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Junior ®Drama®

Unit Plan

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Table of Contents

Overall Description of Unit ……………………………………………………………………….2

Lesson 1, Subtask 1…………….……………………………………………………………….....4

Lessons 2-3, Subtask 2……………...... ……………………….....………………………...... 6

Lessons 4-5, Subtask 3…………….……………………….....……………………………...... 8

Lesson 6, Subtask 4…..…………………………………………………………………..………10

Appendix A….………………………………………………………………………….……...... 13

Appendix B ……………………………………………………………………………………...14

Appendix C ………………………………………………………………………..……..…...…20

Appendix D ……………………………...... ……………………….……………………25

Appendix E ……………………………...... ……………………….…………………….26

Appendix F (Culminating Task)…………………...….……………………………..…………..28

Works Cited ……………………………………………………………………………………...31

Overall Description of Unit:

Through a series of lessons and subtasks, this unit seeks to prepare students to complete a culminating task in which they will be asked to create a graphic drama scene and prepare a written and oral explanation of the scene they chose to recreate from one of the texts covered in the unit. In order to reach this goal, students will address skill building in the areas of reading, writing, oral language/oral communication and build knowledge of graphic media texts.

In the syntax surgery lesson students will be introduced to a reading and analysis strategy. In the initial part of the lesson, students will read a difficult passage and analyze that passage. The first section is purely diagnostic assessment so the teacher can understand how the students are reading and extracting meaning from a text. The lesson will be examining the opening passage of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The purpose of using such a difficult text is to prepare students for future secondary English courses which often still use Shakespeare’s works for the drama unit. This lesson will demonstrate to students that they can read drama, even a piece by one of the most challenging playwrights. The syntax surgery strategy can be used before reading (what significant features do you see before reading the text?), during reading (what words are you unfamiliar with? What do you find striking?) and post-reading (after reading, is there anything else you found striking about the text? Can you make any other connections?). The students will get the opportunity to use the strategy independently to read Wade Bradford’s 12 Angry Pigs (a spoof of Reginald Rose’s play Twelve Angry Men). The results of the pre-reading, during reading and post-reading surgery will be submitted to the teacher for further assessment. This lesson will also provide students with a tool for noting information and ideas, making connections, noting questions, making inferences and making predictions. Students will see reading strategies in action and develop skills for independent reading/analysis.

In lesson two students are provided with strategies to create an effective graphic novel. Through the use of YOUTUBE clips and constructive classroom discussion they are able to learn and develop many strategies that help them to design graphics and present dialogue. They will create a rubric as a class to ensure that they are all aware of and understand how to meet my expectations. Also, it empowers the students by creating a democratic classroom where everyone is eager to participate.

In lesson three students are given the strategies on how to effectively perform a play through the use of effectivenon-verbal cues, audio-visual aids, diction, vocal strategies, and clarity and coherence. Some students will have the opportunity to present, while others will analyze the presentations. As a class they will be given the opportunity to reflect on their strategies to ensure that they will be able to improve on their presentations for next class.

The fourth lesson will consist of a One Act comedy called “Big Nose: A Modern Cyrano” for Subtask #3. The lesson will enable students to read and actively perform in a chronological order of the play and allow each group of students the choice of performance preference. Each group will assess its own performance and learn the whole “instant” play within class time. In the fifth lesson, students will practice the culminating task by creating one block of graphics from the “Cyrano” drama. This will prepare students to practice a mini project that is similar to the culminating task. Subtask #3 focuses on kinesthetic, verbal, visual, and interpersonal intelligences of the students.

Lesson six is the final lesson before students have to begin working on their culminating activity. This lesson is designed to prepare them with writing in character and presenting in front of their peers. Students will need to learn how to write from the perspective of their characters and will do so by learning the definitions and conventions of a monologue. Students will be able to practice writing the inner thoughts of a character making sure to use the characters voice and perspective and not their own. This will give students the opportunity to develop the characters they are presenting and make them more relatable. This lesson will take up two full classes and consist of two presentations (one in groups and the other individually). The practice of presentations will give the students the opportunity to feel more comfortable with presenting in front of their classmates. With these two classes students will be able to take risks, build confidence, practice volume and pace, and receive peer and teacher feedback for improvement for the culminating activity.

Once the six lessons are complete, the class will be given one computer lab/library work period to work on their culminating task and one rehearsal period to rehearse their presentation. Students will also be given two days to work at home and complete any final preparations for their presentations

Unit Assessment Summary Chart

Type of Assessment / Assessment Activity
Summative / Graphic Drama Assignment
Formative / Instant Drama/Creation of mini graphics
Formative / Creation of a Monologue
Formative / Creating Comic strips and Dialogue
Formative / Performance of Play
Diagnostic / Syntax surgery sheet

Alysha Jagmohan Subtask #1

Lesson 1: Performing Syntax Surgery on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and 12 Angry Pigs

Course: ENG2D Unit: Drama

Strand: Reading

Overall Expectations:

2.Understanding form and style: recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning;

3.Reading with Fluency: use knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently

Specific Expectations:

ü  Text Forms 2.1 Identify a variety of characteristics of literary, informational, and graphic text forms and explain how they help communicate meaning

ü  Text Features 2.2 Identify a variety of text features and explain how they help communicate meaning

ü  Reading Unfamiliar Words 3.2 use appropriate decoding strategies to read and understand unfamiliar words

Lesson Organization:

1) Hook: Students will enter the room and see the following quote from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on the board:

If music be the food of love, play on;

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

That strain again! it had a dying fall:

O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:

'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,

That, notwithstanding thy capacity

Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,

Of what validity and pitch soe'er,

But falls into abatement and low price,

Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy

That it alone is high fantastical. (I.i.1-15)

2) Purpose: The students will be told that the purpose of today’s lesson is to provide them with a strategy to use before, during and after reading to assist them in understanding and analyzing texts.

3) Students will be given a copy of the quote on a piece of paper (see Appendix A). They will be asked to independently read and analyze the quote.

4) They will be asked to think, pair, share their tool for analyzing the quote before the teacher opens the discussion of reading strategies to the whole class.

5) The teacher will ask the students how they read and analyzed the quote.

6) The teacher will tell the class that together they will be performing “syntax surgery”.

7) Modeling: The teacher will write the words “syntax” (the arrangement of words) and “surgery” (manual treatment, usually referring to disease, deformity or injury). The teacher will ask the students what the words refer to and then explain the concept of syntax surgery.

8) Together the teacher will guide students through the first 8 lines of the quote by picking apart each word, the meaning(s) of each word, the structure of each line, and how the words/lines work with one another.

9) With the participation of the class, the teacher will circle/underline key words, draw lines to link words/concepts and write questions or observations in the margins to model the surgery (see below for example).

10) Check for understanding/guided practice-Students will be asked to find a partner with whom they can continue the syntax surgery on the remainder of the quote. The teacher will walk around the class to observe pairs and ask and answer questions to assess students’ understanding of the exercise.

11) The student’s independent practice/first sub-task will be to read the short play 12 Angry Pigs by Wade Bradford (see Appendix B). They will perform syntax surgery before reading, during reading and after reading the play. For each phase they will use a different coloured writing utensil (again see example below). For example, they may use a black pen for pre-reading notes, a blue pen for during reading notes and a red pen for post reading notes. The following are the pre-reading, during reading and post-reading questions:

For pre-reading they will ask themselves: What features stand out on the page?

During reading the students will ask: What features do you notice or find striking?, What connections do you see as you read?, Is there words that are unfamiliar or things you don’t understand?

Post-reading students will ask: What did you find striking?, What stood out for you?, Can you make any further connections?, What did you have difficulty with?, Is there anything you could look-up or research?

Students will have time to begin the surgery in class but will be responsible for completing the surgery outside of class time. Students will bring in the results of their surgery for the following class for the teacher to assess their understanding of the reading strategy.

SURGERY EXAMPLE:

If music be the food of love, play on;

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

That strain again! it had a dying fall:

O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:

'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

Accommodations:

-teacher assistance for ELL and I.E.P. students

-increased time to complete the independent work

-scriber for I.E.P. students

-I.E.P. students may also complete the independent work on a computer

Notes on the Lesson: This lesson is adapted from a Think Literacy strategy (see works cited page for reference) and is designed to reach visual and kinesthetic learners

Alexis Cheddesingh Subtask #2

Course: ENG1D Unit: Drama

Strand: Writing

Overall Expectations

Using Knowledge of Form and Style: Draft and revise their writing, using a variety of literary, informational, and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience.

Specific Expectations

2.1  Form: creating a comic strip based on a scene from a play.

Lesson 2

  • Hook: Show YOUTUBE clip: How to Write Comics & Graphic Novels: Types Of Layouts For Comic Books: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXMhqPvEDKI
  • Announcement: Notify the class that today they will be given time tolearn strategies of how to creatively adapt font, createthe most effectivecamera angles as well as master the process of selecting the most logical and relevant strips
  • Groups: Put them in groups of four or five and have them create three strips to tell a story about a homeless man who was kicked out of his home
  • As class: Take up each groups drawings and discussthe thinking processes that were required to determine the most important pictures and how they chose the camera angles
  • Model: explain the effect that different camera angles can convey;

show YOUTUBE clip “Core Value Comics Responsibility” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRlukQZWHu8

  • Think Pair Share: have them determine the strengths and weaknesses of the different styles of fonts
  • Class discussion: Take up answers and as a class create an effective criteria for marking fonts and pictures
  • Groups:Give them an opportunity to create a five strip graphic comic with dialogue based on any section of the play that was read for homework (The Hysterical History of Troy)

As class mark each Comic based on criteria we created

  • Closure: Review what is necessary to receive a level four compared to a level one and let them know that in tomorrow’s class we will begin learning strategies required to perform an effective play

Strand: Oral Communication

Overall Expectations

Speaking to Communicate: Use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

Specific Expectations

2.3  Clarity and Coherence: Organize a presentation using a chronological order in a clear and coherent manner

2.6 Non-Verbal Cues: control gestures while making a presentation

Lesson 3

  • Hook: Students enter the classroom to the sound of the X-Men theme song which compliments the decorations at the front of the classroom (teacher dressed up as Wolverine)
  • Explanation: Teacher notifies students that they will be learning the conventions of how to effectively perform a play (explain why set up setting in this fashion to enhance setting of play making it real so viewer can step out of reality for a moment)
  • Explain that next class they will each individually practice how to successfully perform a successful play and if they are able to follow the presentational conventions they could all receive an A when given the chance to perform their culminating activity
  • Show YOUTUBE clip of Madea Goes To Jail http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iggHnObk0ZY and have students determine how strategies such as non-verbal cues, audio-visual aids, Diction, vocal strategies, clarity and coherence were used effectively
  • Model: Present presentational criteria showing students the expectations of each level from 1-4, allow students to add to or adjust the criteria in a democratic fashion
  • Think-Pair share: Have them determine the necessary strategies that they need in order to attain a level 4 grade
  • Groups (4-5): Have them rehearse different sections of the "THE HYSTERICAL HISTORY OF THE TROJAN WAR" BY D. M. BOCAZ-LARSON play and let them know that today one group will be called upon to perform their play while the rest of the class will judge their presentation based on the presentation criteria we created
  • Perform: One group performs athree minute section of the play
  • Critically analyze:In groups of 4-5 allow students tocritically analyze the strengths and weakness of the play
  • Take up as a class and recordgood answerson theboard
  • Closure:as a class in a community circle reflect on the effective strategies that we have learned today/

ACCOMODATIONS