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Writing a Movie.

2003; Wiley; Volume: 57; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

1936-2714

Helen Hoffner,

Literacy, Media, and Education

Lights, camera, action! It's time to write a movie. Eight students sit on stools before a large television. The room darkens and the gripping opening scenes of the film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Spielberg, 1989), fill the screen. student describes the scenes. His voice rises and falls with the crescendo of the film's ac tions. This student and his classmates are Writing a Movie. They are showcasing their talents in read ing and writing as they perform for their parents and members of their school community. Writing a Movie is a variation of Readers Theatre. The Literacy Dictionary defines Readers Theatre as A performance of literature, as a story, play, poetry, etc. read aloud expressively by one or more persons, rather than acted (Harris & Hodges, 1995, p. 206). To use Readers Theatre, a teacher and students select a script to read and dramatize. The students choose parts and practice reading their lines. The rereading done in rehearsals leads to fluency. The performer's goal in Readers Theatre is to read a script so expressively that the audience can visualize the action (Martinez, Roser, & Strecker, 1999). Writing a Movie works in reverse because the visual input is already present. To write a movie, students view a short film segment (5 to 10 minutes) and write a script in which they describe the scene. The exciting music of the film's sound track can play in the background as the students read their script expressively.