Purpose
Students investigate how performers shape audience reaction by crafting two original performance products: a suspenseful campfire ghost-story retelling and a familiar song remixed into an 8- or 12-bar blues form. Through rehearsal, critique, and revision, they practice storytelling choices, musical structure, pacing, character motivation, and performance etiquette while working collaboratively toward a public lock-in showcase. The work connects classroom arts learning to authentic audiences through peer feedback, daily reflection, and guidance from a Charleston Ghost Tour storyteller. By the end, students understand how performance choices can make a story believable and suspenseful and how musical changes can transform style while still honoring form.
Learning goals
Students will perform a rehearsed ghost-story script for an audience, using pacing, character motivation, and staging choices to make the story believable, surprising, suspenseful, and fluent. Students will analyze and apply the structures of 8- and 12-bar blues to transform a familiar song into a clear blues-style remix for live performance or recording. Students will strengthen collaboration and performance habits by giving and applying peer feedback, documenting rehearsal improvements, and showing dependability, responsibility, and performance etiquette. Students will communicate their artistic choices clearly through reflection, critique, and public performance at the Midnight Story Circle.
Products
Students will create annotated ghost story transcripts, draft campfire scripts, pacing plans, and rehearsal recordings in pairs, along with peer feedback forms from the Scare Factor rubric to guide revision. Blues groups will produce chord/form maps, short arrangement plans, practice recordings, and peer critique notes using the blues checklist and I Like, I Wish, I Wonder protocol. By the end, each pair will present a polished live ghost story performance script and campfire storytelling performance for the Midnight Story Circle, and each music group will perform or record an original 8- or 12-bar blues remix of a familiar song. Students will also complete brief group reflection check-ins that document growth in storytelling, musicianship, and collaboration.
Launch
Open with a “Moonlit Mix-Up Night” where students rotate through three short experiences: a teacher- or guest-led live ghost story teaser by flashlight, a blues play-along on classroom instruments, and a 10-minute remix challenge that turns a familiar tune into a blues groove. Invite a Charleston Ghost Tour guide to model how pacing, voice, and detail build suspense, then have students name what made the performance believable, surprising, suspenseful, and smooth. End with pairs and trios choosing whether they feel more pulled toward storytelling, blues remixing, or both, and capture first ideas on a quick notice-and-wonder board. This launch gives every student an immediate audience experience, a performance challenge, and a clear entry point into the final lock-in showcase.
Exhibition
Host a Midnight Story Circle at the 8th grade lock-in, where pairs perform their campfire ghost stories between live student blues remixes to create a back-to-back showcase of suspense and musical transformation. Invite classmates, families, staff, and a Charleston Ghost Tour guide to serve as the audience, with quick peer shout-outs after each performance for suspense, fluency, believable choices, and accurate blues form. Display simple audience feedback stations with the Scare Factor rubric for storytelling and an I Like, I Wish, I Wonder check for the blues pieces so students receive authentic critique as part of the celebration. If needed, record performances and post them as a class digital showcase featuring scripts, remix notes, and short student reflections on how feedback shaped their final work.
