Speak Lesson Plan

LESSON PLAN

PLANNING

Date: 29 February                             Class and Grade Level: 10

Title/Subject of Lesson: Exploring new media through the perspective of Speak

Overall Unit Essential Question: How can we discover and express our voice? How do we handle emotional difficulties in our life? etc.

Learning Goal(s): Students will cite textual evidence to create a piece art representative of one that Melinda may have created. (reading standard 1 & 3)

Assessment(s): Writing and analysis of choices made in the art piece.

State (or Common) Core Curriculum Standard(s): Reading standards 1 & 3

Concept(s) to Be Taught: Citation of evidence, character analysis, creative process, representation in multiple mediums, presentation skills

Rationale: We want this unit to help students begin to understand and identify their own and find ways to express. This project will serve as a springboard to finding their own voice as they further explore Melinda’s. This lesson will also help students explore character analysis by creatively exploring aspects of Melinda’s character and citing textual evidence.

Materials Needed: Computers, video equipment (phones), art supplies

Strategies to Be Used: Brainstorming, writer’s notebook

PERFORMING

Announcements: N/A

Continuation from Previous Lesson:  N/A

       

Lesson Presentation:

Jenn:  Welcome to class. We are going to jump right into our writing prompt.

        A) Preparing for Learning:  [anticipatory set]

Project Mona Lisa. Prompt: This is the Mona Lisa. In the next few minutes we want you to take your writer’s notebooks and write a narrative describe the character’s emotional state. It can be funny, sad, or happy.

Questions: What insights do we gain when we project our own artistic interpretation onto the original?

        B) Directing the Learning:  [learning activities]

Assignment/Strategy or Skill Development:

A) Directions= We want you to create a piece of art that reflects Melinda’s character and experience in the novel. Using our piece as your model pick something to symbolize her emotional state then create it. You may choose several symbols or focus on one. Then create a visual representation. You can use an visual media: drawing, video, photoshop, whatever you want. Then write a brief reflection (1  page)  citing the passages that inspired your choices and explaining how you used the visual elements to support your idea of Melinda’s character.

              B) Modeling/Examples= Our mentor text of pizza box in trash. (Anderson pg. 14-15, 90)

Question: Is this piece an accurate representation of Melinda’s emotional state? What feelings does this piece prompt?

              C) Guided Practice= N/A, instead we’ll help with the independent practice.

• Brainstorm about Melinda’s emotional state.=
• 2 or 3 as a class
• 3 min individual time
• Brainstorm visual symbols=
• 2 or 3 as a class
• 3 min individual time
• Finding textual evidence=
• 10 minutes to begin finding evidence
• Discussion on how to put it all together

             

              D) Independent Practice (Homework, etc.)= The final project

        C) Reinforcing the Learning: Recapture what needs to be done. Focus on finding Melinda’s voice.

Post-Instruction Reflection:

Did the directions make sense? Did the students understand the assignment? Did they make intentional artistic choices?

Game for Change

https://twinery.org/2/#stories/80b4eaf0-1d8f-2205-da3e-b2bb15b4ac25/play

I'm a little nervous about that link working! I couldn't figure out how to share the game.

For my game I chose to make a commentary about the arts in the lives of children. I am not super passionate about any social issues (judge me if you will), but I really care about people being cultured. I think it is so important to be exposed to a variety of different artistic mediums and to different cultures. It just changes the way you think. However, an emphasis on the arts is receiving less and less funding in schools and less and less emphasis from parents. I wanted to create a game that, in some small way, would show how small experiences with art can have very practical benefits. I read three articles for the creation of this game. Here are the links:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705396837/Family-Arts-Why-children-should-be-exposed-to-the-arts.html?pg=all

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/opinion/sunday/art-makes-you-smart.html?_r=0

http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/33-benefits-of-arts-to-kids

As a teacher I think that Twine could be a very interesting tool to use in the classroom. Before using it, however, I think that I would need to become more familiar with it's inner workings so that I could confidently assist my students. I could see Twine being a useful tool in helping students create an alternate ending to a novel. I could even see Twine being a useful study guide to help students map out the plot of a novel. This particular assignment could be interesting if applied as a character analysis. The students could have to explore a certain issue from the perspective of a certain character.

Round Robin

The kitten sulked in the cart, upset that Mamma Cat had refused to buy him his favorite candy.

The cat thought: "So much for being good. All I wanted was some candy!"  He continued to wonder what went wrong and why his mom didn't reward him. 

The cat went his mom and started to beg. "Please! Please let me have some candy!" He didn't know if he could take much more with out candy.

The little cat cried, whined, screamed and threw a fit until his mom was so fed up that she sent him to bed without any supper (and without any candy).

For my story I chose to use this picture of a cat because I thought it was adorable. I wanted the caption to be something fun that captured the attitude of that little kitten. I also liked the idea of the candy because I have that experience with my own mom many times. I thought that this was an interesting assignment. This is the first time that I wasn't really sure what the purpose of it was. I am not sure what I learned from doing it. I also think that the execution over email was rather difficult. I mean I never received one of the tiny stories. However, I think that if it was done during classroom time it could be done a lot simpler. I think it could be a useful exercise in helping students to learn to be concise. They have only a few sentences to tell a story. This could help students learn what is really important and to choose their subjects carefully. I also think it could be an interesting studying in plot structure. You could talk about how it developed when interrupted by different authors.

Process Piece

https://soundcloud.com/katesfrank/getting-ready-on-a-sunday-morning

I really enjoyed this assignment. It was fun to play with editing software that I am not familiar with. I used iMovie. It was really simple and I was able to figure it out without any problem. For my process I chose to use getting ready in the morning. I am pretty low maintenance and it usually doesn't take me very long to get ready. However, this is a point of contention between one of my roommates and me. She thinks that I need to take more time getting ready so that I can be more feminine, whatever that means. Despite my mental unwillingness to yield I have found that I actually have begun wearing more make up and taking more time, a fact that I blame on having pale winter skin. I chose to examine my morning routine to spend more time thinking about this issue and how it is affecting my everyday life.

As a teacher I think this assignment could be useful to analyze the effect of sound. For example, if we are studying poetry, which can be very aural, I think it would be useful to have the students make a sound interpretation of the poem. It would force them to analyze how the sounds of the words could be portrayed and how the sound affects the meaning. However, for this project you would have to have a school that had many technological resources.

Textual Poaching

For this assignment I wanted to make a statement that I felt actually represented my culture accurately. I don't feel more defined by one culture than the other so I decided to use various texts from the cultures that have most affected me and to remix them by mixing them together. The purpose is to show that I am am where my cultures intersect. I chose six cultures: Italian, Danish, British, Washingtonian, Mormon, and my more immediate family.

I selected the Danish and British cultures because those are my dominant genealogical cultures. Most of my ancestors are from one of those two countries. To represent the Danish side there is an image of Copenhagen, a vintage map of Denmark, and the Danish flag. My British heritage has probably had a greater influence on me because as a teenager I was a complete anglophile and a lot of it has shaped me. So to represent England there is the flag, a picture of London from the first half of the 20th century, and an older picture of the London bridge.

I'm not Italian, but the Italian culture has had a huge impact on my life in the last six years. As a freshman at BYU I began taking Italian classes, as a junior I spent a semester on study abroad in Tuscany, and then I served my mission. The art, language, and people have change me. I represented that change through the inclusion of Italian art and sculpture, a vintage postcard, and a hand gesture.

To represent my culture as a Mormon I chose to include the image of the temple, BYU academy, and the pioneers crossing the plains. All of those things have made me who I am and are the reason I am here. To represent myself as a Washingtonian the whole collage is in the shape of Washington and there is a vintage postcard of Mt. Rainier. To represent my family culture there re old pictures of my grandma and grandpa, my great-grandma (she's my namesake), The Beatles, and Singin' in the Rain. All of these things are very important to my family and play into who we are.

As a teacher I have a difficult time seeing how this assignment would play into the classroom (sorry for the honesty). I feel that many students may not have the resources or skills to complete this assignment. I'm a fairly privileged college student and I felt that my resources weren't adequate. I suppose with some extra instruction and the use of school technology students could make this work, but I don't know if it would be worth the time. However, I think it could be a useful assignment to make students think critically about how media presents its message. In remixing a text they have to understand what the text is saying and how to manipulate that to present a new message. For example, I think students could remix a painting or movie about a text we are reading to show their own reaction to a text. I think of all the Romantic paintings done to illustrate John Keats' poetry and how they could be remixed to be more modern.