Korean Job Discussion Forums

morneau33 · Joined: 21 Jun 2009

Okay. This is so weird, but the school has asked me to do some kind of a play with my students for the summer camp. Does anyone know of any good little presentation thing that my students can act out?

First I would need a dialogue for them to follow. Has anyone ever done this before? Where the heck can I look? Maybe youtube has videos of school plays that last about 10 minutes long? Where would I even start to look for something like this? I'm completely lost. I'm a guy.

Maybe if I had a dialogue and footage of a previous 10 minute play, I could just have them watch the video and re-enact it. That's my plan. I'm not going to be a little musical director. I'll take the credit, though. Oh wait. I'm in Korea. There will not be any credit.

lowpo · Joined: 01 Mar 2007

lowpo · Joined: 01 Mar 2007

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

Thanks Lowpro. Seems many PS teachers are being asked to do acting classes thesedays (paid or unpaid summer camps).

I've been racking my brains to find stuff for middle and high school students. Acting is a great way to overcome shyness when speaking a foreign language.

Any other acting material appreciated.

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

Nierlisse · Joined: 11 Oct 2008 Location: South Korea

I'm doing the same thing in my summer camp; we're supposed to be doing "Romeo and Juliet". My student's English levels are low enough to be nearly non-existent; the thought of trying to teach Shakespeare to them made me die a little inside. Even "modern" versions I found online were too difficult. So I went through the whole play and wrote out a very easy, simple version. Should take 15 minutes, maybe 20 for them to do. Now all I have to do is find the movie with Korean subtitles for when we watch that during camp as well. Rolling Eyes

Anyway if you're interested in doing something like that (and if you will have enough students for it) I'll send you the script I wrote.

Greekfreak · Joined: 25 May 2003

I've had similar concerns, except that I can write. Nevertheless, time will be the biggest hurdle, so if you've got a group of 12 or so, pick between 3 and 5 kids to perform as "actors."

The rub is, they don't actually have lines to memorize; the remaining students are put in groups of 3 or 4, and given various lines to narrate en masse.

So it's essential staged improv, where the performers mime the action, and the remaining students direct. I did this a few years back and it killed. Just write up a simple scenario like a kid buying a new cell phone, but everything at the store goes wrong. Use your imagination.

The Gipkik · Joined: 30 Mar 2009

nyenglish · Joined: 16 Jun 2009 Location: the small peninsula

great ideas...something that worked well for me was assigning 5 or 6 students (depending on class size) to one 'part'...so if you have a 3 character scene, you can have 15 students shouting the lines at each other..."greek chorus" style...add gestures and funny faces and you've got yourself a play!

MollyBloom · Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Location: James Joyce's pants

This is an oldie from my TEFL certification called "Death in the Afternoon":

Characters:

Narrator
Maid
Mr. Brown
Mrs. Brown
Doctor

Narr: Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to present to you, �Death in the Afternoon.�

Maid: (enter, dusting the room)

Mr. Brown: (enter) I feel faint. (faint)

Maid: (screams)

Mrs. Brown: (enter) What�s the matter? (maid points) Call the doctor!

Maid: (on the phone) Doctor! Come quick!

Doctor: (enter) I�m sorry, he�s dead.

Narr: That�s the end of the story. Thank you.

This can be used with elementary and older students.

My elementary students are advanced for their age, so when I used this for a camp activity, I threw in some other characters and added more lines with advanced vocab.

For older ones, you can have them perform in different styles: opera, rap, comedy, drama, western, etc.

This summer camp, I think I am going to have my 4th/5th graders write their own short plays. Their writing and grammar is good, but it's their creativity I am worried about. What I am going to do to combat that is write different characters on index cards and put them in a bag and have the groups choose a few. On the back I will write adjectives that can be used to describe the character so they have a starting point for creativity if they need it.