Encourage engaging vocabulary by making a list of banned words to hang up in the classroom. For example, “very,” “really,” “fun,” “good,” - anything students tend to overuse. You can either completely ban these words or set limits on how many times students can use them in their script.
Don’t stick to a template, at least not indefinitely. When you stick to a template students aren’t learning how to write scripts. If you want to start off using a template that’s okay, but challenge your students to write the script themselves by the end of the year.
Remind them of what they already know. Nothing beats students teaching themselves! Have students write down a list of what makes scripts good and what makes them bad, and encourage them to take their own advice.
Emphasize the importance of writing as you speak. Always have students read their scripts aloud at various points in the writing process. They can even start by speaking aloud and then write down what they say. This ensures that everything flows and sounds natural.
Make sure they keep it concise. Have students do exercises where they read a story and summarize the who, what, why, where and how in just a couple of sentences. Oftentimes news programs have very specific time limits, so you need to be able to cover everything in a designated period of time.
Collaborate with other teachers. For example, ask the English teachers if they would be open to doing in-depth scriptwriting workshops in their English or Language Arts classes.
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