One for English educators out there

[exboyfil]

My daughter is in a group project to generate a 6 minute acted script for an insertion scene into Macbeth. They basically were able to start Monday of this week (after Thanksgiving - it was impossible to work over Thanksgiving because the parameters and groups were not set and who is really available over Thanksgiving). She has to turn in the script tomorrow. Like most group projects she is getting little or no assistance from her group members. My calculculation is that she needs about five pages of script given Macbeth acted out is about 2 hours. To get the extra credit it has to be written in King James English.

A few comments
*It probably takes you longer to generate a group script than an individual script (one women can make a baby in 9 months but 9 women cannot make a baby in 1 month) - How many successful writing collaborations exist and how long does it take for them to actually work together
*I have a collection of Shakespeare's plays that goes about 1,000 pages. That is 30 years of active writing. The teacher is expecting five pages of script in two evenings
*Every group project this year my daughter has had to carry the group - she is getting really tired with the sharing the wealth concept
*The teacher also teaches the Comp and Rhet classes my daughter was going to take. I don't think she will take them any longer. Life is too short for this pile of dingo kidneys

[femmocrat]

1. I have said this repeatedly in this and other forums:

When in doubt, call the teacher!!! It is totally possible that your daughter's understanding of the assignment is not the same as the teacher's or of others in her group.

At least, you might be able to buy more time by explaining that the group is not functioning well and your daughter needs an extension to complete the assignment properly. If the assignment was unreasonable, the teacher needs to know that and make adjustments.

[exboyfil]

2. I took your advice and talked with the teacher

Can't say I was reinsured. The situation as described by my daughter was the case. The teacher says that, in peer feedback, she will learn about this situation and adjust grades accordingly. My daughter also discussed with her English teacher without knowing that I talked to the English teacher as well.

I am leaning towards having my daughter take English at the Junior College next year as a Junior. She can satisfy the credits for the Rhetoric class at the university she is thinking about going to by taking those classes. The university will not give her credit for AP classes so why should she waste her time. Even without counting the college classes, she will satisfy the High School English requirement with Journalism classes.

[knitter4democracy]

3. The cursed play is longer than two hours.

A six minute script can be two pages or ten depending on how much physical action is involved. If they act out Macbeth actually killing Duncan, only a couple of pages could be six minutes. If they decide to write one of the negotiation scenes between Macduff and his allies, that would most likely be longer.

This is actually a great project and one I will keep in mind for the next I get to teach the cursed play (which I hope to, someday, as I'm still looking for a teaching job). Collaborative writing actually can work really well and often does. I watched a class I was working with all re-write Romeo and Juliet as text messages in just three days of class, and it was brilliant. I'm sure the teacher wasn't expecting perfection or anything on Shakespeare's level, just that the kids see how difficult it can be to write, get the feel for writing drama (as opposed to essays or poems), and learn to work with a group--something that happens quite a bit in the work world.