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Lesson Overview

Setting & Ambiance

GRADES 3-5 ELA AND THEATRE

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In this Setting and Ambiance Arts Integration lesson, students study how authors and artists use the elements of word choice, lighting and sound to set the mood of a piece of text or theater.

Share an illustration from the book Last Stop on Market Street. Ask students what words they would use to describe the setting and the mood of the illustration. Then, ask students what sounds they might hear in the setting and mood of the piece.

Explain that lighting and sound can be used to create different moods for different settings in a theater piece. Share the video Wicked Lighting to show students how lighting engineers help tell a story based on the lighting they use. Ask students how they might use lights (spotlight, shadow, light colors) to help set the mood of the earlier illustration. Using flashlights and different colored cellophane sheets, experiment with different ways to light the original illustration

Lesson Process:

Step 1: Read the book Last Stop on Market Street as a group. As a class, carefully view and analyze the illustrations for each scene. Discuss how the author uses word choice to create a mood for the scene. Then, discuss how the illustrations capture that mood.

Step 2: Split students into six groups. Provide each group with one scene from the story, along with its illustration. Each group must decide what mood is being conveyed, and determine how they will use lighting and sound to help showcase the mood of the scene.

Step 3: Each group practices recreating their assigned scene using their lighting and sound, as well as character dialogue to convey mood.

Step 4:  Each group performs their scene for the class using their selected lighting and sound.

Time Required:
30-45 minutes

Materials List:

Assessment:

As each group performs, ask the student audience to consider what word they would use to describe the mood being conveyed by the group.

After each performance, share out the audience words and see if they match what the group was originally trying to showcase in their choices.