Playwriting.Character<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Lesson Directions<\/h4>\n
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Anticipatory Set\/Hook<\/h5>\n
Teacher would be dressed as the wizard Merlin (from \u201cThe Sword and the Stone\u201d) or Mary Poppins. Teacher must speak in a voice and behave as that character would while explaining the activity to the students. In the middle of the room would be a large \u201ctrunk\u201d or \u201ccarpet bag\u201d (really a box or bag decorated to look like one of those) and the students would have 15 minutes to put together a costume for a character they\u2019ve created from the materials (aluminum foil, saran wrap, newspaper, etc.) in the box. They can work with other students, but they must all come up with their own individual character & costume.<\/p>\n
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Instruction<\/h5>\n
Step 1 \u2013 Directions: Once the students are attired, tell them it\u2019s time to show off their new ensemble. Have each student come and get an index card (to take notes on as they interview other students) and a writing utensil. They\u2019ll have to pair up with another student and \u201cintroduce\u201d themselves and get to know one another, only they\u2019ll respond \u201cin character\u201d \u2013 a character that corresponds to the costume and props they created. They\u2019ll have five minutes to come up with more details about their character (such as name, where they live\/are from, what they do, etc.), as well as any questions they want to ask their \u201cinterviewee.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Step 2 \u2013 Guided Practice: Teacher will demonstrate by choosing one student and asking a few sample questions, then have the student repeat the process on them.
Interview Questions for the Students: Who are you? What is your name \/ occupation \/ greatest ambition? Where are you from? Who is your arch nemesis? What is your greatest strength \/ weakness? What is your favorite thing to do? Do you have a best friend?<\/p>\n
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Step 3 \u2013 Group Practice: Let them break loose. They\u2019ll have 5 minutes to talk to the person to get to know them, and record at least five things they find out about each other on their index card. After 5 minutes, have them find another student and repeat the process<\/p>\n
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Mid-Lesson Assessment Point: Wander around the classroom, eavesdropping on the students conversations \u2013 maybe even ask a few questions of your own!<\/p>\n
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Step 4 – Discussion: Transition \u2013 announce time\u2019s up after giving the students a one-minute warning to \u201cwrap up.\u201d Gather back together in a circle (now teacher is out of character) and ask the students about their experience. Go around to each student and have them introduce the \u201ccharacters\u201d they interviewed, sharing what they discovered about them. Other students who interviewed the same characters can chime in and add new and \/ or different information and share what they discovered about the people they \u201cinterviewed.\u201d
Questions to ask students: What was the most interesting thing you found out about the other \u201ccharacters\u201d? How did you feel about this experience? What was the most enjoyable part of this experience? What was the most difficult part? Were there any similarities between your characters and what were they? What was\/were the biggest difference\/differences?<\/p>\n
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Step 5 \u2013 Instruction \/ Discussion \/ Checking for Understanding: Have each student go to the board and write the most interesting thing they learned about another\u2019s character. Have one student stay at the board and circle the overlapping \/ similar things after having the students pick them out. Ask the students what all the things listed on the board have in common, what they all share, what they add to the characters, if anything.
Possible answers given by students: All are interesting facts, all are details about the character, make the character more interesting \/ real \/ relatable \/ likeable \/ unlikeable.
Transition: Ask the students to think of a favorite character from a story. What is it about that character that makes them their favorite?<\/p>\n
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Step 6 \u2013 Instruction: Assign two students to distribute the character handout. Ask for volunteers to stand and read one of the definitions on the handout \u2013 have them read it \u201cin character\u201d as the character they created earlier.
Question to ask students: Think about which category your favorite character falls under.<\/p>\n
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Step 7 \u2013 Instruction \/ Checking for Understanding: Hand out signs with character types that correspond to the previous handout given. Instruct the students to hold up the right sign when that character appears in the video clip – for the hero, hold up the \u201cHERO\u201d sign, etc. Show first video clip \u2013 end scene from \u201cThe Lion King\u201d featuring all four on handout: Hero, Heroine, Villain, Sidekick, Henchmen. Show second video clip \u2013 final race scene from Pixar\u2019s \u201cCars.\u201d
Assessment Point: Notice which signs the students hold up for the characters in the scenes to gage whether they grasp the concepts.<\/p>\n
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Question for students: What was the same about the characters in these clips? What was different?
Possible answers: Both contained the characters from the handout, characters were same type but different because individual and unique.<\/p>\n
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Transition: \u201cThink about what made the characters you \u2018interviewed\u2019 earlier interesting, and also keep in mind what made the characters in the clips engaging.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Step 8 \u2013 Objective Activity \/ Final Assessment: Give students paper and writing utensil and allow them 15 minutes to create a new character \u2013 either a hero, heroine, villain, sidekick, or henchman \u2013 and write a two minute monologue for that character which they\u2019ll then perform, telling the students that you\u2019re going to look for (and want them to look for in other students\u2019 performance) interesting details, unique personality, and background development for the characters.<\/p>\n
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Step 9 \u2013 Closure: Plot is important, but without engaging characters, even the best plot won\u2019t keep an audience engaged. Although stories usually contain the same types of characters (heroes, heroines, villains, etc.), it is the details about the characters and their unique traits that make them interesting and great, and thus enhance the story. And just like these characters, we each have unique personalities, traits and backgrounds that we can use to positively contribute to the world around us.<\/p>\n
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Grading Criteria:<\/h4>\n
Participation (30 pts), Character w\/ costume (30 pts), Final assessment (40 pts)<\/p>\n
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Assessment<\/h4>\n
\u00b7 Give students paper and writing utensil and allow them 15 minutes to create a new character \u2013 either a hero, heroine, villain, sidekick, or henchman \u2013 and write a two minute monologue for that character which they\u2019ll then perform, telling the students that you\u2019re going to look for (and want them to look for in other students\u2019 performance) interesting details, unique personality, and background development for the characters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Objective Students will demonstrate their understanding of different character types by writing \/ performing a two minute original character monologue. Materials Needed Merlin-type wizard costume or Mary Poppins-esque costume for teacher, large \u201ccarpet bag\u201d \/ cardboard box \/ trunk, etc., aluminum foil, Seran wrap, plastic and paper bags, string, ribbon, masking tape, duct tape, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2082"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2082"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3319,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2082\/revisions\/3319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}