Literature & Plot StructureAfter reading the play, Oedipus the King, students are asked to create an eight box comic strip displaying their knowledge of plot structure, characterization, dialect, and dialogue. As you can see, this particular student has a high level of artistic talent which allowed her to excel when creating her comic. She walks her way through the exposition to the resolution including several characters speaking using the correct dialect for the piece while adding her own spin to the play.
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Literature & CharacterizationUnderstanding characters and their development throughout pieces is a big part of the curriculum for students in an English classroom. After students have made their way through at least half of the play Oedipus the King, I ask students to think about their favorite character so far. It's interesting to see student's opinions. Each student must create a visual for that character based on the descriptions used throughout the text combined with their imagination. Once they have completed the drawing students must use the extra space on the page to express written knowledge about the character. This is an exceptional example due to the thought and detailed used in the visual and text evidence.
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Literature & SettingA very important concept when reading a story is understanding the setting. When starting to read a piece of work we as a class dive into details about the location, for example Egypt. When students gain a visual for the location such as maps, building structures, life style, they can better understand events that occur throughout the piece. One way to introduce students to setting is to allow students time to create a visual representation of where the story takes place. This is a simple example, but directly connects to the location and meaning of setting in the story Oedipus the King.
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Literature & SymbolismSymbolism and meaning are important concepts in The Masque of the Red Death. Students take time to research the meaning of colors, the location and placement of each colored room in the castle, and then use their research to craft a visual only including items in each room that are described in the short story. Students will then take this information and draw conclusions to the rest of the story, for example, the rooms are in a specific order to symbolize life to death. These meanings help deepen the understanding of the story. This student successfully used her artistic talent to display each room in order focusing on individuals getting closer and closer to death due to the illness taking over.
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Literature & PoetryUnderstanding poetry and sonnets is an integral part of fully understanding the play Romeo and Juliet. As a class we study poetry, iambi pentameter, and then we play with words creating a lazy sonnet with a visual representing our main idea. This particular student used her artistic talent to display an image of Romeo and Juliet in the death scene while surrounding the image with a lazy sonnet. Understanding of the assignment requirements can be seen in the transition of works with a rhyming couplet at the end.
Literature & Hero Journey |
Literature & CultureWhen reading Things Fall Apart it is important to develop knowledge about proverbs in the African culture. Students learn that when they come across proverbs people are offering wisdom. Noticing this language allows students to being to appreciate the history of Africa. For this assignment students are asked to review the novel and find six different proverbs, list the proverbs, list the meaning, and list why the proverb was said in the story. This student successfully complete each step while adding images to connect to each proverb.
Literature & Authors |
Students travel through English 9 to English 12 while spending time in each class focusing on The Hero's Journey in literature, this is a very common area of study. After reading a few piece of literature in my class, pulling out areas of the hero's journey to practice, my students were assigned the task of taking one movie and tracking the hero. To help my students, I told them to "think Disney" as this often makes the connections easier. This particular student used the movie Finding Nemo to describe the process of the hero's journey clearly labeling and making deep connections.
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Gathering information about the author is always an important step before reading a piece of literature. This step allows the reader to gain knowledge about background meanings and connections to the real world. Before we read a text in my class I either tell my students about the author or give them the opportunity to do their own research. For this particular assignment I asked students to research information about Edgar Allan Poe, and then come up with a creative way to present the information they found. I really enjoy that this student pull of her knowledge about Poe into a drawing relating to his poem The Raven.
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Literature & SymbolismWhen reading literature we are often introduced to symbolism. A symbol normally stands for something else, or rather has more than the literal meaning. Symbolism is very popular in literature, and my students were asked to look at the novel Things Fall Apart to pull out piece of symbolism. This student chose to draw representation of symbolism to go along with a presentation. He drew the kola nut, an egwugwu mask, and the sacred python. These examples along with his presentation met the guidelines of explaining the importance of these piece in the text.
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Literature & CharacterizationThis assignment consisted of a student reviewing the novel Things Fall Apart to depict a major idea. This painting visual plus a presentation expressed how the main character, Okonkwo, was destined to lose throughout the entire book. This student made a visual tracking many of the mishaps Okonkwo experienced. The student begins with the death of Okonkwo's father, the sickness of his daughter, the killing of his "adopted" son, the banishment from his home, to his ultimate death. The student expressed how these main events made it obvious that in the end Okonkwo was not going to be successful and would end up just like his father.
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