Objective
Students will demonstrate their understanding of the French Neoclassical “genre” guideline by modifying their fairytale to strictly either be a tragedy or comedy.
Materials Needed
· Bowl/hat
· Following terms on a strip of paper (one per):
o Tragedy
o Comedy
o High-class
o Middle-class
o Death
o Happy
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook
Inform students that they will be playing Charades. Have six volunteers draw their word from the bowl/hat. Once students have guessed the word, have the volunteer write the word on the board.
How to play Charades: without speaking, have volunteer gesture, signal, and act out the specified word until viewers can guess the term
Instruction
Step 1:
· Once all the vocabulary words have been guessed and are written on the board, ask students if they notice a pattern or can make a connection
· If students are struggling, inform them that the “Tragedy” and “Comedy” refer to the two genres that existed during French Neoclassical theatre
· A tragedy dealt only with high society characters, and always ended tragically
· Comedy, on the other hand, dealt with middle to low-class characters, and always ended happily
Step 2:
· Explain to students that according to the French Academy, a good play never mixed the two genres
· Ask students for modern-day examples that break this rule (dark comedies)
Step 3:
· Have groups determine if they want their play to be a tragedy or a comedy
· Allow them time to make the necessary revisions to ensure that their play is not mixing genres
Step 4:
· As reinforcement, based on their decision of genre, give them exactly 2 minutes to determine their falling action
· Then have each group perform their falling action in 30 seconds
· Once all the groups have performed, discuss the genre that each group chose based on their performance
Closure:
Give students the remainder of the time to continue working on and revising their script.
Assessment
Participation: 5pts
Falling Action Performance: 5 pt
Total possible points: 10 pts
Breakdown of points for Falling ActionPerformance Points
Falling action adheres to the French Neoclassical genre guideline in 30 secs 5
Falling action does not adhere to the French Neoclassical genre guideline in 30 secs 0