The Oscars Lesson: Part 2

I made a post a few weeks ago about a lesson that I did that went surprisingly well. It was called The Oscars lesson.

The activity is essentially just “write a dialog” but disguised as “we’re all going to the Oscars next week and you have to present a script.” And it worked shockingly well. All I ever want in class is for them to be creative and silly like they usually are, but just in English. And this activity allowed them to do that.

(Disclaimer: it also helps that I did this with my second graders who, especially the boys, are some of my best and easiest classes. I wouldn’t have dared try this with my third graders.)

The week that I wrote the previous post was while they were writing and preparing the scripts. And it had gone really well with all my classes up until that point. I was very pleased with the week but a little worried that their excitement might not last through our week-long vacation and up until their presentations. It’s one thing to be excited and enjoy writing a funny little story, and it’s another to get up in front of the class and perform it.

But we started them today and to my surprise, yet again, they have done incredibly well! I had four grade 2 classes today and all of them have exceeded my expectations. I have long thought that this kind of activity would be asking a bit too much, or that they would be too embarrassed to really get into it, but I’m happy to be wrong about that.

The boys and girls alike really took it upon themselves to create something entertaining. There were a few groups who were too shy to go all out, but the overwhelming majority gave it their all. I was so impressed.

So I thought I would give you a little synopsis of a few of the scripts I had the privilege of seeing today.

I remember mentioning in my last post about the group that was doing a summit meeting between Kim Jong Un, Trump, Abe, and Moon Jae In. I was excited about how theirs would go down. And I must say that Kim Jong Un was an incredible actor. And I now know one student who can make very realistic gun sounds. It’s also worth mentioning that if our world leaders had half as much creativity as these kids do, I think we’d be in a much better place.

Another girls group, with their script titled “Wife’s temptation” included both a fake kiss scene and a fight scene complete with very realistic slapping sound effects.

One of my personal favorites was “A Happening in the Movie Theater” not so much for its content but because one of the boy students was pretending to be a girl and his voice imitation was hilarious.

And lastly I thought I’d include a bit from one script that I saved. Because I just had to. It began with, “Teacher how do you spell Casanova?” and ended with this beautiful bit of dialog.

S1: “I’m worried about my girlfriends.”

S2: “Why are you worried about your girlfriends?”

S1: “I have so many girlfriends. I’m so tired because many dates.”

S2: “You should meet only one girlfriend.”

S1: “But I love every girlfriends!”

S2: “You should give one to me.”

Anyway, these little skits have made my week back after vacation a little easier. I’m incredibly proud of my second graders for trying so hard and for being silly enough to really make this activity fun. They’re such a good group of kids.

After class today I said to my co-teacher, “I just really love this class. They’re always so good.” She nodded and replied, “They’re really lovely boys.” And they really are.

Thanks for reading! Hope you found this entertaining or useful!