When 22 students signed up for drama class, seventh-grade teacher Chuck Skinner thought of a way to incorporate more into the popular elective:

Students will write a script.

Student Rachel Thompson didn’t expect to be writing her own script, but said to be able to combine acting with writing will be really exciting.

“I really enjoyed last trimester,” student Abby Pratt said. “I’m really looking forward to acting my own stuff.”

Some students took the class specifically for the writing element, such as Travis Petersen and Sarah Weishaupt.

Not all Skinner’s students are excited about writing.

“I thought it would be regular drama, but it’s OK,” student Katie Street said.

“The administration really wanted to hone in on the state objectives,” Skinner said. “I thought it would be very clever to move in this direction.”

Seventh-graders have state benchmarks to meet in writing. Skinner believes script-writing will help students meet those expectations.

Last trimester, Skinner taught his students memorization and how a script is broken up into different acts and scenes.

His first step this trimester was to show his students some famous monologues, from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to Ferris Bueller in his infamous Day Off.

The next step is getting students to talk about themselves.

“How long can you really talk about yourself, how can you make it more interesting?” Skinner said. “I guarantee you after about three seconds they’ll run out of things to say.”

Students were asked to write an autobiography as a step to the monologue.

Through the practice, students will learn irony and setting, both language arts and writing skills, Skinner said.

Many students have dreams of going into the business as actors in theater or film.

“I’ll do what’s available, but I cannot do singing because I can’t hit the high notes,” Pratt said.

Pratt has a talent for memorization, having memorized her first role in a week, Skinner said.

Amanda Pacheco wants to go into acting, but not writing.

“Writing’s boring,” she said.

He said he is very proud of his students and their interest in the arts.

“I try and keep them interested,” Skinner said.

This is Skinner’s second year teaching drama at Sand Ridge, Sodaville campus.

Last year, his class performed School House Rock Junior, the musical.