Role Playing With Original Characters!

In this ongoing class, students will create original characters and participate in class as those characters. Students collaborate to create setting, characters, plot, conflict and resolution for a fantastic story.  Ms. Jackson--teacher, actor, and writer--will facilitate by trading story tellers often!  There is no reading nor writing required, but if students want to create artwork of their characters or write stories about the characters between classes, they are welcome to do so. We would love to see the art and/or the stories shared in the classroom.

This is a learner-directed class where students will create a new story each class period and can bring a new original character or an old favorite week to week. Costumes are allowed! (Props, too!) Each class will begin with a review of the story arc and an explanation of internal/external conflict and resolution within a story. Ms. Jackson will encourage students to tell their parts of the story dramatically with vocal and facial expression. There may be some acting lessons from time to time about how to perform as a character with vocal variety, facial expressions and body movements.

This class can fulfill a multitude of objectives for a variety of students:
It's a pre-writing class for students who are learning the components of a story.
It's a verbal storytelling class for the imaginative child who excels at telling a story but struggles with writing. 
It's an English class for students needing to practice their English pronunciation.
It's a spontaneous, improvisational theatre class for the students who want to dramatically tell a story and create a character.
It's a social class for students who are desiring a way to connect with other children in a safe and non-intimidating way.
It's a cooperation class for students who want practice on how to be okay with others taking a story a different direction than they had planned! (low stake: it's just a story!)
It's an acting class for students who want to create and perform new characters each week.

This class is a wonderful mixture of story creation and dramatic performance, combining English class with Theatre class with Conversation Club.