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Only $788.96 Needed

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Goal

“Ah, middle school. The best (worst) years of your life! The friends, the memories, the life lessons, and of course the...inevitably haunting embarrassments that will leave emotional scars for years to come! Join a group of real-life middle school students as they uncover the wonders (perils) of their first dance, the marvels (horrors) of field trips, the joy (humiliation) of gym class, and many more of the numerous fond (traumatizing) aspects of life as a middle school student.” (Synopsis from https://yourstagepartners.com/the-10-best-worst-things-about-middle-schoolyoung). The 10 Best/Worst Things About Middle School is a comedy play written by M.G. Davidson. The play consists of two main characters with conflicting recollection of their middle school experiences.
One of the primary goals of this project is to allow students additional opportunities to improve their literacy skills in a creative and engaging way through drama. As students work through the production of the play, they will be focusing on many key components of reading comprehension. These components include fluency, vocabulary, character development, tone, conflict, etc. This real-world opportunity will provide students with an authentic purpose for analyzing a text outside of their language arts classroom.
The project will also allow middle school students to collaborate with their peers, analyze characters, learn memorization skills, learn technical theater, light systems, sound systems, backstage duties and responsibilities. It will also allow them to put on a performance, how to influence upcoming middle schoolers, and how to embrace and improve their creative abilities.
 

What will be done with my students

I am implementing this project to provide an opportunity for middle school theatre students to showcase their talent, build their foundational literacy skills, collaborate with their peers, and build their confidence.
Throughout the production process, students will be given opportunities to apply foundational literacy skills to the production of a play. I will collaborate with Suzanne Pieri, our school’s Literacy Coach, to incorporate activities that provide additional support for areas of weakness in our students’ literacy skills. We will identifies skills in which students are struggling by using VBA and FAST testing data. Students will analyze the script for character development, tone, word choice, conflict, fluency, etc. These activities will give students a unique opportunity to see how applying literary analysis skills improves their overall performance; allowing literacy skills to feel more relevant and authentic to their real-world experiences.
The cast will work together to create a performance and rapport during rehearsals. Students will perform their play a total of three times. They will then perform for their peers, their family, the community, as well as 5th graders from our feeder schools that will be attending middle school next school year. Our feeder elementary schools will be invited to watch the show free of charge, this will allow equal opportunity for all 5th graders to get a sneak-peak of middle school experiences.

The following standards will be addressed within this project:

ELA.6.R.1.1: Analyze how the interaction between characters contributes to the
development of a plot in a literary text.
ELA.6.R.1.2: Analyze the development of stated or implied theme(s) throughout a literary text.
ELA.6.R.1.3: Explain the influence of multiple narrators and/or shifts in point of view in a literary text.
ELA.6.R.2.2: Analyze the central idea(s), implied or explicit, and its development throughout a text
ELA.6.R.2.3: Analyze authors’ purpose(s) in multiple accounts of the same event or topic.
ELA.6.R.2.4: Track the development of an argument, identifying the types of reasoning used.
ELA.7.R.2.4: Track the development of an argument, analyzing the types of reasoning used and their effectiveness
TH.68.C.1.3 Students will determine the purpose, elements, meaning and value of theatrical work
TH.68.C.1.5 Students will ask questions to understand a peer’s artistic choices for a performance or design
TH.68.C.3.1 Students will discuss how visual and aural design elements communicate environment, mood, and theme in a theatrical presentation
TH.68.S.1.1 They will be able to describe the responsibilities of audience members, to the actors and each other, at live and recorded performances and demonstrate appropriate behavior.
TH.68.S.1.2 Students will be able to invent a character with distinct behaviors based on observations of people in the real work and interact with others in a cast as the invented characters.
TH.TH.68.S.2.4 Memorize and present a character’s lines from a monologue or scene


 

Benefits to my students

Funding this project will give students the ability to show their creative side to create set props, costumes, and share their talents with their peers, family members and 5th graders who will be coming to middle school next school year. This project will also allow students of all grade levels (6-8) to collaborate, problem solve, support each other, and secure confidence and pride in their performance all while building and using their learned literacy skills in a real world experience.  

Budget Narrative

I will be purchasing the rights to the play, the scripts, and the rights to create a video documentary from https://yourstagepartners.com. I will be purchasing costumes from local thrift shops, Walmart, and/or Amazon. All costumes will then be stored and used for future performances and activities. We already have large flats used to create scenery for the set, the muslin material will be painted to create the different settings of the play. The scenery will also be stored and used again for future performances.  

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