LESSON 1 TITLE<\/p>\n
Playwriting vs. Improv<\/p>\n
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EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE<\/p>\n
Students will understand what playwriting is by discussing its advantages and disadvantages compared to improv.<\/p>\n
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MATERIALS NEEDED<\/p>\n
Playwriting project explanation and rubric, Whose Line<\/em> and Modern Family<\/em> clip loaded on YouTube<\/p>\n Lesson 1.Playwriting Project Info Sheet<\/a><\/p>\n Unit Rubric for playwriting and presentation<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n HOOK<\/p>\n When the students are all seated, name one student by name and ask them to come up to the front of the classroom with you.\u00a0 Tell the student and the rest of the class that you are going to start a scene of something that happened in your life once in college and you will play yourself and the student will play the professor.\u00a0 Start the scene with no further explanation.\u00a0 Let the scene play out until you feel it is a good place to end and call scene.\u00a0 Tell the students that the scene did not play out the way that it actually did in real life.\u00a0 But now they all need to think of an experience in their lives when there was a problem\/argument\/disagreement between them and another person.\u00a0 It should be a problem that was very soon after solved.\u00a0 Give them time to think.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n GROUP WORK<\/p>\n Tell the students to find a partner and then once they have found a partner, find another pair to create a group of 4 with.\u00a0 Within their groups, 4 short scenes will be performed. Each person needs to perform that problem in their life with their partner for the other pair.\u00a0 But make sure to tell them that they are NOT allowed to tell their partner how their problem happened or was solved, just start the scene and let it flow.\u00a0 Action!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n DISCUSSION<\/p>\n After the students have finished performing, ask a few students if their scenes went the same in performance as it did in real life.\u00a0 What made it so hard to make it happen the same way?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n MODEL<\/p>\n Bring up the same student who helped you in the beginning.\u00a0 Tell the students to sing a song to themselves as you whisper to your helper how your college problem with the professor actually happened.\u00a0 Now perform the scene again and when you are done.\u00a0 Explain that when I was able to tell the student how that time in my life went, the scene was a much better portrayal.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n GROUP WORK<\/p>\n Tell the students to get back in their duos and their groups of 4 and now tell your partner how your experience went.\u00a0 Don\u2019t give exact dialogue but explain the general situation and how it was solved and then perform it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n DISCUSSION<\/p>\n Was that better? Why was it easier? But were there still problems? What were the problems that you ran into?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n GUIDED PRACTICE<\/p>\n Tell everyone to take out a piece of paper.\u00a0 Now that they have performed (or tried to) perform their scene twice, they are now going to write down lines for their scene.\u00a0 This way, their experience from life can be accurately portrayed in the scene.\u00a0 Give them about 8 minutes to write down some lines for their scene.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n GROUP WORK<\/p>\n Tell them to get back in their groups and do what they\u2019ve always done but this time you will be reading a script.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n DISCUSSION<\/p>\n As the students finish and gather back to their seats, write the words \u201cplaywriting\u201d and \u201cimprov\u201d on the board.\u00a0 What is the difference between these two words? What are the advantages and disadvantages to both? What we just did was go from improv-ing a scene to playwriting a scene.\u00a0 Many times playwriting can seem scary and daunting but when you know what you\u2019re writing about and you have learned the right elements, it\u2019s not as scary as it might seem.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n MODEL<\/p>\n Show this clip http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=R-hD-HXx7xc<\/a><\/p>\n