Theater Curriculum Infusion Project 14-15

6th Grade: Visit #4

Playwrighting: Creating Dialogue with Treasure Island
This workshop was developed for The Rose Theaters Theater Curriculum Infusion Project, a school year in-depth partnership
between the professional teaching artists at The Rose and the classroom teachers at Washington Elementary. During the 201415 school year, each grade level will receive nine visits where the teaching artist from The Rose will develop and lead a drama
class tied to a curricular topic chosen by the classroom teacher. During each visit, students will actively explore both theater arts
and curriculum through kinesthetic experiences. The goal of this project is for teaching artists to model creative drama
techniques that classroom teachers can continue to use to connect drama to the curriculum in subsequent school years.

Description

Students explore playwrighting by creating dialogue from the novel Treasure

Island. Students will use their acting tools and improvisation to generate
dialogue from a selection of Treasure Island. Students will then write a scene in
pairs or threes. Finally students will work on performing these scenes in the next
class when we work on oral presentation.

Grade
Date and Time
Classroom Teachers
Curriculum Topic
Teaching Artist
Materials

4/5/6th Grade, 5/6th Grade, & 6th Grade

Friday December 5th 9:15-9:55, 10:00-10:55, 11:00-11:55
Ms. Natal, Mr. Derr, Ms. Krebs
Dialogue/ Prose
Stephanie Jacobson
Lined Paper, Writing Utensils, Treasure Island Prose to Play worksheet, page of
James DeVita script and page of Novel, Playwrighting format guide worksheet,
and selections from book .

Student Learning
Objectives

Assessment Criteria

What I want my students to be able to do and know.

1. To learn about the job of a playwright and
how playwriting is different from prose
2. To introduce Standard American
Playwrighting Formatt
3. To explore characters

What I will observe in my students.

Students will compare and contrast a sample
monologue with traditional prose.
Students will write their own scenes based on a preselected selection from the book.
Students will improv as characters to brainstorm
written scenes.
Students will collaborate and write a 2-3 person
scene in small groups.
Students will sharing of ideas, compromising,
adding to the ideas of others, working well in a
variety of groups

4. To explore the job of a playwright and how

they use writing to create a character
5. To create a safe environment where everyone
can learn and play

State Standards
LA 6.2.1 Writing
Process:

Students will apply the writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit and publish
writing using correct spelling grammar, punctuation and other standard

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6 Grade Workshop: Playwrighting: Creating Dialogue with Treasure Island

LA 6.1.4 Fluency

conventions appropriate for grade level.

Students will develop accuracy, phrasing, and expression while reading grade
level text.

Vocabulary
Theatre
Language Arts

Playwright, Objective
Prose, Dialogue

1. Anticipatory Set (getting class ready for lesson)

time: 5 min

Good Afternoon Call and Repeat (Vocal Warm-Up)

Teacher will call out Good Afternoon in several different voices and students will repeat the call
Teaching artist reviews rules and last few visits
Visit 3: Acting Tools, Characters, Treasure Island (List of Characters in the play-pictures from
last week)
Focus Question
What is a playwright?
Definition: a Playwright is the writer who creates the characters, story, and dialogue for a play.
This year you will all be playwrights, and today we are going to start writing!
2. Shared (Teacher and Student work together) : Be Broccoli

time: 5-7 min

Lets review Treasure Island with our Acting Tools!

Be Broccoli: A Statue Game
Teacher will ask class to spread around the room standing without touching anyone or anything.
Teacher: When I say GO be a statue of a mountain. GO. Be a statue of a very tall mountain. Be a
statue of a bird, be broccoli, be pizza, be a ship, be a net, be a storm, be a treasure chest, be Jim
Hawkins, be Black dog, be Ben Dunn, be Long John, be Capt. Smollett, be blind pew, be Squire
Trelawny.
Extension: Add adjectives after each statue, so that students have the opportunity to add more
detail. (Scared Ben Dunn, angry Long John, Confused Capt. Smollett, Heavy treasure Chest,
gentle breeze, etc.
For Ms. Natals class we will keep this exercise and utilize the pictures from last visit.
3. Modeled Learning (Teacher does the work): Prose vs. Play

time 5 min

Question: What is Prose? The ordinary language people use in speaking or writing.

What is dialogue? The things that are said by the characters in a story, movie, play, etc.

Hand out Treasure Island example of Prose and James DeVita Script.
Discussion: How is the script different from paragraphs in a story?

For Ms. Natals class Stephanie will read the section out loud, and then review what
happened with the class. Then we will explain that in a play, the words are written out for
the actor to say out loud.

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6 Grade Workshop: Playwrighting: Creating Dialogue with Treasure Island

4. Shared (Teacher and Student work together) : Beginning, Middle & End Pictures

time 5 min

What is the beginning, middle and end of the scene we just read about Jim and Silver?
Beginning: Jim asking if his name is John Silver.
Middle: Jim seeing Black Dog run away at the dock.
End: Silver asking why Jim was so upset to see Black Dog?

Instructor: It is always important to have a clear beginning, middle and end to a scene and play.
Teacher will call on volunteers from class to make a stage picture of each of the 3
moments we defined.
Transition: Now we will use beginning middle and end statues as a way for us to write our own
Treasure Island scenes.
This will be the same for Ms. Natals class.

5. Guided (Students do the work with teacher support): Prose to Play Creation

time: 15 min

Teacher will put students into pairs or a trios. Each group will be given a short selection
from Treasure Island to read. They will then as a group fill out the Prose to Play
worksheet. Casting each student as a character in their scene.
Each group will then make statues of the beginning, middle and end of their story.
Students will then improvise their scene, as a brainstorming activity to create
dialogue.
Teacher encourages students to keep listening to each other. Always say yes the idea that was
presented. You are part of a group, you cant plan it all yourself.
For Ms. Natals class we will adapt the section of prose we read at the beginning of class with Jim
and Silver as a class, and have students improvise lines in pairs at the front of the room.
Stephanie will have 2 students come up to the front of class to make a stature of the beginning of
the scene. While up there, she will ask them, What is your character thinking or feeling? What
would they say? Repeat this for Middle and End statues.

6. Independent Learning (students do the work): Writing Scenes

time: 10 min
What is dialogue?

Each pair or trio will now write the scene, adapted from the selected section of Treasure Island
prose. The group will use the prose to play worksheet as a basis to write a scene based on the
section of the book using proper script formatting. (Standard American Playwriting Formatt
handout).
As a class we will recall what dialogue was created in the improvisation in statues. We will
write it on the board (and Stephanie will write it down to type out later).
Teacher encourages students to keep writing. Dont edit yourself. Write off the top of your head.
Sharing
time: 5 min
Each group will share their scene with a neighboring group
If time, share a few with the entire class.
Audience reflection: What did we like about that monologue?
7. Summary
time: 5 min
Audience reflection: What did we like about our scenes? What did we learn from the improvising
and stautes?
Review Dialogue, Prose, Playwright
Next visit is December 9th and we will be working on presenting these scenes we created today.

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6 Grade Workshop: Playwrighting: Creating Dialogue with Treasure Island

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6 Grade Workshop: Playwrighting: Creating Dialogue with Treasure Island