English Stress and Intonation Notes
Yes! We made history again. As a defending champion, we delivered a stunning performance and earned all the judges' unanimous approval to win the championship again. 臺中市國中學生英語讀者劇場第1名!
There was a tiny, isolated island called Sweet Potato. It had been
ignored by big countries for a long time. People there were super nice and friendly,
and they believed they were mighty in their own way. COVID, the invincible
monster, was devastating the world and met no match for her power. She then set
her eyes on Sweet Potato and believed it would fall soon, just like all the
others.
However, with the magic stones on the island, they made a shield
and successfully warded off COVID's attack. A messenger from one of the big
countries came to the island for help. Should they only protect themselves or
offer a helping hand to the world?
Inspired by how Taiwan successfully contained the spread of the
pandemic, we created the script from scratch. We then worked hard on bringing
the story alive, with the students' impeccable pronunciation and intonation,
complete with vocal expression and role interaction. These are the secret
ingredients for our success:
1.
A Structure
Every story is the same. The story circle provides an excellent
framework to script a story. It gives a clear guideline to arrange the events,
with each scene containing a clear message and a specific purpose. I first used
it for last year's RT contest, and it worked wonders.
2.
A Cellphone
I demonstrated how to pronounce the lines with expressive vocal
emotions and stored them with an audio recording app on their cellphones. The
idea is for students to be able to practice at home and repeatedly produce the
same patterns.
3.
A Camera
To find out what to improve, record the whole rehearsal so that
you can examine the video carefully and take notes of the parts that need
tweaking. Then watch the videos with the students and pinpoint what you want
them to fix.
4.
A Full-length Mirror
You cannot emphasize how crucial it is not to look dumb and
emotionless enough. Students will forget about the advice and zone out,
especially when they thought they've already done their part. To fix this, have
them rehearse in front of a large mirror.
5.
A Cue
To get students' gestures in sync, they have to act by the cue
words. A cue word, as I defined it, is a word that tells you when to begin or
finish a move. Role interaction takes up 25% of the rubric, so you will make
good use of it to better involve the judges in your story.
6.
A Huge Crowd
To rehearse with or without people watching makes a world of
difference. By having the students do "flash performances" at several
classes in a row, the idea is to help them build muscle memory and overcome stage
fright.
7.
Harsh Criticism
As time goes by, you'll kind of take the nuances for granted and
ignore what really matters, like lack of teamwork, mispronunciation, and messy
gestures. We had former RT students watch our rehearsals and provide
suggestions. Lucky we had some straight shooters.
8.
A Good Command of English
You need to write and speak well in English, which is exactly how
I can pull off the impossible, including creating an original script and
training my students' pronunciation. I'd love people to think we've got help
from a native-speaking teacher.
9.
Two Peas in a Pod
All the mentioned above is still not enough to win the
championship. I have my very best colleague and friend, Alex 楊竣傑.
We spent so much time together revising the script, solving problems,
discussing a step-by-step procedure for each day's rehearsal plan. All this is
impossible without Alex.
Alex and I would really love this story and our performance to be seen by more teachers and students all around "Sweet Potato." We'll be working on making a "plug-and-play" teaching package, including a lesson plan, worksheets, PPTs, assessment, and so on, for reading comprehension, pronunciation tips, and vocabulary regarding COVID.
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