Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Tuesday, June 11, 2013


Essential Question: What is poetry?


1. Do Now: For those who were disappointed by the lack of rhyme in the haiku and other poetry we looked at yesterday, limericks are at the opposite end of the spectrum. They exist for rhyme. Write out the following limericks providing what you believe to be the proper punctuation
               With sonnets, as well as haiku, tanka, and naga-uta, punctuation may be part of the formula. All the poems that we have looked at this year use punctuation to pace the reader---to have us stop and smell the roses instead of speeding ahead.

* There was a young lady whose chin resembled the point of a pin so she had it made sharp and purchased a harp and played several with that chin.

*There was an old man in a boat who said I’m afloat I’m afloat when they said no uou ain’t he was ready to faint that unhappy old man in a boat.

  1. What illustrations might accompany these limericks?

  1. Try to imitate the form of these limericks by writing your own. Look at the examples given to model. First make a list of common features of all the limericks you see.

First words
Number of lines
Rhythm
Rhyme

  1. In pairs, read any of the limericks aloud, stressing the rhythm and the rhyme. Notice the tone, established by the invariable narrative signal ‘There was...’  

What sort of expectations does a beginning like this set up in the reader/listener? How do the accompanying pictures match the texts?


5. Graffitti

They never taste who always drink;
They always talk, who never think
                                                      Matthew Prior

As charms are nonsense, nonsense is a charm.
                                                      Benjamin Franklin

  1. In trying to answer the essential question: what is poetry? write a verse to the tune of any popular song---alternatively, analyze the lyrics of a song you are particularly fond of and discuss whether they can be called poetry or not, and why.
  2. Exit Ticket: Fill-in the blanks of the following frame poem that we did in class last week. Maybe our discussions have left you with another idea about what “poetry” is or can be?
                        
                               A Poem About a Poem

by ___________________________________

Poetry is ______________________________________________

Poetry is like ___________________________________________

Poetry is about _________________________________________

Poetry is as important as _________________________________

Poetry is as pointless as __________________________________

Poetry means ________________________________________

Poetry is ____________________________________________



Homework: Part of the final will be a 150 word reflective essay. It would hurt if you thought about this before hand and made some notes to bring to class and use during the exam time?     


“Your task is to write a reflective essay about your growth as a reader, writer, speaker, and listener in 150 words or more. Your essay should include examples of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and collaborative (group) strategies you have used this year. You should also explain how those strategies helped you to improve your ability to read and comprehend challenging texts as well as write and present original texts.”

  • Include strategies you have learned this year and how they might be effective 
  • How might you meet new challenges and opportunities as a speaker, listener, and writer?


Monday, June 10, 2013


Essential Question: What is poetry?

I. Do Now: Describe, in writing, some quintessential natural spring occurrence in your experience.  

For example: The apple tree close to my back door is filled with blossoms. There is a bush outside our picture window that bursts with yellow blossoms and within a few days loses them. The asparagus tips emerge from a sunny spot in the garden.

  1. Read: Haiku and Tanka. Read through the poetry as a whole group. Compose your own haiku using the above models. You should begin with the image that wrote about for the do-now. After you have done this, think of some spring or summer images. Try  to create other haiku, tanka, and naga-uta.

haiku: a seventeen syllable poem of three lines (five-seven-five)

tanka: a five-line poem, of which the first and the third lines have five syllables each and the others seven, making a total of thirty one syllables per poem.

naga-uta: long song, 5-7-5-7-5-7-7 (43 syllables or more).

On the first day of spring,
snow falling
from one bough to another
                                         Virginia Brady Young

Snowing...
the dentist
polishes my teeth 
                            Robert Speiss

Yukaze ya                        evening breeze...
mizu aosagi no                  water laps the legs
nagio o utsu                      of the blue heron
                                                   Yosa Buson (1716-1784)

Yanagi chiri                       willow leaves fallen
shimizu kare ishi                clear water flowing
tokoro-dokoro                    one place and another


Tanka 

at the roadside
clear water flowing
willow shade
thinking to rest awhile
have come to a halt
                              Saigyo (1118-1190)

Oh, don’t swat!
the fly rubs hands
rubs feet
                           Kobayashi Issa (1762-1826)

stuck in a vase
clusters of wisteria
blossoms hanging,
in the sick-bed
spring begins to darken
                                    Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)

Modern haiku sometimes ignores the 17 syllable form. It is described as a “bumpy” form.

recently wife died
grocer’s 
stacking greens
stacking onions
husband and daughter
                                     Kawahigashi Hekigoto (1873-1937)

Contemporary haiku:

the flavor
of the salt-pickled daikon
the moon and I
                            Fujimoto Kanseki

buzz
slap 
buzz
        Alan Pizzarelli

a tooth of gold
going out of the dentist’s office
the leaves fall




                     

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Wednesday, June 5, 2013


Essential Question: How have the strategies I have learned this year helped me to be a better reader, writer, speaker, and listener?

Do Now: Part 1: Student Survey (Periods 5,6, & 7) (8 minutes)

Part 2 (8 minutes):

In a notebook entry, think about the play performance you will be presenting next week during our finals day. In addition to showing your polished video presentation to the class and doing a peer review in response to each video, you will write a “metacognitive” essay about your experience with this play project and this year’s curriculum. Yesterday’s and today’s do-now pose questions that might be the core of that writing next week, and you are encouraged to use the answers you have written for these to formulate a better essay next week.

metacognition: the ability to know and be aware of one’s own thought processes; self reflection.

Answer the following:

1. How did you grow or change as a result of our recent play project or any of the other projects that we have worked on this year? Identify several and explain how you might apply that experience to real-life in the future.

2.How have you grown as a speaker, performer, or as a collaborator in a group setting?

3. What future plans do you have for using some of the things that you may have experienced or become better at through this year’s curriculum? 

Example: Through our recent video projects I have learned a lot about using video as a means of expression and sharing. I plan to become better at using some of the tools that I only had time to experiment with or watch others use more effectively than I can now. I plan on making a blog that includes some of my video documentation of different things, including my work on creating an historical ice harvesting event. This included the use of old tools and equipment while demonstrating the individual work involved in this one-time third largest industry of Maine’s past.

II. Last minute checks

  • One copy of your video on more than one group member’s laptop. I have a thumb drive for those who would like to turn in their projects today.
  • There is a list of other things that were on yesterday’s handout that you might review before handing in your video.

III. Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation of Romeo and Juliet (34 or 42 minutes).

While watching the last part of the film you are to identify the use of camera angles and movement, lighting, music, costume and other stylistic devices on the graphic organizer on the back of this handout.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Make-Up Work Opportunities


Directions: This make-up must be approved by the teacher before doing it.The response to one or several of these tasks will have to exhibit some effort in order to receive a passing grade and much effort to receive high grades. There will be a late penalty of ten points attached to this work, as this is work in lieu of missing assignments. Complete sentences and paragraphs are necessary. Do your best work.

1. As was pointed out, and was cinematically portrayed by Zeffirelli a bit amusingly, the loss of both Romeo and Juliet really hinged on one man and a mule. The message sent by Friar Lawrence to Romeo about Juliet’s deception of appearing dead to escape marriage to Paris was fatally delayed by Friar John, a messenger, and his mule. Simply, Balthasar, Romeo’s servant, sees Juliet being put in the Capulet crypt and tells Romeo she is dead. With no message from Friar Lawrence to explain the situation, Juliet appears to be dead to Romeo, and he kills himself at the perceived loss of his young wife.

Write Friar Lawrence’s letter to Romeo ( the one that didn’t get to Romeo on time). Describe the plan to help Romeo and Juliet as the Friar would have written it. 

2.A casting director is responsible for selecting the right person to portray each character in a play or movie interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. Choosing the right actor is a complicated process. It involves finding a person with the right age, personality, looks, speech patterns---even gestures and voice. 
    
    Imagine that you are selecting characters for Romeo and Juliet. Choose two modern-day actors to portray the lovers. Explain why the actors fit the characters in the play.
    You may prepare a poster or chart with pictures of the actors. Then on this chart, list the traits shared by the actors and the characters in the play.

3. Friar Lawrence could be considered responsible in some way for the deaths of these two teenagers, Romeo and Juliet. As a legal aide for the firm of Joe Borenstein Law Offices (located in Verona, Maine) you have been given the job of collecting evidence in a criminal trial and civil suit against Friar Lawrence. 

  • Come up with a list of witnesses that would offer incriminating evidence against the Friar. Why would they serve your case?

  • What testimony could they give that would serve in a case against him proving that he was responsible for the deaths of these two minors.

4. For the music lovers and afficianados among us. Many composers have been inspired by the story of Romeo and Juliet. For example, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, and Gounod wrote music based on Shakespeare’s play. Leonard Bernstein, a 20th century American composer and famous conductor of the New York Philharmonic for 40 years, wrote the score of that 1961 classic West Side Story, that we saw part of in the auditorium. When that broadway show was made and subsequently made into a film that was considered  an updated version of the play.
  
    Find at least two musical pieces based on Romeo and Juliet. In writing, explain how the music matches the events and mood of the play. Explain the feelings and emotions the music creates for the listener. If possible, arrange to play some of the music for your classmates.

5. Design costumes for the actors. Do research for information on the kind of clothing worn by men and women during the 1300s in Italy. From authentic sketches and descriptions, draw models of dress during that period. You can make illustrations or even paper doll replicas of people in different costumes. Explain these costumes thoroughly in writing. 

6. Imagine you are a reporter for the daily newspaper Verona Daily News. It is the morning after Romeo and Juliet’s double suicide. Your task is to cover their tragic deaths in a three-paragraph news story. 

    The following is a model for organizing your report:

     First paragraph: Begin your article with a brief firsthand report of the actual events. What happened? Where? When? To Whom? How? Mention only the most important facts.

     Second paragraph: Give more details about the event. Who discovered the bodies? What did that person observe? Who told the authorities? What steps have the authorities taken to investigate the deaths?

      Third paragraph: What information has been gathered about the two who died? What led up to the deaths? Who are the survivors?

       Be sure to provide a striking headline for your news story.

7.Write a three-paragraph essay based on one of the topics below. Come up with an opinion and a set of ideas to present. Select the topics you you feel strongly about.

Follow this design or form for your essay.
First paragraph: State your feeling or opinion. (This is your central idea or your thesis). Be sure to give the name of the play and its author in this paragraph. Make your introduction lively so that your reader will want to continue. This will be a short paragraph, probably about three or four sentences.

Second paragraph: Give some proof or examples that support your opinion. This paragraph should be about five or six sentences long.

Third paragraph: Now summarize your argument and restate your thesis in a strong and new way. This paragraph should be four sentences long.

Topics:
a. The Prince is concerned with the five tragic deaths of young people in Verona. It is his job top decide the fates of the people involved. He says some will be pardoned while others will be punished. Taking on the role of the Prince, decide who gets pardoned and why and who gets punished and why for the deaths. Explain how you will sentence each person. Should the offender be punished or pardoned?  
b. Choose one of these themes that have been associated with Romeo and Juliet and explain what you learned about the topic from the play. Use evidence from the play to explain your ideas.
  • the power of love
  • the importance of acting with caution and reason
  • the effects of fate or chance
  • the effects of prejudice and bigotry




   

Monday, June 3, 2013

Monday, June 3, 2013


Essential Question: What are the essential features of an effective drama and/or dramatic performance?

Read the following thoroughly:

I. Do Now (8 minutes): Write your response to the do-now and your subsequent notebook entry on the back of this handout. Notebook Entry: Identify and explain the following. Specific details are best. Complete sentences are necessary.

1. Identify and explain four ways we have examined drama, Romeo and Juliet, this trimester.


2. Identify and explain four ways in which examining several interpretations of the same literary work, a play, might influence our own present project of performing a play and videotaping it.


II. Group Work: Embedded Assessment: Play Performance


The teacher will be circulating to each group today and request to see some of your videotaped product.

  1. You should be finishing up your videotaping of your play performance at this point.
  2. In editing your video, you should use music, color saturation, instant replay?, accelerated action or slowed down motion, drop in backgrounds and settings, and other tools to make your production more entertaining. 
  3. Remember that your individual grade will be evaluated from the quality of your notebook and your performance.
  4. You should create a notebook entry today and date it. You are documenting what you are doing to complete the play product as well as identifying things that you anticipate doing. The submitted “notebook entries” will be individually graded using the homework/class work rubric and averaged together to arrive at a numerical grade, so do quality work to boost that grade (for example, for today’s do-now).
  5. Write your name, theater company name, and date on all notebook entries.
  6. Always consider your behavior when you are working outside the classroom. Do not interrupt or disrupt other classes. You are working on your projects and not fooling around, as there will be less class time to work on these this week.
  7. Please use your time wisely.


Homework: You are working on this group project and individual notebooks for a Thursday, June 6 deadline. 6th Period has until Friday, June 7th.  


Friday, May 31, 2013

Rubric Descriptors for the Embedded Assessment for Unit 4



Embedded Assessment: Performing a Scene(s) from a Play

This summative project includes three grades that will be considered as test grades.

They include: The Performance (Videotaped), a Staging Notebook: Actor’s, Dramaturge’s, Director’s, or Cinematographer’s Notebook, and a Reflective Piece of Writing that will be completed on the day of the final for English 9.

The following are additional descriptors for the rubric ( available as a handout and on the class blog) for this final summative project:

To qualify within the numerical grade range of 93-100, students must: 

  • Play an active role in the performance. The student performed convincingly in their role or roles. The student made use of facial and hand gestures as well as appropriate body language making their role obvious to the audience. No scripts were visible in the video recording, and it was obvious that this student knew their lines. Appropriate costumes and props were used. The entire performance revealed that this student was in character and that the performance was planned rather than impromptu. This student gave a full contribution to the final product. There is an excellent use of cinematic techniques, editing, and iMovie tools in the final product.

To qualify within the numerical grade range of 85-92, students must:

  • Play an active role in the performance.Student gave a good performance. It was usually obvious which character the student played. The student had infrequent mistakes in their delivery of lines from a script. The student seemed out of character at times. These minor inconsistencies in the performance made for a few lapses in the entertainment value of the play. A full effort is not evident; more effort could have been given. The student had appropriate costumes for the performance, but these were in no way a full effort to create something beyond an ordinary appearance. The performance was sometimes seemingly unplanned, but captured the scenario of the original play. The student and his group evidence a good use of cinematic techniques, edition, and iMovie tools in the final product.

To qualify within the numerical grade range of 77-84, students must: 

  • This student was not seen as a lead actor or character in the group or on screen. This student put only a fair effort into their performance. The audience is not always convinced that this student is the character in the play. This student missed, forgot, or messed up on a number of lines. This student occasionally acted inappropriate for his or her character. This performance effected the entertainment value of the play. Some effort is evident, but much more could have been put into this performance, i.e, scripting, scenery choice, costumes, use of particular choices of lighting and other iMovie tools and cinematic techniques in the final product.

To qualify within the numerical grade range of 70-76, students have:

  • Exhibited confusion in the performance of their role. This student obviously used a script and was not very familiar with it. There were instances of skipping lines, or, sometimes, the lines were incomprehensible to the audience. This student broke from his or her role often and made for a performance of little entertainment value. There was little use of cinematic techniques, editing, or iMovie tools in the final product.

To qualify within the numerical grade range of 60-69, students have: 

  • This student showed very little effort. This student used a script exclusively. This student did not have any costume or props. This student showed no knowledge of the play. This performance was not entertaining. There was no use of any of the essential features of a play performance or a videotaped interpretation of the original play.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Tim and the People's Video of US Govt.


Physical Science Documentary



Honors Challenge Video Project by Brian Awalt, Hailey Craig, Tyler Hardwick, and  Dakota Chipman

May 30/31, 2013 Block Days


Essential Question: What are the essential features of an effective drama and/or dramatic performance?

Read the following thoroughly:

Do Now: As there are a number of students who owe assignments from this last trimester, there will be an opportunity in class to make-up several assignments. Below are two quizzes on recent materials; these quiz you on aspects of Unit 4. Please put all of this make-up work on loose leaf paper. Staple pages together, if you need more than one sheet for your response. Write your name, date, and “Make-Up Work” on each sheet you submit. 

Quiz 1 (Each quiz is equivalent to two in-class/ homework assignments):

We have been exploring the essential question above for some weeks. The idea is that every lesson builds upon our knowledge so that we are now more capable of answering this question than we were when we began Unit 4.

In a paragraph of four or more sentences answer this essential question referencing some of the learning strategies we have used and some specific examples from the play interpretations we have close read in order to specifically understand the features of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Quiz 2
1. Name and explain what each of your play performance group members are responsible for doing on this project.

2. Explain what is unique about your play performance/ video of a scene(s) from Romeo and Juliet.

3. Identify and explain what knowledge from the Springboard curriculum is going into your play performance. You might identify some of the learning strategies we have used, research we have done together or you have done on your own, and your understanding of style devices, cinematic techniques...etc.

Quiz 3
Part of acting a part is knowing your character. Often we ask what motivates a character to do the things that they do in a performance. Explain in a paragraph for each what the following characters do and why? Read the example and model your response to the following characters after it. 
Example: Lady Capulet is motivated by her love for her only child Juliet. She wants her to marry someone who can provide for her and give her status. She wants Juliet to marry Paris. She believes that Juliet is too young to make the decision of marriage for herself. 

  1. Friar Lawrence
  2. Lord Capulet
Group Work: Embedded Assessment: Play Performance

  1. You should rehearse your scenes several times before you consider videotaping.
  2. Remember that your individual grade will be largely evaluated from the quality of your notebook.
  3. You should create a notebook entry today and date it. You are documenting what you are doing to complete the play product as well as identifying things that you anticipate doing.
  4. Write your name, theater company name, and date on all notebook entries.
  5. Always consider your behavior when you are working outside the classroom. Do not interrupt or disrupt other classes. You are working on your projects and not fooling around. For those not following this direction and requirement for the project group work, they will be penalized.
  6. Please use your time wisely.


Homework: You are working on this group project and individual notebooks for a Thursday, June 6 deadline. 6th Period has until Friday, June 7th.   

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Voyage of Mr. McKechnie's Science Class



Honors Challenge English Video Project by Lukas Firestone, Cooper Holmes,  Julia Zavaleta,
Gunnar Goodrich, & Cathy Nguyen.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013


Essential Question: What are the essential features of an effective drama and/or dramatic performance?

I. Do Now (8 minutes): Think about our discussions of interpretations and style in film and literature. Whether it be Tim Burton, Franco Zeffirelli, or Baz Luhrmann, particular choices are made regarding characterization, lighting, setting, and other devices/techniques in films and literature. Identify what is unique about your group’s interpretation of your scene(s) from Romeo and Juliet? How far have you distanced yourself from the original?

  • Your response to this “do-now” should evidence eight minutes worth of writing. 

II. In Class (10 minutes ): Each group member is responsible for a “notebook” for the final project.

  • This should consist of each student’s response to a series of questions or tasks posed in class or as homework.

  • As your first task today, please gather all your responses together that you have completed. Staple these together with today’s do-now. Hand these in at the emnd of class.

III. Notebooks (12 minutes) Staple your responses to the following set of questions for your role to your “notebook.” You can collaborate on these with your group. Date it.

Director’s Notebook:

  • What does a director do? What are you doing as the director?

  • What did your group accomplish so far? What will you do the rest of this week?

  • What lighting or sound effects will you choose for your videotaped scene? Have you thought about a sound track? Which songs?

  • Summarize your plan for the lighting of your scene. What “saturation” or “color” choices can you make with the iMovie tools?

Cinematographer’s Notebook:

  • Are you using title/cast/credits pages in your video product? What will those look like?

  • What problems might you encounter with videoing this scene? How will you solve these problems?

  • Who will make the editing choices? What editing do you anticipate?

  • When do you anticipate videotaping your scene(s)?

  1. Actor’s Notebook

  • Has your group read through your scene(s) from the script your group has prepared?

  • How has your group solved the problem of having three or four people to perform in a scene with more people than that required?

  • In addition to speaking lines, we have talked about non-verbal language. What are some of the notes or instructions you have made in the script in order that the actors can act on cue?

  • Although you may be setting your scene in the modern day, what costume choices have you made, and why?

  1. Dramaturge’s Notebook 

  • What research have you done for this play performance?

  • Make sure you have some type of bibliography of the sources for the information you have researched.

  • How have you solved the problem of getting everyone in your group to participate in the project?

  • Since you need props and costumes for this project, where are they and what are they?

  1. In Class Group Work (30 minutes)

Exit Ticket: What do you plan on accomplishing in class tomorrow?

Homework: The final project for periods 3,5, & 7 is due Thursday, June 6. For period 6, it is due Friday, June 7. You are to put it on a thumb drive and hand it to the teacher so that he can download it into his computer.