7th GRADE DRAMA

Trimester Project Overview

In 7th grade, students work together to form their own news company -- K-AMRA. In news teams, they design their newscast, select topics to report on, write news scripts, conduct interviews, and film their segments. Along the way, they explore writing for broadcast news, anchoring, and filming. At the end of the project, they plan and host a community event to cover and report on.

News Team Organization

To get started, students were divided into four news teams. Together they brainstormed what segment topics they wanted to cover and in what order. They also began practicing setting up the news room equiptment and participated in a variety of ensemble building games. Below watch students enjoy a spontaneous playful moment while putting away the green screen.

Writing for Broadcast News

In small groups, student news team members wrote segments on stories of interest or prepared and conducted interviews with community members or local small businesses. Along the way they practiced writing lead sentences, sharing information succinctly, establishing interview goals, and formulating open ended questions.

Production

Each news team took a turn anchoring their segments or leading an interview. News team members also pitched in to setup the studio (lighting, teleprompter, green screen, mics, etc.) and film each segment. During production they put their performance skills to task as anchors and contributors. 

K-AMRA Newscasts

Below, please enjoy a few of their newscasts which feature interviews with local food establishments Donut Alley, Boichik Bagels, and Kito's. 

K-AMRA Special Event Final Newscast 

For their final newscast, 7th grade worked together to plan and host a community event. After lots of discussion, they landed on a middle school student cake baking competition which would raise proceeds for a cause of the winner's choice. Student news team members planned, coordinated, and helped run the event. They also captured live footage and conducted interviews with participants throughout. The winning cake baker chose to donate the winnings to the Milo Foundation.

Student Reflection Snapshots

We have worked a lot on communication skills. I think that being confident with speech is going to help us outside of school.

I think that collaborating and learning to be quiet on set is something I will use outside of class.

My listening skills have gotten much better from last year to now.   

I think that communication and collaboration are important skills that we are working on currently that apply to many real-world scenarios such as group projects in school. Learning how to collaborate and communicate with a team is also a useful skill for when you're working at a job where you are part of a team and must communicate with one another.

One skill that could help me outside of school is public speaking because when we do the news we are talking to a lot of people.

Some skills that can be useful outside of drama class are organization, film, and working in groups.

I think performing is a very important aspect in life. Some people think performing can only mean acting, but they're wrong, any kind of public speaking can be considered performing. And public speaking is a skill you don't just need in school, but a skill that you will use in your career and for the rest of your life.

The news segments went well. I loved being able to work in a partnership and I especially liked researching things I'm interested in.