Playwriting: Broken Fairytales
by Savannah Johnson
Unit Objective:
Students will be able to create and perform an original script through various writing activities, learning about story structure, and learning to read a script.
Grade Level:
Drama 2 (8th-9th Advanced Theatre)
Grade Level Description:
8th and 9th graders are full of energy and very excitable. They want to talk to their friends and they want to have some choice over the things that they participate in. They have a limited attention span and need to be guided to stay on track. They are very willing to participate and they want to be funny. They want to be successful and have their peers think highly of them. The majority of them treat drama as though it is there “thing” at this point, or part of who they are as a person, so they want to be in this class and are ready to participate fully.
Prior Experience Needed:
No prior experience is necessarily needed, but it would be wonderful if they had prior experience with the structure of a story, some basic ability to write a story, actor’s tools, and an understanding of how to work with others and collaborate.
Big Ideas:
Playwriting, collaboration, story structure, parts of a story, script format, script reading
Standards:
Standard 7-8.T.CR.3: Use form and structure to create a scene or play with a beginning, middle, and end that includes full character development, believable dialogue, and logical plot outcomes.
Essential Understandings:
Students will understand how to format a script.
Students will understand how to structure a story.
Students will understand that story structure affects the plot.
Essential Questions:
What is the form that a script takes on?
What is the Aristotelian story structure?
Why is each part of the story important?
Key Knowledge and Skills:
- Students will know how to format a script.
- Students will know the aristotelian story structure.
- Students will know to read a script.
- Students will be able to create a script of their own.
Authentic Performance Tasks:
- Broken Fairytale: Students will write a broken fairytale with correct formatting and plot structure.
- Script reading: Students will do a read through/script reading performance for another group in the class to get feedback on plot structure.
- Performance: students will perform their broken fairytales for the class