Jade and Jessica presented today's lesson on a short one-act play by Arlene Hutton called, I Dream Before I Take the Stand. They kicked off the lesson with a YouTube video entitled, Interrogation or Child Abuse about the verbal abuse that takes place in police interrogations. Check it out....
Mike and Michelle shared their journal entries with the class. The students took a quick five-question quiz before beginning the discussion on the play.
Jade led the whole group discussion on the similarities and differences between the video clip and the play. Krista hadn't realized that the play was a dream sequence, so we talked about that. Samantha brought out the point that it is the prosecuting attorney's job to interrogate in such a way as to extract information. However, it was pointed out that it is verbal abuse in police interrogations to pressure people into confessing to crimes they did not commit.
The rest of the period was spent engaging in a game called Two Truths and a Lie. We worked in groups of 4 each telling our own two truths and a lie and then we chose the best person in the group to go up and try and fool the audience. Mason was in my group and did a good job with his two truths and a lie.
The only suggestion I had for Jade and Jessica for the lesson would be to do a summary of the objectives of the lesson so that students are reminded of what they should walk away with...I call it the gem of the day. All in all, I felt that the students were engaged in the lesson. I know I was.
It was another fun day of videotaping for our TA of the Day Lesson wrapping up Enemy of the People. Rather than do a tedious rehash of the play, Catherine and Amy decided to focus on the theme of Whistle Blowers.
The directions were to research a famous whistleblower and connect it to Enemy of the People.
1. Summarize briefly who this person was and why this person was a whistleblower. Here is an example of one post that Talia did.
2. Compare and contrast this person to the whistleblower from Enemy of the People, Dr. Stockmann.
3. Include a wordle as your graphic that describes the whistleblower you have chosen. Complete this in no less than 150 words (excluding the words on your Wordle) and following the rest of guidelines found in the Week 9 overview.
Peter Buxton was the whistleblower in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. He was an interviewer for the U.S. Public Health Service and after learning that the experiment was extremely unethical he tried to uncover its injustice within the PHS. For six years these attempts failed, so he leaked the story to Jean Heller of the Washington Star, which published the story and led to the termination of the study. The Experiment attempted to understand the course of untreated syphilis based on a clinical study of 399 African American syphilitic farmers in Alabama from 1932 to 1972. The study was so blatantly unethical not only because information and basic medical care was prohibited, when a cure for syphilis became available, its access was denied. “In 1943, the PHS began to administer penicillin to patients with syphilis. Study subjects were excluded.” The aftermath of Buxton’s revelation caused the US to better regulate its ethics practices and has formed the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) and “it also led to federal regulation requiring Institutional Review Boards for protection of human subjects in studies involving human subjects”. Policies such as “informed consent” were adopted as well.
Unlike Dr. Stockman, Peter Buxton was not a doctor. Both Dr. Stockman and Buxton worked in areas of Public Health. They were alike in the way that they saw something happening that was unethical and very dangerous to human lives. They both decided to go against the majority to uncover the injustice and source of harm. Peter Buxton’s news eventually came out the harm was stopped but we do not know what happened in the end with Dr. Stockman’s information. However, their goals were the same. They saw human lives being treated as disposable and tried to shed light on sources of harm and injustice with the hope of ending unnecessary harm.
The dynamic M & M team (Mason and Megan) did their presentation today on Act III of Enemy of the people.
They began with a journal entry with the question:
They divided the class into 5 groups with each group having a different question.
1) Describe what kind of “enemy” Dr. Stockmann believes he is. Who does he believe he is an enemy to, and why? In Act III, how does Dr. Stockmann show his pride at that, even in anger?
2) The definition of “enemy” is in the eyes of the beholder. Identify the different types of enemies in the play (excluding Dr. Stockmann), and compare and contrast what different types there are.
3) The mob, or “herd” mentality throughout the play is reflective of what condition(s) of the masses and political system in the play?
How does one person’s struggle to do the right thing, leave Dr. Stockmann and his family on the losing side of an unfair fight?
(Meaning, how did power and politics influence the situation, and how did the herd mentality occur?)
4) “You are fighting for the truth, and that’s why you are alone. And that makes you strong. We’re the strongest people in the world…and the strong must learn to be lonely (Gwynn, 1062)”
Dissect and explain Stockmann’s speech, describing strength and loneliness being the result/consequence of doing the right thing. Who else in history has been in a similar situation? Include the so-called “good guys” or “bad guys” of history.
5) How may “An Enemy of the People,” have been scandalous when published, and why? What themes or content could have been, or was, shocking or uncharted in Norway (or anywhere else in the world) when Ibsen published in 1882? (It was adapted by Miller in 1950).
(Give examples of conversations or actions in Act III that reflect or play out these themes.)
My group worked on the second question. Ian came up with a definition of "enemy" and we took it from there. Krista, Lisa, Ian, and I had a lively discussion on how everyone in the play was an enemy to someone else. We narrowed down our categories. Krista did a great job with the presentation. Ian had his notes very well organized and even highlighted phrases to help bring out the important points. I love working with these literary laureates.
So many of my literary laureates did a super job on their midterm reflections using technology. The choices were as follows:
Do a midterm course reflection by choosing to do any of the following as the method of delivery and covering the answers to the following questions: 1. What did I learn? What did I do? How did I feel about what I learned, what I did and how I felt about what I learned and did.
1. Create a week by week blog (Weeks 1 - 7) using www.blogger.com (You must provide the link to your blog in the Week 7 drop box). You can use my reflection blog as an example: http://lit2000reflections.blogspot.com/ You must upload a graphic and/or video link for each of the weeks' posts.
2. Create a cartoon book using www.toondoo.com. Your book must have a minimum of twelve pages. Examples of toondoo books are on the website. This creation will prepare you for our comics as literature module.Once you produce your Toondoo, you will be able to get the link and post the link in the drop box.
3. Create a movie using Moviemaker or Imovie of your learning thus far this semester. Your movie must be at least 5 minutes long. Directions for doing a Moviemaker project are in the Week 7 lesson folder.You need to have a headset and microphone to do this project. They can be purchased at Target or Walmart for about $17.00.
4. Create an audio PowerPoint presentation using http://www.jingproject.com/You will need a headset with mike to do this project.You will be limited to doing this reflection in 5 minutes. There is a video tutorial there which shows you how this works. You will upload the project to Screencast, which will provide you with a link to share with others. Put that link in the dropbox.
5. Create a Photostory using Photostory 3 of your midterm reflection. There are instructions for doing a Photostory in the Week 7 lesson folder. You will need a headset with mike to do this project. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/PhotoStory/default.mspx
6. Create 7 different vokis in which you relate what you learned, what you did, and how you felt about it. A voki is a speaking avatar that I use in my course announcements. You only need a cell phone to record with. If you choose to do this voki reflection, you must use your own voice (not the text option that is offered). You get up to one minute of recording time. The combined time of your 7 vokis must be at least 5 minutes. You will drop your voki into the discussion forum in the Week 7 lesson folder (NOT the drop box). You must follow the directions for copying and pasting the voki into the message box very carefully. The code you embed has to be the right one or it will not post. Your vokis will be labeled as follows: Week 1 Reflection, Week 2 Reflection, Week 3 Reflection, etc.
Go to www.voki.com to set up a free account and then you can go to town and create your vokis.
We had a great time in class today with Erica and Emily's hands on characterization lesson. I was assigned to Group 1 with Vincent, Amy, Matt, Francesca, and Stephanie. We got to play with construction paper, scissors, markers, and the internet to create a description of Dr. Stockmann.
As usual, I tried to micro-manage the group giving roles to everyone. We felt we didn't have an artist in the group, but we came up with some creative ideas. I liked all of our ideas. Stephanie became the writer for the brainstorming of the elements of characterization. Francesca and Matt were our artists. Vincent was our internet to-go guy whose job was to find some neat pictures. Amy took charge of putting it all together.
We all presented our parts orally to the group. I was proud of our product.
The one thing I would do differently if I were the instructor would be to reduce the size of our group to make people more accountable...and maybe even assign roles to members of the group.
Emily and Erica were sooooo organized and provided some nice feedback. They circulated throughout the room and make sure people were on task.
I loved this lesson even though my artistic talents leave something to be desired. I am thinking that I always limit myself to what is on a piece of paper. We could have used several pieces of construction paper to make our character. I liked how Emily and Erica presented their product of the character of Petra as the beginning of the feedback session. They needed more time for the feedback session.
Students were introduced to blogging in their online post and were asked to created one test post of three things they learned, three things they did. They were also asked to write about how they felt about what they learned and did.
Here is what Cedric said:
3 Important Things Learned so Far
Think outside the box and you will find Mrs. Simpson and maybe a candy bar.
Wordles are the coolest thing ever. I have tried to put one in all my group projects in all my other classes.
I also learned that poetry is everywhere, even in the school newspaper
3 Activities I liked or disliked.
I love that we interact with each other and have to get in front of the class and speak. It's one my favorite things to do in the class.
I am not a huge Anything Else Cafe fan. I miss points every time because I do not reply to questions that have already been answered. It is helpful though.
Leaving the class to write the poem was a lot of fun. I loved getting out of the room and bouncing ideas off of one another.
My feelings about Intro to Lit:
I am fan of this class because I had an idea of what to expect. Being that I have taken two other courses with Mrs. Simpson. I knew it wasn't going to be a walk in the park, but I also knew that I would enjoy going there. So far I have written poetry, which I haven't done in a couple years and now continuing on my third blog team. It has been a great semester so far and it will be even better with an "A" at the end. The tools and concepts I have learned will definitely pay off throughout my college career.
We all wrote poems today in class. Twenty-four different types of poems were put in a hat and pairs came up and picked a type of poem. These poems ranged from limericks to Senyrus to haikus to ABC poems to name poems. Francesca's partner didn't show up so I got to work with her on a name poem. We chose her name to work on. She and I had a neat process for doing our name poem. We thought of our theme as we were walking to our destination. Once we got there, we brainstormed ideas for nature poems, came up with a flower idea and connected it to childhood.
We went through the revision process 10 minutes before the time limit and changed our general flower idea from daisy to dandelion. Then we incorporated more sensory details.We also alternated the lines. I did the first; she did the second, etc. I would have changed a couple of things about our process. I didn't have the students put the type of poem at the top of the paper. So when I was typing up all of their poems when I got back to the office, I couldn't figure out some of them. The other thing I would have done differently is to have them write out the process they used in coming up with the poem they wrote. I know that Lisa and Talia actually wrote two name poems in the 30 minutes they had to write their poems.
Check out our poem. Francesca came up with that dynamite last line. I think we should submit it to The Mangrove Review and see what happens.
This Wordle, done by Krista H. generated a lot of discussion on the video clip by Dr. Rafay Habib called Islam Against Terrorism: To a Suicide Bomber. The YouTube poem exemplified this week's focus on dramatic poetry.
http://www.wordle.net/
The lesson was done online with three discussion forums of about 8 people in each group. The discussion leaders were told ahead of time that they would have to come up with questions and facilitate the discussion. All three groups did a fantastic job. In addition to the Habib poem, two other dramatic poems were assigned: Thomas Hardy's Ruined Maid and Langston Hughes' Dream Boogie.
Here were some of the questions the Group 1 leader asked on Habib's poem:
1. What effect does seeing and hearing the poet have on the poem and the emotions it elicits? 2. Compare/contrast the tone of Habib's poem and Hardy's poem. 3. Do any stereotypes or prejudices come up when you heard the title or as you listened to the peom? 4.Do you think there could be any consequences (to the poet or to society) from this poem? It is on a sensitive subject!
Here are some answers to #3 and #4 from the students.
To answer question one for RE: Islam. 1. What effect does seeing and hearing the poet have on the poem and the emotions it illicits?
Watching the author of the poem recite it in front of camera for the audience to see and hear definitely charges many emotions. I saw the sadness in his eyes and felt the angst in his voice. This caused me to emphasize with the author. It caused me to understand what he was feeling and want what he was trying to sell. Re: group 1
3. After listening to the poem written by Dr. Rafey Habib it has brought to my attention many other stereotypes that we see on a daily basis. Pretty much every ethnic group has a stereotype. For example when someone thinks of someone Jewish they joke about money, they stereotype that Jew's are cheap. When in reality its just a stereotype because not all Jew's are "cheap". Another stereotype that you will see almost every day is that against African Americans, some people think that because someone is black that they are a gangster or not smart, which is obviously a false judgment.
Re: group 1 9/28/2009 1:53 PM Reply To answer question three for RE: Islam. 3. Do any stereotypes or prejudices come up when you heard the title or as you listened to the poem?
Of course, as soon as the video started. But, to clarify first, I had an uncle that I loved very much die during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Anyways, the stereotypes and the prejudices begin when I read the title. I thought to myself, how could this be true? An Islam against terrorism? Isn’t this what the religion is all about? Yet, after viewing the video, I held no prejudices, I was enlightened.
Re: Re: group 1 9/28/2009 1:59 PM Reply I really appreciate the honesty of your post! We all have prejudices...they enable our survival. I think the distinction i have to keep in the front of my mind is that any kind of extreme brings negative results. Islam does not equate with terrorism, they are fundamentalists. I also like to think of the comparison to Christianity: Nazis are fundamentalist Christians. Most Christians don't agree with their views either. I think the poet is trying to separate the religion of Islam from people who take it to the opposite harmful extreme.
Re: Re: Re: group 1 9/28/2009 2:05 PM Reply I really never thought of it that way. Thank you.
Re: Re: Re: group 1 9/28/2009 2:20 PM Reply SORRY!!! i meant to say the KKK are fundamentalist Christians...not Nazis...my bad:)
Re: Re: Re: group 1 9/28/2009 3:02 PM Reply I am Jewish, and it surprises me sometimes that some people think Jewish people have a prejudice or hatred of German people. I did not even know that anyone thought this until people asked me why I was taking German as my foreign language in high school if I hated Germans. When I said that I had absolutely no hatred for Germans, some people apologized for thinking I was Jewish. By this point I was very confused, and when I told them that I am Jewish, they seemed to have a hard time understanding the concept of a Jewish person not hating Germans. The thing is, before WWII there were a lot of Jews living in Germany. In fact, Yiddish, which is a Jewish language (Hebrew is mainly for religious ceremonies and stuff) is so closely related to German that you can understand someone speaking one language if you know the other.
I can understand Jewish people hating Nazis, but not all Germans were Nazis. Just as some people seem to think that all Muslims must be terrorists, it appears that some people also think that all Germans must be Nazis. I find this a ridiculous notion.
Re: group 1 9/28/2009 1:56 PM Reply To answer question four for RE: Islam.
4.Do you think there could be any consequences (to the poet or to society) from this poem? It is on a sensitive subject!
Yes, I do think that there could be a consequence to both the poet and society. The consequence to the poet could include some type of assassination, considering the people that he is bashing are hostile. Another consequence includes society. This consequence, not necessarily a punishment, could include their opinions being changed.
Re: group 1 9/28/2009 3:07 PM Reply I dont think anyone will kill him for this. If the terrorists kill him, it will only support his words. It would show that his words are true and they wanted to silence him. Like a ripple in a pond, this would cause a change in the opinions and views of many people around the world.
I do agree with you, however, on the point that this poem will have a positive impact on the world.
Re: Re: group 1 9/28/2009 3:13 PM Reply I completely agree. Especially because the poem is aimed at such unstable people that will kill themselves to try to make a point. So chances are a terrorist could bomb his house or try to assassinate the poet.
Re: group 1 9/28/2009 2:04 PM Reply 3. Do any stereotypes or prejudices come up when you heard the title or as you listened to the poem?
When I heard the title I had a gut feeling that I knew what the poem would be about. And as I listened I realized I was correct. I found the poem to be very enlightening. Also, last week we learned about giving background information before the poem, and I thought the fact that the author spoke a little about his thoughts before reciting his poem was really great.
The other dramatic poem set to music that just about everyone enjoyed discussing and listening to was a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks called We Real Cool. They read the poem then watched and listened to this YouTube version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w-j952tOmY
Hearing the poem read aloud brought home the meaning and the tone of the poem to many of the students.
I was tickled pink with all the discussion of the poems and how one connects to the message in a poem.
Would I change anything about two two online lessons? Probably not, except maybe the choice of the poem by Neruda If you forget me. Many of the students didn't understand the theme of the poem. Perhaps that needed some contextualizing before they did their journal entry on it. Check it out and you decide if this was appropriate for a journal entry.
