduction Pack Remind students about the character of Glinda. What do they remember about her? How does she behave at the beginning of the play? How does she change throughout the play? Ask the class to put their hands up if they would like to be friends with Glinda. Those who have their hands up, ask them to give the reasons why, and write their reasons on the board. What about those who didn t want to be her friend? Why? Glinda changes during the play, allowing herself to be influenced by her friend Elphaba. In groups, give students 2 minutes to write down as many qualities as they can which make a good friend. Share back your answers with the class. Think about the scene in Wicked where Glinda dances with Elphaba at the dance to save her embarrassment about wearing the witch s hat. Here, Glinda showed she was a good friend by standing by Elphaba, even though it could make her look silly in front of others. Glinda shows courage and solidarity. Each group should choose 1 quality from their brainstorm that they want to explore. Think of a scenario where you would need to use that quality and using drama skills, create a short (1 min) scene which shows this quality in action. Share back the scenes. Discussion points What did students observe about the behaviour of a good friend? What might be the challenges to behaving like a good friend all the time? Do the students feel that they are a good friend? How could they be better friends to each other? 4
Bullying Listen to the song What is this Feeling? Ask a student to read out the following lyrics: Poor Galinda, forced to reside With someone so distgusticified We just want to tell you We re all on your side, we share your Loathing, unadulterated loathing For her face, her voice, her clothing Let s just say we loathe it all! Every little trait, however small Makes out very flesh begin to crawl Discussion Points: Why do you think the students bully Elphaba? How does Glinda s reaction to Elphaba influence the other students to act? What Would You Do? Ask the class the following question: Imagine Elphaba came to your school, and someone in your class made nasty comments about her. Lots of other people are laughing at the things they are saying. You can see Elphaba is upset by it. What would you do? Students can put their hands up to vote for each response below: Join in with the laughing (you may not want them to pick on you too) Do nothing and pretend to ignore it Tell them to stop Do something else (discuss what this could be) Be A Lyricist: In groups, look at the lyrics from the verse again. These are sung by the rest of Glinda s class at Shiz. Pupils should rewrite the lyrics printed above to make them kind to Elphaba, then share them share back with the rest of the class. 5
Being Popular In the play, Glinda is shown to be beautiful and popular. Elphaba meanwhile is green and unusual her appearance shocks those she comes into contact with. In groups, discuss what it means to be popular at their school. Each group should create a spider diagram of each of the following headings, with a list of qualities next to each one. Examples might include: Hobbies football team, playing guitar. Looks Scruffy, Wearing Make Up, Good fashion sense etc. Pupils should list qualities which they think would help to make you popular at their school. LOOKS / IMAGE FRIENDS HOBBIES SKILLS Discuss their responses as a class. Are there similar ideas coming out from each group or are they different? Do they agree with each other? Class Discussion As a class, write down some qualities which didn t come up in the class discussion. Does possessing these qualities mean that you can t be popular? Is it important to be popular? Song Analysis Use the lyrics to the song Popular in the Script Extracts Pack & Listen to the song Give pupils a copy of the lyrics to read along with as they listen to the song. Students should highlight any phrases which they agree with eg highlight each line which they think would help Elphaba. In the song, Popular, Glinda says she can make Elphaba popular. Listen to the song and give students a print out of the lyrics for them to read along to. As they re listening, students should highlight phrases which they agree with e.g. highlight each line that Glinda says that they think would help Elphaba become popular. Compare notes as a class. How many phrases did each person highlight? Do pupils agree with Glinda? Be A Lyricist: Listen again to the song Popular. Imagine you are going to sing this song to someone in the school to help them feel more confident. In pairs, rewrite the lyrics. 6
WIDER WORLD First Impressions & Prejudice We are constantly surrounded by people who are different from us. Look at the images of Glinda and Elphaba at the start of the play they are very different from each other Discussion Points: Go round the class, and ask each student to say 1 word which describes either Elphaba or Glinda at the beginning of the story. Each student should try to think of a word which has not been said before. What are their similarities? What are their differences? Discuss times when you have entered a new place for the first time it may be your first day at a new school, sports club or extra-curricular activity. How did you feel when you went in? Did you feel nervous, did you make friends easily? Do you remember judging someone before you really got to know them? Make a list of all the differences in the class: hair colour, skin colour, sporting abilities etc. Now make a list of everything which the students have in common. What s the best way to understand and deal with differences? 7
Human Rights Wicked uses Animals to show us how Human Rights can be taken away and individuals can be persecuted. But similar injustices are taking place around the world today, impacting on human rights and affecting even children. In the play, we see Dr Dillamond and other animals persecuted, with their rights taken away. Dr Dillamond is told Animals Should be Seen and Not Heard. Around the world, there are people who live without the right to speak freely, or get books they want to read from the library, or to go to school. Group Discussion: Think about the rights we should have as humans free speech, access to education, freedom to travel. Students should make a list of as many human rights as they can and share them back with the class. Who has listed the most? Class game: Seen but not Heard Send 2 students out of the classroom. Tell them that they each need to persuade anyone in the class to give them their chair when they come back in. The winner is the one who gets a chair first. When the students are outside, tell the remaining students they need to pretend that they can t hear the students when they are talking to them. They aren t trying to hear them either they are totally disinterested in what they might be trying to say. Let the game go on for a couple of minutes, then find out how both the people on the inside of the room, and those who came in felt while the game was happening. What would life be like if they weren t heard? There are people in the world today who are ignored, or daren t speak out for what they need, and for their basic human rights. Creating A Campaign In groups, ask students to create the campaign for the Rights of the Animals in Oz. Examples of activities they could create include: Creating slogans Writing newspaper articles Interviewing each other in role as the Animals Creating banners and posters Staging a march through the school for the campaign Write a letter to their local newspaper or MP about the injustices 8
Current Affairs Gather a selection of current newspapers and magazines and give out to the students for group work. Ask pupils to identify examples of injustice they see in the paper. Teachers may want to find stories online too which point to particular UK-based or international injustices. Introduce students to the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child and/or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and explain that these are the universal rights which all people in the world should be entitled to. Discuss each point on the declaration and make sure they understand them. Go back to the list of injustices from the news. In pairs, choose an injustice to research further online. Students should create a mini-presentation of the story featuring images, stories and facts about the injustice. Following each presentation, discuss as a class how you might be able to campaign against that injustice for example creating a campaign, writing letters to an MP, creating awareness through social media. 9