Tim

Tim

//I thought of you when I came cross this [|English teacher's site]. Check it out.// cr

My Final Reflection Paper on a wiki page as word document

Conversations about teaching always seem to involve anxiety and joy in perhaps equal proportions. What a relief to discover that most of us feel like we are groping around in the dark to some degree. And yet, we take courses like this one to inject some sense of craft and control into what we do. Enough about we. I am here to get some tools in my box to help struggling students learn and feel engaged. After a year in the classroom, this is where I fall shortest. How will I create points of entry for kids who look at it all and see an impregnable fortress whose walls may not even be worth trying to scale.

Things about me: Born in Bennington Vermont to flatlander parents. Raised in Middlebury, MUHS B.A. in Theater from Hampshire College M.A. in English from UVM

Teaching: Last year at St. Johnsbury Academy, Vermont Next Year, Gann Academy, Waltham, Massechusetts Me and Ginger Things I like: Charles Dickens on my iPod in the car, cherry pie, running, Vermont in the summer, maple creamies, spiritual questions, languages,

What I'm thinking about for a project for the class Unit Plan for a 9th grade English class, incorporating differentiation for certain and probably an element of technology, though that's less clear. Present ideas would be a paragraph unit, finding multiple pathways to teach the foundations of a good paragraph--something we could build on throughout the year. I'm also thinking of an introductory unit that would get students thinking about what goes into a story. What makes a good one? What do stories do for us? Here I would love to bring in an element of recording and producing to tap the oral culture that the kids are coming from. Ideally they would begin to think critically (and appreciatively) about the story telling craft and the skills they and their families have innate to them. We would move from listening and appreciating to building skills and creating our own stories.

Let's start at the end, where I'm loath to start but must: //*//**//Student will create original Podcasts using Audacity, incorporating at least 3 audio sources, edited together to form a coherent, **engaging** whole.
 * Learning Objectives for this Unit
 * Student will identify i__n sidebar commentary__ 3 or more features of an engaging story, such as suspense, an engaging beginning, repeated themes or motifs, a sense of surprise, etc.
 * Student will **demonstrate understanding of** the importance of stories in creating community and worldview **by insightfully reflecting in writing** **on the role of stories in his/her own family.**
 * Student will **demonstrate understanding of narrative structure by** underlining and labeling the parts of the narrative arc i__n his/her own podcast script.__
 * Student will __demonstrate an understanding of the concept of annotation by correctly__ annotating visual and audio texts
 * Student will be able to **design a Flickr page with photographs that are annotated to provide thoughtful reflection on a family member and family relationships**
 * Student will be able to write a short reflective essay **that articulates at least three specific features of good storytelling and applies these to the student's own family experience.**//

__I've played around with some of your objectives and refrained from playing around with others. Can you spot the ones that need sharpening? Can you sharpen them so as to clarify what you are really looking for here?__

-Original Podcast of a family story with commentary and music -Short reflective essay (2-3 pages)
 * Common Culminating Assessments**

What role do stories play in the life of our culture and our families? What makes a good story? How does recorded sound work as a storytelling medium? How do pictures tell stories? How does family and community create each of our identities?
 * Essential Questions?**

A very confusing unit map I've made.

Given that the Unit ends with an original podcast and a reflective essay and that I hope students will walk away with a personal sense of what stories are in their lives, I'm looking for a "Hook" that will raise questions about story maybe this: I don't think I'm a very good story teller but I may be a good bad storyteller. Maybe I could tell a really awful, dull unengaging story that violates as many rules of good storytelling that I can think of. Then I could solicit feedback from the students. Hopefully someone will be bold enough to note that it was a badly told story. I'd solicit some specifics about what didn't work. Then maybe we could start working on restructuring the story while also distilling and recording some principles of good storytelling.
 * Thoughts on a Hook:**

All good thoughts. Ever thought about using some of the stories the Logger tells as a vehicle for identifying the parts you are looking for? cr

Hey Tim, I really like your hook idea. I think it has the potential to work brilliantly, just make it REALLY bad. They will get the hint pretty quickly. I was thinking about something a bit off of this specific topic. One of your essential questions is: How do pictures tell stories? You could include the concept of picture books to tell stories. I do something like this with the Story of the Three Little Pigs. I have the students write down their own version of the three little pigs (preknowledge), compare their stories with a small group, find commonalities and differences, and report out. Then I read them "The true story of the Three Little Pigs", which was a children's book written from the perspective of the wolf. They pull away with the idea that perspective is a really important aspect to a story and plays a role in many other areas. Just a brainstorm for you... take it, throw it away... Tara Some story resources: http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/99ways.asp Scroll down and check out 84 and 80 http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/04/ode_how_to_tell.html This guy is talking about stories in the advertisers sense, but he does some useful distilling of principles of story craft.

Intro/ Hook: Bad Story Ask for feedback: Tease out some principles from students prior knowledge about good story principles, Have students write them on big paper. Quickwrite on a good storyteller in your life
 * Sequence of Activities:**

Audio File Note Grid
 * Student Materials:**