Submitted by Meredith Harley Inserra, New Bern, North Carolina
Idea posted March 8, 2006
For the first time in my teaching career, I decided to put together a team of students to help create the script for my next spring program. I'll never go back! It's the best thing I ever did! This is for my upcoming third-grade spring program. I had each of the third-grade classroom teachers nominate two students they thought were good in creative writing. I met with the group three times. At the first meeting, we previewed the songs and the overall theme for the show. Then we brainstormed about what we could do for each scene between songs. I typed up the brainstorming on a laptop as their ideas POURED forth! Before they left, I printed a copy of my notes for each student and assigned each student a scene to write. They brought me their scripts a few days later, and I typed them all into one document. We met for a second time to go over the script, make changes, fix things, decide on character names, etc. At the third meeting, I had a final draft for them. They had only a few minor suggestions for that draft, and my script was done! They were so proud of themselves!! They were beaming. I had never dreamed that those little kids would be so overflowing with cute ideas! It took a lot of pressure off me having to come up with all the ideas.