Lesson:Restaurant drama

Learning goals
Students will be able to
 * display their dramatic qualities
 * learn new vocabulary in context
 * learn how to voice emotions

Prerequisites

 * decent vocabulary

Materials

 * Restaurant drama/Setting -- list of 5 to 10 vocabulary words per setting defines each setting
 * dictionaries if necessary
 * video example of a skit if necessary

Intro
For this lesson, the students are put in groups of four to six. They receive a setting and five to ten words to work with. The task is to make a five-minute skit (so, it should be funny) that incorporates the words they received. Each group gets to perform their skit. It's nice to keep all the skits in a familiar and similar setting, such as the restaurant setting in the materials' example.

Presentation

 * 1) Explain the concept of a skit: a short, funny piece of acting. Use a video example for clarification e.g. Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch
 * 2) Make groups of four to six
 * 3) Each person needs to get a role in the skit. Larger groups may consider adding a narrator.
 * 4) Hand-out Restaurant drama/Setting and tell them to include at least six of the words in the skit.
 * 5) Encourage the students to alter the base words to their liking: anger can become angry, break can be used as "to break" or "taking a break" and embarrass can become embarrassment.
 * 6) Allow the use of a dictionary for new words

Application/activity

 * 1) Let the students make a script
 * 2) Allow for practice time

Test

 * 1) Perform the skit for the whole class

Alterations
Suggestions to juice up the lesson
 * Use words that are unrelated to the setting to heighten the challenge of incorporating them
 * Make students incorporate all words in the list
 * Take a zero-props approach so that all the attention goes to the acting
 * Allow a maximum number of props (e.g. 5), so they get two chairs, one table, a plate and a glass, but leave the rest to imagination