Feel In The Blanks
a lesson plan for grades 6–8 theatre arts education and
English language arts
by Lei Knight (lknight@mmes.ccs.k12.nc.us)
The
following lesson is designed to function as a review of beginning, middle,
and end and an introduction to individualized imagination, creativity, and
perspective as it relates to the development of dialogue (i.e.
improvisation).
Teacher's lesson
goals/objectives
The learner will:
- identify the beginning, middle, and end and sequential order in a
simple, short scene.
- learn the definition of improvisation.
- apply the definition in an acting game entitled Feel In The
Blank.
North Carolina curriculum
alignment
Theatre Arts
Education (1996 version - Implemented but not
tested.)
Grades 6-8
Goal 1: As a result of theatre
arts study, the student will write based on personal experience and
heritage, imagination, literature, and history.
Objective 2: Practice strategies
for writing dramatic material.
Grades 6-8
Goal 2: As a result of theatre
arts study, the student will act by interacting in improvisations and
assuming roles.
Objective 1: Develop role-playing
and characterization skills.
Objective 2: Utilize role-playing
skills in the total learning process.
Objective 3: Synthesize research,
observation, given circumstances, and acting skills to create characters
in formal and/or informal presentations.
Grades 6-8
Goal 7: As a result of theatre
arts study, the student will analyze, critique, and construct meaning from
informal and formal theatre, film, television, and electronic media
productions.
Objective 1: Respond to theatre
and related dramatic media.
English Language
Arts (2001 version - Implemented and Tested.)
Grade 6
Goal 1: The learner will use
language to express individual perspectives drawn from personal or related
experience.
Objective 1: Narrate a fictional
or autobiographical account which:
- includes a coherent organizing
structure.
- tells a story or establishes the significance of an
event or events.
- uses remembered feelings and specific details.
- uses a range of appropriate strategies (e.g., dialogue, suspense,
movement, gestures, expressions).
Objective 2: Explore expressive
materials that are read, heard, and viewed by:
- generating a
learning log or journal.
-creating an artistic interpretation that
connects self to the work.
-discussing books/media formally and
informally.
Grade 6
Goal 5: The learner will
respond to various literary genres using interpretive and evaluative
processes.
Objective 2: Study the
characteristics of literary genres (fiction, nonfiction, drama, and
poetry) through:
- reading a variety of literature and other text
(e.g., novels, autobiographies, myths, essays, magazines, plays, pattern
poems, blank verse).
- interpreting what impact genre-specific
characteristics have on the meaning of the work.
- exploring how the
author's choice and use of a genre shapes the meaning of the literary
work.
- exploring what impact literary elements have on the meaning
of the text such as the influence of setting or the problem and its
resolution.
Grade 7
Goal 1: The learner will use
language to express individual perspectives in response to personal,
social, cultural, and historical issues.
Objective 1: Narrate an account
such as a news story or historical episode which:
- creates a
coherent organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and
context.
- orients the reader/listener to the scene, the people, and
the events.
-engages the reader/listener by establishing a context
and creating a point of view.
Objective 2: Explore expressive
materials that are read, heard, and viewed by:
- generating a
learning log or journal.
- maintaining an annotated list of works
read/viewed.
- creating an artistic interpretation that connects
self and/or society to the selection.
-constructing and presenting
book/media reviews.
- taking an active role in formal and informal
book talks/discussions.
Grade 7
Goal 5: The learner will
respond to various literary genres using interpretive and evaluative
processes.
Objective 2: Study the
characteristics of literary genres (fiction, nonfiction, drama, and
poetry) through:
- reading a variety of literature and other text
(e.g., mysteries, novels, science fiction, historical documents,
newspapers, skits, lyric poems).
- analyzing what genre specific
characteristics have on the meaning of the work.
- analyzing how the
author's choice and use of a genre shapes the meaning of the literary
work.
-analyzing what impact literary elements have on the meaning
of the text such as the influence of setting on the problem and its
resolution.
Grade 8
Goal 1: The learner will use
language to express individual perspectives through analysis of personal,
social, cultural, and historical issues.
Objective 1: Narrate a personal
account which:
- creates a coherent, organizing structure appropriate
to purpose, audience, and context.
- establishes a point of view and
sharpens focus.
- uses remembered feelings.
- selects details
that best illuminate the topic.
- connects events to self/society.
Objective 2: Explore expressive
materials that are read, heard, and viewed by:
- generating a
learning log or journal.
- maintaining an annotated list of works
that are read or viewed, including personal reactions.
- taking an
active role in and/or leading formal/informal book/media talks.
Grade 8
Goal 5: The learner will
respond to various literary genres using interpretive and evaluative
processes.
Objective 2: Study the
characteristics of literary genres (fiction, nonfiction, drama, and
poetry) through:
- reading a variety of literature and other text
(e.g., young adult novels, short stories, biographies, plays, free
verse, narrative poems).
- evaluating what impact genre-specific
characteristics have on the meaning of the text.
- evaluating how
the author's choice and use of a genre shapes the meaning of the
literary work.
- evaluating what impact literary elements have on
the meaning of the text.
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Time required
1.5 hours
Materials/resources
needed
Students will need:
Teacher will need:
- A pre-selected short scene or story. No more than five minutes long
when read. You may even use a video tape of a scene from an appropriate
television show or movie.
- Handout A (attached)
- Feel In The Blank Resource sheet (attached)
- one song on tape or CD by Beethoven (check with the librarian or
music teacher)
- one song on tape or CD by Kenny G (or any jazz
musician)
Technology resources
needed
Television and VCR (if you are showing a video tape)
Computer
w/speakers
CD or Tape Player
Pre-activities
Before engaging in this lesson, students should have a basic
understanding of the creative process.
They should have also been
exposed to the concept of beginning, middle and end and sequential
order.
Finally, they should be able to define imagination.
Activities
(The First 45-minute period)
- The teacher will give each student a copy of Handout
A. This handout will help to keep students on-task and will help
them identify the beginning, middle and end of the scene as you read to
them.
- Ask the students to pay close attention to the beginning, middle,
and end of the story and the order in which the plot unfolds.
Furthermore, remind the student to write down their observations and
other notes as they think of things as the story is read or shown.
- Read or show the simple scene to the students. The students will
fill out the information sheet as the teacher reads. It would be a great
idea for the teacher to have already viewed or read the story and
compiled a list of your reactions and thoughts in reference to the
beginning, middle and end and plot order.
- After reading the story, the teacher opens up a class discussion by
asking if anyone can share with the class their answers in reference to
what happen in the beginning. Allow a couple of students to respond.
Continue questions until students have responded to each of the items on
the Handout A.
- Collect handouts while asking the class have they ever heard of the
word "improvisation." Allow a couple of students to respond. The teacher
will summarize by defining improvisation as the act of creating without
preparation; to make or do on the spot.
- Give a mini-lecture including the following information:
- Refer back to the story read.
- Explain that in the story or scene, there was a clear beginning,
middle, and end.
- Further explanation should offer the idea that the author
systematically developed a plot that captured our attention and
encouraged us to think.
- Explain to the students that that form of conveying ideas is one
way of creating. Yet, there are times when the one may convey their
ideas on the spot or improvise in order to encourage thought or
capture the attention of the audience.
- Ask for a volunteer from the class. Select one student to come
before the class. Ask the student to change the ending of the story
right on the spot. Allow the student the chance to complete the task
assigned. Have a different student repeat for the beginning and a third
for the middle. Point out that what they have just done is improvising
with words.
- Offer the students the example of Beethoven vs. Kenny G. Let them
listen to a few seconds of examples of both. Afterwards explain that
Beethoven wrote all of his music down and Kenny G improvises most of
his. Allow one student to share how Beethoven's music affected him/her
and one student to respond likewise to Kenny G.
- Conclude the first 45-minute period with the following question,
"Which musical piece spoke to your inner self more, Beethoven or Kenny
G?" Allow student to share their diverse opinions.
(The
Second 45 minute period)
- Before the class begins: Cut slips from the Feel
In the Blanks handout.
- Ask the students to define improvisation. Allow students to respond.
- Introduce the activity, Feel In the Blanks.
- Explain to the students that in this activity they will choose a
slip of paper with a line on it. They are to use their knowledge of
improvisation complete the line. Do not encourage them to think about
what they will say but to finish the line as quickly as possible. They
will be given 25 seconds to blurt out the completed line. Remind them
that they will be given the slip of paper as they come to the front of
the class, because they must not prepare.
- Repeat the above activity until the class time is up.
- Ask students who made up the alternate endings to think about the
following question: "What does it take from you (the creator) in order
to engage in the creative process in an individualistic and imaginative
ways?"
- End class with a discussion on the answers to the above
question.
Assessment
Handout A can be used to gauge the students understanding of beginning,
middle and end. The student will receive 20 points for the completion of
the three questions if they explained the events of the story using
complete sentences and in correct sequential order. They will receive 40
points for placing actual event from the story in correct sequential order
from 1 to 10. The total amount of points that the student can receive on
this assignment is 100 points.
The teacher can use the enriched
assessment model to determine each students understanding of improvisation
by their ability to improvise the completion of their chosen line.
Supplemental resources/information for
teachers
none
Relevant websites
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/teaching_materials/artsedge.html
ARTSEDGE:
Lessons for design arts, performing arts, and visual arts as well as
lessons with the arts integrated into other subjects such as ESL, foreign
languages, mathematics, physical education, science, and social
studies
http://www.educationworld.com/arts/
Education
World: Selected links in visual arts: drawing, 3-D, photography, and
computer art; performing arts: theater & movement (dance), and music;
arts resources
http://artswork.asu.edu/arts/teachers/lesson/drama/index.htm
ArtsWork:
Lesson plans for drama and theater
Comments
Special notes:
- This lesson works best if completed in 55 minute increments over a
two-day period. I found when teaching middle school grades 6, 7, and 8,
that my students function best when afforded a day of processing time in
between the introduction of new concepts.
- Also, do not let the drama aspect of this lesson intimidate you or
drive you away from trying it in the classroom. It works with students
in helping them to connect with their inner muse. Therefore, it is a
wonderful introduction to the writing process and can be a creative
approach to writing test preparation.
- One final statement: This lesson was designed in an effort to
provide students the opportunity to connect with the concept of
improvisation as it relates to the creative process in jazz. Surprise.
Good luck to you and please write me back to tell me what worked and
what didn't. I am always on a quest to learn.
Optional information
Subjects (provided by the Standard Course of Study)
Theatre Arts Education
English Language Arts
 Classification information
History and
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Author: Lei Knight (lknight@mmes.ccs.k12.nc.us)
Lei
Knight is a Theatre Arts teacher at Mary McArthur A+ Elementary
School in Cumberland County. Other than teaching, she is also a
professional actress, director, and playwright. Last summer, Lei
Knight was awarded a Scholarship that afforded her the opportunity
to represent Cumberland County in the UNC World View Study Tour in
South Africa. Presently, she continues to work with fifth grade
students in Cumberland County and together they prepare and perform
social dramas throughout the county.
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