Contents 24 hour, Nine Week Plan go 12 Day Abridged Plan go What students can learn when they collaborate on a play. go Principles behind this lesson go Across-the-curriculum adaptations go Assessments go Bag of tricks go Troubleshooting go

A Program for Teachers From Zero to Class-written Play in 24 Contact Hours   What your students can learn when they collaborate on a play.When you commission your students to create their own play, they will learn from experience about character, theme, and form -- topics they usually just write about in essays. They will look to Shakespeare and other classic models because they need to, not because you made them do it. With a performance looming, they must also learn cooperation, persistence, and problem-solving. They may also practice research into history or any other subject: You choose when you commission the play to be about a particular time, place, or theme. (See Adaptations). top Educational Principles Behind This LessonStudents learn best when they perceive a need for what their teacher offers. We succeed as teachers when we can place students in a position where they feel that need for what we offer. A student who has been a creative writer is better attuned to appreciate creative writing than a student who has only read literature (just as a former basketball player is better attuned to appreciate the action of a basketball game than someone who has never played). top Across-the-Curriculum AdaptationsTeachers can use this model who have no intention of "putting on" a play. At the initial step of the plan, teachers can set parameters to achieve special goals: Counselling: Require the students to build their scenes around different perspectives that emerge from discussing a theme of your choice (peer relations, authority, diversity). Literature: Imagine setting the play in Atticus Finch's town among neighbors who are not named in To Kill A Mockingbird to see different ways that lives are impacted (or not) by the events of that book. Social Studies: After looking at pictures and reading primary sources from a specific time and / or place, let students imagine characters behind the scenes of famous events -- see how all can end up as witnesses. Science: Imagine the impact on lives of some plausible future development in physics, chemistry, or genetics; or imagine a community in which people are suddenly confronted with mysterious phenomena (human symptoms? growths in the ground? strange behavior of animals?). top Plan for 24 Contact Hours around nine weeks With as little as 24 full hours' contact time with your students spread out over a period of weeks, and with some outside help with production (set construction, finding props, costuming, sound effects, lighting), you can produce an impressive 30 - to - 60 minute play from scratch. This is a list of things that have to happen, and not a time table. Every process overlaps. Every group and every project will be different. Uncertainty is part of the process. Assume that the script will not be finalized until around the fifth week. You may not decide on an ending until the week before the show, and that's normal! To see synopses of shows done by this model, look here. Gathering Material 2-3weeks Commission a play..."First Line" exercise. . . Choose what the play will be about . . . Ask "What could happen? . . . Improvise scenes. . . Interview characters . . . Share scenes whenever possible. Details. Shaping Material 2-3weeks Decide on a time frame for the story. . . Work out plot lines for each group. . . Improvise remaining scenes for each group, and write dialogue down. . . Find a start and finish for the play. Details. Producing the play from the (mostly) finished script 3-4 weeks Plan production's look . . . Photocopy final scripts. . . Rehearse every day until the show. . . Follow up. Details. top Abridged 12 Day Plan In twelve days of forty-five minute class period, you can achieve your teaching objectives. A performance in a classroom or cafeteria for a small audience would still be possible. A smoothly-running play with impressive productions values would require a few more days and resources outside of your classroom. See the 9 week plan. First line exercise. details Commission a play with one location and time. details Improvise scenes in their different locales. details Interview characters. details Tie scenes together. details Refine scenes on paper. details Build the scenes up to a conclusion. details Stage it. details Rehearse on stage. details Rehearse on stage, with improvements. details Dress Rehearsal. details Performance. details Follow up. details If you can combine or bypass steps, do: You'll want more time for another step, guaranteed; and you will never feel like you have enough rehearsal time! top Assessments Involve your students in their own assessments, explaining that you need a paper trail to show the contributions of each student. Open a portfolio for each. By the end of the project, it should include: Hard copies of successive drafts of scenes The written "interview" with the student's character The letter of self-evaluation after the performance A copy of the program It's helpful to have students write interim progress reports about their groups, with self-evaluation included. top 8th Grade Drama is the Most Important Course You'll Take - Seriously! Here's a little secret about teachers: Every one of us thinks that he or she teaches the subject that is most important to students at the most critical age. Your teacher for this course is no exception. I see this class as the centerpiece of your education, now and forever. If you put effort into these nine weeks, you'll have knowledge and skills that will follow you through life. I'll show you what I mean. In literature classes, you study how others have tried to involve an audience in their stories, and how they have related scenes to a theme. In this class, you do all that yourself. In math and science classes, you practice problem-solving on paper. In this class, you work in real life through daily problems and numerous variables to make a reality from a mere idea. Ultimately, Walker School hopes to prepare students to be leaders in their community. In this class, you will prepare for creative leadership by practice in cooperation and compromise envisioning a goal and taking initiative identifying the problems and brainstorming solutions revising the project in progress. In this class, you also will bring together the experiences you've had in earlier drama classes to make a script, a set, costumes, publicity, and a well-run production. Here are the roles that I will play in this class: I commission your work. To help you to realize what you imagine, I offer tips from my experience and study. To maintain progress, I draw from a range of methods (from encouragement to advice to punishment) to keep you and your classmates to the production schedule. To direct the production, I will make final decisions regarding the text and the staging, but I will consult you in those decisions. Courage is the memory of past successes. You can have courage now, and earn courage that will last for years to come!

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, September 2011 Written by 8th graders in 2008, this romantic comedy was a hit for middle school actors in 2011. In the photo collage above, the authors, now Seniors, are seated on the stage between rows of the middle schoolers who brought new life to the old script! first scene second scene third scene fourth scene fifth scene scene

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