Students will be able to use inflection by using rising and falling inflection in a sentence.
Hook
Begin the class by addressing different students, saying, “Hello, how are you?” When addressing some students, inflect your voice down at the end of the question. With other students inflect your voice up. Repeat a few times, making the up or down inflections more pronounced, less pronounced, and monotone (no inflection).
Discussion/Practice
Ask the students to raise their hands if they know what inflection is. [Some answers might be: Raising the pitch of the voice up or down to change the meaning of a phrase or sentence. The modulation/change of pitch in the voice; the voice rises and falls. Bending a sentence up or down to give more specific meaning to it.]
Inform the students there are two types of inflection they will learn about in this class. They are rising inflection and falling inflection.
Ask the students if they know or can guess what falling inflection is. Prompt/coach as needed. [Falling inflections end most sentences with a note of authority and finality.] What are some characters or circumstances that might use falling inflection?
Ask the students if they know or can guess what rising inflection is. Prompt/coach as needed. [Rising inflections are used to express doubt, suggest an unfinished idea, or ask a yes or no question.] What are some characters or circumstances that might use rising inflection?
Assessment
Invite the students to demonstrate some examples of how “Hi, how are you?” (or a sentence of their choosing) might be said with rising inflection. Ask the students to demonstrate some examples of how “Hi, how are you?” (or a sentence of their choosing) might be said with falling inflection.
Lesson 3-A: Introduce the Radio Drama Scripts/Casts’ Read-throughs
[This lesson can be a continuation of Lesson 3, or a separate lesson.]
Lesson Objective
Students will begin a read-through of their radio dramas.
Materials
Scripts of radio dramas and prepared cast lists.
Hook
Announce to the students that today they will receive their radio drama scripts and learn what role(s) they are playing. Ask students what the first thing a director/ actor/designer does when they receive a new script. [Read through the script to become familiar with the story and the characters.] When reading a script is done as a cast, it is called a read-through.
Discussion
Ask the students to wait until all the casts have been announced and they have received their scripts, and then separate into their cast groups for a first read-through of their radio dramas. Let them know that for the next few days class will be organized similarly: a brief introduction and practice of a vocal variation technique followed by a cast reading/rehearsal.
Rehearsal
Announce the casts and hand out scripts. Remind the casts that this is a first read-through, so the goal is to become familiar with the story and the characters. Call the cast leaders (students preselected for this responsibility) to meet with you and explain briefly that their assignment is to represent the cast with group questions, and to fill out a brief report on each student’s involvement in the group’s work. Invite the students to separate into casts and begin reading their scripts. Circulate the room, visiting the casts and listening to their readings; ask each cast if they have questions about plotline, character relations, setting, etc. Allow the students to use the remainder of the class to read their plays.
Assessment
About 3 – 5 minutes before class ends ask the students to return to their seats. Ask the cast leaders to each report on how far their casts read their scripts—what page is their cast on? [For a 45-minute class most casts will not have finished the first read-through.] Ask each cast to commit to completing their read-throughs during tomorrow’s class.
