Walking in someone else’s shoes

Situation Based Lesson Plan

11/27/2023

One hour lesson

Hadley Pierce

Objectives:

To develop context for an open-ended scene.

To explore how a character’s past experiences can affect their actions.

To represent context that has been created through collaboration.

Preparation:

Need:

• Open ended scenes

• Character worksheet

Control Device:

• Teacher: Chestnuts roasting

• Students: on an open fire

• Body: Ice sculpture

• Voice: Diaphragm work

• Imagination: Family portraits

Vocabulary:

• Motive: Something (such as a need or desire) that forces a person to act.

• Open-ended scene: Scene that contains dialogue that is open to different

interpretations.

• Characterization: The artistic representation of human characteristics and or motives.

• Diaphragm: Body part that separates the chest and abdominal cavities.

• Portrait: Pictorial representation of someone showing the face.

• Stage Picture: Visual image that is captivating and tells a story.

• Objective: Something in which effort is directed; aim or goal.

• Goal: The end toward which effort is directed.

Teaching moment:

Have you ever watched a movie and not liked a character? Maybe it was the villain. But have

you ever thought about their motives as a character? Motives are what make a character do what

they do, their reasoning behind their actions. An example of this is in the wizard of oz. Who has

seen this movie? In this movie each character goes on a journey because they want something. In
every story character’s have motives even if we do not hear them say them out loud. Every

character in every story has a goal or objective that they are trying to obtain. They are often

stopped by different things but we learn more about each character as the audience sees the

character grow and persevere for their goal.

Activities:

Warmups:

Body: Ice Sculpture

Students will stand in a circle and the teacher will call “freeze”. When this is said the students

will become frozen statues of any kind. (make sure they chose large poses that take up space)

Then once the teacher calls “melt” the students will melt out of their pose until they become a

puddle on the floor. After this the teacher will call “relax” and the students will stand back up

and repeat as many times as time permits.

Voice:Diaphram warmup

Students will place their hands on their lower stomach (their diaphragm) then will feel it expand

as they breathe in. When they are taking in air they will raise their hand over their head then as

they exhale they will lower the hand so that it is back to their side. Do this with just air one to

two times then add a voice element. So when the students lower their arm they release a low

pitch sound almost like a grunt on an “ah” vowel. Repeat this two to three times.

Imagination: Family portraits

1. Divide class into small groups evenly

2. Create a portrait scenario for the groups to make

4. Walk to each group and ask them to describe the photo.

5. Repeat as many times as desired.

Dramatic Activity:

Each student will be given a pairing and an open ended script. With their partner they must come

up with what they want the context of the scene to be (what is happening behind the words).

They also must come up with who the character is and the character’s goal in the script. This will

be discussed with their partner and written on the back of their character worksheet.

Craft Activity:

Each student will be given a character outline for them to complete. Being a character is about

the words and actions you pursue onstage. Characters can also have hidden context based on how

they dress and present themselves. Therefore the students will color what they believe the

character in their open ended scene might look like or wear. This will help them fully visualize

their character so that they can portray them to the best of their abilities.

Sharing:

Open Ended Scenes:

Students will get into pairings and receive an open-ended scene script. Students will then come

up with context for the scene and will work on conveying their context without explicitly telling

the audience. They will then perform each of their open-ended scenes and the audience will tell

the performers what they thought the scene was about.

A: Like this?

B: No this way.

A: Let me try it again.

B: Here wait try this.

A: Well how did she do it?

B: Just like that.

A: No, she didn’t, she came in from way over here, swooped down to here and then did

something kind of like this. Then she...

B: Look

A: No that’s wrong

B: Let’s try something else.

A: How about this.

B: We’re ready
 Open Ended Scene 2
A: What are you doing?

B: Nothing, really, I just...

A. What?

B: Huh?

A: What? You just what?

B: Oh. Well, I was just... never mind.

A: Never mind? What's that supposed to mean?

B: Please...

A: I asked you a question.

B: Come on, let's not...

A: Oh, like it's not worth discussing.

B: No. Frankly it isn't.

A: What?

B: Let's just drop it, ok? It's over.

A: Oh really, it's over just like that.

B: Right.

A. No, it's not over.