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As Much Fun As Recess!
Using Drama
for Form-Focused Primary Instruction
The ACIE Newsletter, May 1998, Vol. 1, No.
3
By Cathy Lundberg, French Immersion Teacher,
Andrew Jackson Middle School,
Prince George's County, Maryland
One of the most pressing challenges in the elementary language
immersion classroom is how to integrate form-focused activities
into the broader content-based, meaning-focused framework
representative of immersion education.
Students need effective ways to address problematic language
structures that surface frequently. The use of simple drama
scenarios provides a perfect context for rehearsing correct
structures, and has the advantages of increasing student motivation
and offering an opportunity for movement and self-expression.
Such focused-input activities are particularly well-suited
for the cognitive and language proficiency levels of the early
primary grade learner.
The following very simple skit, of the type used at summer
camps and at Cub Scout or Brownie troop meetings, has been
used in the French immersion classroom to reinforce correct
language usage and grammar while targeting areas where students
tend to have difficulty. Keeping track of the most commonly
found language mistakes in the classroom is an important first
step. Once a teacher determines that several or many students
are repeatedly making a particular mistake with the language,
she can, with a few props and a little imagination, make up
a simple amusing skit that will allow the students to get
additional practice focusing on the problem structure. Thus,
teachers can circumvent the fossilization of these structures
by directly addressing them and devising lessons with which
students can practice correct language use.
This skit is one example of such a lesson in English, and
can be easily adapted to any immersion language. The key is
to keep the language very simple, and repetitive, so that
it's easy for young children to quickly memorize and perform.
Other vocabulary and content can be incorporated into the
skit, and a lot can be learned through an activity that primary
students consider as much fun as recess!
SKIT - THE CHICKEN
Objective: Use possessive structures correctly
Characters: Owner of the chicken, Friend
of the Owner of the Chicken,
Chicken Thief, Friend of the Chicken Thief, Police Officer
Dialogue:
| Owner:
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Good morning, ma'am.
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| Chicken Thief:
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(holding a toy chicken)
Good morning, sir.
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| Owner:
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That chicken is mine!
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| Chicken Thief:
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This chicken is not yours!
It's mine!
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| Thief's Friend:
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You must be crazy! This
chicken is hers.
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| Owner's Friend:
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What do you mean? That
chicken is his!
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| Owner:
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Enough is enough! I'm calling
the police! Police! Police!
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| Police Officer:
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What's going on here?
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| (The whole cast repeats
dialogue from the third line.)
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| Police Officer: |
Let me see that chicken.
(Looks at the I.D. collar.) This chicken is his.
It belongs to Henri Dupont! (Gives the chicken back
to the owner, then turns to the thief.) That chicken
isn't yours! You're a chicken thief, and you're going
to jail! (Leads thief off to jail.) |
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