“Actions and Words, Please!”
WHAT’S ON FOR TODAY AND WHY:
Today, students will be performing scenes from the chapters they have read over the weekend and last night for homework. Students should have close read and analyzed all these chapters. They will be asked to go into their groups of five and get ready to practice and perform. By acting out these four chapters, students will be bringing their reading alive. Students will realize that in order to bring this scene to the stage they must interpret and analyze each character’s words and actions so that they may be able to “be” that character. They will learn how to embody the character. As actors, they will practice everything they have learned up to this point and explore the emotions and feelings the characters in the novel undergo. Students will apply all their knowledge from previous lesson. When performing, students will be asked to take into consideration the subtext and inflection, silent scene, and tableaux vivants in order to stage the scene appropriately.
WHAT TO DO:
As students are walking into the class, they will be asked to sit in the groups of five that they have been working with throughout the entire unit. Each group will be assigned a passage from chapter ten-thirteen to work on. These are some of the passages that I have chosen for students to analyze and prepare an interpretation for: pg. 164, beginning with “After a beat he said…” and ending with pg. 165, “rational human being.” The next passage is from chapter eleven, beginning on page 178, with “Dr. Nevins was a…” and ending with the bottom of 180. Another group will be assigned top of pg 181 to the bottom of 183. From chapter twelve, page 192, beginning with “Hadn’t the bookstore…” and ending with the bottom of 194. In chapter thirteen, starting on page 200, with the line “I’d almost given up hope when…” and ending on page 203, with “End of sermon.” Another passage that I would like the students to close read, is from that same chapter. It begins on page 208, with “He said, Listen.” and ending on the bottom of 209. These passages will be assigned randomly to each group in the class. The students will then be asked to read these passages silently, to themselves. Then they will be asked to discuss with their group what it is about, what is going on in this particular scene, how do they all interpret what is happening and how does it fit the whole novel, how they might stage this scene. Students will then be given a checklist to follow while practicing their performance. They will then be asked to present their performance to an audience, which will be our class.
For homework, students will be asked to finish the novel, read chapter fourteen to sixteen. They will also be asked to sign on to voxopop and explore their thoughts to the following questions: based on what we have done in class today, how are we able to relate to the characters more so, than by just reading the novel, without acting? How do their actions reveal the emotions and mood of the characters? What did you learn from these scenes today? If you were making this book into a movie, and you were the director, based on chapters 10-13, what scene or chapter would you remove?
HOW DID IT GO?
Did the students explore words and passages to understand the characters and their choice of action? Did the students participate in their groups? Did the students follow the checklist they were given? Were the students actively participating in the performance and interpretation of the scene? Did the students accurately portray the scene with appropriate emotion and mood? Were the students able to clearly convey the words and emotions of the characters?
Please complete this checklist as you create your performance.
INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:
__ the assigned text
__ a contemporary prop
__ a tableau at the beginning of the presentation
__ a tableau at the end of the presentation
__ at least one moment of direct address to the audience
__ at least one unexpected entrance or exit
__ at least one line of unison speaking
__ at least one line of unison movement
__ at least ten seconds of silence
__ someone must laugh and someone must cry
