Playwriting

After missing two consecutive Mondays due to spring break, our class reconvened today. The students are at all stages of writing their plays. Some have finished recopying their final draft in pen, some are almost finished a first draft of their plays and a couple have written less than one page. At this point what the students get out of the class is beyond Brigitte's and my control because some of these third, fourth and fifth graders are more motivated and/or have better basic writing skills than others.

Besides spelling and grammar mistakes, one problem I saw was that the students forgot to write in stage directions. Obviously, this made it difficult to understand what was happening with only the dialogue there, but the students eventually understood the issue and made the appropriate corrections. Another problem I saw was the overwriting of setting and character descriptions. Overall, I am impressed with the elementary school students' creativity and progress, despite that they forget some of the fundamental components in plays.