Kelli Krieger Summative 2007-08
My goals were to develop a new rhetoric unit and to incorporate Jay McTighe's "Understanding by Design" into the literature curriculum. Literature first. My overarching question was "What does great literature teach us about ourselves?" Although Shakespeare was my main focus, this question ultimately guided all of my teaching units. The Shakespeare specific question: "Why do we read Shakespeare?" Of course, the first answer I got when I asked this question was, "Because you make us." I was expecting that, and I countered the students by handing over a doggie comic version of Macbeth that revealed the plot from start to finish. We spent one day reading, discussing and understanding exactly what would happen in Macbeth. By covering the plot completely at the beginning, we were able to focus on the author's craft - how Shakespeare does what he does - over the next several weeks. Some of our activities included: The Importance of Light and Dark, The Macbeth Family Frieze, The Birnam Wood Chant, Staging Macbeth and the Macbeth Wiki. I know that I have been successful due to the depth and quality of student products including wiki entries, written assessments, dramatic re-creations, and classroom discussions. Students were engaged, creative, and thoughtful. They also collaborated in every major activity. This approach has had numerous positive results. For one thing, I'm having a ball with all of these hands on, moving around the room, playing on web 2.0 activities. The students have also enjoyed the learning experience. By demystifying Shakespeare right out of the gate, students feel more in control of the text. The variety of activities also gives students great creative license as well as numerous opportunities to work together.
My student teacher and I also created a new rhetoric unit. We introduced students to the classic elements and definitions of rhetoric. We also took some time to discuss the big man, Aristotle. We used several Peter Elbow writing assignments as well as assignments based off of the Jakobson Model of Communication
and the Rhetorical Discourses. We presented this unit in September and followed it with the college essay unit. The Elbow Assignments Peter Elbow is a Professor Emeritus at UM Amherst. His writing techniques have been around since the early 70's. Elbow's theories work so well because they simultaneously tap into students' creativity and into the major rhetorical elements. The Jakobson Model Roman Jakobson is a Russian linguist. His communication model breaks down the entire communication process. Sweet. 5 Parts of Discourse Aristotle is Aristotle. The daddy of it all. Logos, Ethos, Pathos. How do we persuade; and, how do we detect persuasion? The Rhetoric Unit set the curriculum for the year. The underlying concepts helped students with their college essays, literary analyses, and non-fiction analyses. Writing assignments throughout the year: Elbow Writings CD Review Career Research College Essay Resume/References/Cover Letter War Poem Analysis Story Analysis Creative Writing "The Things We Carry" Literature of Extremity Portfolio The World is Flat Essay Mass Media Analysis Kafka's "Metamorphosis" Analysis Interview Reflection Power Lunch Reflection Two Million Minutes Essay Donor Letters/Thank You Cards
Speaking/Web Assignments: I Think Speech Culture Page Hippo Pages Career Podcast or Literary Videocast eFolio Fiction Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" Selections from: Art Spiegelman's Maus Brian Turner's Here Bullet Bruce Weigl's Song of Napalm Non-Fiction Selections from: Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat Susan J. Douglas' Where the Girls Are Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death Pierre Sorlin's Mass Media Andrew Keen's Cult of the Amateur Scott McLeod Understanding Comics Aristotle Rhetoric Edward Corbett Classic Rhetoric for the Modern Student Mark Bauerlein The Dumbest Generation Articles: "My Wired Youth" NY Magazine "How Mark Zuckerberg Turned Facebook Into the Web's Hottest Platform" Wired "Stumble Upon: The Antithesis of Google?" "Girl Power" Fast Company "First I Twittered, then I Tumbld" "A Centurion's Email" Newsweek "A Death in the Family" Atlantic Monthly "Out of Context" New York Times "Political Affairs" New York Times
Technology iPods Blogs web 2.0 flip Dreamweaver
In addition to implementing a new rhetoric unit I also updated the mass media unit. Last year I focused on teen-directed media while this year my focus was on web 2.0 including wikis, blogs, StumbleUpon, etc. This unit tied in well with the unit on The World is Flat where we focused on: 1. the ubiquitous and instant technology, including web 2.0, that has made the world a smaller, more competitive place and 2. the power shift from former holders of knowledge (clergy, academic institutions, and governments) to the masses. Andrew Keen calls this "the amateur revolution." I also transformed my literary unit from a basic two-week reading of sections of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried into an extensive "Literature of Extremity" unit that required students to examine short stories, poems and articles in various new ways. Some of our themes included: juxtaposition of the grotesque and the mundane; fragmentation of memories and the power of imagery.
Other updates: I added Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” to Communications I added the concept of the quest narrative into the English 11 curriculum. *Please see my eFolio for additional accomplishments.