Objectives: Students will be able to write creatively about a theme in the musical Falsetto.
CCS
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2
Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.3
Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3.B
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3.D
Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
Differentiation: Students can elicit ideas from the musical based on their personal connections. They are also given various options to create their responses depending on their personal level of challenge and individual talent.
Do Now: Describe the most poignant moment or scene in the musical. What impact does it have on you? What could be the cause?
Mini Lesson and Guided Practice
Step 1: As students share the scenes in small groups, ask students: How does the scene connect to or illustrate a larger issue, i.e. family, prejudice, rites of passage, parent-children relationship, responsibility, acceptance and culture?
Step 2: In the scene you have described, what kind of theme is implied? What claim can you make based on the scene (i.e. Family is love not a social structure; or A real family always has many problems; Coming of age is not marked by a ritual but significant events in lives.)
Step 3: Students independently or help each other generate a thematic statements based on the scene they have chosen to respond.
Group share and present.
Independent Practice
Students individually write a poem or vignette or a song on one of the themes embedded in the musical Falsetto.
Share in the small group or ask one or two students to present to the class.
Quick Write to Reflect: How does a musical impact people as much as or even more than literature does?
Homework: Complete your creative work as your response to the musical Falsetto.