Only the Best Intentions: A modern romance between a guy, a girl, and a game (Integrated Skills Through Drama) (Volume 2)

by Alice Savage

$13.00

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Author: Alice Savage

Publisher: Alphabet Publishing

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 1948492067
ISBN 13: 978-1948492065

English-Language Award 2018 Runner-up for Best Resource for Secondary to Adult Learners from the English-Speaking Union teaches pragmatics by getting dramatic in the classroom!

Life’s ups and downs do not slow down the busy Curry family whose members are juggling jobs, family, school, sports, and wedding plans. But when 20-year-old Gigi announces that she has broken off her engagement to a computer gamer, everything comes to a stop. Everyone wants to help Gigi and Oscar, but in a modern romance, the rules the game are always changing.

Only the Best Intentions is part of the Integrated Skills Through Drama series that teaches speaking and communication skills through the performance of a one-act play. This flexible curriculum is perfect for a class project, elective course, or drama club.

As students prepare to perform the play, they study intonation and pronunciation skills such as sentence and word stress for clarity, as well as pronunciation and linking. They learn about body language and gesture as ways to communicate. They analyze the script as a work of literature and also mine it for language and rhetorical strategies discuss a personal conflict, complain about someone, give or receive advice and more. And they learn to apply those strategies to their performance and to real-life situations. A variety of performance options are featured, including Reader’s Theater.

Background readings on the history of competitive video games, the life of professional video game players, and the benefits and dangers of tech addiction fill out the curriculum. A number of creative writing projects to rewrite the script, adapt the play, or even write a sequel allow you to extend the learning further.

This original drama-based coursebook is sure to engage and motivate your learners.

Review

Customer Reviews

A great addition to any ESL library and a pedagogically sound model for teaching English through drama. The book can be used in several ways, including using the play as-is or using various parts.

--C. Reese, an Amazon buyer

I'm so thrilled to have another play by Savage to use with my ESL students! Plays allow them to experiment with language-- to use intonation and word stress to change meaning, to use body language with dialogue to emphasize a point, etc. ....Most of all, the students have fun performing the play!
--A.L., an Amazon buyer

It's great to see authors creating materials to get students really using their language skills. The students can also relate with the characters very current problems, especially Oscar's addiction to video games. makes for great discussion.
--John, an Amazon buyer

In the play, Only the Best Intentions, we meet a dilemma that is faced by families all around the world. What do you do when someone you love is a dedicated gamer? Gigi loves Oscar, but Oscar loves gaming. She decided to break off the engagement as a way to send a message, but it doesn't work the way she hopes ....And while much of the plot revolves around a gamer, it is mainly a family drama, so it could work with people who are not into computer games. In fact, I think it's brave of the author to venture into this territory!... I plan to use the book with an intermediate conversation class to see how it goes, and if I like it, I'll report back. There are very few high-quality short plays that work for ESOL or EFL students, and I'm hoping that this series continues to grow.
--Amazon Customer

Praise for the Integrated Skills Through Drama Series

Drama in the performance of texts is one of the most compelling of language learning resources...This book offers a wealth of preparatory activities, suggestions for varied ways of using the text and helpful suggestions for follow-up.
-- Alan Maley

I can say without hesitation that teachers and students will find the series Integrated Skills through Drama, of which this book forms part, a treasure trove of teaching ideas, covering areas like pronunciation, grammar, pragmatics, discussion themes and a host of suggested activities, all built around a short play.
--Charlyn Wessels Dyers, Author of Drama in the Oxford Resource Series for Teachers

From the Author

I've been teaching English and writing ESOL and EFL materials for over 20 years. Surprisingly, it has taken me that long to realize how useful theatre can be in the language classroom. After all, plays are a series of conversations among individuals who are trying to achieve goals. As such, they showcase, language and strategies that just don't appear in lectures and documentaries. Students can mine these conversations for cultural information, language, expressions, even pronunciation points, and in doing so, become more informed and confident speakers of English.

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