Sesame Street As A Springboard

The wonderful Barbara over at Grade ONEderful is having her first linky party and we're all invited! How do you use drama in your classroom? We act things out in guidance classes all. the. time! We call it role playing and the kids LOVE it! Our biggest problem is that sometimes they don't all get a turn, just cause we run out of time, a good problem to have, I guess. Anyway, we act out all sorts of situations. Say we wanted to practice an apology? We'd act it out. Say we wanted to know what to do if we found a bottle of medicine on the ground (gasp!), we'd act it out. Say we didn't think our neighbor was taking good care of his dog, we'd act it out! We'd practice exactly what to say and do. Once you set role play and drama as a standard, watch out. Your little actors and actresses will want to do it all. the. time!


Want to teach them how to interview someone?
 Act it out. 


It's no secret that I love Sesame Street and guess what? Kids do, too. Even my third graders, who often act too cool for the clips until I show them and then emphatically plead request, "Let's watch it again!"  Here's a clip that you can use to help teach students to ask relevant questions and to really listen for the answers. In it, Elmo is interviewing soccer phenom David Beckham. 

Find out from students if they think that Elmo's doing a good job and why. What would they ask if they could interview this soccer superstar? After they write some relevant questions, let your roving reporters practice by interviewing a friend, a teacher, the counselor or the principal. Or assign it as homework and let them interview a family member or neighbor. After the interview, let students share what they found out with the class so that their classmates can . . . yep, ask even more relevant questions. And when they're not sure of something, let them practice it two or three ways.  
Lights, camera . . . ACTion!