Thursday, February 24, 2011

Ed Speak: A Follow Up to Educational Theatre

Thinking about the post on "Educational" Theatre, I decided to practice Ed Speak (the highfalutin words used to take a simple educational act and make it sound like a treatise). It's really quite the writing exercise and can be dang funny when you realize what the words are actually saying. Here goes:


Students will learn teamwork as they create a visually and
audibly appealing presentation. They will increase their reading and communication skills as they prepare for a successful conclusion to a long-term project. Students will be guided by an adult mentor who will focus the participants' creative efforts into a unified whole, including using resources to construct objects required for the ornamentation of the presentational area.  The learners will receive immediate feedback on the success of their undertaking from the adult mentor and other community members invited to observe the final project. An evaluation will take place in an informal setting.

In other words:
The kids are going to put on a play. Rehearsals will last about six weeks. The director will try to get them ready. They're going to make sets, props and costumes with whatever is on hand. Tickets will be sold to everyone within a 20-mile radius. After the show is over, there will be a curtain call in which all the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, obscure relatives and friends, and the director will applaud the cast. Cast party at the local pizza parlor!

My thesaurus was smoking after this little exercise.

Try an Ed Speak writing exercise by taking a common activity and put it into education lingo. Then post it here; I would love to see if I can figure it out. Using a thesaurus is optional but highly recommended.

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