Leeann Jones
ENGL 409
Tucker
10-18-12
Unit Proposal
Course: English Language Arts 11-12
Unit: Reading and Writing in Drama
Texts:
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One act plays (examples could include Los Vendidos by Luis Valdez and Flowers
in the Desert by D. M. Larson)
Monologues
One full length play (Possibly Shakespeare- possibilities include Hamlet, Othello,
or Midsummer Night’s Dream.)
Websites: www.freedrama.net (Flowers in the Desert)
Form of Intertextual Study: Reading/Writing Workshop
Purpose: Students will read to discover and understand the conventions of plays/drama
in order to write a one act play about an important topic of their choosing.
Essential Questions:
What is a play? How do we recognize a play?
What is the purpose of a play?
How do playwrights express thoughts and feelings to the audience?
How is reading a play similar to and different from reading a novel or poetry?
Unit Questions:
What are a one act play, a monologue, and a full length play?
What are the conventions of a one act play, a monologue, and a full length play?
How can we use a play to talk about important themes?
How does one read, write, and perform a monologue?
Assessments
Formative:
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Character Monologue: Take a scene witnessed by multiple characters from a
play and write an original monologue from another character’s perspective on the
event.
Design a Set: Take a one act play and design a set for it. You may write a
detailed description or create a visual representation of what you envision. Visual
representations must include a written explanation or an oral presentation
supporting your set design concept.
Superlative Awards: Using our full length play, create a superlative award for 4
characters of your choosing. For example, characters could receive awards for
most likely to succeed, class clown, most dramatic, most talkative, most spirited,
biggest gossip, etc. For each superlative award, you must submit a paragraph
with textual support that demonstrates why the character was given that award.
Summative:
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Dramatic portfolio: Students will write a 1 one-act play featuring at least 2
monologues. Students will submit at least 2 rough drafts of their play and 5 quick
writes or revisions of monologues that have contributed to their final product.
Learning Activities:
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Students read several monologues, 2 one act plays, and 1 full length play.
Students respond to monologues and plays they have read.
Students perform a monologue for the class.
Students watch a performance of a one-act play.
Students brainstorm ideas for monologues and revise them.
Students brainstorm ideas for their own one-act play that could incorporate 1-2 of
their monologues.
Note: I am really interested in trying the reading writing workshop approach, but I think I
may be writing this as more of a genre study due to familiarity with genre studies. While
I understand how reading writing workshop could work for poetry or fiction, I am
struggling to apply it to drama. Since I am most interested in writing for this approach,
should I try writing it for poetry of fiction instead of drama since I seem to be struggling?