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)

Lesson 6: Plot

"The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see." -Alexandra K. Trenfor

This was one of my student's favorite lessons to this day. To capture their curiosity from the start, I had everyone line up outside the door. I held a stack of papers in my hand and walked the line, explaining the rules of the game we were about to play to the class, stating the classic line that the "floor is lava". I purposely only gathered about ten sheets of paper to ensure that the students wouldn't have enough to make it across the classroom stepping only on the sheets of paper. I was anxious to see what kind of creative ideas they could come up with to solve the problem.

I observed their smiling faces as they leapt from paper to paper, and once the students got about halfway across the room, they had exhausted their supply! They asked me what to do, but I didn't say a word. Mass chaos ensued among the students as they scrambled for last-minute ideas. Many of the students began making ice-skating-like movements, using the paper to slide across the room and attempting to throw the paper back to the other students. Some students began ripping the sheets of paper in half or quarter sections, quadrupling the amount of paper they had access to. A couple of students went so far as to swipe paper from the recycling bin for additional auxiliaries!

Once every student (by some means or another) had made it to the opposite side of the classroom, I continued with the lesson. Since we were already up and moving, I had thought in advance to make plot structure "puzzles" instead of pursuing with the white board demonstration as originally planned. The students separated into groups and used their best recognition to guess which pieces fit where, and I am pleased to say that each group completed the structure correctly! However, I wanted them to be able to remember the plot structure outline easily, so I had them line up by order of their birthdays so we could make a human plot structure! However, this proved to just complicate everything because the kids were worried about being perfect with their order, so it ended up taking way too much time out of the lesson for what was meant to be a simple task. If I could do this lesson again, I would have them just line up normally, and I would give myself a lot of time to "test" them by asking different people to represent the climax, inciting incident, etc. The surrounding students could then adjust themselves in the line structure according to that! <--I hope that all makes sense. Haha.

We discussed the plot structure of the "floor is lava" activity that we had just completed, analyzing many different moments and categorizing them as inciting incident, rising action, or climax as a class. Many of the students had very unique insights as to what problems they had encountered, and how they were able to solve the problems. One of the smallest students in the class, Ruby, mentioned that she had thought that her size would cause her to have a difficult time to cross the classroom because she would have to leap long distances to stand on paper. However, she had soon discovered that her small size was actually an advantage because she was able to step on small pieces of paper much easier than the other students were.

The students grasped the concept of rising action and climax surprisingly easily! They were readily able to identify moments in our activity that would qualify for the descriptions and explain how they felt in those situations. I tried to focus on how these moments made them feel so that they would be able to think more easily about the characters' feelings in their stories.

During the group practice activity, the students were very creative in their decisions about what could go wrong in the activity and what characters could be involved. In one group, when a student had a difficult time doing his homework, a genie appeared to help him! However, when the genie proved to be not much help, the student was left in his trouble!

Students perform their original scene, incorporating the basics of the first half of the plot structure

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Casey Greenwood

BYU Arts Bridge

4^th Grade

UNIT: Playwriting

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

LESSON: Plot

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their understanding of plot by continuing their stories to incorporate an original plot.

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: 10 sheets of paper, situation papers

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Hook: Clear plenty of space on the floor. Tell the students they must cross the classroom standing only on the sheets of paper that you give to them. Have the students to stand in a line, and give the first student in line ten sheets of paper. As the students try to cross the room, they will find that they have run out of paper, and must come up with a creative way to get all students across the room while only standing on the paper.

Step 1: Transition

Ask questions such as: What made this activity challenging? What was the most difficult part about this activity?

Step 2:  Model

Draw a plot structure on the white board. Select students to write the different levels of plot structure in their proper places, and discuss each one and provide examples as it is written. Ask questions such as: What do you think could go wrong in the story? What events could lead to that problem? For example: The story could be about a boy who wants to buy a new dog. Rising action could include the boy’s lonely feelings at home, discussing wanting a dog with his parents, and traveling to the animal shelter. The climax could include that the animal shelter doesn’t have the breed of dog that he wants. Feeling disappointed, the boy might be begin to leave the animal shelter, when suddenly he hears a dog barking. As he approaches the dog, it jumps up, wanting attention and affection. The boy falls in love, and the family buys the dog.

Step 3: Group Practice

Have the students separate into groups, and provide each group a situation. Students will discuss where the situation could take place, what characters could be involved, what could go wrong in that situation, and what events could lead up to that problem. Students will then create scenes based off of this information and perform them for each other.

Step 4: Individual Practice

Invite the students to pull out the beginning of their story from the previous class. On a separate sheet of paper, have them write down what they want the main problem of the story to be, and what events could lead up to that problem.

Step 5: Assessment

When the students are ready, invite them to continue writing their stories, incorporating the new plot that they have developed.

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LESSON SUPPLEMENTS:

Write the following on strips of paper for the group activity:

Grocery shopping

Doing homework

Playing at recess

Riding the bus

Reading a book

Doing chores

Getting ready for school

Lesson 5: Exposition

"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

4^th 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:

Link: http://webneel.com/webneel/blog/25-mind-blowing-and-surreal-paintings-jim-warren-master-imagination

Lesson 4: Relationships

“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.” –Galileo

Now that I knew how to engage my students from the beginning of the lesson as well as give myself the confidence that I needed to teach smoothly, I was more than excited to teach what I was sure would be one of my favorite lessons!

I am fascinated with European history and kingdoms in general, and since we were learning about relationships, I decided to introduce my students to the topic by putting a fun twist on something that I’m passionate about: we would begin by exploring the relationship between commoners and noblemen! They responded very well to the opening activity and I was relieved to finally be comfortable teaching again!

To tie the lesson into the relevance of their own lives, we took a moment to talk about our own personal relationships and how we speak and act differently according to whom we are with. We actually skipped step 4 entirely for the sake of time, but I could tell it was unnecessary since the students seemed to understand the difference in interactions so well. The step 5 activity would be more effective and efficient, anyway.

The most recent question I’ve had about teaching is in regard to partnerships: Is it more effective to let these young students choose their own partners, or be assigned partners? If I assign partners, am I losing student ownership in my classroom? If I let students choose their own partners, will the lesson objective be reached effectively? Because of this battle, I have been a little too lenient in my classroom. I don’t want my students to feel that anything is unfair, so I suppose I should consider this in advance and choose a rule that best tailors to each lesson individually to avoid chaos in the future?

I am continuously impressed with my students’ active imaginations, clever responses, and eager attitudes. I have many students whom I can tell will be very talented actors in the future! I am very humbled to be one of the first to introduce them to the fascinating and beautiful world of performing arts.

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LESSON PLAN:

Casey Greenwood

BYU Arts Bridge

4^th Grade

Characterization Unit

Lesson 4: Relationship

LESSON EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their understanding of how relationships effect characterization by performing a contentless scene for the class.

USOE 4^TH GRADE STANDARDS: 1: Playmaking, Objective 1; Standard 2, Objectives 1, 2, and 4; Standard 4, Objective 2

MATERIALS NEEDED: Printed contentless scene (1 per student), relationship cards, computer access and proper connection cables

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HOOK: Clear the room to create plenty of floorspace. Divide the class into two groups and have them stand on opposite sides of the room. Each side will take on the title of either peasants or nobility. Invite the students to discuss amongst their own group what life would be like if they were indeed living as a peasant or noble in a kingdom. Next, have them discuss how they feel about the other group. Invite the students to walk around the room and interact with each other as they imagine peasants and nobles would interact if they were all shopping in the marketplace. Choose one student from the nobles to be the “king” of the class and have him or her sit on a chair in the center of the room. Next, have the students discuss in their groups how they would act around the king. Invite the students to interact with each other once again, but this time the king will enter the scene, affecting their interactions.

Step 1

Transition: Ask the students questions such as: How did you treat each other? Why did you treat each other that way? What was different about the way you treated the king? Why did you treat the king differently?

Step 2

Discussion: Write “RELATIONSHIPS” on the white board. Have the students think about the names of 3 people that they know and what their relationship is with that person (i.e. friend, mother, cousin, etc.). Ask for a few examples, and write them on the board. Ask the students questions such as: How would you act toward your (friend)? What would it look like? What would it sound like? How would you act toward your (mother)? Etc.

Step 3

Model: Show the students a video clip with no sound that features two characters interacting. Ask the students questions such as: What do you think their relationship is? Why do you think that? Next, have the students listen to a different video clip featuring two characters. Ask the students the same questions as before.

Step 4

Group Practice: Have the students get with a partner. Give each partnership an index card with a relationship written on it. Have them discuss what that relationship might look and sound like. Have the students improvise a 1-minute scene in which one of the characters wants the other to give him/her food. Have each partnership perform for at least one other.

Step 5

Assessment: Give each partnership a contentless scene. The students will decide on a relationship that they can apply to the scene, rehearse it, and perform for the class. After each scene, discuss the relationship and the clues that the students found within the scene that hinted at the characters’ relationship.

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LESSON SUPPLEMENTS:

VIDEO CLIPS: No sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdQgv4Og71E (1:05-1:45), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFdfssf2MNc (1:15-1:30)

RELATIONSHIP INDEX CARDS:

FATHER/MOTHER AND DAUGHTER/SON

BEST FRIENDS

TEACHER/STUDENT

OLDER BROTHER/SISTER AND YOUNGER BROTHER/SISTER

KING/QUEEN AND SERVANT

STRANGERS

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CONTENTLESS SCENE:

CHARACTER 1: What do you think about that?

CHARACTER 2: I think it could be better.

CHARACTER 1: I kinda like it the way it is.

CHARACTER 2: Whatever you say.