Middle School Lesson Plan

Content Standard: Students will analyze and critique theater events by evaluating and constructing meanings from improvised and scripted scenes and from theater, film, television, and electronic media productions

Achievement Standard: Students will use articulated criteria to describe, analyze, and constructively evaluate artistic choices found in dramatic events

Materials:

• copies of an "Open Scene" for each class member

1 - Where are you going
2 - I don't know. Why
3 - What are you really asking me
4 - She said it was O.K.
5 - It really doesn't matter anyway
6 - Tell me something new
7 - It could be dangerous
8 - I don't think so
9 - Why not
10- He wouldn't like it

• transparencies

Preparation: Distribute a copy of the the "Open Scene" to each student. Pair the students so that students of varying abilities can learn through peer teaching. Give the pairs 5-10 minutes to rehearse the scene. Call for 3 or 4 pair volunteers to perform. Videotape the performances.

Ask the class to describe the actions, characters, locales, and time frames of each scene. Discuss how the same scene can be given different meanings by the performers. Follow up with "why" questions as needed, particularly when a suggestion appears to be unrelated to the topic. As students identify performance techniques chosen to give a particular moment meaning, list them on the board.

After watching other scenes and enlarging the list, place the students in groups to develop a "Checklist of Performance Techniques," which they write on a transparency. With an overhead projector, these groups share their ideas with the class. Then facilitate a discussion resulting in a class-written "Checklist." Ask for volunteers to return to the next class period with at least two printed copies of the "Checklist" for each student.

Activity: Play videotaped performances of the same scene by different performers. Have the students use their new "Checklist" as a guide as they compare and contrast the two performances. Remind them that their essay should describe and analyze what they see, then interpret the meanings the works have for them, and finally evaluate the two performances.

Have students discuss their differing opinions about the performances; encourage them to use appropriate theater terminology.

Follow-up Activity: Play a portion of a tv sitcom for the students. Have them discuss the performances. Then lead them through a discussion about the script, helping them develop a "Checklist for the Drama." Include such items as believability of character, relationship of characters to story, relationship of dialogue to character and story, etc.. Have the students view a television show at home; then give them class time to write an essay describing, analyzing and evaluating the script and performances using their Checklists as guides. (see Theater Criticism). Lead a discussion with students comparing their responses to the shows viewed.

Assessment: Include the essays in the students' portfolios. With the students, develop a rubric to grade the essays for content as well as writing.

Based on a lesson plan by Judith Kase Polisini, Tampa, Florida