It's my goal to create a unit plan that is both educational and engaging for midlevel students. In order to do this, I believe that the students must be able to see how the activities are relevant to their lives or applicable to future learning. My unit plan will focus on looking at famous works rewritten or in different forms. (For example the film Gnomeo and Juliet). Students will read the original work and then be exposed to the work being presented in a different way. It makes students consider the question what is literature? The unit exposes students to the diversity of literature and different interpretations of the same work.Why is looking at diverse interpretations of text important? It shows students that texts are malleable and open to interpretation. Students will also be introduced to creativity within language arts and gets them thinking about how texts can be transformed.
At the end of the unit, students will have to reformat a piece of literature themselves. For example, making a song out of Romeo and Juliet. Doing so will foster a deeper understanding of the text and encourages active reading and analysis of texts.
An example of students making a creative summary of the Harry Potter series:
This unit proposal sounds fantastic! I love your idea of taking classic materials and transforming them into something new and maybe more relevant to the students. I'm curious to know what other activities you will have the students engage in (vocabulary, writing, etc.). I think it's very smart that you are pulling from multi-media sources as well. I think a unit like this will keep the students engaged and enthusiastic about what they are learning while also hitting some really critical ELA skills.
ReplyDeleteI also love this idea, plus it is part of the 8th grade standards, so you are well justified in the choice. The multimedia approach should be naturally engaging for students, and encourage higher level critical thinking. Two questions: 1. Are you imagining each student will select his/ her own text? Again, choice is highly motivating, so I think this could work. However, you might want to think about shorter texts for modeling/ scaffolding the critical thinking skills. 2. Why limit this to just the classics? Could students work on more contemporary & YA texts as well? It might help you find higher levels of readability for all students. I look forward to ongoing conversations about this project!
ReplyDeleteI like this idea. It taked famous works of literature and puts them in historical context. Students, through seeing new interpretations realize that works are only as meaningful as the audience chooses them to be and begin to see literature as connected through theme and narrative style.
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