Year 4, Sequence 10

Fiction: Exploring playscripts

Sequence10

Fiction: Exploring playscripts

Approximate duration: Two weeks
Big Picture
Through this teaching sequence, children will explore the way in which playscripts are constructed. Exploring characteristics common to playscripts will help children to use these techniques in their own writing. Children will be able to write text that has an impact on readers’ responses.
Phase 1: Enjoy and immerse
Children analyse the structure and content of the model text, Sophie’s Rules.
Phase 2: Capture and organise
Children begin to develop ideas for creating their own playscript versions of a known story.
Phase 3: Collaborate and compose
Children undertake supported writing sessions to develop the content and layout of their playscripts.
Phase 4: Write independently
Children write, edit and present their own playscript versions of a known story.

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Year 4, Sequence 10

Fiction: Exploring playscripts

Main source text

Treasure House Anthology Sequence 10 text. Sophie’s Rules, Keith West, ISBN 978-0-00-733634-0, pp.3–11

Extra source text

‘In the Rue Bel Tesoro’, Lin Coghlan, Treasure House Pupil Book and Treasure House Online, Year 4 Comprehension Unit10

Background knowledge

Sophie’s Rules is a playscript containing seven speaking parts: five children and two adults. It tells the story of a girl, Dana, who attempts to fit in with her peers at a new school. Dana is keen to make friends with Sophie and her fellow classmates. However, Sophie feels that Dana threatens her social position and she responds with bullying behaviour. As well as providing a model of a playscript format, this story provides plenty of thought-provoking content about personal and social issues. The extra source text, ‘In the Rue Bel Tesoro’, is a playscript containing four speaking parts: two children and two adults. It tells the story of two children and their dog who attempt to board a train surrounded with soldiers, trying to find their grandmother during a period of war.

Spoken outcome

To perform playscripts to an audience of peers or parents

Writing outcome

To rewrite known short stories as playscripts, focusing on the quality of stage directions

Prior knowledge

Check children's knowledge and understanding of:

  • the conventions of playscripts
  • the wider story of Sophie’s Rules by Keith West
  • the wider story of ‘In the Rue Bel Tesoro’ by Lin Coghlan.

Diagnostic assessment options

Before starting the sequence, you may want to conduct an initial diagnostic assessment of thechildren’s understanding of playscripts.

Ideas for initial diagnostic assessment options include:

  • discussion about the common characteristics and purpose of playscripts
  • a brief, unsupported writing activity creating a short playscript based on a class topic or well-known story
  • a rehearsed reading of a playscript
  • a short reading comprehension activity / quiz on a playscript text.

Cross-curricular links

KS2 PSHE/SRE [non-statutory] – Relationships

Recognise risky or negative relationships including all forms of bullying and abuse.

Respond to risky or negative relationships and ask for help.

[From the government-recommended PSHE Association’s PSHE Education Programme of Study]

Treasure House links

All digital and pupil book units have the same names and numbers, but different questions.

  • Treasure House, Year 4, Comprehension Unit 10: Playscript: ‘In the Rue Bel Tesoro’
  • Treasure House, Year 4, Composition Unit 3: Writing a playscript
  • Treasure House, Year 4, Vocabulary Unit 6: Standard English word choices
  • Treasure House, Year 4, Grammar Unit 9: Plural or possessive?
  • Treasure House, Year 4, Grammar Units 12–13: Standard and non-Standard verbs
  • Treasure House, Year 4, Punctuation Units 2–3: Apostrophes to show possession
  • Treasure House, Year 4, Spelling Unit 8: The prefixes anti- and auto-
  • Treasure House, Year 4, Spelling Unit 16: The /k/ sound spelled ch

Resources

Source texts – see Anthologies; Story planner; My writing checklist; Editor’s checklist

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Year 4, Sequence 10

Fiction: Exploring playscripts

Phase 1: Enjoy and immerse

In Phase 1, the children are introduced to an extract from a playscript about Dana, a girl who moves to a new school and struggles to be accepted by Sophie, the class bully. Over several sessions,they are offered the opportunity to immerse themselves fully in the text through comprehension and discussion activities, as well as exploring its content and structure through drama, storytelling, writing and analysis of the text.

Programmes of study: Year 4
  • Comprehension: Listen to and discuss a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks.
  • Comprehension: Prepare poems and playscripts to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action.
  • Comprehension:Identify how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning.
  • Composition:Discuss writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar.
  • Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation: Use Standard English forms for verb inflections instead of local spoken forms.
  • Spelling: Use further prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them.

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Year 4, Sequence 10

Fiction: Exploring playscripts

Sparking interest

Introduce the sequence by highlighting the overall Big Picture to the children: they will be working towards writing their own playscript versions of a story they know well.

Use an opening question such as: ‘What would you do if you moved to a new school and someone there wasn’t being kind?’

Reading and discussion

Introduce the main source text, read it with the class and check the children’s understanding of the language. Discuss children’s understanding of the content of the text.

Discuss the following with the children:

  • Who was new to Deepvale School?
  • How does Dana feel when she walks up to the other girls? How do you know?
  • How do the other girls feel about Dana? How do you know?
  • Why are the stage directions important?
  • What reasons do Sophie, Anna and Jade give for not liking Dana?
  • Why do you think they treat Dana like that?
  • In your opinion, how and why is the extract effective in portraying the character’s emotions?
  • What similar stories do you know?

Drama and storytelling

Use drama and storytelling to reinforce the children’s understanding of the contents and structure of the text. Select the activities that would suit your class or fit in with your lesson timing. Encourage mixed-ability grouping for the chosen activities.

  • Storytelling: Become a storyteller. The children should accompany your performance by using props for sound effects or by taking the roles of the characters.
  • Role-play discussion: Ask the children to role-play the conversations Dana, Sophie, Anna and Jade might have with a teacher if Dana explains her problems. Encourage the children to step into the shoes of each character and consider why they act the way they do.
  • Hot-seating Dana and Sophie: This activity can be done in pairs, small groups or as a class, with nominated children assuming the roles of the characters. Questions could include: ‘Dana, why did you move house?’, ‘Dana, what were your first impressions of Deepvale School?’,‘Sophie, why don’t you like Dana?’ or‘Sophie, how do you feel when you are mean to Dana?’
  • Freeze-framing key moments: In small groups or as a class, ask the children to create a freeze-frame of Dana meeting Sophie for the first time. Ask each character in turn to use thought-tracking to express their character’s feelings.

Incidental writing

A short writing activity would enhance the children’s understanding of the text. Select activities that you think appropriate for the abilities and interests of your class. Use the children’s written outcomes to inform the emphases during the collaborative composition phase.

  • A prose version of part of the playscript, written from Sophie’s perspective
  • A letter from Dana’s mother to the school to inform them of the bullying that has been taking place
  • An email from Sophie to Anna or Jade to express her dislike for Dana

Analysis

Show the main source textto the children and discuss its structure and content. Look at the layout: the introduction to the scene, the speaker’s name followed by a colon, the lack of speech marks, a new line for each speaker, and the stage directions in brackets. Discuss the way that the layout helps speakers to navigate and read it. Ask: ‘Why is it important that all speakers can interpret the script in the same way?’ ‘What do actors need to do, as well as saying the words on the page?’ Discuss the importance of intonation, body language and action, and look again at the stage directions. Look at the way that each speaker says a reasonably short amount before the next character speaks. Suggest that this helps the conversation between characters to flow and keeps the action progressing through the story.

Grammar: UsingStandard and non-Standard verbs

Remind the children that Standard English is different from formal language: it simply means correct spelling and grammar. Many people use non-Standard English in speech.

Show the children the following sentences. Ask them to change each of them into Standard English. Then ask them to compose a non-Standard English sentence of their own for a partner to change into Standard English.

  • The dog digged.
  • It were mine.
  • I seed her.
  • I was waiting of the letter for a long time.
  • It was more harder.

Phonics and spelling
Ask children to recall and remind each other of the prefixes they know. Introduce the prefixes anti- (meaning ‘against’) and auto- (meaning ‘self’ or ‘own’).
Ask pairs to select five of the words listed below and to use dictionaries to find their meanings before using them in sentences of their own. Then ask children to present their findings to a larger group.
anti-/auto- words: antibiotics, autograph, automobile, antiglare, antithesis, autopilot, autotimer; autobiography, antibody, antiviral

Review of the Big Picture

Once you have completed this phase, remind the children (orhave them remind each other) of the sequence’s Big Picture: they are working towards writing their own playscript versions of a story they know.

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Year 4, Sequence 10

Fiction: Exploring playscripts

[DH1]

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Year 4, Sequence 10

Fiction: Exploring playscripts

Phase 2: Capture and organise

During Phase 2, children start to develop ideas about new content and features for a class playscript adaptation of a known story. Working collaboratively, they decide on the structure and content of their playscripts.

Programmes of study: Year 4
  • Comprehension:Draw inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justify inferences with evidence.
  • Comprehension:Identify main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarise these.
  • Comprehension:Identify how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning.
  • Composition:Discuss writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar.
  • Composition:Discuss and record ideas.
  • Spelling:Use words with the /k/ sound spelled ch (Greek in origin).

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Year 4, Sequence 10

Fiction: Exploring playscripts

Introduction

Remind the children of the Big Picture for the sequence and recap the learning achieved through Phase 1. Read the extra source text, ‘In the Rue Bel Tesoro’, and discuss its similarities to and differences from Sophie’s Rules.

Discussing ideas

As a class, discuss the following questions as a basis for the children’s playscripts:

  • What story shall we adapt into a playscript? (Choose a familiar story with distinct events or chapters/sections, four to seven main characters and plenty of dialogue.)
  • Who are the main characters?
  • Who are the other characters?
  • How do the characters feel about one another? Why?
  • Where is the story set? Will the setting change during the playscript?
  • What part of the story should we adapt? Is there a chapter/section that would make an exciting scene on its own?
  • How will the storyline progress?
  • How will the scene end: with a resolution, or ‘to be continued’?

Drama and storytelling

Use drama and storytelling to encourage children to develop their ideas further.Select the activities that would suit your class or fit in with your lesson timing. Encourage mixed-ability grouping for the chosen activities.

  • Hot-seating the new main characters: This activity can be done in pairs, small groups or as a class. Encourage the children to think about and, if necessary, write down their questions before the hot-seat session starts. Discuss the characters’ responses.
  • Freeze-framing key moments:Once children have sufficient ideas to start adapting the chosen story, encourage small groups to improvise brief scenes. At regular intervals, ask the children to freeze and use thought-tracking to develop their ideas about their characters’ feelings, thoughts and actions.
  • Storytelling: Ask pairs or small groups to develop their ideas through storytelling and then to present them to a larger group. Discuss the differences between the different groups’ stories and which parts worked better than others.

Incidental writing

Before they do any incidental writing, make sure children are able to articulate the main ideas for their class playscriptorally. Select activities that you think appropriate for the abilities and interests of your class.

  • A diary entry by the main character, explaining their perspective on the event used for the scene
  • A short narrative retelling of an event in the story
  • Character profiles for the main characters, to help actors who are playing their roles
  • A set description for the play

Organising the class playscript into a structure

Once the children have explored their ideas for their class playscriptthoroughly, bring them together and use their final suggestions to model how to plot it. You could use diagram or note form, and the Story planner. Once the ideas have been recorded, go through the plan and ask the children to evaluate the scene’s contents and structure.

Review of the Big Picture

Once you have completed this phase, remind the children (or have them remind each other) of the sequence’s Big Picture. Recap the learning achieved during Phase 2.

Phonics and spelling
Remind the children that in some words, the /k/ sound is spelled ch. For example, the ch in ‘monarch’ sounds like the kin ‘park’. These words often originally come from Greek.
Ask the children to use as many of the following words as they can to create a short, silly story related to the theme ofthe chosen class story being adapted, using a dictionary for support. For fun focus, award a point per word used. Then ask children to present their stories to the class. Ask:‘Who has used the most ch words?’
ch words: anchor, chemistry, chaos, choir, mechanic, technical, orchestra, chorus, character, stomach, echo

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Year 4, Sequence 10

Fiction: Exploring playscripts

Phase 3: Collaborate and compose

This phase focuses in detail on supporting children to draft and write individual sections of their own playscript adaptation of a known story.

Programmes of study: Year 4
  • Composition:Compose and rehearse sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures.
  • Composition:Discuss and record ideas.
  • Composition: Organise paragraphs around a theme.
  • Composition: In narratives, create settings, characters and plot.
  • Composition: Assess the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggest improvements.

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Year 4, Sequence 10

Fiction: Exploring playscripts

Introduction

Remind the children of the Big Picture and recap the learning achieved during Phases 1 and 2. Explain to children that during Phase 3 they will be learning how to write their own playscript adaptation of a known story.

Lesson 1

Starter (VGP focus) – Vocabulary: Using Standard and non-Standard English

Ask children to remind you of the definition of Standard and non-standard English, as explored in Phase 1.

Explain to the children that knowing about Standard and non-standard English can be particularly useful for expressing the way that someone speaks in writing. Show the children the first line of Sophie’s speech in the script, where she says ‘You new here?’ to Dana. Discuss the fact that the author has omitted the word ‘are’ (‘Are you new here?’) to make the script reflect the way Sophie actually speaks more realistically.

Ask pairs to suggest how the following sentences could be adapted to make them seem more like real speech,using mini-whiteboards. Then ask pairs to share their ideas with the class.

  • Have you lived in your new house for very long?
  • What do you think about this place?
  • How are you feeling?

Shared writing

Ask children to remind themselves and each other of their planning ideas from Phase 2. Prompt them to make suggestions for the introduction and description of the setting, referring closely to the chosen class story for adaptation. Ask the children to imagine that the script will be given to actors who have no knowledge of the story, so need explicit explanation of the scene to help them to picture it. Discuss what details the actors need (such as the place, the time of day, the weather and/or the atmosphere). Then model, with the children’s input, the opening lines of the playscript. Include clear stage directions to show how characters move throughout the scene: use the third person, and demarcate the stage directions using brackets and/or italics. Focus, at this point, on one or two main characters to allow the audience to become familiar with them. Use examples of non-Standard English to show the way at least one of the characters speaks.