Unit (): Video Killed the Radio Star
I don’t expect any of you to know where the title of this unit came from, but just know that it was a very popular song…at one time. The title, though, does have some relevance with what we’re doing in this unit. We will be writing for radio. That’s right. There are actually stations that play recorded words on air and not just songs. Many of you might even be surprised by the interesting, funny, and enlightening programs you can find on stations like NPR. What’s interesting about the programming on NPR is that each time block is geared to a different type of audience, but since we are a young audience, we’ll be focusing on the program called This American Life, which airs non-fiction essays and reports from younger writers, usually with a comedic bent. What we’ll be working on for this unit:
- Is my writing detailed enough to convey what I’m saying to an unseen audience?
- What is interesting to my audience? What stories should I tell?
- How can I take a regular essay and make it read like an important news story?
- Who is my audience?
Required reading:
Sedaris, David. “A Shiner Like A Diamond.” Me Talk Pretty One Day. First Back Bay: New York, 2001.
Vowell, Sarah. “Shooting Dad.” Take the Cannoli. Simon & Schuster: New York, 2000.
Exploration One: Essays from The Home Front
You’ll be reading both of the assigned stories for this unit to help you write this exploration. These stories are essays, or as they’re called nowadays, creative non-fiction. It’s the same thing, so don’t ask questions. What is different about these essays from what we’ve been writing in class, or even different from your own writing in specific? Were you interested in what these authors had to say? Why were you interested? How can you incorporate this type of writing into your classroom work? What types of subjects did these essays deal with? Would you consider the subject matter to be of a “grand” nature, or was it simple? If it was simple, was it still meaningful to you? How so? These are the questions I want you to consider when you write your 2-page analysis of these stories.
Exploration Two: Turn It On, And Turn It Up
For this Exploration, you’ll be tuning into 91.5 over the weekend. This American Life will be broadcast at two different times for your convenience, and if you know anyone who will be listening on one of these days and wouldn’t mind recording it for you, your life will be even easier. You’ll be listening at either 2:00-3:00 Friday or Sunday, and you’ll be taking notes on what you heard.
- What voice techniques do they use to emphasize certain words or things?
- What differences do you notice between the stories you read for the first exploration and the stories you hear on the radio?
- What ideas does this give you for your final recorded project?
- How does This American Life keep your attention?
Considering your notes, write a 2-page paper analyzing why This American Life works by answering the above questions as well as any others you may have come up with while listening.
Exploration Three: Developing A Story
Now you’ve gotten an idea of what makes good radio and what doesn’t. For your final project, you’ll be developing your own 5-minute radio show by reading your final paper. In radio, each page of your paper should equal about a minute if it’s performed well, so 5 pages should suffice for the paper. The most difficult part, I think you’ll find, is thinking of the story, so for this exploration, we’ll be brainstorming story ideas together in small groups. You’ll need to come away from your brainstorm session with one story you think will work, and, at home, type up a detailed outline to follow for your final project.
Final Project: Your American Life
We’ve been working up to this all unit-long, and now it’s time to actually put your radio show together. In the last exploration, you should have created an outline to follow for your story, and all that’s left is to fill in your details.
Make sure your story:
- has a clear Beginning, Middle, and End.
- engages the audience.
- embraces the audience.
- has some sort of deeper meaning.
- is organized in a way that is clear for the audience to understand.
You will have the option of recording your radio show and bringing it into class to be played, or you can perform it in class out of view of your audience. It just depends on which one makes you feel more comfortable. Be creative, make it interesting, and most of all, have fun!
For this writing project, we’ll work on the following (and these need to be included in your WritingProject):
--A sense of direction—a “center” to your writing project, a focus;
--Direct connections with at least one of the readings, demonstrated by the ability to write your own radio show;
--Technicalities—5+pages, double-spaced, in proper transcript style.
What’s due the day this is due:
In a stapled packet, you’ll want to turn in
- a Cover Letter, addressing some/all of the following: what was your writing process like as you wrote this unit’s writing project? What challenges did you encounter? How did you address, or attempt to address, those challenges? What breakthroughs did you have? What’d you learn about yourself as a writer in this project? What do you wish you’d have done but perhaps you ran out of time, or you didn’t quite know how to do? And, again, consider the writing strategies listed below: any that you feel you particularly learned more about? Any you’d like to make sure you learn more about in the future? [1 page]
- Your Writing Project, 5+ pages, double-spaced, proper transcript formatting
- Your class colleagues’ written response
- Explorations One, Two, and Three
- Any in-class work connected to this unit project (writing samples, field notes; in-class work on the readings; etc.)