Reading Focus: Dramatic Action & Scenes

Reading Focus: Dramatic Action & Scenes

from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow dramatized by Kathryn Schultz Miller

Learning Target

​SWBAT analyze how playwrights develop drama during a scene.

How do playwrights create drama in a play?

​

​Essential Question

But first...​

Have you ever watched a show or a play and wondered how the director got the show to be so dramatic?

Now this...​

Looking back...

Looking back...

• Authors use the motivations (the "why") behind the actions of characters to influence the plot and to bring the conflict to a close.

• ​They do this with:

  • ​Actions

  • ​Thoughts

  • ​Dialogue

  • ​Setting & Mood

  • ​Tone

  • ​Irony

  • ​Point of View

  • ​AND MANY MORE!

Looking forward...

​What is dramatic action (drama)?

​What is dramatic action (drama)?

​The short version...

• ​It's the what characters do, why they do it, and how they feel while doing it.

​

• ​All of that leads them to learning something on their journey from the begging of the play/story to the end of it. THEY CHANGE IN SOME WAY!

Open Ended

As a class we'll discuss...

How did the storytellers of How to Train Your Dragon to create dramatic action?

The storytellers used [storytelling tool] to create drama by...

Open Ended

With your partner discuss the question and then type your response:

What is one thing that changed as a result of the dramatic action?

The drama changed [insert thing or character that changed] by...

Let me show you...

​How does the playwright create drama in this scene from our play?

​

Let's Chat about it...

Open Ended

Using RACE: In lines 36-46, How does the playwright show a change in the characters?

The playwright shows a change in [character] by...

​Let's share out some amazing ideas!

​RANDOM CALLOUT TIME!

What questions do you still have about how authors storytelling tools to create drama?

​On your own...

​Re-read lines 20-46. Make note of how the playwright creates drama using the two Sleepy Hollow Boys and the storytellers. Look at the setting, diction, and characters.

​WHILE YOU READ...

AFTER YOU READ...

Answer the questions on the next two slides.

Multiple Choice

The playwright uses the dialogue between the Sleepy Hollow Boys to--

• show how their attitudes stay the same throughout the story

• create conflict between the Van Tassel and his daughter

• show how their attitudes change when something new happens

• create conflict between Van Tassel and Sleepy

Multiple Choice

Which sentence best demonstrates how characters are used to foreshadow dramatic action?

• CHARLOTTE: They didn’t like to see things change.

• SLEEPY: Hear tell there’s a new schoolmaster come to town. From Connecticut.

• WASHINGTON/VAN TASSEL: The wife says I’m going to the dogs.

• JUDITH: ...The listless inhabitants of the place did things the old fashioned way.

​Thank you!