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with Michelle Cameron  Today the groups finished their plays! They read them aloud, and a couple of the groups were able to run through them with props in mind. We’ve left the major props at Mosaic, but each group made a list of any additional props they need. Here it is: Group One:
Conferencing and Revision  I finished my review of everyone’s work EXCEPT for Gabriel and Kaitlyn, both of whom still need to bring the piece they want to read/have published in. Note that it needs to be typed! PLEASE HAVE THEM FINALIZE ANY CORRECTIONS AND EMAIL ME THEIR WRITING. Some of them still have some serious rewriting to do – they should know who they are! Email to [email protected], please. I’ll be setting up their online publication over the next few weeks. Back to Writing Next Week... We’ll be rehearsing a little bit each week until the performance, but I’m eager to get the kids back to writing on their own. If any of them are inspired to write over the week, I’d love it! I gave them a prompt in class: “POW! He (or she) fell down.” Not required, but do encourage them!
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with Michelle Cameron A short recap this time... Today we hunkered down to work on our plays. Each of the groups made serious progress, while at least one had some issues with collaboration. It’s hard to write in a group, sometimes!  Props and SceneryI’m hoping we’ll be able to finish up our plays next week and start some rehearsals. To that end, I’ve asked the kids to bring in their props and scenery – which in many cases seems to be the most exciting part to them. (Well, they like the writing, too!) Can’t wait to see what they bring! Conferencing and Revision  As they write in their groups, I started bringing them over to show them what I’d like them to do on their final pieces. I didn’t get to everyone, but I will by the end of next week. If I did, please have them revise based on the comments I gave them and bring back both my marked-up copy and their new revision.
Please do remember that our last class will be our reading/play performance! We hope to see you all there for that. with Michelle Cameron The play's the thing... For the first time today, we didn’t critique the writing the kids did at home, as I wanted them to launch straight into their plays. We discussed that the back stories they wrote for their characters were chiefly for them to know more about them – and they agreed that it helped them understand them more clearly. A little more pre-planning...Before they launched into the scripts, I asked them to think first about their play’s beginning, middle and end (aka, the plot), and then to dive deeper by defining their scenes. Here’s what they came up with:  Group 1: Beginning: Tiger Lily finishes building CM7A and Charlie tries to buy it. Middle: Charlie plots to steal the robot. End: Charlie hires a man to steal the robot, but he is caught and they find Charlie. Scene 1: Tiger Lily finishes the robot. Scene 2: Charlie reads the newspaper and sees an article about the robot in it. Scene 3: Charlie asks if she can buy the robot but Tiger Lily says no. Scene 4: Charlie plots to capture CM7A. Scene 5: Charlie sneaks through an open window to go into Tiger Lily’s lab/garage. When she gets in, she accidentally knocks down a can. The security guard hears it and arrests her. Scene 6: Charlie is in jail crying with Tiger Lily rejoices  Group 2: Beginning (Scene 1): Zack and Lauren Underwood walk down a street in NY. They decide to make a healing robot for a school science fair. Middle (Scene 2): Zack and Lauren make the robot. They have to test it many times. The robot is perfected on test 71. So they named him Zogar 71. They use a special chip that they invented themselves. End (Scene 3): They are at the science fair. Their teacher, Mrs. Ranch, is not impressed. She eats an apple. Then she chokes on the apple. Zogar 71 gets the apple piece unstuck. Mrs. Ranch is very grateful. Zack, Lauren, and Zagar 71 win the science fair.  Group 3: Beginning: An alien space port Middle: Woods End: a clearing Scene 1: Baby Maddie is lost. Scene 2: Zocz and Roxy battle. Scene 3: Roxy takes Maddie in Scene 4: Old man helps Zocz Scene 5: Roxy sends Maddie away to spy school Scene 6: Maddie befriends Steve at school More to come… They then began writing the actual scripts. These I won’t share, as I hope all of you will attend our reading/play performance during the last class!
They will continue to work on props and scenery at home this week. Again, we don’t need them to come to Mosaic yet! We probably need at least 2 more classes for them to complete writing their plays. While they’re working on this, I want to begin conferencing with them on the piece they’ll read/publish at the end of the session. Please have them type up and bring in the piece they think is best for next class – I’ll start reviewing and working with them as they write! with Michelle Cameron Various and sundry...Today we shared a variety of stories – some still on the power of time, some our fairy tale diaries, and still others just finishing up work we’d started in an earlier class. Among the topics we discussed: the use of very distinct voices when more than one character is telling a story, making sure our reactions are credible (who is that hobo at my door and why would I talk to him?), sticking to either first or third person in a story (not both!), the use of call-backs in a series of stories, the need to create a serious problem (conflict) to resolve, thinking our ideas all the way through, and letting the reader know what they need to know at the appropriate time. Pre-planning - a play! The kids have been talking about writing a play since the first class, and today was week 1 in our playwriting exercise. We divided into three groups: Group 1: Julia, Pippa, James and Noah Group 2: John, Gabriel, and Emily Group 3: Gabrielle, Caleb, David and Kaitlyn  I let them know that one of the characters would be a robot. They decided who that would be, then worked on who the other characters who peopled their play would be. We discussed what you need to know to create a believable character, and they considered their character’s names, what they looked like, what their personality is like, and what they want (though this can have changed based on the plotline.) They then introduced their characters. Next we considered setting and what they would need to stage their play. They became enthusiastic about pulling together props and stage design elements. I warned them that we would NOT be working on this in class but that they certainly can at home. NOTE: we’re not ready for these next week. Please tell them to gather them together and leave them at home. Finally, we got to the part they wanted to dive into from the very beginning: the plot. We have some very different plotlines for our three one-act plays. One of the students in each group acted as the scribe. Here’s what they wrote. (Do reassure them that I’ll bring this back with me next week! Also, excuse any errors of transmission…) Group 1: C-M-7a: this epic glitchy robot is smart and intelligent Tiger Lily – Intelligent workaholic Charlie Gbinge – obsessive buyer – her father is the owner of Dell so Charl… Security officer Costumes: Tiger Lilly – black leggings, white lab coat Charlie – black jeans Props – cardboard Plot: billionaire entrepreneur creates the robot, which Charlie wants to buy. When no one allows that, he decides to steal it instead. Group 2: Robot – Zagar 71 – a healer – power-healer, smart, appearance: silver with buttons, 1 week old Sister – Lauren Underwood – an artist – power-artist, nice, appearance: hair in ponytail, wearing jeans, 15 years old Brother – Zack underwood – a fencer – power-fencing, smart, appearance: flat hair, 14 years old Plot: Lauren and Zack create the robot for a science fair. Their teacher doesn’t like it until Zagar 71 heals her. Group 3: David – alien/robot, 100 years old, Zacz Kaitlyn – a 13-year old girl named Maddie who is fun and kind Gabi – a 16-year old huntress named Roxy who destroyed (half destroyed) Zacz Caleb – BOTH a 15-year old boy named Steve who plays Minecraft and an old man Setting: the kingdom borders a wood. There is sun/stars in an alien planet. Props: laser gun – David bow/arrows – Caleb Lipstick taser – Kaitlyn xbox – Caleb iPad – Caleb big box – anyone Fake deer – Kaitlyn Trees – anyone Plot: Roxy half destroyed Zacz, who is now obsessed with getting revenge. Maddie is a spy. Homework For homework this week, I asked everyone to write their character’s backstory. Next week – we start on the actual script!
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