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Studying Scripts

We just finished reading “The Miracle Worker” in Literature class. We have a couple of weeks left (only three days for the eighth graders), so I’m looking for a short unit… preferably something that reinforces earlier learning.

Since “The Miracle Worker” is a play, I’ve decided to stay in the realm of dramatic works, and talk about tv shows and how they express the elements of Literature (setting, character, plot, etc). I’ve assigned the kids to answer some questions about a show of their choice at home, but we’ve also done some samples in class.

Monday, we watched the episode of “Gilligan’s Island” where they eat radioactive vegetables and get super powers. The kids liked it. It was also pretty easy to name the climax.

Yesterday, I wanted to show a non-comedy. There aren’t many that are 30 minutes long. I settled on showing an episode of “The Rifleman”. Besides the Literary elements, we could also have an interesting discussion on how good guys and bad guys are portrayed in old shows and new shows.

This particular episode showed a man getting bullied, and he took it for a while, then beat up his bullies. After that, they left him alone. We talked about how society doesn’t tell people to do that anymore. Parents say it to their kids privately, but as a society, we tell bullies to stop bullying instead of telling the bullied to fight back. It was an interesting discussion.

Today we’ll be reading a “Gilligan’s Island” script out loud so the kids can see that tv shows have writers and how the story is put on paper.

Lucas McCain is so cool.

Lucas McCain is so cool.

3 Comments

  1. Carol

    Can you please be a guest speaker in my Mass Media section at youknowwhere some day? You have this idea down to a science, sir! And, then, yesterday I was told by one student that I chose “stupid videos” (read: “too informative without being entertaining enough”) to show the class each day to kick it off. [Wait until next week, Buddy – “Rocky & Bullwinkle”!]

  2. Lauren

    Interesting: “Parents say it to their kids privately, but as a society, we tell bullies to stop bullying instead of telling the bullied to fight back.” That is true. When did that change? In preschool, I try to help with this a tiny bit. When they come to tell on someone I ask, “Did you like that?” “No.” “How will you solve it?” Then they go use our patented, “Please don’t do that” phrase, but if they were older, there are times I would tell them, “Then go slap him.”

    Excellent lessons, by the way. 🙂

  3. Deborah

    Good idea! We talked about Hellen Keller in 3rd grade. I found some videos of her talking. It was very interesting, and the kids loved it.

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