Lesson 6- Comedy vs. Drama

Background

Television has many different genres, two of which include comedy and drama. TV dramas are a representation of dramatic situations that could take place in real life while TV comedies are the lighter side of television and real life situations. Students will learn the characteristics of each, then compare and contrast various TV shows to determine if they are a comedy or drama.

Objectives

The student analyzes, criticizes, and constructs meaning from formal and informal television and electronic media.
The students understands and uses the tools of data analysis for managing information.
The student determines main concept and supporting details in a nonprint media message, such as television.

Activities

1. Teacher leads a discussion brainstorming with the class what constitutes drama and what constitutes comedy. Guided questions: What is drama? (a literary composition that usually tells a story of human conflict by means of dialogue and action, to be performed by actors), What is a comedy? (a humorous treatment of characters and situation with a happy ending; an amusing or comic event or sequence of events), Can you name television shows that are dramas? Can you name television shows that are comedies?

2. The students will create a Venn Diagram depicting the differences and similarities between drama and comedy. See these sites: Make Your Own Venn Diagram and Venn Diagram.

3. They will then discuss which is more popular, the comedy or drama, and why they believe it to be that way.

4. If the students are in upper grades, the teacher will direct them to the following web sites to gather statistics on viewers' preferences of television viewing. If students are in lower grades, the teacher should view the web sites in advance and create a handout for students of the high points.
Student Television Viewing Habits - learn about how and what children watch on TV
Internet Takes its Toll on Television Viewing- view a survey on television viewing habits

*Tip- Research sites first and then book mark specific links
PBS 'Why First TV Drama'? - learn about the first drama on TV
Yahoo: Nielson Ratings - what are the Nielson ratings?

Use for teacher background information:
Guidelines for Television Viewing - What should we watch on TV?
Critical Television Viewing Skills - information on TV viewing
Television Viewing Choices - more TV viewing information
Carter, Judy. The Comedy Bible : From Stand-Up to Sitcom : The Comedy Writer's Ultimate How-To-Guide. Fireside; ISBN: 0743201256; September 2001.
Sweet, Jeff. The Dramatist's Toolkit : The Craft of the Working Playwright. Heinemann; ISBN: 0325000530; April 2001.

5. The students will view four or more television programs to determine if they are comedies or dramas and take notes. The students will use a desk top publishing program to write down information gathered from the Internet, television viewing and their notes. Their notes should include the following:

Time slots of the programs

Age of viewers

Type of program (comedy or drama)

What characteristics make it a comedy or drama

Length of program

Type and number of commercials during the program

Did they enjoy the show

What characteristics made the show enjoyable

6. The students will transfer their information into graph form using Excel or they can use a word processing program and create table to compare the drama and comedy programs.

7. Students will write a brief summary as to whether they were correct in their views as to which was most popular and if their reasons for being popular were correct.

8. Students report results to class.

Materials

Internet access, desktop publishing, and a television

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated on their graphs or tables that they created comparing comedy and drama as well as their summaries. Use the Comedy/Drama Checklist.

Homework

Students should watch TV at home to gather additional information. Students should also interview family members and friends to add information to their notes. As a long term homework assignment, students can create either a drama or a comedy script that is based on a real life situation. Students can post their script at CBC for Kids

Extension Activity: My Own Television Station

Direct a class discussion on how it would be like to own your own television station. Ask:
What would you show on your television station? What specific shows would you put on and when? Which day and time? Which shows would you cancel? What kind of commercials would you allow?
Ask students to write down what factors would influence them in their choice of programming, such as: Would you show programs that you liked or ones that would help people? Would you show violent shows or commercials? Would you have news and educational shows?
Have students use draw/paint program to design a logo and slogan for their TV station
Use desktop publishing to create a table depicting one day of their TV station programming to include: name of the show, kind of show (drama, comedy, news, educational, music, variety show, game show, cartoon...), one sentence about the show, day, time, target audience

Guest Speaker

Invite a local actor, actress, writer or director to class to talk about drama and comedy.

Fieldtrip

Arrange for a fieldtrip to see a comedy or dramatic play. Ask students to critique the play afterward: Was it really funny? Why? or Was it dramatic? Why?