Submitted by Elizabeth Chaigne
Time Frame:
Two - three 50-60 minute sessions
Materials Needed:
- One copy of the analyse du personnage for each student (attached handout)
- copies of any of the graphic organizers used throughout this unit for additional student preparation
- copy of the grading rubric for each student (with a transparency if you choose to go over it as a whole class)
Description of Task:
Pre-task:
As a culmination to this unit, students will be asked to choose a character for which they will develop an improvised monologue that they will present to the class. Students will play their character of choice and introduce themselves to the audience paying particular attention to the elements covered in this unit (behavior/gestures, word/expressions, vocabulary banks, physical attributes, etc.).First, go over some of the characters that students have worked with throughout this unit (fairytale characters, Cyrano de Bergerac, any other characters from stories that were used, etc.). Let them know that the most important part of their performance will be the extent to which their preparation work is illustrated in their performance (i.e. does the character use the kind of language and/or gestures developed during the written preparation and to what extent?).
This would be a good time to go over the scoring rubric for this assessment so students have a very clear idea as to what they should use in their monologue performance.
During-task:
Have them choose a character for which they will perform a short (1 - 3 minute) monologue. This monologue should be informative in nature allowing the audience to get to know the character. Allow them about 10-15 minutes to prepare alone. They should choose at least two of the character-building strategies used throughout this unit(behavior/gesture and word/expression graphic organizers, autobiography and web/bubble maps).Let them know that during the performance they will not be allowed to use any of their written work. Thus, being thorough with this part of the preparation is critical for their success during the performance. The more thorough they are with the preparation, the better they will know and understand the character they have developed and the more at ease they will be to speak freely as their character. If it seems to help students to get to know their character better, allow them to work in groups and conduct interviews as they did in lesson 5. This may get students to think about aspects of their character's life that they hadn't thought of. Depending on class size, the monologue performances will take at least one entire session. You may have to spread the preparation and performances out over 2-3 days.
Beyond-task
In order to keep all students engaged, you may want to have the viewing audience members write a quick 1-2 lines of positive feedback citing a specific example from the performance that they liked. This also helps other class members to focus on the elements of good performance for themselves.
Attachments:
NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)Teacher Rubric for student assessment
Projet final: analyse du personnage (Student preparation sheet)