Lesson 4

Standards: 

Standard 7–8.T.P.4: Communicate meaning using the body through space, shape, energy, and gesture

Learning Objectives:

Students will explore and practice the different ways that your body can express emotions through the creation and rehearsal of their walks project.

Essential Questions: 

How does my body language affect how I am being understood by my audience?

How can I use my movement to tell a clearer story?

Essential Understandings:

Students will understand that their movement can be read and understood and interpreted like any other language.

Students will understand that the way that they choose to move their bodies builds the story of their character.

Students will understand that they should think about and be intentional about how they move their bodies.

Materials: 

Rubric

Powerpoint

Worksheet

Instruction: 

HOOK:

• Roll
• Sit in seats
• Welcome to class guys! 

• Game: 

  •  Why are you late? 

    • Students say they know this name, but just in case these are the rules that we are playing with: 

      • One person will play the boss. 
      • Two people will be the employees that are already at work. 
      • There will be one late employee. 
      • The boss will ask why the person is late and the two employees that are already at work will come up with and silently act out why the other employee is late. They will do so without getting caught by the boss, who can turn around at any time! 
      • After the story ends, the boss will let them into work and the boss will exit the stage. The employee that has been on stage the longest will become the boss now.
    • Focus on story structure, let the students know that there should be a climax and the falling action should be the boss leaving and switching out. 
    • Once the game is over, have students remind you of the parts of the story structure and why they are important.

  • Follow up questions: 

    • How did you use your movement to tell the story? 
    • What can we use more of as we continue to tell stories? 

PROJECT SET UP:

• Assign groups 

• Assign nursery rhymes

  • The teacher will have a spinner on the screen that has the nursery rhymes on it.

    • Spin then identify how many characters are in that particular rhyme. 

  • Then pull groups out of a hat. 

    • Makes them random. 

REHEARSAL TIME:

• Remind everyone that the purpose is to show off our movements, so focus on that! 

• Take everyone to the auditorium and let the groups work on their stories. 

  • Have them bring their things. 

• After about 15 minutes of working ask the students to gather and pass out the staging and physicality analysis sheet. 

  • By this point they should know who their character is, and will benefit from filling this out. They will turn this in at the end of the rehearsal process so that you as the teacher can see what they are trying to do with their movement in this piece. Like a pre-assessment. 
• If there is time, invite them to rehearse their skits some more. 

CLEAN UP:

• What did you learn? 
• What steps are we taking next time we come to class? 
• Thank you for your participation today!
• Clean up