Workbook (Week 4: Day 2) combined with Cool Writing!

In my five years of teaching, I have found that student motivation, ownership, and enthusiasm increases when they are given choices in class.  Last week, I came across an amazing image on Pinterest regarding the brain and writing.  I enjoy incorporating playwriting and script adaptation in my Talented Theatre classes but thought I would change it up this week, as per the workbook.  In lieu of choosing a short script for the students to work on, I allowed them to write stories and adapt these stories into plays.  I also asked students to vote on which script they would like to perform at the end of the week.  The fact that they were writing for a genuine purpose of potentially using their story for performance really made my students buckle down and focus on their work.  (They are also extremely competitive, which helped!)  I showed them this Pinterest image and students were fascinated by what areas were working as they wrote and even wanted to point to the various areas of the brain they felt were working hard as they planned their stories and worked on them.