Soap Opera

Guide

A Soap Opera is a plot-driven drama characterized by stock characters and situations, sentimentality, and melodrama.

Rationale: Team collaboration forces the active recall of information with a distinct purpose. The expectation of peer appraisal has been shown to increase motivation and performance. Understanding and working within group dynamics is an important life skill. Research demonstrates that synthesizing information, or taking information and creating new and independent work, increases understanding and retention.

Instructions: With your Team, designate a facilitator that will guide the collaborative process. Designate someone who will write down ideas and create a finalized screenplay. Brainstorm a plot and scenes composed of stock characters and situations full of sentimentality and melodrama with the learned information. Link them together into a flowing sequence that tells a story. Design or obtain props that will facilitate the drama.

General Guidelines

· Be creative

· Apply learned knowledge

· Put stock characters in stock situations

· Create melodrama and sentimentality

· Keep it Short and Simple

· Turn in a professionally written script

· Contains a climax

Soap Opera Rubric

possible points	expectations	points earned
1	Actors stay composed
2	Actors do not need to refer to script
2	Uses props
4	Clearly uses necessary information
2	Characters are typical and situations are predictable
1	Melodramatic and sentimental
1	Actors project their voice
2	Prepared at the designated start time
15

Soap Opera Example