script

OUR PURPOSE: to develop the critical thinking skill of considering alternate views/opposing perspectives; to practice writing a creative script that brings to voice several perspectives featuring their stakeholders’ biases, values, and commitments; to engage in respectful debate with colleagues within a learning community; to design a voiceover presentation that metacognitively shares your journey in this 3-part project as a researcher and writer.

What You Will Do:

1. RESEARCH a current issue and the multiple perspectives surrounding it; FIND 4 GOOD STRONG SOURCES, minimum.

2. CONSIDER the various “stakeholders” (people/groups who stand to gain or lose something and who are invested in the issue for particular reasons related to their values, beliefs, biases, privilege, social position, culture, etc. – differs depending on your chosen topic). Ask yourself “WHY does this stakeholder care? HOW are they involved? HOW are they invested? What is their strongest claim?

3. BRAINSTORM & PREWRITE to break out of rigid binary “either/or” or “for/ against” two-part argument structures (to see more complicated nuances through stakeholders’ perspectives); frame out your angles!

4. Draft and revise a SCRIPT (yes, like a dramatic script with roles/actors representing each viewpoint or stakeholder); 5 pages double spaced in 12-point Times New Roman or Arial font and 1-inch margins 5. Edit and proofread word choice, phrasing, and dramatic script effect to produce a final copy

6. Serve as a respondent in a discussion board debate

7. Design a 5-minute voiceover presentation (15 slides at 20 seconds each OR 10 slides at 30 seconds each—with a Works Cited list as closing slide); presentation should cover your own choices as a researcher learning and a script writer writing, but also the list of divergent views that you represented in your script. You are NOT required to read your script, but you are welcome to use some quotes from it as viewpoint examples. Remember, slides should offer SHORT phrases and statements, not slides full of text. TALK THROUGH your points without reading from slides. Have a conversation sharing your journey and the relevant viewpoints on your issue topic.

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS (think carefully about these):

• Research to expand knowledge by taking perspective: You’re genuinely EDUCATING yourself by taking perspectives on an issue; doing so is not always comfortable, but challenging yourself to think from several opposing viewpoints and stakeholders’ perspectives helps you build valuable critical thinking and practical reasoning skills.

• The Power of Script-Writing to Bring Perspectives into Conversation Creatively: Written scripts offer ways to put opposing viewpoints into conversation as a dramatic play would. How can you bring each voice to life through what they say in a scripted conversation?

• Voiceover as Practice Presenting with Multimedia Backdrops: Designing a voiceover presentation provides you an opportunity to practice TALKING THROUGH your process as a researcher and writer as well as the various viewpoints you represented in your script. Use your voiceover to educate your colleagues on your issue from different angles.

• The Power of RESPECTFUL DEBATE: Gain valuable practice disagreeing respectfully through our discussion board debate activity. Don’t forget how powerful it can be to engage in crafting counterarguments – by making concessions (giving credit to the opposition’s strongest points) and making refutations or rebuttals to render an opposing viewpoint unacceptable/invalid.