Lights, Clay, Action! Talking Formally and Informally

Lights, Clay, Action!

1The Stop-Motion Club met every Thursday in the art room. Priya, Mateo and Hana were making a short film about a clay turtle who wanted to fly. For each tiny move, they bent the turtle a little and snapped one photo. When the photos played quickly, one after another, the turtle seemed to come alive.

2"Okay, so the turtle's gonna flap his flippers here," Mateo said, squishing a ball of green clay. "Then boom, he's up in the air!" Hana giggled. "Yeah, but we need, like, a hundred more pictures for that part." Priya shrugged. "No big deal. Let's just keep snapping."

3Mr. Okafor, the club adviser, smiled as he walked by their table. "I have great news," he said. "The principal wants your club to share the film at Family Art Night. One of you will stand on the stage and tell the audience how you made it."

4Priya offered to give the talk. That night she wrote her first try: "Hey, everybody! So we made this super cool turtle movie, and it took, like, forever."

5The next day, Priya read her draft to Mr. Okafor. He explained that her words were fine for chatting with friends but not for the stage. Her audience would be parents, teachers and the principal, and many of them had never met her. A presentation like this calls for formal English. Mr. Okafor told her to use complete sentences, leave out slang and greet the audience politely.

6Priya went back to her notebook. Her second try began: "Good evening, families and teachers. Thank you for coming to Family Art Night. Tonight our club will show you a film called The Turtle Who Flew. It took us six weeks and hundreds of photographs to make it."

7On Family Art Night, Priya spoke slowly and clearly into the microphone. The audience clapped when the clay turtle finally soared across the screen. Afterward, Mateo ran up to her in the hallway. "Dude, you totally nailed it!" he cheered. Priya laughed and gave him a high five.