4-10-14

Multi-cultural Books

Agenda:Books talks (multicultural)Genre review w/additional book talksAdditional work on unit plan and minilessonFollow up on formal paper

BOOK TALKS

“To understand any writing, we have to know what its genre is, and we have to know how that genre works.”

Prof. Bart Ehrman, Dept. of Religious Studies, UNC

Musical genres:ClassicalPopRockHip-hopCountryJazzBig BandWorldFolkSoundtracksReggaeSka…

YA lit genres:HistoricalContemporary realisticFantasyScience fictionGraphic novel (???)Multi-culturalAdventureRomanceParanormal romanceSportsHorrorNonfiction…

“Composition” genres:ExpositionDescriptionNarrationPersuasionSummaryAnalysisResearch paperLetters *business letter *friendly letter *“bad news” letter“Essay question” response…

Genre Review:

Contemporary Realistic Fiction

•a.k.a. “problem novels”

•characters from lower-class families

•settings less than idyllic; often harsh

•language colloquial (or lower)

•vicarious experience of bad situations rather than models of good ones

Issue: What’s the proper role of school? (to offer “good” models only?)

Romanticism

•counterbalance to realism (happy endings)

•generally involves a quest/leaving home

•protagonist undergoes trials, but prevails

•extreme sufferings (nightmare quality)

•unlikely successes (happy daydream quality)

Adventure, Mystery, Horror, Humor

Generally more for pleasure than for intellectual growth

A Good Adventure Story Has…•a likable protagonist

with whom readers can identify

•an adventure in which readers can place themselves

•efficient characterization

•a setting that doesn’t get in the way of the

story

•action that draws the reader quickly

into the plot

Mysteries (sub-genres)

•Amateur detective

•Cozy mystery

•Puzzle

•Thriller

•Private eye

•Police procedural

Scary, Scary/Funny, Funny

Scary elements:

•haunted house

•curse

•darkness

•rituals

•protaganist initially oblivous to evil

Humorous elements:

•ambiguity

•exaggeration

•incongruity

•irony

•surprise

•word play

Historical Fiction

•Setting that is integral to the story

•Authentic rendition of time, place & people

•Believable characters with whom reader can identify

•References to well-known people or events

•Evidence that, even across time, people face similar problems and have similar emotions

•In short, the story lets the reader “live” in another time and place, at least for a while

Learning history through fiction & nonfiction

Fantasy & Science Fiction

- includes rites of passage

- expresses a desire to accomplish a goal fraught with difficulty & danger, and seemingly doomed to failure

Quest

- may include external manifestations of internal struggles

- may occur amid great turmoil

Lesson Plan (for next week)

Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May

Year-long Plan (APS1)

Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May

Unit Plan (APS2-3)

Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May

Lesson Plan

Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May

Minilesson

American Lit

Persuasion: Letter from Birmingham Jail

Understanding Audience

Writer/Audience relations

American Lit class, Black History Month:

Study “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as key document in 12-day unit on persuasion

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First week: “Rhetoric/persuasion” lecture; study sample texts and speeches; practice analyzing and writing persuasive text;, begin reading YA novels (civil rights era)

Second week: Watch/read/analyze “I Have a Dream” speech; discuss novels (focus: different perspectives about civil rights movement and MLK in particular); lecture on “audience”; analyze texts for clues to target audience or multiple audiences; practice writing for different audiences; begin targeted analysis of “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

Third week: Monday – presentation of analytical papers Tuesday – written test on persuasion; SSR with other YA novels

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.Writing.11-12.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

American Lit class, Black History Month:

Study “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as key document in 12-day unit on persuasion

Mon

Tue

sW

edT

hur

Fri

Mon

Tue

sW

edT

hur

Fri

Mon

Tue

s

In groups of 3-4, read opening paragraphs of selected persuasive pieces. (Each group has a different text.) Identify specific words or phrases that identify the audience or that give clues about characteristics of the audience. Write down each word or phrase, then identify or describe the audience characteristic.

Each group reads aloud their text, then lists on the board the “clue” words/phrases and the audience descriptors.

Each group draws a slip of paper with a target audience. Only group members see the paper.

Each group collaboratively writes a letter or memo to the target audience. Goal: persuade the audience to sanction Senior Skip Day the day of prom.

Each group reads its message aloud. Other class members rate its effectiveness for the target audience.

To let you "test drive" a tiny piece of the unit before turning it in, and to give you a little practice using the detailed lesson plan that you will need to use during student teaching, you will present a minilesson in class on April 10. You will complete the entire lesson plan for a 90-minute class, but you will teach only a piece of the lesson, maybe 15 minutes in duration. The lesson will be ungraded, but I will provide feedback to help you make adjustments as you work on the unit.

Create a unit.

Complete the detailed lesson plan for one day.

Turn in the lesson plan for feedback.

Teach a 15- to 20-minute segment of the lesson (as if we were students in the target class).

Questions?

“Composition” genres:ExpositionDescriptionNarrationPersuasionSummaryAnalysisResearch paperLetters *business letter *friendly letter *“bad news” letter“Essay question” response…

About the formal papers… Always start with the instructions:

As long as your paper relates somehow to YA Lit, you have a great degree of latitude with the specific content; the point is for you to learn more about some aspect of YA Lit that is of interest to you, and to share that knowledge with the rest of the class. … The paper is "formal" in the sense that it should be appropriate for publication in a professional journal. Write your paper "for" a specific journal, following the publication guidelines for that journal. (Note: Choose a publication that solicits manuscripts of at least 800 words in length.)

Genre: Journal article

Conventions:

Topic of interest to teachers

MLA or APA format

Usually formal tone – though some publications allow a more informal, colleague-to-colleague tone

Informative title

Standard intro-body-conclusion

Visuals (graphs, charts, images) if helpful

Claims are supported with credible evidence

“Credible” evidence usually means other scholarly sources

Next week (really!):

Book Talk #7 (multi-cultural)

Teach a minilesson from you unit

April 24:

Book Talk #8 (humor, sports, adventure, romance)

In-class description of unit

Unit plan due (on wiki)