Diving Deeper into Conflict
This lesson falls at the beginning of a 3-week children's book writing unit. It is meant to get students thinking about all the different types of conflict that they can pull from later when they begin to write their own stories.
Lesson Created By: AllisonFranke
Lesson Partners: ABC (Arts in Basic Curriculum)
Essential Question
What is conflict?
Grade(s):
- 8
Subject(s):
Recommended Technology:
(Optional) Promethean and/or white board
Other Instructional Materials or Notes:
3 desk chairs for "sculpting" conflict activity
Pencil and paper for acrostic poem activity
Lesson Progression
1. The teacher will communicate to the students the actor's tools of body, voice, imagination, and collaboration while displaying on the board. The teacher will explain that all of these tools will be used in this lesson to explore all the different varieties of conflict that can exist.
2. "Sound Ball" warm-up game: Students will practice using the 4 actor's tools to create an imaginary ball that they will "hold", and they must "toss" the ball to their neighbor and link a sound to that toss. The imaginary balls get passed around the circle with a new sound for each toss. Students can also explore changing the size and weight of the imaginary ball as they pass it around.
3. Instruction and modeling of each conflict representation method:
a. Imagination - using only three desk chairs as a form of artistic expression, students will group, stack, and/or arrange chairs to stand as a visual representation of their idea of conflict. This can either be done in small groups or with a few rounds of volunteer "artists". Either way, the "artist" will quickly arrange the three chairs without any explanation. The class will then analyze how they think the chair "sculpture" represents conflict.
b. Body - In groups of 3 or more, students will work together to design and present tableaus of conflict. The teacher will review tableau criteria of levels, depth, pose, and facial expression beforehand.
c. Voice - Acrostic Poem. Students will write either sentences or one-word responses for each letter of the word "CONFLICT" and will share their responses via a pair-and-share, small-group, or whole-class share out, as time allows.
4. Students can reflect on their connections with conflict by sharing out the conflicts from their favorite books, TV shows, video games, or movies.
Teacher Notes
This lesson can also be stretched to two 50-minute sessions by adding a second warm-up drama game to start Day 2. (Suggestions: http://www.bbbpress.com/dramagames/)
Standards
Assessments
The teacher will circulate and monitor during each BVI task. Formative assessments occur in the students' analysis of the chair "sculptures", tableau poses and student explanations, and the acrostic poems which can be collected as an exit ticket.