Students will demonstrate their understanding of the French Neoclassical “genre” guideline by modifying their fairytale to strictly either be a tragedy or comedy.
Materials Needed
· Bowl/hat · Following terms on a strip of paper (one per): o Tragedy o Comedy o High-class o Middle-class o Death o Happy
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook Inform students that they will be playing Charades. Have six volunteers draw their word from the bowl/hat. Once students have guessed the word, have the volunteer write the word on the board. How to play Charades: without speaking, have volunteer gesture, signal, and act out the specified word until viewers can guess the term
Instruction
Step 1: · Once all the vocabulary words have been guessed and are written on the board, ask students if they notice a pattern or can make a connection · If students are struggling, inform them that the “Tragedy” and “Comedy” refer to the two genres that existed during French Neoclassical theatre · A tragedy dealt only with high society characters, and always ended tragically · Comedy, on the other hand, dealt with middle to low-class characters, and always ended happily
Step 2: · Explain to students that according to the French Academy, a good play never mixed the two genres · Ask students for modern-day examples that break this rule (dark comedies)
Step 3: · Have groups determine if they want their play to be a tragedy or a comedy · Allow them time to make the necessary revisions to ensure that their play is not mixing genres
Step 4: · As reinforcement, based on their decision of genre, give them exactly 2 minutes to determine their falling action · Then have each group perform their falling action in 30 seconds · Once all the groups have performed, discuss the genre that each group chose based on their performance
Closure:
Give students the remainder of the time to continue working on and revising their script.
Assessment
Participation: 5pts Falling Action Performance: 5 pt Total possible points: 10 pts
Breakdown of points for Falling ActionPerformance Points
Falling action adheres to the French Neoclassical genre guideline in 30 secs 5 Falling action does not adhere to the French Neoclassical genre guideline in 30 secs 0
