Standards-Based Outcomes (MDE):
English Language Arts:
I. Meaning and Communication
Content Standard I, 2: All students will demonstrate the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs, and compositions.
3. Plan, draft, revise, and edit their texts, and analyze and critique the texts of others in such areas as purpose, effectiveness, cohesion, and creativity.
III. Literature
Content Standard III, 5: All students will read and analyze a wide variety of classic and contemporary literature and other texts to seek information, ideas, enjoyment, and understanding of their individuality, our common heritage and common humanity, and the rich diversity in our society.
1. Select, read, listen to, view, and respond thoughtfully to both classic and contemporary texts recognized for quality and literary merit.
3. Analyze how the tensions among characters, communities, themes, and issues in literature and other texts reflect the substance of the human experience.
VII. Depth of Understanding
Content Standard VII, 9: All students will demonstrate understanding of the complexity of enduring issues and recurring problems by making connections and generating themes within and across texts.
1. Analyze and reflect on universal themes and substantive issues from oral, visual, and written texts. Examples include human interaction with the environment, conflict and change, relationships with others, and self- discovery.
VIII. Ideas in Action
Content Standard VIII, 10: All students will apply knowledge, ideas, and issues, drawn from texts to their lives and the lives of others.
1. Use themes and central ideas in literature and other texts to generate solutions to problems and formulate perspectives on issues in their own lives.
Prior Knowledge:
- Students can explain the components of the writing process: plan, draft, revise, and edit.
- Students can explain the requirements as they are listed on the rubric they have used all semester.
- Students have read, viewed, and studied both Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story.
- Students can analyze elements such as theme, plot, conflict, and characterization in both dramas.
- Students know how to use the computer and a variety of programs such as ClarisWorks and Book Shelf ‘98.
Cue Set:
After reading the dramas Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story, the students as a group compare and contrast each play.
Best Shot Instruction:
- Using the original graphic organizers developed for each drama with the software Inspiration, the teacher adds student responses during the discussion to each map. Copies are made for the entire class.
- After examining the graphic organizers for each drama, the teacher asks, “Why are Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story part of the required curriculum when both were written so many years ago?”
- The literary term “universality” is presented as a concept that can be applied to both dramas. Discussion ensues as to the possible universal themes of the dramas. The following questions are posed as prompts.
1) What is the author’s purpose?
2) What are we, the readers, supposed to learn from these characters? What lessons did they teach us?
How are these lessons applicable to our society today?
3) What are some common problems we see in our world that are similar to the main conflicts present in both dramas?
What are some solutions?
- The project is then assigned to the class. The requirements are for each student to develop a six page booklet using the software Media Weaver and then present it later before the class. The left front cover must include a picture imported from the software’s library as well as a quote from one of the two dramas. The right front cover, the title page, must contain a selection of music imported from the music library as well as the student’s name and the title of his/her thematic analysis. Pages three and four of the booklet must contain a five paragraph analysis of the themes and their application to the world today. Pages five and six must contain an advertisement campaign that displays one of the solutions to the classic conflicts in the dramas.
- Students then decide on one or two themes which will be the focus of their analyses and develop thesis statements. Using the texts, they find quotes which support their theses and begin to construct their rough drafts. Included in the conclusions of the essays are discussions of how one might apply these lessons to today’s society and what solutions one might attempt in order to solve similar problems.
- Students work in the computer lab for five days composing their essay booklets. Famous quotations are researched and compiled for use as topic sentences and punchlines for the beginnings and endings of the essays. Quotations can be found using the software, Bookshelf 98. These could also be used on the front left cover of their booklets or for their advertisements and solutions on pages five and six. Other music and photographs could also be imported from Media Weaver to enhance pages five and six.
- Students work with at least two different peer-editors as they revise and edit their papers. Self-edit and peer-edit rubrics are used for this part of the process. ClarisWorks or another word processing program is used along with its spellcheck and thesaurus features. The test is then imported to the Media Weaver pages three and four of their booklets. Their projects are saved on their disks.
- The classroom computer and large T.V. monitor are used when the students present their booklets to the class.
Reteaching and Enrichment:
Students are encouraged to have their booklets critiqued by the class for additional feedback.
Review and Closure:
Students’ work goes into their classroom writing portfolios. Focus areas or writing goals to be addressed in the next assignment are identified and included.
Assessment:
A. Formative Assessment
I. Formative Assessment
- Teacher Observations:
- Students are better able to organize their papers before writing their rough drafts. They have their main ideas and supporting references already chosen.
- Students are more motivated and try to add sophistication to their writing with the use of the multi media software.
- Student Self Assessment:
- Students feel that the graphic organizer helps them to visually see the many themes on which they can write. Students also feel that it helps them to make connections between different ideas.
- Students enjoy putting their information into booklets using the multi media software.
II. Summative Assessment
- The brainstormed sheet, rough draft, and thesis statement are evaluated.
- The Self-Edit and Peer Editing Sheets are evaluated for use by the student in this project.
- The scoring guide for the MEAP Writing Assessment is used for the student’s final draft.
