Lesson 10: Editing (Theatre/Language Arts Integration Lesson)

This was definitely one of my favorite lessons! I love having themes to work around - and I felt that a detective theme would be perfect for an editing adventure! The students would have to search through scripts to find errors to correct and make a note of the mistakes on a handy dandy checklist! The students were very familiar with looking for writing errors and using a checklist in their own class exercises, so I worked with Miss Richins to create a checklist that they would be both comfortable with and challenged by!

I was surprised at how easily I have been able to incorporate Writing Standards in our drama activities throughout my teaching experience!

I wore all black and sunglasses to class, and as soon as the children entered the classroom, they were full of excitement and inquisitiveness. I had stuck misspelled words on the walls and desks around the classroom as well as some descriptive words. I had even borrowed a stuffed cat from my roommate to hide, to add to the script from the hook activity.

The kids ate it up! This lesson was exactly what they needed after working at their desks on their plays for so often. I was pleased at the positive reaction and participation that I received. My students are very competitive, and they were anxious to show me how well they can spell and how quickly they could complete the activity.

I always forget how important it is to provide examples to my students. Miss Richins suggested an example and came up to the front of the classroom to help me show the students what to do while correcting each others' plays and how to mark the word or sentence with a colored pencil.

If I could go back in time, I would have tried to see if my students could have written their plays on a computer. It would have taken a lot more planning and time management, but I think it would have saved a lot of time and frustration for the students because they wouldn't have to keep handwriting stuff over and over. I felt very bad that their plays were going to be all marked up, and I did get a couple of frustrated sighs when I mentioned that we'd be correcting directly on the manuscripts.

After corrections were made, we still had a few minutes left, so I had each student read one line of his or her play for the class as a preview for the final project! I was shocked at how creative and significant many of the stories seemed to be!

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Casey Greenwood

BYU Arts Bridge

4th Grade

UNIT: Playwriting

UNIT OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their ability to write effective stories by writing a play inspired by a stimulus.

LESSON: Editing (LANGUAGE ARTS INTEGRATION)

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their ability to edit effectively by using a checklist to edit their own plays.

THEATRE ARTS CORE STANDARDS:

Drama 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.

Writing Standard 3

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

Objective A. Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

Objective B. Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.sequence that unfolds naturally.

Objective C. Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events.

Objective E.

Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.

Writing Standard 5

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.

MATERIALS NEEDED: Dialogue and detective paper strips, editing checklists, example play, colored pencils for students, white board and markers

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Hook: Detective theme! Hide strips of paper with adjectives or higher-level words written on them around the classroom (for example, “terrified”). On these strips of paper, use improper spelling or punctuation. Somewhere in the classroom, set out a dialogue between two characters for the children to read. This dialogue will feature ordinary words with little color or deeper meaning. Instruct each table of students to find two strips of paper, correct what is wrong, and insert it into the dialogue where it fits best, replacing old words or adding to sentences (for example, “terrified” could replace “scared”). Replace one word as an example. The final missing word is→KITCHEN! Give it to the students once they have completed the rest of the words!

Step 1: Individual Practice

Now that the students have been detectives in groups, invite them to be detectives on their own. Have the students trade plays with someone. Give each student a checklist of things to look for and correct as they read the play. Bring an example script in case there are an odd number of students. Using colored pencils, they will go through the scripts and circle punctuation that needs to be changed, underline words that are spelled wrong, using carrots to add in anything else that needs to be added in. Show examples of corrections on the white board.

Step 2: Assessment

Give each student a new checklist. This time, they will read through their own plays, incorporating the notes they were given from Step 1 and using the checklist for their own play.

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LESSON SUPPLEMENTS:

Instructions for hook activity:

Chuck’s cat is missing! He needs the help of a detective to find out what happened to it—and who better than Miss Richins’ class to help him! With the other detectives at your table, work together to find two strips of paper that are hidden around the classroom. Fix any spelling problems by working together, and then tape the new word over a word that is spelled wrong or means the same thing in the dialogue between Chuck and Ms. Bernard! This will help the dialogue to make more sense and can help Chuck discover the true meaning behind Ms. Bernard’s words!

Dialogue between two characters:

Outside Ms. Bernard’s apartment, which is just two doors to the left of Chuck’s apartment.

CHUCK: Ms. Bernard, I noticed that your light was on when I got home last night. Did you happen to see my cat?

MS. BERNARD: Have I seene your cute cat? No! What a shame! Where cood she be?

CHUCK: She must have escaped when I accidentally left the window open when I left for work yesterday morning.

MS. BERNARD: She must be sad, being all alone!

CHUCK: I’ll have to set out some milk outside my door tonight, maybe that will bring her in.

MS. BERNARD: Yes, I know she likes her milk.

CHUCK: How did you know that?

MS. BERNARD: (Stuttering) I… have seen her arownd once or twice. …I walked past your window a few days ago and… saw her happily drinking her brekfasst!

CHUCK: Interesting. She usually sleeps in until 10 or 11 a.m. She doesn’t like mornings very much.

MS. BERNARD: (Glancing into the kitchen) You can say that again. (Catching herself, trying to cover up what she just said)  I mean, you can… pray that you find her agan! Ha! Ha! Anyway… Is she allergic to ennything?

CHUCK: Well, she isn’t allergic to anything, but she actually really hates fish.

MS. BERNARD: Oh, is that so? I never would have guessed! She’s so healthy and smart and pretty, I would have thot that she eats fish all the time!

CHUCK: You seem to know a lot about my cat. Hopefully since you know her so well, you’ll be able to recognize her if you find her.

MS. BERNARD: I will let you no the moment I hear anything!

(As CHUCK walks away, a soft “meow” can be heard from the ______________)

***Replace CUTE with ADORABLE, SAD with MISERABLE, LIKES with LOVES, HAPPILY with EXCITEDLY, PRETTY with BEAUTIFUL

***Correct spelling: seene→seen, cood→could, arownd→around, brekfasst→breakfast, agan→again, ennything→anything, thot→thought

The final missing word is→KITCHEN! Give it to the students once they have completed the rest of the words!

Hidden papers:

ADORABLE

MISERABLE

LOVES

EXCITEDLY

BEAUTIFUL

Have the students correct spelling for the following words:

SEENE

COOD

AROWND

BREKFASST

AGAN

ENNYTHING

THOT

Example word:

NO→KNOW

Final word:

KITCHEN

PLAY EDITING CHECKLIST
I capitalized the beginning of my sentences.
I capitalized proper nouns (names of people, places, and things).
I capitalized the word “I”.
I used correct punctuation at the end of sentences.
I used commas when listing.
I have checked the spelling of words that did not look correct.
At least two characters speak in my play.
My play has a plot (a problem that needs to be solved).
In the end of my play, the problem is solved.