Broadway
Bound Books
HOW IT WORKS
Broadway Bound Books allows students to exercise and integrate many different
skills in one project. Students select a book that
they enjoy reading, and then write, publish, and
present a program about the book as if it were a
Broadway play. This program follows the format of
Playbill magazine. Students plan for a publication
by extracting the information from the book they
read. The program encourages them to look beyond
the written materials and gain insight into an author’s
thoughts. It exposes them to the many steps and
aspects of publishing, such as illustrations, publishers,
copyright dates, and other credits. The teacher
presents a sample publication and discusses the
parts with the students. They are given a guide
to analyze their book by stating its themes, settings,
and plots.
The different sections found in
Playbill each develop a different skill. The Critic’s
Corner helps them form their opinions of the book
and share their impressions in writing. In class,
they learn the figurative and literal aspects of
language such as simile, metaphor, hyperbole, alliteration,
personification, idiom, and onomatopoeia. They search
for these literary elements in the books they choose
and provide examples for them. Who’s Who In the
Cast enables them to analyze and critique the main
character, the supporting characters, the antagonists,
and the protagonists of the story. In the back of
their program, they create their own advertisement
for the publication. They study advertising strategies
by researching magazine and newspaper ads. Finally,
they present their publication to other teachers
and classes to practice their presentation and public
speaking skills. The students viewing the presentation
fill out evaluation forms in a positive tone to
encourage and praise their efforts for future improvement.
THE STUDENTS
The students participating in this program are in
a transitional ESL class. It can be easily be adapted
in any level of fourth through ninth grades and
may be used with large or small groups.
THE STAFF
Roza Ng has taught the Bilingual/ESL population
at M.S. 131 for 16 years. This is the first year
she implemented this program.
WHAT YOU NEED
Required materials include a collection of Playbill
magazines, a variety of books, art supplies (including
scissors, glue sticks, color pencils, and watercolor
paint), computers with printers, 8 ½” by
11” computer paper folded in half, and a video camera
with videotape.
OVERALL VALUE
Broadway Bound Books calls upon the students to
exercise multiple skills such as reading, writing,
organization, editing, commentary, book reviewing,
character analysis, publishing, art, advertising,
oral presentation, and evaluation. The program helps
the students meet Language Arts and ESL standards
while enabling them to be creative and expand their
thinking beyond the reading material. It also helps
them to formulate an opinion in addition to developing
a sense of pride in their accomplishments. |