Help students build writing and team work skills by presenting a lesson about writing a comedic skit. Even students who don’t normally like to write may enjoy this activity as it does generate a lot of laughter.
Talk to the class about how to use dialogue in a comedic skit. Ask students for examples of funny things they have heard someone say lately. Discuss how in a movie most of the time is spent with the characters involved in dialogue.
Then, have students sit in groups with a maximum of 4 students per group. Walk around the room and pass out slips of paper with 5 possible topics
for a comedic skit. Tell the students they may either choose a topic they create or use one from the list. Giving students some writing ideas helps to eliminate the “I don’t know what to write about” panic some students may experience.
Let students brainstorm their ideas for the skit for about 10 minutes. Then they will create a list of characters and write a brief description of each character. Then the group should decide upon the mood and the theme of the skit. What lesson will the characters learn during this skit?
The final step before writing the skit will be identifying the setting for the skit. The group should list the place and time frame of the skit. They may set the skit anywhere in the world during any time past, present, or future.
Students should then work together to create a skit. The teacher will circulate the room as students are writing to give feedback on their writing progress. Remind each group to give the characters interesting names and
unique dialogue.
Give the groups at least 25 minutes to write the skits and then tell them to continue to brainstorm ideas for dialogue for homework. They will have time the next day to finish writing the skit. Later in the week each group will perform their skit for the class.