This activity is based on a scene from the famous TV series called The Office (the American version). First, the students are briefed on the series and main characters. Then they watch the following video to set up the scene:
After this video, I ask the class to summarize what has happened to check comprehension, and I also ask the class to predict how Michael will respond to this conflict. After a few minutes of class discussion, we watch Michael's response with the following video, pausing at 3:23:
At this point, students are left with a cliffhanger. Michael and Stanley are talking face-to-face about the conflict that has occurred, but students do not know how the conversation finishes. Thus, the students now work together in pairs or in groups of no more than four to create a dialogue between Michael and Stanley to finish their conversation. Students should think about how they believe the conversation will end and use that prediction as the basis for their dialogues. The teacher may dictate how many lines the students should write. (I usually say 10—five for each character.) The teacher may also set other parameters for how the dialogue should be designed (i.e., no lines less than five words). Students are encouraged to be creative with their dialogues; they are asked to act and dramatize the conversation. In groups of three and four, students may share the lines since there are only two characters in this dialogue. After having time to prepare, students perform their dialogues in front of the class. After everyone has performed their dialogues, the students resume the following video from 3:23 to see how the conversation actually ended in the series:
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