Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :
Pre-Step…Background on silent movies : Discuss the turn of the 20th century by talking about the silent film era. You can learn specifically about The Great Train Robbery's history by clicking here. You might copy/paste the 14-scene synopses into a document to share with your students later...when they are deciding what scene from the film they will write out with dialogue and action.
Explain to students how background music (originally played live) helped create the main emotion in early silent films. But before the music was written, a well-written synopsis and dialogue had to be written; therefore, writers were responsible for portraying the action on film that was eventually complimented by actors and music.
Read aloud with students the original script for The Great Train Robbery. Ask, "Where are the best details written in this script? Where should they have included some dialogue, if dialogue could have been used? What would the dialogue say?"
Collect the script handouts from the students so that they are not tempted to "borrow" too many ideas from the writing for the assignment that is to come.
Step one…sharing scenes from the original film and some silent film music: Show students three scenes from the 1903 film The Great Train Robbery. I suggest you download the clips from the link. If you save them in MPEG formats, you can then import them onto your I-Pod to play at any time.
Next, familiarize your students with the sound and style of silent movie music by playing some for them. There are a few ways you can do this:
- At The Silent Film Bookshelf web
 site, you can play and save midi files of silent movie music. Select several files that sound like they might go with the scenes from The Great Train Robbery and play them for your students. The "Burglar Music" files and the "Hurry Music" files are probably most appropriate.
- At I-Tunes, you can search for and puchase a 1971 album called "Play Me a Movie," or you can download individual songs from this album that would go along with the scenes from The Great Train Robbery. You can also purchase this album from the Smithsonian Institution's Global Sound site. The "Rescued!" track, the "Enter the villain" track, and the "Horses! Horses! Horses!" track might work best with this assignment.
At first, play the music without simultaneously showing the motion picture. Ask students to discuss the emotions the music is intended to bring the listener. Ask how the music accomplishes the task of making an emotion come to life.
Next, show them the film clips again, and--if possible--play some of the silent movie music at the same time. Ask, "Which music matches the film? How can you tell?"
Tell students they will be writing a scene that includes both dialogue and action. Their scenes will be inspired by one of the silent movie clips. Tell students they will "publish" the piece of writing by reading it aloud with chosen clips of silent movie music playing behind them. The scenes they write must include interesting action words, memorable details, interesting dialogue, and excellent word choices.
Step two…introducing student models of writing: To give them an idea of the writing assignment at hand, in small groups, have your students read and respond to any or all of the student models that come with this lesson. The groups should certainly talk about the idea development and word choice, since these are the focus of the lesson. Have them guess what type of music they think the author intended to be played while reading the scene alound.
- Because this is a new lesson at WritingFix, we're looking for student samples for all grade levels for this prompt! Help us get some, and we'll send you a free resource for your classroom! Contact us at publish@writingfix.com for details.
Step three…thinking and pre-writing: In groups, students need to choose a scene from The Great Train Robbery. The interactive button game on the student instructions page might help your students make their selection in a fun way.
With written words, student groups will need to re-create a scene from the film that does two things: 1) creates dialogue for the scene's characters and 2) includes descriptions of actions and setting in between the spoken dialogue.
Students will write their scenes, then rehearse them so they can be read aloud with appropriate silent movie music playing behind them as they are read. Students with longer scenes may need to choose several clips of silent movie soundtrack music to play during the final reading.
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