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Return to Menu See also An Invitation from the Melting Museum Opera Company PR Department Room 6: An Interview with the Writers of the Melting Music OperaRoom 6’s expedition this year is Children’s Rights. The culminating project will be an opera written and produced by the students. Writers Clarice Kim, Alex Kunze, Toni Ray, and Hailey Spencer were interviewed about the experience of writing the opera.Q: Why did you audition for the writing team? Hailey: I knew that my spelling was good. I like to write. And I knew I wanted to perform, and it would be easier to learn my lines if I had been involved in writing them.Toni: I like to write stories. I’ve written a lot of them. Clarice: I didn’t want to be on the writing team. I was assigned to write. I like it now; it’s fun. We get to give ideas, and it’s fun writing scripts and songs.Alex: I didn’t think I would be chosen. I wasn’t so happy about being chosen at first, but I like it now. There were a lot of opportunities: we got to use our favorite tunes, we learned how many beats are in a paragraph. Q: How are you doing the writing? What is your process?Toni: We write paragraphs in a notebook. Hailey: Each one of us contributes. We decide what fits for third and fourth graders.Q: Do your feelings get hurt if what you write is not chosen? Alex: We take two good ideas and put them together to make a really good idea. Our feelings don’t get hurt. Q: What have been the most important things you have learned by doing the writing?Clarice: I’ve learned to write better sentences. I’ve learned to put periods. Hailey: When you’re making characters, we make charts with traits and motivations. This is the first year I’ve learned so much!Toni: I learned how to work with people I didn’t always get along with. I learned to use ideas from other things I’ve written. Alex: How to put ideas together and not just use one idea like I used to.Hailey: We want to keep the audience guessing! Q: How has being a writer on the opera effected you?Clarice: It’s fun to write a little bit! Alex: I’ve learned writing is not just writing, it’s about having ideas.Hailey: It made me decide I want to be a writer. I should be respectful of what writers in plays say, because now I know how carefully they picked the words. Horsey’s Burning Question: Room 6 3rd Graders RespondThe following four letters from Jo Vos' third-grade class were part of a larger set of eleven letters sent into the Seattle PI and published on December 13, 2003 in response to Horsey’s Burning Question:"Are low prices for American consumers worth the high cost to workers, here and abroad?": Nathanial C. responded:“I'm writing because some kids in the world are still being treated unfairly. In India, one girl and one boy we read about work in rug factories. That is very dangerous because there is a lot of sharp metal pieces in the machines and the kids could get hurt. The children are separated from their families. They are hungry and sad. What if you were a kid where child labor still goes on? How would you feel? “I am a kid, and I have a home, food, parents, and a T.V. I also have friends, and friends mean a lot. I feel sad about kids who have to work and who don't have family and a home. “I have one wish in the whole wide world, and my wish is I really want child labor to stop.”
Ruby M. responded: “I would pay a little extra on stuff so workers would not be abused. I want people to get their rights. I feel bad that people don't get their rights. I think people should have money to buy food and a house. I wish people got their rights to have shelter and food. People have the right to be healthy. The poor children in factories must feel very, very sad! I feel so sorry for them! They must feel unloved! I feel sad that they don't have their rights. I want people to be treated fairly.”
Anthony
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