This is an English resource that engages children with their visit to Blackgang Chine. The resource task enables them to practise their performance skills, and incorporate a scene shot at Cowboy Town into a news report, which will be filmed back at school.
This resource will require the conventions of script writing to be studied prior to the visit and pupils will ideally have drafted their script before they arrive at Blackgang.
Students may have studied notorious cowboys in history and need to have watched a couple of TV news reports so that they understand the context of the task. The scene will be a re-enactment of the robbery at the bank in Cowboy Town, which will be incorporated in to a TV News Report back at school.
The script will require a correspondent to introduce the re-enactment on-site. Students/teachers can choose the number of characters involved in the re-enactment.
Study notorious cowboys/girls in history. „ Introduce the task – to produce a TV News Report of a bank robbery. „ Watch typical TV main channel news report. „ Study the conventions of script-writing. „ Produce a script (of the re-enactment of the robbery) to be filmed on-site (including the correspondent’s introduction of the event).
Film the re-enactment of the cowboy(s)/girl(s) robbery.
Write the script for the remaining report (headline news report). „ Film the anchor-man in the studio who passes to the correspondent in Cowboy Town. „ Edit the scenes together. „ Students can then evaluate each others’ work at the point of completion.
Students will demonstrate their creativity (in writing and performance). They will demonstrate their planning skills and their collaborative working. Students will use the visit as a source of inspiration to write creatively.