·        This assignment was designed for an 11^th grade English/Language Arts class.

·        The purpose of the assignment is to help students understand the power of adjectives, and how that part of speech adds variety and interest to sentences. The assignment was also created to give students a better understanding of a list of vocabulary words. Students are also given opportunities to use the root word or other tenses of the vocabulary words, which should result in the development of more complex sentence structure.

·        The video clip was chosen, because it has a catchy tune, and it further explains the power of adjectives in every day English language.

·        Most class periods are not long enough to establish effective planning for this type of exercise.  Also, students tend to become loud when organizing these types of activities.  So, some realistic challenges to consider in planning for this assignment include in-class time to construct the skits and refraining from getting too loud in the classroom during the practices.  

·        GPS for English/Language Arts:

ELA11C1 – The student demonstrates understanding and control of the rules of the English language, realizing that usage involves the appropriate application of conventions and grammar in both written and spoken formats. The student

a.      Demonstrates an understanding of proper English usage and control of grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, diction, and syntax.

b.      Correctly uses clauses, phrases, and mechanics of punctuation

c.      Demonstrates an understanding of sentence construction

ELA11LSV1 – The student participates in student-to-teacher, student-to-student, and group verbal interactions

ELA11LSV2 – The student formulates reasoned judgments about written and oral communication in various media genres. The student delivers focused, coherent, and polished presentations that convey a clear and distinct perspective, demonstrated solid reasoning, and combine traditional rhetorical strategies of narration, exposition, persuasion, and description

a.      Recognizes strategies used by the media to inform, persuade, entertain

b.      Analyzes visual or aural techniques used in a media message for a particular audience and evaluates their effectiveness.

c.      Develops and applies criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the presentation, style, and content of films and other forms of  electronic communication.   

Students, please click on the link above, and view the video clip.

This in-class assignment involves the task of using our current list of adjective vocabulary words to create dialogue in skits.  This is a pair assignment, in which you are to pick a partner and chose one of the four scenarios to create together. It is not mandatory for females to play female roles and males to play male roles.  A female can act as a male or vice-versa, to add creativity to the skit.

For reference, use the current list of vocabulary adjective words (included on page with scenarios). You may also use other sources that give word definitions, such as a dictionary, thesaurus, or dictionary website.  The objective is to refrain from simple sentences such as, I feel ________ ; This is ________; You look _______ . Instead, there should be a conscious effort on all participants to use compound sentences and various grammatical clauses & phrases (i.e. prepositional, infinitive, adverb, gerund, etc.) as you create sentences with the vocabulary words for your skit.  You may also change the vocabulary word from the adjective form to the adverb form by adding a “ly” ending, if necessary.

Each skit must:

• Be one of the four options provided.
• Contain dialogue that makes use of many of the current vocabulary words from the list.
• Last a minimum of 5 minutes or a maximum of 8 minutes.
• Contain no foul, vulgar, or offensive language or interactions between actors & actresses (no curse words, touching, kissing, vulgar dancing, etc)

Extra credit points will be given to skits that use relevant props, costumes, etc.

• Although this assignment includes acting, your acting skills or lack of will not be the main deciding factor for your grade. Grades will be based on whether or not the vocabulary words you use are relevant to your skit as well as how creative you are with using various sentence structure for the vocabulary words. So, have fun!  Be creative!  

  Skits will be performed on April 17-18!     

Drama with Adjectives

(Choose one for presentation)

1. Scenario 1:  Marcus is in the seafood restaurant, Red Lobster, with the captain of the varsity cheerleaders. He is feeling giddy inside, because he is finally with the girl of his dreams, Shannon Jones.  Shannon is the most popular girl in the school, and Marcus is absolutely delighted that she has agreed to go out with him.  However, Marcus is not totally certain of Shannon’s feelings for him.  He realizes that just because she agreed to go on a date with him, does not necessarily mean she will kiss him at the end of the date.  Act out a scene in which Shannon uses vocabulary words from the list to express her attraction to Marcus, or act out a scenen in which Shannon uses vocabulary words from the list to express that she is not attracted to Marcus. Actors/Actresses: male (Marcus) and female (Shannon).

2. Scenario 2:  Jenny has been irresponsible on the job lately.  She has been tardy several times within the last month. She has broken the dress code, and just last week, the company’s custodian caught Jenny stealing paper from the copier machine. However, Jenny also recently asked for a raise, after having worked voluntarily for three weekends in a row to write a new company budget. This morning, Jenny receives an email instructing her to report to her supervisor’s office at 1:00 P.M. for a meeting between him and her.  Jenny is not sure she is being called into the supervisor’s office to be fired or to be promoted. Act out a scene in which the supervisor uses relevant vocabulary from the list to express how displeased he is with Jenny, or act out a scene in which the supervisor uses vocabulary from the list to show how proud he is of Jenny.  Actors/Actresses: female (Jenny) and male (the supervisor).

3. Scenario 3: Paula has purchased a new perfume that she loves.  Although she is not sure whether or not her date will like the perfume, Paula decides to wear it on her date. Act out a scene in which Paula’s date uses vocabulary from the list to express how attracted or offended he is to her body scent. Actors/Actresses: female (Paula) and male (her date).

4. Scenario 4:  Two leading tomato sauce companies, Ragu and Hunt’s, have each created a new hot & spicy tomato sauce.  Dr. Darren Crovitz, the master of fine Italian cuisine, has been asked to perform a taste test in public on each sauce, to determine which sauce he will serve to the customers in his restaurant.  Crovitz, who is usually tolerant of most Italian recipes is so disgusted by the taste of the Ragu sauce, he can hardly swallow it. Act out a scene in which Dr. Crovitz tastes each sauce and uses vocabulary from the list to describe the taste of each sauce as well as state which sauce he prefers. Actors/Actresses: male (Dr. Crovitz) and female (woman administering the taste test)

 Vocabulary Words for Scenarios alluring, ambivalent, analyzable, bathetic, bawdy, berserk, chipper, clumsy, colicky, deleterious, demure, despicable, effulgent, emulate, fickle, feverish, frisky, garish, grandiose, grotesque, halcyon, haphazard, hanky-panky, incumbent, indiscriminate, irrational, judicatory, juvenile, keen, kosher, languid, largo, lenitive, manifest, malignant, mangy, nonrestrictive, nugatory, oblivious, obscure, obstinate, palpable, passive, solicitous, stalwart, tangible, thrice, uncouth, unisex, worldly 

In chapter 1 (The Read/Write Web), Richardson points out that the web is extradinary in the sense that within minutes of an event, you can receive “gripping first-person accounts coupled with digital photos and video” (pg. 3).  As an example, he used the tragedy of the devastation caused by Hurrican Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 and how within minutes of the tragedy happening, the web was fluttered with raw detail that would not have normally been found in the media.  Considering how inquisitive Americans are to know specific details about any and everything, I agree with Richardson—-The web is a valuable resource of instant detailed information about whatever needs to be known.

I also agree with Richardson when he talks about the difference between how the older generations and younger generations are grasping the new technology that exists today.  As he pointed out, most teachers in today’s schools were not surrounded by technology growing up (pg. 7).  As a result, they may be slower to change their ways.  I can relate to this.  My 14 year old daughter uses her cell phone notoriously to send text messages to me throughout the day.  I get totally frustrated trying to uncode the “text language” she uses, and I get even more frustrated whenever I try to send a text message back to her.  So, I usually resort to just calling her.  As part of an older generation than my daughter, I am reluctant to adhere to all the text messaging that is the latest craze with teens, and I doubt I will change my ways. 

I was glad to see that Richardson made reference to the importance of keeping students safe and protecting their privacy on the internet. He talks about teaching students skills to navigate the darker sides of the Web safely and effectively.  I think this is of extreme importance, considering the raising statistics across America of adult sexual predators who use the internet to pick out thier juvenile victims.  Richardson made it clear that the first step teachers should take is to be sure to get parental permission, prior to publishing material by juveniles. I will definitely remember that, as I enter into the profession of teaching.

I developed a better understanding of the importance of blogs, after reading Chapter 2. Richardson states that blogs give people an opportunity to conversate as well as reflect, and they engage readers with ideas, questions, and links (pg. 18).  Blogs demand interation, and that is fascinating to me.  I also found it useful to read about how blogs are a great way to manage and communicate knowledge that is created in meetings, dialogues, and the sharing of relevant information.

Out of all the chapters read in Richardson’s text thus far, I found chapter 3 to be the most beneficial to me, because it gave such great details on how to get started with this whole blogging process.  After reading this chapter, I gained a better understanding on many things, such as the importance of starting small, how to appropriately blog with students, blog safety and protection, and great step-by-step instructions on how to blog. 

I had to read Chapter 4 (Wikis) twice, because it just did not seem to register in my brain well the first time.  After reading it twice, I began to better understand how wikis can facilitate a collaborative environment for students to teach them how to work well with others and create knowledge as a group effort.