Title: ​
Language Takes Action Length of Course:​
Full Year (2 semesters; 3 trimesters; 4 quarters) Subject Area - Discipline:​
English (“b”) CTE Sector:​
Arts, Media, and Entertainment CTE Pathway:​
Performing Arts Grade Level: ​
11 Course Content: th​
In this 11​
grade course, LANGUAGE TAKES ACTION, the students move outside of themselves and into the world around them. Students ultimately create documentary films built on scientific, political, cultural, and environmental issues that concern them. To this end, students explore and analyze fiction and non-fiction film and literature that were composed with the purpose of informing and/or effecting change. Students develop and refine the following language skills throughout this course: analysis, interviewing, researching using primary and secondary sources, non-fiction writing formulas, attribution, coherence, sequencing and audience awareness. Students will also learn pre-production, production, and post-production film techniques per industry standards. These include scriptwriting and formatting, storyboarding, production scheduling, filming, equipment use and editing. Through a process of deconstruction and analysis, students learn the importance of the “screen” and its function in our society. In their culminating project, they demonstrate their abilities to communicate with and move an audience through student- created documentaries. Students understand how language functions in the context of their documentary and apply the appropriate style to their reading, writing, and film. They draw conclusions about the effectiveness of informal and formal productions and make creative, aesthetic judgments as they research, design, perform in, and film their documentaries. This final, culminating project and the various preparatory projects provide students with the basic building blocks for several journalistic careers including a career in documentary film making or for higher-level learning in these areas. This is an English 11/Performing Arts integrated course designed to be taught by team teachers or by concurrent enrollment in ​
Language Takes Action​
and ​
Film Production. Either way, the two teachers work in conjunction to align course work. Unit 1: Non-fiction and Journalistic Models Essential Questions: How does the story teller affect change? How does the filmmaker manipulate the story? What moves an audience to action? Students examine several genres of non-fiction writing including news stories, editorials, and non-fiction essays in order to understand how incidents are interpreted as stories and presented as fact in contemporary sources including newspapers, magazines, and essays. The purpose of this unit is to introduce students to basic non-fiction writing techniques and standards, provide them with an opportunity to practice and develop these skills which are requisite for their final, culminating documentary project. Specific focus is on how writers structure and develop these specific and varied genres. Through several writing assignments, students work toward mastery of basic non-fiction writing skills: interviewing, inverted-pyramid writing, editorial writing, development of claims, transitioning, finding an angle, attributing primary sources, choosing an appropriate lead (journalistic introduction), sequencing, and editing. A central assignment for this unit is a Mock Press Conference, which requires students to use many of the aforementioned skills in the simulated position of a journalist. Students demonstrate their ability to create within prescribed time constraints a well-developed, organized news article based on their participation in a Mock Press Conference. After completing the Mock Press Conferences, students take their skills a step further and create a Mock Newsworthy Incident. Students here demonstrate their performance and filming skills learned in their concurrent technology class. They create a real-life scenario including costumes, blocking, setting (backdrop) and props, as well as memory and acting skills. Student reporters arrive on the scene and are charged with evaluating the scene, determining what happened, asking appropriate questions, and finally, writing the story. To examine nonfiction writing beyond the journalistic model and allow students to comprehend and evaluate complex texts as well as develop respect for and understanding of varying viewpoints, students analyze various genres that are thematically connected using the ​
Norton Reader​
, including essays, persuasive pieces and articles. Students identify specific strategies writers use to effect change and convince an audience to adopt their opinions and move them to action. Chosen excerpts should be contemporary “hot topic” issues that serve to increase student awareness of their world, and to develop them into well-informed, thoughtful readers and citizens. Their exposure to various viewpoints and strategies provide insight and ideas for their documentary projects. To provide students with an opportunity to expand their literary skills and compel them to analyze and defend authorial purpose, technique, and effect, they write an academic paper comparing and contrasting two different writers’ stance on the same subject. As ancillary outside reading, students read ​
Boys on the Bus​
by Timothy Crouse, a high-interest, nonfiction account of the press corps experience as they followed the1972 presidential campaigns of Richard Nixon and George McGovern. Concurrent Unit I – film production --Note: the nature of this portion of the course will require rotation of the students from one practice/skill to another. All students will participate in all activities sometime throughout the unit. Using camera, microphone, lights, and editing: In preparation for the filming of the “Mock Press Conference” and the “Mock Newsworthy Incident,” the students read and study theory in the textbook ​
Video: Digital Communication and Production. ​
They demonstrate understanding through practicing the use of camera, microphone, and lights. Their interviewing skills will be reinforced through a series of exercises that showcase purpose, focus, organization, and development of appropriate questions and follow-up. In class, students interview each other, using cameras, tripods, microphones and lights, practicing recording questions and answers on and off camera. They begin to demonstrate understanding of the importance of microphone placement and use as they experiment with different microphones (unidirectional, shotgun, wireless) and different positions of the microphone, including using the boom as an extension. Recording footage and choosing appropriate backgrounds are essential elements of filmmaking. As the students practice these skills, they also begin work with the recording of the voiceover and sound and lighting (front, contrast, backlight, lighting background, and recording in front of the green screen) for creating the best visual effect for mood. For editing an interview, it is very important that the student learn and practice the technique of extracting the audio track from the video track. Students apply special effects like transitions, subtitles, color correction, and the “Ken Burns” effect. In order to demonstrate mastery of these skills the students interview each other, recording and editing 60 seconds projects. Now they are ready to film the the “Mock Press Conference” and, ultimately, the “Mock Newsworthy Incident.” Unit 1: Key Assignments Newswriting, speeches editorials, non-fiction essays Purpose: Students demonstrate their knowledge of and ability to write in professionally accepted nonfiction structures used by journalists and essayists. Mini-lessons in Inverted Pyramid Style Writing Students will write several news articles using inverted-pyramid style. To ensure success and understanding, students examine and analyze news stories from various newspapers (suggested current LA Times or any AP wire story). Specific lessons reveal structure, angle, objectivity, transitioning, and attribution. After mastering the techniques of inverted pyramid writing, students examine lists of disconnected facts involving a newsworthy event. (This can be taken from an existing news article - preferably an ​
AP​
article - and write a news story using this format) and write a comprehensive, logically structured, fluid, engaging piece within specifically prescribed time constraints. Mock Press Conference Students use their skills acquired in previous classes to perform a short believable yet interactive skit that requires them to answer questions from “reporters.” Each group will both perform and write an article on the scenes performed. Working in small groups, students create a scenario involving the press conference. Each student has a specific role (examples include police officer, teacher, mayor, governor, etc.). Students then perform in front of the class of "reporters." This includes a general statement followed by questions from these reporters. Students then write a 300 to 500-word story within a prescribed time limit that effectively conveys the "action" that took place. Mock Newsworthy incident Students work in small groups to create a newsworthy event (examples might include an accident, a protest). They draw on their performance skills, their listening and observing skills, their interviewing skills and finally their writing skills. They create appropriate costumes, design setting, and memorize testimony and fact pattern. Other students in the class take on the role of reporters arriving at the scene. Their job is to interview and wade through the facts, to arrive at a clear conception of what happened. Subsequently, students write a 500+ word article that conveys what they have witnessed. This is filmed by the students. Unit 2: Personality Profile Essential Question: How is personality revealed in the story? What can be observed about values and mores of a culture when the lens is on the individual? After completing Unit One on hard-news, editorials, and non-fiction essays, students are introduced to feature-story writing, specifically the "personality profile." Moving toward the final product of a 1500-word personality profile, students engage in mini-lessons designed to provide them with skills (as discussed below) needed to create a strong, effective, publishable piece. Building upon students’ awareness of fictional characterization techniques learned in “Language Takes the Screen,” students begin by examining and analyzing examples of nonfiction personality profiles from high-interest and exemplary publications (​
The New Yorker​
, ​
Rolling Stone​
) to identify techniques and strategies of strong, effective writers of this genre. Students are especially guided to identify how a writer conveys the essence of a personality-- his or her dominant impression-- with characterization devices as noted in the "Descriptive Writing - Show Don't Tell" lesson. They are introduced to various leads (nonfiction introductions); they practice writing a variety of these leads; they demonstrate their ability to convey personality and character in their own writing. In preparation for their final product, students build upon their interviewing skills introduced in Unit One. Skills addressed here include a more in-depth interviewing process in which the interviewer notes everything—mannerisms, physical appearance, setting, speech. Such interviewing practice moves students toward becoming thoughtful, creative listeners, writers, and thinkers. Cultivating these skills begins in the non-threatening environment of the classroom with student-to-student interviews, followed by writing short profiles. Additionally, students view several profiles on PBS’s Frontline, examining strategy, purpose, and bias to see live professional, exemplary interviewing, preparing them for their final documentary project. Ultimately, students identify a prospective personality who will be the subject of their profile. After conducting a series of interviews, students write a 1500-word personality profile that effectively conveys the essence of the person. (Funding available, these profiles can be published in a publication of a montage of personalities, or perhaps they could be published in the school newspaper.) As an extension of their study of authorial development of personality/character, and to expose them to a more complex, issue-related profile which is the focus of Unit 3, as well as more diverse media, students additionally examine a range of complex texts in which writers, directors, and playwrights present a view of apartheid through important personages like Nelson Mandela. To develop an awareness of diverse approaches to personality/character and how these characters reveal broader issues, students begin to consider the bridge from the person to the issue, which is required in both their final documentary project and final representative profile project for Unit 3. To this end, students read and analyze several fiction and non-fiction pieces, in various genres involving apartheid in South Africa and focusing on profiling Nelson Mandela. These include, ​
Playing the Enemy​
by John Carlin, Henley’s "Invictus" , the film ​
Invictus, ​
and the short drama ​
Master Harold and the Boys ​
followed by the filmed version​
. To convey and demonstrate their awareness of authorial purpose and strategies as well as the effect of differing media, students write a comparative essay on the representation of the issue of apartheid as presented in the different genres. Concurrent Unit 2—film production Concurrently with this unit, students work in their film class to create a filmed version of the personality profile that resembles the format of PBS’s ​
Frontline​
. Students will practice still photography by taking photos of their chosen subjects for their Personality Profile. Photo reportage will be presented on the film class website (googlesites, or moodle). Concurrently with the writing of their Personality Profile, students format a script for an interview of their chosen subject. They then create a production schedule. Students choose from the pool of scripts the specific projects to be filmed, and student groups are created. Each group member takes on the responsibilities of the role of the director, cameraman, sound technician, lighting technician, or editor. Groups begin field work on campus. Completed projects are reviewed in class and assessed using teacher created rubric. Unit 2: Key Assignments Focus lessons: leads, lengthy interviews, descriptive writing (show don't tell), review of attribution Interviewing Workshop - Limited Personality Profile Following and augmenting interviewing skills learned in Unit 1, students examine techniques and demonstrate skills required for a lengthy interview, culminating in a 1500-word personality profile. To begin, students analyze an array of personality profiles with specific attention to the "dominant impression" conveyed by the writer. After taking part in a mock interview with the teacher, students then participate in individual classroom mock interviews. This could take a variety of forms. For example, suggestions are - students could adopt a persona or students could be paired with someone they're not close with to extract the essence of that person. They then write up a short personality profile suitable for a local paper, magazine, or school publication. Descriptive Writing - Show Don't Tell - Bringing Your Subject to Life Students develop skills of characterization culminating in brief character sketches that reveal the essence of a person. Students examine writing techniques that breathe life into writing. It includes the analysis of examples of exemplary works. (Suggestions: Calvin Trillan on Edna Buchanan, John Lahr on Roseanne Barr) Students identify the dominant image a writer wants to convey and the strategies he or she uses to effectively do so. These strategies include basic authorial techniques of characterization, setting, and voice. Following these analyses, students are given a list of traits (brazen/rude, mellow/lazy, eccentric, etc.) and a specific technique (behavior/action, physical description, dialogue, etc.) They then convey the traits to the readers using the specified techniques. These are shared and discussed. Students then are asked to incorporate this into the profiles on which they are working. Leads Students are now familiar with summary leads, typically used in hard-news stories of Unit 1. Now students identify various types of leads writers use to introduce and hook their readers - anecdotal, descriptive, quotation, contrast, staccato, direct address, delayed, allusion, etc. This lesson involves a discussion of types of leads to use and when one is more appropriate, an analysis of several stories with interesting and effective leads, and ultimately a demonstration of the ability to choose and write an appropriate type of lead. In conjunction with their personality profiles, students hone their introduction by writing a variety of leads for the same piece and discussing with students and ultimately the class which lead they prefer to use and why. Filmed Profile Activity This unit culminates with students producing a minimum 1500- word personality profile of a noteworthy local person. Students identify a personality on campus or locally of someone who has a story to tell. This does not necessarily have to be someone with an earth-shattering background; it could be just an interesting personality or someone with a unique talent or hobby. In order to do this, students are urged to recognize people in their midst who have perhaps gone unnoticed --the cafeteria lady who put five children through college, the janitor who works two jobs to support his family, the student who is the baton-twirling champion of the country, a former bully or bullied victim. After deciding on a subject, students set up a series of interviews - several with the subjects themselves, several with people associated with the subjects. Simultaneously students examine and analyze several exemplary personality profiles from important publications (suggested: The New Yorker​
, ​
Rolling Stone​
) One particularly well-done profile is on Edna Buchanan, a crime reporter for the Miami Herald published by ​
The New Yorker​
. Frontline Concurrently with this unit, students work in their film class to create a filmed version of afore mentioned profile. As ancillary assignment, students read and analyze several fiction and non-fiction pieces, in various genres involving apartheid in South Africa and focusing on profiling Nelson Mandela. These genres will include, ​
Playing the Enemy​
by John Carlin, the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley, the film ​
Invictus, ​
and the short drama ​
Master Harold and the Boys ​
followed by the filmed version​
. This will result in a comparative essay on the representation of the issue of apartheid as presented in the different genres. Unit 3: Representative Profile Essential Questions: How does the life of the individual effect change? How does film magnify the individual’s life? How are issues revealed through the focused lens of the individual? In an extension from the last unit, students move beyond the simple profile feature story, and in this unit, focus on research, writing, and presentation of an important issue, couched in the story of a specific person or group – a representative profile. The resultant product, a 3000-word representative profile, will be published on the film class website in reportage form. Several lessons lead up to this product and expose students to the genre of full-length, researched, non-fiction, issue-oriented features. Students begin with an introduction to the ​
Wall Street Journal​
formula writing, a format followed by industry professionals. To prepare students to write an extensive issue-oriented piece, thus laying a foundation for their Unit 4 documentary projects, students read and analyze several examples of exemplary representative profiles, identifying elements of ​
Wall Street Journal ​
Formula: the writers' leads, the nut graphs, the focus areas, and the transitions. Suggested here is "Orphans of Addiction" a ​
Los Angeles Times​
article written by Sonia Nazario as well as Nancy Baker's "If You're Always Eating, It May Not Be Because You're Hungry." Both of these follow a text-book ​
Wall Street Journal​
formula. Students then practice honing their skills by creating short features that follow ​
Wall Street Journal​
formula based on a list of teacher-created facts and interview statements. In the culminating project, students write a thoroughly researched, 3,000- word representative profile following Wall Street Journal ​
formula that examines an issue through the lens of an individual. Upon completion of their Representative Profiles, students examine several effective query letters, focusing on leads, structure and formatting, and appropriate content, then write their own query letters to market their work. Their exposure to the ​
Writers' Market​
, a compendium of editors and publishers of magazines and periodicals, allows students to choose an appropriate market to which they address their query letter and shows them a real market for a writer’s work. To complement the above-described professional writing techniques and standards with university-level academic reading and writing skills and to hone and develop the research skills necessary for their final documentary projects, students read and analyze Ken Kesey's ​
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. ​
To begin, students research specific areas of the time period in which Kesey wrote and present their findings to the class to provide a strong contextual understanding of the novel. Students then write an accompanying research paper using proper conventions of MLA format. As a through activity, and to meet the rigor and depth of knowledge required by Common Core Standards, students keep a directed reading log focusing on motifs, themes, setting, and characterization. Finally, students work in focus groups to examine a teacher-assigned specific area and present their findings to the class in a Socratic Seminar format. Concurrent Unit 3: Film production Students continue to practice still photography by taking photos illustrating their chosen topics. Photo reportage will be presented on the film class website. Based on their research and writing, students write/format a script for an interview and create a production schedule. Students select projects to be filmed. Groups are created and each member chooses or is assigned the role he or she is to play in this production. These groups begin their field work on campus. [There is an opportunity to connect with students from other classes and invite them to collaborate on the production. (History, Art, Multimedia students can participate in writing, research, background, art and model creation)] Before editing begins, students conduct research on the Internet, searching for video and audio clips and learning how to extract them and export them into their video projects. Students write business letters asking for the release of rights to the video and audio clips they will use. Completed projects are reviewed and assessed in class. The resultant product, a 3000-word representative profile, will be published on the class website in reportage form. Unit 3: Key Assignments Wall Street Journal Formula This unit will culminate with students writing a 3000-word representative profile. To do this, they will select a subject (much like they did for their personality profile) who represents a broader issue. (example - a pregnant teen, etc.) Students will demonstrate in this the ability to thread together areas of focus into a coherent, compelling examination of an important issue. Students begin by analyzing several examples of ​
Wall Street Journal​
formula writing used in most publications for fully developed feature stories. As an introduction students specifically look at "Orphans of Addiction" by Sonia Nazario, published in the ​
Los Angeles Times​
, which chronicles the compelling life of children of drug addicts in Long Beach, CA. Students can see strong journalistic skills including interviewing, writing, research, attribution, descriptive writing, etc. Mini-lessons include lead writing. Students then craft a ​
Wall Street Journal​
lead from teacher-provided facts. Students are also introduced to research skills using both primary and secondary sources. Concurrently with this unit, students will work to create a film presentation of this issue and subject in their tech class. Query Letters Students examine effective query letters and techniques used to market their products. Students identify possible markets for their profile - either local media or from ​
Writers' Market​
and create a query letter which they send for possible publication. Effective query letters demonstrate the ability to engage the reader, persuade the reader, and ultimately sell the writer’s work. Also suggested, students may submit to the student newspaper for publication in the focus page and or the creation of a montage to be bound and sold or distributed among school personnel. Research Project In preparation for the outside-reading novel ​
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest​
by Ken Kesey, students will be assigned a focus area to research involving the background of the novel. Suggestions include: the hippie movement, women of the 60's, drugs, mental health and treatments, music and art of the 60's, etc. After exhaustively researching their focus areas using both primary and secondary sources, students will present to the class an engaging and informative overview. Preparation for this includes research and writing strategies and proper MLA formatting. Students will photograph and present their work on the film class's website in reportage form. Unit 4: Documentary Essential Questions: How can a filmmaker manipulate story? How does authorial/directorial purpose affect audience perception? Building upon the examination and analyses of several genres in previous units (e.g. apartheid, the 1960s) as well as newly introduced works in Unit 4, students are provided with an overview of historical presentations in literature as well as documentaries that explore historical or important events. In this unit, students further develop both language and technical skills by demonstrating an awareness of authorial purpose and strategies, audience, angle, and manipulation by examining various sources. The central activity in this unit and culminating experience for the year is the recreation of an historical event or the exploration of an important current event/issue in filmed documentary format. Drawing upon both English and technical skills, which include (but are not limited to): researching, script writing, costuming, and setting, interviewing, character development, and pre-production, production, and post-production work, students demonstrate the ability to move out of themselves and into the world around them. Students demonstrate a deliberate purpose of informing and/or effecting change and demonstrate their abilities to communicate with and move an audience through their final events. These "events" are filmed. Students’ total independent control and comprehensive approach to developing such an ambitious project readies them for their senior year’s all-inclusive, year-long project. Students begin the unit by viewing examples of documentaries and historical works in film and literature with the focus on war. To this end, students view several films involving World War II Nazism from varying perspectives including two Nazi propaganda films: ​
Triumph of Will​
and ​
Olympia ​
as well as a film that exposes and denounces Nazism: ​
Nazi Concentration Camps. Continuing with the theme of war, students will read Tim O'Brien's ​
The Things They Carried​
as well as various poems thematically connected. This will be preceded by a formal presentation of the politics of Vietnam. (Suggestion: Students engage mini-research projects here on areas such as - Agent Orange, Tet Offensive, My Lai Massacre, Gulf of Tonkin, Underground tunnel systems, etc.) Through a variety of activities in which students read, examine, and analyze, they will come to recognize various historical views of war and subsequent presentations of this theme, requisite to Common Core. Specific activities students complete as outlined above, include group presentations of O'Brien's various vignettes with special focus on style, content, and theme. In examining several poems, students recognize the different viewpoints of writers and their associated styles. To bolster students’ academic language skills and to demonstrate their awareness of authorial purpose and subsequent effect, they write a comparison/contrast paper discussing these several viewpoints. Students also learn the commonly accepted approaches to literary analysis at the university level - SoapsTONE and SCASI. They will use one of these methods in writing a formal analysis. Unit 4: Key Assignments Propaganda and Angles Students identify and examine techniques of propaganda in various genre including film, literature, and poetry. This examination necessarily include the identification of chosen audience and subsequent, deliberate manipulation. Suggested resources include: ​
Triumph of the Will ​
and ​
Olympia ​
by Leni Rifenstahl, both German propaganda films, and ​
Nazi Concentration Camps ​
by George Stevens, which was presented at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Other possible resources include films/documentaries made by Michael Moore such as ​
Sicko ​
or Al Gore's ​
An Inconvenient Truth​
or ​
Fast Food Nation. ​
As part of this unit students read excerpts from Upton Sinclair's ​
The Jungle​
, a muckraking expose on the meat packing industry at the turn of the century. Students keep reading logs during this assignment. Thematic Examination of War in Literature and Film Students examine varying interpretations of war through poetry, prose, and drama. Suggested resources include Tim O'Brien's ​
The Things They Carried​
, monologues from Shakespeare's ​
Henry V,​
essays, and various poems. Students write a compare/contrast paper based on the differing views of war as well as the authorial techniques. As O'Brien's work is divided into short, accessible vignettes, it provides an opportunity for students to be responsible for reading an assigned vignette and presenting to the class a discussion on content and style. Ancillary activities include students' analysis and discussion of assigned poetry which shares the theme of war. In presenting to the class, each group present a discussion of the poem's content, tone, stylistic devices, mood, and theme using the SoapsTONE or SCASI technique of analysis. Non-fiction Documentary Project In groups, students choose (from a hat?) a current or historical event. Students research a current or historical event, dress in costume, design set to recreate the event. Students write and format a script for the event which provide the skeleton for a documentary. These be filmed for film class. Reading:​
​
Acceptable courses must require extensive reading of a variety of genres, non-literary as well as literary, including informational texts, classical and/or contemporary prose and poetry, and literary fiction and non-fiction. Reading of literary texts must include full-length works; excerpts from anthologies, condensed literature, et cetera, cannot substitute for full-length literary works. Students should be expected to read for literal comprehension and retention, depth of understanding, awareness of the text’s audience, purpose and argument, and to analyze and interact with the text. Unit 1: Non-fiction and Journalistic Models Newswriting persuasive and non-fiction essays. Students examine and analyze several varied genres of non-fiction writing. These genres include news stories (inverted-pyramid style), editorials, and non-fiction essays. These are teacher chosen from current, high-interest publications. (Suggestions: ​
LA Times, NY Times; New Yorker, Rolling Stone Magazine​
). Students also read ​
Boys on the Bus​
by Timothy Crouse, a nonfiction account of the press corps during the 1972 campaigns of Nixon and McGovern. Students will keep reading logs focusing on technique, style, and content, to facilitate discussion and provide information for their final literary response to the book. Reading Logs and Discussion Focuses Pack Journalism Theme: Power Political Journalistic Critique of political pack reporters Tone Syntax and Diction Structure Characterization Student-chosen focus Unit 2: Personality Profile Students examine and analyze several examples of exemplary personality profiles to identify techniques, and strategies of strong, effective writers of this genre and the structure these types of pieces follow. Students are especially guided to identify how a writer conveys the essence of a personality. Suggested sources include Calivn Trillan’s “Edna Buchanan, Covering the Cops.” (New Yorker February 17, 1986) and any current profiles published in similarly exemplary publications. Students also read the poem “Invictus” by Willam Ernest Henley, the novel ​
Playing the Enemy​
, by John Carlin, and the play ​
Master Harold and the Boys​
by Athol Fugard. All involve a presentation of apartheid in South Africa and specifically in some cases a profile of Nelson Mandela. Students keep teacher-directed reading logs, charting the similarities and differences. The culminating assignment for this reading is a comparative essay. Reading Logs and Discussion Focuses Characterization of Nelson Mandela Theme of Apartheid Symbols Style and Structure Student-chosen focus Unit 3: Representative Profile Students read several examples of full-length, researched, non-fiction, issue-oriented features from exemplary sources to analyze structure and writer technique in examining important, contemporary issues. Suggested sources include Sonia Nazario’s “Orphans of Addiction” (LA Times) and Nancy Baker’s “If You’re Always Eating, It May Not Be Because You’re Hungry” or any exemplary representative profile from recognized feature writers in city newspapers or magazines. Students also read Ken Kesey’s ​
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest​
and various non-fiction research on the 60’s for their focus areas. Students analyze sources to prepare their research presentations and papers. Students keep reading logs of Cuckoo’s Nest ​
following teacher-directed motifs and themes, culminating in a literary analysis paper. Reading Log focuses: Motif of the fog Motif of birds Motif of machinery Motif of Christianity Motif of laughter Motif of hands Themes- sanity v. insanity, individual v. society, conformity Any interesting stylistic conventions or individual areas of interest Characters McMurphy Chief (as unconventional narrator) Big Nurse and Women in general Attendants Unit 4: Documentary Students examine historical research writing as well as propaganda. Students research a student-chosen historical, societal, or scientific area of interest using various non-fiction sources. This results in a student-produced conventional research paper which follows MLA protocol. Students read ​
The Things They Carried​
by Tim O’Brien. Students keep teacher-directed reading logs to facilitate class discussion and afford them notes for their culminating analysis paper. Reading Log Focuses: Style: Diction and Syntax; imagery Themes of distinct vignettes Fear, Love, Courage, Friendship Story Humanity. War Character Development Symbols Writing: ​
The course uses extensive writing to be rigorous, relevant, and thorough in assessing student learning and critical thinking skills. Students learn a variety of models used in the professional world of non-fiction – inverted pyramid writing, Wall Street Journal formula, profiles, query writing, script writing, as well as academia –research paper, interpretive analysis papers, essays. All writing assignments are graded by specific teacher-created writing rubrics. Writing assignments include prewriting and revision strategies designed to result in polished and professional products. Summative Assessment Examples (evaluated with teacher-created rubrics): Unit 1: Non-fiction and Journalistic Models Inverted Pyramid Assignment – students demonstrate the ability to assess information quickly, create an angle, to incorporate attribution, to use transitions appropriately and seamlessly to convey the essence of a newsworthy event. This skill will be refined as students begin with a simple in-class facts-to-story assignment, in which students take a list of facts and quotes and turn it into a story. They then move into a Mock Press Conference, in which they attend a conference with several presenters, question the presenters and develop a story that accurately and objectively represents what was conveyed. Finally students will witness a Mock News Event, in which students set up scenes of newsworthy events (riots, accidents, etc.) and students then interview, observe, and report accurately and objectively using IP style writing a piece on what happened. Non-fiction essays and persuasive essay – students demonstrate the ability to write in these two different genres on a common topic. They will show awareness of the nuances of different styles and the unique characteristics. Reading Logs – Students maintain dialectical reading logs reflecting on the ​
Boys on the Bus.​
Some entries will be teacher directed, others will be student directed. This will culminate in an interpretive essay on the novel’s content. Unit 2: Personality Profile Personality Profiles – after analyzing several examples of personality profiles, students cultivate the skill of writing personality profiles. They will begin with a small in-class assignment in which they interview a classmate and generate a personality profile. They then move to a more extensive project, in which they choose an interesting person on campus and write a lengthy feature-like personality profile (1500-words). They learn in this unit how to “show not tell” to bring their subject to life, to use dialogue, physical description and setting in mini lessons. Furthermore they demonstrate the ability to craft an engaging lead and develop an interesting angle. These profiles will be published on the school website as a montage concurrently with the technology class as a photo-profile. Comparative Essay – after reading several works on apartheid and watching film versions, students write a comparative essay on the representation of the issue of apartheid citing differences in technique, purpose, and effect. All of these writing assignments are graded with a teacher-created rubric. Unit 3: Representative Profile Representative profiles – Students expand their foundational skills of profile feature writing in this unit, which focuses on research writing skills. After analyzing several examples of ​
Wall Street Journal​
formula writing, a format followed by many in the industry, students work to prepare a representative profile, that is, they research a contemporary issue that can be told through a person or group. Students develop these skills by writing short features based on lists of facts and interview statements. Students augment their repertoire of lead-writing by looking at more extensive examples. Students also are introduced to revision strategies. These lessons all will result in a professional, 3000-word representative profile. Students then write effective query letters aimed at a professional market for their work. Students create a script to be used in their film class to bring these representative profiles into the medium of film. Concomitant with this major assignment, students read Ken Kesey’s novel, ​
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. ​
As background preparation, students research specific areas of the time period when Ken Kesey wrote his novel (the 60’s). This culminates in a short research paper, which follows proper MLA conventions. After completing the reading, students write a final analysis paper on Kesey’s novel, examining motifs and themes (teacher-directed options). All of these writing assignments are graded with a teacher-created rubric. Unit 4: Documentary Documentary – Students work in this unit to prepare a script for the purpose of developing a filmed documentary. To this end, students research an historical, societal, or scientific area of interest and write a conventional research paper which follows MLA protocol. Students also examine differing views on war as presented in various literary genres and write a comparative literary analysis paper. Using SOAPStone and/or SCASI techniques students write a final interpretive essay based on their reading of Tim O’Briens ​
The Things They Carried​
. All of these writing assignments are graded with a teacher-created rubric.