Aesop Fable Playlet-Writing & Performance Lesson Plan
Teacher: E. Rebecca Antoniak, Connelly School of the Holy Child
Discipline: Language Arts, Speech, Latin
Grade Level: Middle School
Topic: Art in Ancient Greece
Big Idea: Morals Really Haven't Changed Much Since Ancient Greek Times
DESCRIPTION
Our complex global community requires a quality of life dependent upon responsible, moral, and ethical interaction among diverse peoples. The educational process can facilitate the development of personal insight, interactive skills, and cooperative teamwork.
GOALS
To promote character education and values through the combined use of fable and drama as genres while reinforcing skills in literature, the writing process, physical education, and technology through an inter-disciplinary approach.
OBJECTIVE
1. Produce team playlets from an Aesop fable.
2. Identify the elements of a fable.
3. Incorporate elements of drama and movement.
4. Adapt a traditional fable to dramatic form.
5. Make connections with morals and other related concepts.
INTRODUCTORY & DEVELOPMENTAL ACTIVITIES
Review of elements of story construction contained within a fable:
Beginning
Middle
Conclusion
HANDOUT: Sentence Map Story Graphic Organizer
Identification of elements definitive to the fable genre:
Animal characters which display human characteristics such as wisdom, foolishness, etc.
A moral lesson stated explicitly.
A beginning which establishes the setting and places the characters in a situation.
A middle which explains the problem and the process characters use
to attempt a solution.
A conclusion which states the moral or lesson to be learned from the fable.
HANDOUT: Fable Graphic Organizer
Review of the Writing Process:
Rough Draft
Revision/editing to improve descriptions, clarity, and dialogue.
Final Draft
HANDOUT: Writing Process Checklist
Incorporation of Elements of Drama:
Characterization
Setting
Plot or Events
Blocking/Stage Directions/Narrators
Costuming/Scenery/Stagecraft
Performing
GUIDED PRACTICE ACTIVITIES/MEANINGFUL USE TASK
Team Playwriting Activities:
1. Review various fables from Aesop.
2. Read outloud "Plays from Aesop's Fables" at
http://www.hipark.austin.isd.tenet.edu/mythology/links.html.
3. Discuss comparisons and contrasts to prepare for written activity.
4. TEAMS choose one fable in story form to dramatize using the following steps:
Analysis
Choose the MORAL.
State the moral in students' own words.
List the CHARACTERS in the story.
Name the characters.
Identify the one (main character) that learns the lesson.
Choose the supporting character.
HANDOUT: Story Pattern Character Trait Graphic Organizer
Describe the SETTING.
Brainstorm how the setting impacts the characters and events.
HANDOUT: Conflict Dissection (Character, Setting, Problem, Solution)
Outline the EVENTS in chronological order.
Describe the problem in relation to the main character.
Describe how the supporting character creates and exposes the problem.
HANDOUTS: Storyboard Graphic Organizer
Event Map Graphic Organizer
Improvising
Rough out character reactions to specific situations.
Group brainstorms ways to refine the plot and coach improvisators.
Explore dialogue and monologue varieties for character development:
Build voice, diction, physical aspects.
Build characters through various types of adversity:
Physical adversity (injury, illness, handicap, etc.)
Miscommunication and deception
Displacement (uncomfortable environment)
Desire (unfulfilled wants and needs)
Relationships (problems in interaction)
Use humor.
Write out plot development in sentence form.
Dialogue
Fill in DRAFT SCRIPT Handout.
Brainstorm dialogues and monologues to plot development scenes.
Refine dialogues and monologues as interaction progresses.
Stage a reading to make sure dialogues and monologues work within plot context.
Avoid stilted language, filler, unnecessary exposition, naming,
and overuse of modifiers
Blocking/Stage Directions/Narrators
Practice concept of body stance centers of movement
Chest
Hips
Knees
Head
Explore elements of physical expression
Space
Personal space
General space
Axial and locomotor movement
Levels
Direction
Pathways
Shape (symmetry/asymmetry)
Time
Measure and duration
Counting with breath and external pulse
Augmentation
Diminishment
Acceleration
Deceleration
Energy
Sustained quality (Narrative)
Percussive
Swing
Collapse
Vibratory
Costuming/Scenery/Stagecraft
Masks
Props (simple or suggested)
Scenery (simple or suggested)
Performing
ASSESSMENT
Rubrics
Teacher Evaluation of Team Performance
Group Evaluation by Students
Personal Cooperative Checklist
HANDOUT: DRAFT SCRIPT
TITLE:_________________________________________
TEAM ________ PLAYLET
by _________, ___________, ____________, ___________
Cast of Characters:
1
2
3
4
Scene One
Description:
Narration:
DIALOGUE
DIALOGUE
Scene Two
Description:
Narration:
DIALOGUE
DIALOGUE
MORAL:
Greek & Latin Theater Vocabulary
English Word & Meaning Greek/Latin Word Ancient Meaning
Acropolis
actor
agora
amphitheatre
antagonist
audience
chorus
deus ex machina
dialogue
drama
episode
exodus
fable
hero
hypocrite
monologue
moral
odeon
orchestra
parody
polis
prologue
proscenium
protagonist
rhetoric
scene
school
theater
theology
thespian
tragedy
We welcome your comments
and suggestions
The Center for Renaissance & Baroque Studies
0139 Taliaferro Hall
The University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland 20742
301-405-6830
Last updated August 1, 2002.