Scripts in Action: A dramatic exploration of 'image, historic fact and spiritual questions raised by the text:' Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets -

[The film tracks the human history of the Grand Canyon utilizing one narrator; human dialogue is absent. Students will create their own original tableauxs utilizing specific words and phrases already embedded in the text in order to practice timing and word choice (this is preparation for commercial work where timing and word choice become quintessential). The fact that "Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets" is a non-fiction text makes it more likely that students will be able to create convincing, vivid presentations because they are working from a real script.]

Age group: This course is designed for 7th and 8th grade students, and may be modified to meet the needs of gifted and talented and special ed students.

Goal: to invite students to focus on imagery, historical fact and spiritual questions utilizing dramatic exploration to synthesize their understanding of these three elements. Students will come up with a new image, or tableau and text that illuminate some aspect of the history, spiritual questioning or image. Excellent tableaux will include all three of these elements.

This lesson will serve as a building block for future lessons. During the extension activities, students will learn how to respond in writing to the text at emotional/personal level, and then they will take this ‘insider’ knowledge and apply what they have learned to producing their own commercial spot. Students will have learned a lot about the setting for their commercial and will turn their attention to selling a product utilizing their
original tableau to set the stage for future action.

Students will write creative non-fictions scripts designed to trigger a “buying response”. They will perform their tableaux before a commercial and will view them as commercial
spots.

Objective: Students will learn to “feel an author's intention” at an emotional level by acting out the words and phrases the writer uses to craft his/her non-fiction screenplay. This method is designed prepare students to write their own original work regardless of the medium.

Students will write creative non-fiction work inspired by “Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets” and the related theater and in class discussions held in class. Students may choose to write from a specific character’s perspective, from an image they were given in their small groups or they may
choose to reflect on the physical grandeur of the Grand Canyon itself by referencing spiritual texts
we have already read in class (like the Tao of Pooh for example).

After creating their individual non-fiction piece; they will go back into their groups and create a short script, between 20 and 150 words in length and will produce a 10 to 60 second spot. Students will have the choice whether or not they would like to have their piece filmed.

The focus of all three activities is freeing the students’ mind up to the creative process by exposing them to the words as they appear on the page, pictoral images and scenes brought to life by their peers.


The main lesson is designed to teach students how to develop their own style of writing utilizing text, image and tableaux to provide inspiration and structure for their work. Students will study an "historical script" with strong emotional undertones. In this case, script the class will use "Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets". The script is non-fiction. It is loaded with imagery, historical fact, questions about nature and man's desire to conquer and explore.