How to Use Scriptwriting
One activity of interest is to ask students to write their own scripts for a play. In my own content-based class, I have incorporated drama techniques to get students to apply newly learned vocabulary to real-life situations. For example, when they were studying the communicative styles of Americans, I asked them to work in small groups to create scenes exemplifying those concepts. The class then had to guess what the concept was, and evaluate their performance as well. This helps bring topics and new concepts to life for students. They can see examples of these concepts in situations that may occur in their daily life.
Teachers may ask students to write scenes that inherently require the use of a particular grammar feature, or teachers may explicitly ask students to use that feature in their scene. Teachers may display a “word bank” that contains the specific feature they would like to highlight, and students can incorporate those words into their scene. Then, when students perform the script, they will need to use the specific feature that the teacher asked for.
Activity: Roundrobin Scriptwriting
What is it? Students collaborate to write a script.
Purpose: to write conversational English, to write in sequence, to write as a group
Wiki Script
What is it? I made this wiki website when I taught a Video Production in the ESL Classroom course for students in the Program in Intensive English at Northern Arizona University. There is space for students to brainstorm, write the script, learn about their jobs (that they had chosen themselves), and view examples of student-made videos.
Purpose? To provide a forum for students to collaborate on a script for the video they would make.
Scriptwriting Activity
What is it? In this activity, students fill in the blanks to create the script. It can be used by beginning (or low-intermediate) level students . Note that while students can "check" their answers, there are many correct answers. They can print the script and bring it to their teacher when finished.
Purpose: To give students practice in writing scripts.
Activity: Once Upon a Time...
What is it? Students collaborate to write a story from a prompt.
Purpose: To give students practice in writing stories, sequencing, and improvisational writing
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