Day 2: Creating a Scene

 

Big Ideas/Long Term Goals: Students will gain experience with creating content in relation to existing material. Through this activity, students will sharpen their skills in writing creatively within a predetermined context.

 

Objectives:

·         Students will have written a new scene for the movie Capote to be performed for the class.

Motivation:

            I will put students in groups of three or four and give them guidelines for writing their scenes. I will offer them a choice of either writing a “deleted scene” (essentially, some type of continuation of an existing scene) or writing an alternate ending to the film. The scene should be about 5-10 minutes long and each member of the group will be expected to play a role. The division of parts and lines will be up to the groups to decide.

 

Procedure:

            Students will have the rest of the period to work on their screenplays and I will come around to each group to help them along with their assignment. Again, I will pass around a hat with numbers to determine the order of the performances. (Timing: 30-40 minutes)

 

Closure:

            Tell students that they will have the following day to work on their screenplays again and performances will start on Day 4.

 

Assessment:

            Informal assessment of group effectiveness, individual contribution, and engagement with the activity

 

NCTE/NYS Standards:

 

NCTE Standard 3: Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

 

NCTE Standard 4: Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
 

NCTE Standard 5: Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

 

NCTE Standard 6: Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.

 

NCTE Standard 7: Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

 

NCTE Standard 9: Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles.

 

NCTE Standard 11: Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
 

NCTE Standard 12: Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

NYS Standard 1: Students will read, write, listen and speak for information and understanding.

NYS Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.

NYS Standard 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.

NYS Standard 4: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.