Today, we talked about subtext and context. We played a game
where we said “hello” to each other with a variety of subtexts and contexts to
see what changed in our voices and bodies. Perhaps my favorite example someone
gave was, “Say hello with the context that your dog just got hit by a car.” The
class had a lot of fun exploring the LARGE variety of emotions and subtexts
that would come as a result of that context. While I think this activity worked
really well to reinforce student’s understanding of these key vocabulary words,
I think I continued it for a bit too long. If I did it again, I’d probably cut
it off about five minutes earlier to give myself some extra time for the rest
of the lesson.
The assessment I had planned for this lesson involved
students being partnered together in content-less scenes with an assigned emotion,
and relationship. They then had to create the context and subtext to help the
audience understand what was happening in the scene. We had time for the
students to begin to rehearse these scenes, but not to perform them. I’m
planning on having students do a bit of final work and perform their scenes on
my next visit.
Here are the worksheets for the scenes I used (They may not copy onto the blog well):
________________
Name:____________________________________________ Partner A
or B?_______________
Partner A assigned
Emotion:______________________________________________________
Partner B assigned
Emotion:_______________________________________________________
Assigned
relationship:____________________________________________________________
Scene 1 Script:
Partner A: Hello
Partner B: Hi
Partner A: How are
you doing
Partner B: Same as
always
What is the context
of your scene? (Where are your characters and what are they doing?
_____________________________________________________________________________
What will you do with your voice to communicate
relationship/emotion? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What will you do with your body to communication your
relationship/emotion?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Name:____________________________________________ Partner A
or B?_______________
Partner A assigned
Emotion:______________________________________________________
Partner B assigned
Emotion:_______________________________________________________
Assigned relationship:____________________________________________________________
Scene 2 Script:
Partner A: Can you
give me a hand
Partner B: Yeah
Partner A: Ouch
Partner B: Sorry
What is the context
of your scene? (Where are your characters and what are they doing?
_____________________________________________________________________________
What will you do with your voice to communicate
relationship/emotion?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What will you do with your body to communication your
relationship/emotion?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Name:____________________________________________ Partner A
or B?_______________
Partner A assigned
Emotion:______________________________________________________
Partner B assigned
Emotion:_______________________________________________________
Assigned
relationship:____________________________________________________________
Scene 3 Script:
Partner A: Did you see
that
Partner B: Did I see
what
Partner A: Over there
Partner B: I see
What is the context
of your scene? (Where are your characters and what are they doing?
_____________________________________________________________________________
What will you do with your voice to communicate relationship/emotion?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What will you do with your body to communication your relationship/emotion?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Name:____________________________________________ Partner A
or B?_______________
Partner A assigned Emotion:______________________________________________________
Partner B assigned
Emotion:_______________________________________________________
Assigned
relationship:____________________________________________________________
Scene 4 Script:
Partner A: Why did
you leave
Partner B: I had
better things to do
Partner A: Like what
Partner B: This
What is the context
of your scene? (Where are your characters and what are they doing?
_____________________________________________________________________________
What will you do with your voice to communicate relationship/emotion?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What will you do with your body to communication your relationship/emotion?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
