THIS is a three-class (90 minutes each) lesson made up of two classes devoted to creating and developing an original story, half a class for practice telling the story, and half a class for the groups to voice-act their stories in front of their classmates. In these three classes, there are five key steps that need to be followed for this lesson to be effective.
Beginning with the first half of class 1, play a short “radio show” (these are easily available from the Internet) to the students for about 20 to 25 minutes. Next, discuss the show for another 10 to 15 minutes. Questions such as “How did you feel?”“Could you imagine it?”“How were they able to make you believe it?” are all great in focusing the students on the topic of a radio show. In addition, these questions help by giving them ideas on how to build their own ‘believable’ play.
Next, give students the theme for the story. I have tried a Halloween and a Christmas story, and I am sure that other themes that go beyond seasonal holiday, such as folklore, are equally as effective.
In the second half of Class 1, and for all of Class 2, have students, in groups of 4, create a story/script that they will act out. As a general guide, I ask for plays to be 20 minutes in length which averages to about 5 minutes speaking time per student. Usually, performances are 10 minutes in length, but, in the end, the play’s length is not really very important.
For the first half of Class 3, allow the students to practice voice acting their play for a class performance.
Last, in the second half of Class 3, students voice-act their group play for the class. Note: It is best if the audience close their eyes or face away from the actors so they can pretend that they are listening to a radio. Listeners are to use their imaginations based on the actors’ sound effects, voice stress, intonation and inflection to portray the range of emotions that they want to provoke in the listeners.
This exercise should be completed in two parts: the first time students do it, it should be a practice exercise. The second time this exercise is done, about two weeks later, each play should be given a score by both the classmates and teacher based on a scoring guide that is ranked from 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest. The categories are as follows:
MOST students find whole-class discussions a little nervewracking, while two or three end up dominating. The remainder are quiet because they are shy, don’t know what to say, need preparation time, etc.
A pyramid discussion allows students time to think, prepare and try out their thoughts and arguments on small numbers of people before moving on to the whole-class challenge. They work particularly well with selection and ranking tasks where students are offered a number of options and must select and/ or order them (e.g. choose six qualities of a good teacher).
Here is an example of this:
Individually: Students think about the problem and write notes expressing their opinions (about two minutes).
Pairs: Students compare their notes and discuss them. After two minutes the teacher adds the instruction that they must reach a compromise on six items they agree on.
When all the pairs have reached a compromise, join pairs together into larger groups of four or six. Again students should discuss and reach a compromise solution from this group.
Whole class: By this time the students will have explained their views and argued them a number of times and also have gained some experience in compromising and reaching an agreement. Hopefully you will now find that many more people than before are ready to take part in the final discussion and compromise solution for the whole class.
Working with whole groups: do’s and don’ts
Do ask the questions randomly. Don’t ask questions routinely round the class (predictable and dull).
Do make sure you pay more attention to the meaning of what the students say rather than focusing too much on accuracy. Don’t give constant corrections (students may say less in an attempt to avoid error).
Do respond to the ideas and views stated by the students. As far as possible turn this into a conversation. Get them interested and involved. Don’t let one or two strong students dominate to the exclusion of others. Try to give all students a chance to speak.
THE following activities are designed to get everyone talking.
Jigsaw puzzle challenge
Take 3 to 4 large pictures/photos and stick them on a card. Pictures can come from Sunday supplements, travel brochures, calendars, magazine adverts, etc. Pictures specific to students’ interests will motivate them (e.g. film stills, cartoons, news stories, famous paintings, famous people).
Draw puzzle shapes on the back of each picture (4-5 shapes) and cut out the picture pieces.
Give each student a jigsaw piece. They must not show their piece to anyone.
Students then mingle and question each other about what is on their puzzle piece to try and find people with pieces of the same jigsaw.
The object of the game is to find all pieces and put together the jigsaw. The first complete picture puzzle wins.
Create a biography
Take a biography of a famous person and write details on strips of paper.
Keep the identity secret so they have to guess.
Draw a table on the board for students to copy and make notes (e.g. place of birth, early years, famous for).
Hand out the strips (divide the class if it's large and give out 2 sets)
Students mingle and ask each other questions until they have as many details as possible about the person.
Take away the strips and put students in pairs or small groups to use their table of notes to write the biography.
