Lesson 7: Denouement

"A good teacher is like a candle. It consumes itself to light the way for others." -Mustafa Kemal Atatük

The students walked in to a classroom that had been totally trashed. Colorful sheets of paper had been wadded up and thrown at random around the room, and a couple of desks in particular were completely covered in trash. I made it look as if I had just arrived to the classroom, so as the students chirped "Miss Greenwood! Did you trash the classroom??" I played innocent. I claimed to have left for just a moment and had returned to an utter abomination of a classroom!

Now that I had played innocent, it was time to play the villain. I drew two names at random and had those two students stand next to me at the front of the classroom. I had figured that holding two students hostage instead of one would increase the urgency of the activity and make it more likely that everyone would participate. I told the students that they had 30 seconds to clean up the mess or my two hostages wouldn't get to participate in the lesson that day.

Through a series of chuckles and shuffling feet, the mess was cleaned up in no time. I was surprised at how quickly the students helped each other, picking up trash off of desks that weren't even theirs without having to be asked for help.

This tied in really nicely to a discussion on how the students came to solve the problem. One student couldn't have done it alone, it required their combined efforts to do the job so quickly. We then discussed how those whose desks were covered in trash felt when so many came to their assistance. We briefly reviewed the previous week's lesson and how they solved the problem when they had run out of paper to walk on and they had only made it halfway across the "lava floor". We focused on how everyone felt before and after the problem had been solved.

After watching the clips from Disney's Mulan, the students surprised me with their insight:

In this photo, the first chart shows the students suggestions as to how the characters were feeling at the climax of the story - when the the Huns attack the Emperor's palace. On the right, it shows how the students thought some of the characters were feeling after the resolution. On the left side of the bottom chart, it lists the students suggestions as to how the characters felt about Mulan before the climax, vs. how they felt about her after the problem had been resolved. Also, I just realized that I wrote "Henchmen" on the whiteboard instead of "Henchman". Oops. It's a good thing I teach drama and not English. :) I didn't know what his name is (it's Chi Fu, in case you were wondering), so we just referred to him as the Emperor's Henchman.

Anyway, breaking down the characters' feelings like this and how they changed when the problem was resolved made it really easy for the students to think about the characters in their stories and how they wanted them to feel in the end. The students went right to work to finish the first draft of their stories which would soon be turned into plays!!

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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 7: End (Climax-Falling Action-Denouement)

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their ability to end a story effectively by creating an original ending for their story.

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 4

Analyzing and Constructing Meanings: The student will explain personal preferences and construct meanings by responding to improvised and scripted scenes and to theatre, film, television, and other electronic media productions.

Objective 1

Analyze and explain how the wants and needs of characters in a dramatic presentation are similar to and different from one’s own wants and needs in real life.

Objective 3

Analyze and explain emotional responses to and personal preferences about informal and formal theatre experiences from the viewpoints of both performer and audience.

MATERIALS NEEDED: Plenty of scrap paper, computer, projector, and appropriate connecting cables, white board and markers

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Hook: Before the students enter, wad up sheets of paper and toss them around the room, placing many in or around a few students’ desks. Give the students 30 seconds to clean up as much as they can. Give the students no other instructions, but watch to see if anyone helps the students whose desks are flooded in wadded paper. Maybe even hold a student "hostage" and claim that he or she can't participate in any of the activities that day unless the other students get the mess cleaned up (it won't be true of course).

Step 1: Transition

Ask the students questions such as: What problems did you encounter? What were some things you did to solve the problem? If students helped those with the most trash, ask those students how they felt about helping that person, and ask that person how they felt about being helped.

Step 2: Check for Understanding

Refer back to last week's lesson and get examples of how they solved the problems from the hook activity. Ask the students questions such as: How did you feel when the task was completed?

Step 3: Model

Show the end battle scene from Disney's Mulan. Ask the students: What was the problem? Who was involved in solving the problem? (Answers may include: Mulan, Yao, Ling, Chien Po, Mushu, etc.) What did they do to help solve it? Before Mulan helped save China, how did many of the characters feel about her? Because Mulan helped solve the problem, how did that change the way others feel about her? How do you personally feel because of this story?

Step 4: Individual Practice/Assessment

Have the students consider the following questions: What problem(s) occur(s) in your story? What characters could help solve the problem? How could they solve the problem? Should they do it together or by themselves? How will your characters feel after they have solved the problem(s)? How will solving the problem change how they feel about themselves? About others (think Mulan)? How do you want your audience to feel because of this story? Give the students plenty of time to finish their stories and ask any questions they may have.

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LESSON SUPPLEMENTS:

Disney’s Mulan video clip links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0moSIn1Pmk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvI8JM93-0o (00:00-01:34)