"Teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts, it is acquiring understanding." -William Arthur Ward
I am back to teach my students with greater determination and vigor than ever before!! Now that we have begun the final unit of our time together, I am very optimistic and anxious to see how my students will have grown over the semester!
To begin our playwriting unit, I found myself bursting with ideas for getting my students interested in and involved in the lesson while helping them to remember important points and topics. To help myself to have more fun and to feel more comfortable teaching as I had learned through trial and error from the previous unit, I threw in topics that interested me and that I was passionate about. I thought the students would enjoy the lesson, but I didn't expect to have the incredibly positive response that I ended up having!
Right from the beginning of the lesson, the students were a little upset each time we had to stop an activity- I was pleased that they were so actively involved and enjoying themselves! However, their disappointment would soon turn to excitement as the next topic and learning activity came around each time! Many times my students asked, "Miss Greenwood, if there's time at the end, can we do this again?" I was proud of myself for capturing the students minds so quickly with each new topic!
In this lesson, I finally experienced the creative innovation that I had been hoping for for so long! During step 1, a student asked: "Miss Greenwood, is this a competition?" To put a fun twist on things, I realized that we COULD make it a competition! The students got in three lines. The student at the front of the line on each "team" was handed a marker. They rushed to have each person in line write his or her favorite thing to do as quickly as possible! It wasn't perfect, as there were an uneven number of students, but it kept the students excited through what could have been an otherwise routine activity.
Overall, the students seemed to grasp the concept of characters pretty well, so we spoke less about why characters are important and more about the psychology behind the character's actions. What were the characters doing in that location? How does he/she feel about this activity? Why? Etc. The students' capacity to think about another person's mind and actions surprised me!
Students discuss and improvise a scene for the step 5 activity.
The transition at the end of the lesson ran rather smoothly. I didn't have nearly as many questions as I thought I'd have, and as I walked around I saw many students' pencils running quickly along their papers. It was then that I knew that this lesson was a success! My students have begun their stories, and I am so excited to see what they come up with!
This lesson's biggest challenge was that sometimes my students get a little TOO excited and carried away. I'm glad that they are enjoying themselves, but I need to remember to let them know what's not appropriate from the start, and reward those who are doing the right thing. I am so used to being with independent people my own age that it is easy for me to forget that children don't know where the boundaries of appropriate behavior are!
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Casey Greenwood
BYU Arts Bridge
4th Grade
Lesson for January 7, 2016
UNIT: Playwriting
UNIT OBJECTIVE: Students
will demonstrate their ability to write effective stories by writing a play
inspired by a stimulus.
LESSON: Exposition
LESSON OBJECTIVE:
Students will demonstrate their understanding of exposition by writing the
first page of a story inspired by a stimulus.
THEATRE ARTS CORE STANDARDS:
Standard 1
Playmaking: The student will plan and improvise
plays based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature, and
history for informal and formal theatre.
Objective
3
Describe and
explain plot structure in terms of beginning, middle, climax, and end.
Standard 2
Acting: A student will cooperate, imagine and
assume roles, explore personal preferences and meanings, and interact in
classroom dramatizations.
MATERIALS
NEEDED: Storybook (i.e. Big Hero 6),
whiteboard and markers, computer and projector with appropriate connection
cables
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Hook: Read the
first page or paragraph of a storybook, such as Disney’s Big Hero 6.
Ask the students questions such as: Do you like the story so far? Do you want to hear more? What makes you
want to listen to more of the story? Answers may include: The story sounds
cool, I like that movie, I like robots, etc. If not, why don’t you want to hear more?
Step 1: Transition
Have the students write down on the white board what their
favorite thing to do is. Answers may include singing, playing soccer, swimming,
playing video games, etc.
Step 3: Group Practice
At their tables, have the students write down why that
activity is their favorite and how often they do that activity. Next, have them
write down three people that could do that activity with them and two
adjectives for each person that describe what those people look or act like.
Finally, have them write down if they would enjoy doing the activity with those
people or not and why.
Step 4: Discussion
Explain that a story is most interesting when it is about a
topic that interests you or is personal to you. Refer back to Big Hero 6 and the answers that the
students gave about why they wanted to hear more. Ask questions such as: What else makes a story interesting?
Answers may include: if it’s funny or sad, if it has action, if it has cool
characters, etc. What is a character?
Why are characters important in storytelling? Answers may include: So you
have someone to feel bad for, so you can relate to someone in the story, etc.
Ask for a few examples of characters of characters from the story read at the beginning
of class or from popular movies or books such as Harry Potter or Disney’s Frozen. What makes a character likeable? Unlikeable?
Step 4: Model
Choose an activity from the board and select two volunteers.
Briefly discuss a location for the activity and who could be involved in the
activity. Next, discuss why those people could be there and how they each feel
about the activity. For example: At a swimming pool, there could be a
lifeguard, a mom, and a child. The lifeguard is there because she works there
because she loves to swim, the Mom and child are there because it’s the child’s
birthday and they want to celebrate. The mom is excited and wanted to surprise
her child, but her child doesn’t know how to swim and is scared. Assign “roles”
to yourself and the volunteers and improvise a short scene that portrays all of
the information you discussed.
Step 5: Group Practice
Have the students get in groups and choose one of the
activities from the whiteboard. Invite them to discuss where the activity could
take place and who could be involved. Next, have them discuss why the
characters are there and how they each feel about the activity. Finally, after
dispersing roles amongst themselves, have the students practice and perform
short scenes for each other that tell a brief story about the characters, why
they are doing that activity, and how they feel about it.
Step 6: Discussion
Ask questions such as: What
kinds of characters did you have in your scene? What made those characters
likeable? Unlikeable? What kinds of characters do you notice in everyday life? Encourage
the students to think about how those people feel about various activities.
Step 7: Transition
Ask questions such as: What
can you do if you have no ideas for a story? Explain that in addition to
those answers, sometimes having a picture, song, or other stimulus can help you
to get ideas for a story. Have each student pull out 2 sheets of paper. Project
a photo or painting onto the projector screen. Invite the students to view the
photo while you write the following questions on the white board: What do you see? How does this picture make
you feel? What does it make you think about? What kind of story could you tell
from this photo? What characters could be involved in that story? What would
those characters look like? Act like?
Step 8: Assessment
On one sheet of paper, have the students write their
thoughts about the picture, as well as their ideas for a story and characters.
When they are ready, they may begin to write the exposition of their story on
the second sheet of paper. These will be handed in to Miss Richins at the end
of class. Students will continue to work on their stories throughout the unit.
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LESSON SUPPLEMENTS:
Stimulus painting by Jim Warren:
