Sixth Grade AIM Update
@norton_AIM
Friday in AIM
On Friday we spent a little time celebrating the launch of our web series and then jumped right back into working on episode #2 (Ellis Island). We are using a writing model that I learned from a web series titled Lessons from the Screen Screenplay. We want this episode to be character driven vs. situational driven (spoiler alert - we all make it through Ellis Island) and so we started with the end in mind. What lesson do we want our characters to learn about themselves that would be revealed through the experiences of Ellis Island? We spent a lot of time talking about the "big lie" that people/characters believe about themselves (I'm not smart enough, I am a bad person, I am worthless etc.,) and why it is so hard to shed those beliefs.
The goal for this episode will be to focus on 6 main characters who will shed a big lie and learn a truth about themselves. The role of the subplot characters will be to either teach the main characters a lesson to help them understand the big lie or also to learn a similar truth about themselves (which will teach the main character the lesson that they need to learn). This was really challenging for our class to remove the "and then we will have a chase scene" to how can I help show this character that they are clever etc., I am really looking forward to seeing how this deepens their writing as we talked about picking a "lie" that they are familiar with. Writing from personal experiences can really deepen the emotional connection to the story. We looked at parts of the movie Inside Out and learned how the director used his own relationship with his daughter as inspiration.