Students will demonstrate an ability to choose and execute appropriate sound effects (using their bodies, instruments, or sound effects CD), by creating, planning and performing a skit involving 15 or more sound effects.
Play several sound effects from a sound effects CD. Ask students to guess what the sound is.
Instruction
Instruction: Sounds communicate in a play. Not all sounds that would make the play more realistic or funny or that would communicate the desired setting or mood can be created on stage. What are sound effects? How could you create them? (Actors on stage, prerecorded etc.) Review the advantages and disadvantages of live vs. recorded sound. A major job of a sound designer would be deciding what sounds to use, when to use them and how to make them. Before that can happen a sound designer should become aware of sound in general and how it can enhance the mood and setting. What sounds do you hear every day but don’t think about? How are they created?
Modeling: Play Sound Effects Bingo. (see handout) Students will be required to identify sounds when they hear them. Discuss afterwards which sounds were believable. Which ones were more difficult to understand? Were their some that could be used for more than one different sound?
Checking for understanding: Being able to identify a sound is important why? (answers might be- because the audience will have to and believe it) Being aware of sounds is important why? (can better use sound to enhance a project). Describe what you do in the morning. Get up, yawn etc. Brush teeth take a shower etc. Have students listen as you describe your list of all the sounds that might be associated with morning. Ask them to use their imagination. What do they hear as you describe your morning.
Guided Practice: Have students do the same. Have them describe their morning in a short paragraph. In parenthesis have them put sounds in the appropriate place. Ex: water running, engine starting, clinking of breakfast bowl and spoon, pouring juice in a cup etc.
Checking for understanding: Ask a volunteer to repeat the assignment. Ask what they should put in parenthesis? What should their paragraph include? Etc.
Independent Practice: Pass out the instructions for the Sound Effects Skit. (see handout) Go over the instructions as a class. Have groups get in groups to start working on skits.
Closure: Discuss how Sound enhances a project. Have students turn in for a grade the script for their skit plus the lists they made on their student instruction sheet. (see instruction handout)
