I was inspired by Gina's post about trying to make lessons more engaging for students. I happened on this one almost by accident. As we were reading, we were talking about dialogue between two of the characters. Then I was talking to them about story elements and how you can tell what characters are like by their dialogue. One student commented about how two students in class were like the characters in the story. I thought--YES--why not have my EL students create a play based on a story we read together as a class? I said it out loud to the students! Once I said that, they were more engaged with our plot outline we did, as well as looking at dialogue in the story. I also had them use some whisper phones to hear themselves talk. I am not sure how much room content teachers have in their curriculum, but if writing a class play together can cover one of the standards--maybe teaching drama terms as well as story elements--it could work.
It lets the drama terms come alive. As well, it allows for differentiation of students in the classroom: students who are strong speakers can take the leading roles, lower level readers can work on scenery and maybe even be part of the scenery with small speaking roles (example a tree could have a couple of lines), students good at writing can help compose the lines, etc.--even draw scenery or build props.
This is a cool idea! Plays are fun because many students enjoy acting and it could help them practice reading with expression!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. I am actually surprised at how much they are coming up with the lines--I put them on big post-its. Then I have them write them in their notebooks. Then we say them and try to think of how they can be better--and they have actually come up with funnier lines and goofy stuff to add to make it more cool. This has been a learning process for me. Of course you need a fairly small group to do it together as a class--but you could always break up larger groups and see how it goes with a super super short story. Right now we are talking about props and scenery--so it can get them engaged in building the stuff too!
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