Lesson Plan: Speech - Sound Effects and Word Emphasis

Teacher: Daphne Yoner, Danielle Mohler-Penna, Samantha Tinworth

Subject/Grade: Drama 20
Unit/Topic: Speech
Date: May 27,2020
Time: 25-35 minutes
Learning Resources consulted: Drama 10-20-30 Program of Studies

Stage 1: Desired Results

Learning Students will be able to:
Objectives Speech:
5. Recognize how the jaw, lips, tongue, teeth and velum play an important role in
articulation.
What is most
important for
12. Create specific vocal sound effects.
students to learn, 13. Speak spontaneously within a given context.
know, or 15. Demonstrate expressive reading of literature.
understand? 16. Communicate mood and emotion through voice.
18. Demonstrate that spoken interpretation is affected by characterization.
20. Apply movement and gesture to clarify and enhance spoken interpretation.

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Indicators - Observation (formative)
of - Can students adequately portray different emotions?
- Can students adequately portray a unique character voice by using
Learning pitch, sounds, accents, etc.
- Can students put emphasis on specific words in order to portray a
What will you character?
look/listen for to
- Conversation (formative)
determine if
students learned - Why is it important to understand where sound originates in your
your objectives mouth for things like character creation?
or not? - How can you create unique character voices by changing your own?
- Thumbs up/down (formative)
- Students will indicate their level of understanding of where sound
originates from by agreeing or disagreeing with their peers using the
thumbs up or down communication during the warm-up. This can also
lead into class discussion.
 Stage 3: Learning Experiences
Materials - Laptop
and - Zoom, breakout rooms
- Pre-made neutral scenes & characters
Resources

Before - Create situations/stories for improv activity

Class - Have warm-up exercise phrases ready

Time Teacher Prompts/Cues Notes

Allotments Content Descriptions
Key Questions and Intended Responses

~5 minutes Vocal Warm-Up Activity - Focus on Areas of the Mouth Ask a student what area
- The focus for this exercise is to get students to use of the mouth they
different parts of their mouths believe they were using.
- Tell students that you are going to read out
phrases and you are going to have them repeat Ask the remainder of the
the phrases back to you. Tell the students to focus class to say whether
on the area of their mouth that they are using to they agree or disagree
speak the phrases. by giving a thumbs up
- Use the following phrases (followed by the (agreement) or no
question: What area of the mouth did this use? - reaction (disagreement).
Answers in bold):
- “Packing pickles poses problems. Pass If there is a
the pens and pencils please.” disagreement, ask for
- Lips further insight from the
- “If you delay longer we’re likely to be late.” students who disagree.
- Tongue
- “He was greedily grabbing the gravy.”
- Soft palate and back of tongue
- “Menacing monkeys moving mountains.”
- Lips
- “It’s terribly difficult to enunciate a lot of
‘t’s.’”
- Tongue
- “I bought a book about a boy who became
a prince.”
- Lips
- “I’m pulling a long length of string”
- All - but with a focus on soft
palate and back of tongue
~3 minutes Discussion: THE WHY
- Discuss briefly with students what the purpose of
this activity was.
- Become familiar with different areas of the
mouth
- Become familiar with different sounds
- Ask (answers in bold)
- What topic do you think we’ll be covering
today? Speech
- What can speech be used for?
- Sound effects
- Portray emotions/mood
- Portray different characters
through sound, pitch, accents,
etc.
- Communication
- Now that we’re all warmed up… Let’s play a game
that will get us both physically AND vocally
involved (TRANSITION INTO NEXT ACTIVITY).

~7 minutes Yes, Let’s (Vocal and Physical Involvement Required) Prompts as the caller:
- We will be the callers for this game. - Dinosaur
- Explain to the students: This game is going to - Vacuum cleaner
get us using our mouths to create different sound - Bacon frying in a
effects, now that we’re all warmed up after using pan
the different areas of our mouths. - Race car
- Rules: - Rock
- This is a call and response game. The - Airplane
caller will say a line following this format - Feather floating
“Let’s all be _______”. in the wind
- Students must respond “Yes, let’s!” and
perform an associated action AND an
associated sound.
- Students will all perform the action at the
same time (to reduce disengagement).
- Example:
- Caller: “Let’s all be dinosaurs!”
- Students: “Yes, let’s!”
- Students AND Callers: Act like dinosaurs
and make dinosaur sounds.

DISCUSSION
- ASK:
- What strategies did you use to create the
sound?
- What areas of your mouth did you use to
create the sound?
 - If you can create these sound effects, you can use
your voice to also create different characters
(TRANSITION INTO NEXT ACTIVITY).

~15 minutes Neutral Scenes Characters

- Students will be put into pairs - Cheerleader
(5 intro, - Kit Kat & Sauer Patch Kid - Cowboy
5 breakout, - Comet & Saucy Mossey - Nerd
5 present) - Peter Parker & Soph-A-Loaf - Mouse
- Stumble Duck & Weeble Wobble - Witch
- Gatsby & Grand Slam - Surfer Dude
- Students will be given “neutral scenes” and - Dracula
characters (emailed ahead of time) - Southern Belle
- “I Never Said She Stole My Money” - MODEL - Robot
- Talk about how emphasis on words - Toddler
creates a different sentence (emphasize a - Drill sergeant
different word in the sentence each time, - Opera singer
and demonstrate how emphasis changes
the meaning entirely).
- Students will be sent to breakout rooms for 5
minutes to “become” their character, practice their
lines, and choose how to build their scene.
- TELL STUDENTS: Really keep in mind what
words you want to emphasize in your script - these
scenes are neutral, the way you emphasize your
words is what will really give meaning to your
script.
- Help your partners! You’re creating a
scene. The emphasis in your speech
should connect and create a story. Plan
this with your partner.
- You can add actions to your script if you
would like. Keep in mind that when you
come back to the main room, you may not
be placed beside each other on Zoom.
~5 minutes DISCUSSION/CLOSURE
- ASK:
- How did having the character ahead of
time affect your speech?
- How did you know how to speak to portray
your character?
- Did you feel as though you were able to
portray an emotion or an attitude by using
emphasis on specific words?

SPONGE Association KitKat

ACTIVITY - Student names will be posted in Zoom chat (can Comet
copy and paste the order from the side →) Weeble Wobble
- Caller (us) will begin by saying any word that Sauer Patch Kid
comes to mind. The next person in line (beginning Soph-A-Loaf
with KitKat) will then say the first thing that comes Gatsby
to mind, followed by Comet, and so on. Peter Parker
- For this activity it is advised that all Saucy Mossey
students unmute themselves to make the Grand Slam
responses faster and more immediate. Stumble Duck
- The goal will be to get 20 unique responses (2 full
rounds - each student gets 2 turns).

Reflection Daphne Yoner:

- It was nice to do this project as a team,
initially I thought the warm up would be
simpler if it was a call and repeat but having
those phrases in the chat was really
beneficial.
- It was nice to have a fun and silly game in the
middle before starting the main activity
because then the students can feel more
comfortable and give it their all for the last
activity.
Danielle Mohler-Penna:
- I loved being able to tackle this assignment as
a team! I feel as though we all did well at
leading our individual activities, but I also
noticed that no matter who was speaking, the
other members in our group were following
along and engaged in the lesson the entire
time, so that was awesome too!
 -Teaching a lesson on Zoom can be difficult! It
is hard to know when to chime in and when
not to, and sometimes technical difficulties
can impede learning opportunities. Luckily we
didn’t suffer from any overly large
technological issues while presenting!
- I LOVED that a student commented after our
lesson on the sequence of our lesson; she
specifically mentioned that the Yes, Let’s!
game got her feeling more relaxed and willing
to open up in our final (Neutral Scenes)
activity, which was exactly the point of playing
this game first!
- Originally I had prepared the groups by who
was included in them, but had forgotten to
include the characters that they would be
acting out! It’s not a BIG deal, but it’s certainly
easier for the students to remember their roles
if it’s written down somewhere (... I know MY
short term memory sucks!). Luckily I had time
to write those out quickly right before our
lesson began, but definitely something to note
for myself if I were to ever teach this lesson
again on Zoom! Crisis averted.
- I felt that our peers were very receptive to our
lesson so it was a really awesome experience
to get to teach it in a low stakes environment
where everyone is always positive towards
each other!
- Overall, I think the lesson went great
Samantha Tinworth:
-

NEUTRAL SCENES

GROUP 1 (Kit Kat & Sauer Patch Kid):

A: Can you believe that?

B: No.
A: What are we going to do?
B: We?
A: This is really big.
 B: We can manage it.
A: Got any ideas?
B: Yes. But don’t tell anyone.

GROUP 2 (Comet & Saucy Mossey):

A: You’ve been gone for an hour.

B: Has it been that long?
A: Where did you go?
B: Out.
A: Can’t you be more specific?
B: Not really.
A: Did you miss me?
B: What do you think?
A: I’m not sure.
B: That’s your problem.

GROUP 3 (Peter Parker & Soph-A-Loaf):

A: You’re late.
B: Sorry, I thought you’d understand.
A: Not this time.
B: What’s the problem now?
A: I have something to give you.
B: Well, what is it?
A: Here
B: I should have known.

GROUP 4 (Stumble Duck & Weeble Wobble):

A: Hi.
B: Hi, what’s going on?
A: Nothing.
B: What did you do last night?
A: Stayed in.
B: Why?
A: Because I felt like it.
B: Oh. Fine.
A: Okay.
B: I’ve got to go.
A: Why?
B: You know why.
A: Fine.
B: Later.
GROUP 5 (Gatsby & Grand Slam):

A: Hello?
B: Hello!
A: Well?
B: Well, what?
A: How are things?
B: Just about as usual.
A: I didn’t expect to find you here.
B: What’s that supposed to mean?
A: Oh! Come on!
B: I have to go.
A: So soon?
B: Yes, sorry.
A: Okay, bye.