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Alpha Road – Miss Marbles: Idiolect and play-scripting
Teaching Guidance
Starter
After looking at initial screen (there it is worth pre-empting
ideas about what age/occupation/hobbies she may have),
play avatar – sets context of Miss Marbles character and
situation. Class can take notes of main points that she
reveals about herself.
Next screen contains rest of monologue – this is available as
word document. Class read through – can they spot
anything odd about it. Once screen is revealed it tells them
that it is missing topic sentence starters (topic partly covered
in Unit 1: Mrs Pratchett).
Click on a particular paragraph on the previous screen and
then text appears in larger text – here class can look more
closely at the words and decide on 4 possible sentence
starters. Worth discussing the merits of each one. The
Check button will blend in the ‘correct’ starter with the rest of
the text. Check button does not throw out incorrect ones as
there is scope for arguing for other ideas. Ideally the
‘correct’ example should fit the best – but it’s the quality of
discussion about why it is best suited is the important thing.
Task 1
Next screen reveals a character card and a grid of objects
on the left. Idea here is to read the character cards and
decide on 3 objects which he/she is most likely to possess.
There are 4 characters which will all appear in the unit.
Worth getting pupils to write their own short monologue for a
character each (say in groups of 4) where they refer to what
these objects mean to them.
Next screen reverses logic of last activity. Here objects can
shuffle to reveal items. Class have to create a character
card which might be associated with such objects. Idea
here is to explore our ability to make assumptions on
character through objects. Also it is a creative task where
pupils can start to create some characters for the play-script
they need to create at end of unit. Character cards will be
available for the classroom as word doc (part of unit).
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Task 2
This begins to look at idioms as part of idiolect. Class can
reveal one number at a time – first ‘team’ or player or reveal
the saying wins (due to ‘ageing’ of idioms and dialects I
would urge teacher to set homework collecting as many
idioms as possible prior to this task as it might baffle some
pupils). Reveal idiom function available.
Next screen is a multiple choice activity where pupils can
drag the most apt word to complete the idiom. Idea here
might even be to discuss where some of the idioms
originate. Hint button only reveals the correct ones so helps
steer pupils if struggling. Re-play randomises each time so
this can be done as a competition or game between teams
or pupils.
Task 3
Carousel activity – here Press for Carousel will select 3
characters who might say one of the lines below. If it’s the
most suited character then the line is said by the character.
If it’s not the most apt then we hear “I wouldn’t say a thing
like that”. This activity gets pupils thinking more carefully
about idiolect. Room for analysis on why it’s suited/not
suited.
Task 4
Play-script screen appears. This gives a model of playscript – rollover text appears when cursor is moved over red
areas – idea here is to highlight the features of play-scripts.
Also this introduces the storyline that pupils are to develop in
their own script. There are word documents attached with
this for closer analysis.
This has similar function as previous screen but this time we
see conventions of typical prose/story narrative. Again
useful rollover text can guide pupils and word docs are
available.
Next screen gives task of converting the story section into
play-script. There is a timer which gives pupils 5 minutes to
do the task. After explosion the text explodes and is
replaced by a model script which pupils can compare to their
own.
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Outcome
Final screen gives some prose (continues same storyline)
which has to be converted and pupils have to go on to
create a larger ‘soap’ or play-script involving the characters
they have come across in this unit. Pupils can also include
the Pratchett characters here (or any other characters in a
later unit). Focus is on play-script technique, convincing
idiolect, and developed storyline.