Ch12 Integrating Film-Media into the Curriculum

Module Integrating Film Media into the Curriculum As was noted in Module on formulating a justification for media literacy one of the reasons for the marginalization of film media in the language arts curriculum is that the overall curriculum is often defined in terms of separate components of reading writing speaking listening and viewing with priority given on reading and writing instruction given the emphasis on high-stakes reading and writing testing Viewing is also perceived to be lacking intellectual or cognitive rigor associated with analysis of or production of print texts However as was argued in Module the nature of the types of texts being analyzed whether they are print or non-print does not necessarily mean that such analysis is any less intellectual or cognitive rigorous This suggests the need for an alternative curriculum framework that is organized around helping students learn to acquire interpretative strategies employed in responding to and producing both print and non-print texts Framing the curriculum according to interpretative strategies serves to integrate media texts into the curriculum as requiring the same types of strategies and approaches applied to literary texts It also assumes the strategies involved in learning to interpret texts are employed in producing those texts Learning to analyze the ways in which a text positions audiences is also involved in producing texts for those audiences This module describes this curriculum design approach in which you think about defining activities around helping students acquire both interpretive strategies for responding to and critiquing media texts and producing strategies for constructing media texts It uses the example of studying the relationships between literature and film adaptations of literature to illustrate the use of these different interpretive strategies The module therefore first presents some material on studying film adaptations of literature and theater as background to consider the use of different interpretive strategies Framing the curriculum according to interpretative strategies serves to define the goals and learning objectives related to what students should learn to do in understanding and producing texts As discussed at the end of this module they are then evaluated in terms of criteria specific to each of the interpretive strategies and critical approaches This focus on organizing the curriculum around strategies is consistent with media literacy curriculum development throughout the world For example the Atlantic Provinces Education Foundation of the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador Nova Scotia New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in their Foundation for English Language Arts for the Atlantic Provinces blueprint for English Language Arts education http www media-awareness ca english teachers media education index cfm formulate three basic strands associated with media education Visual Literacy is the ability to understand and interpret the representation and symbolism of a static or moving visual image how the meanings of the images are organized and constructed to make meaning and to understand their impact on viewers Media Literacy is the ability to understand how mass media such as TV film radio and magazines work produce meanings and are organized and used wisely Critical Literacy is the ability to understand how all speakers writers and producers of visual texts are situated in particular contexts with significant personal social and cultural aspects This blueprint posits that notions of literacy have changed in recent decades What it means to be literate will continue to change as visual and electronic media become more and more dominant as forms of expression and communication As recently as one hundred years ago literacy meant the ability to recall and recite from familiar texts and to write signatures Even twenty years ago definitions of literacy were linked almost exclusively to print materials The vast spread of technology and media has broadened our concept of literacy To participate fully in today s society and function competently in the workplace students need to read and use a range of texts p For other Canadian media literacy curriculum Ontario media literacy curriculum by grade level http www angelfire com ms MediaLiteracy British Columbia Film and Television Grades http www bced gov bc ca irp film filtoc htm Britain has placed considerable emphasis on media education in the past decade leading to the development of nation-wide Advanced Level examinations in media studies film studies and communication studies All students are required to demonstrate proficiency in analysis of a media text The British curriculum is organized around certain concepts of media language properties of texts genre representation institution control ownership of production and audience This leads to questions such as the following How is the meaning produced How might the text be classified as a genre What kinds of representation are found in the text Who produced the text and for whar purpose How might different audiences understand and respond to the text What kinds of skills and understanding are required to produce such a text Roy Stafford http mediaed org uk posted documents mediaeduk html In attempting to formulate a media literary curriculum Renee Hobbs of Temple University http www reneehobbs org renee's web site Products products htm who has worked on developing the Maryland media literacy curriculum http www msde state md us assignment media lit home html as well as the Viewing and Representing media literacy curriculum for Texas notes the any media literacy curriculum needs to involve use of reading and critical thinking strategies involved in responding to a range of media texts Hobbs Technology integration It is also important to envision any curriculum as involving the understanding and use of new digital technology tools in all areas of the curriculum By engaging students in uses of analysis of digital texts and producing those texts in math science social studies English second language arts and physical education students are acquiring essential skills those the use of technology tools Technology itself poses a major challenge to traditional school curriculum Because students now have ready access to a range of digital texts in contexts outside of the classroom raising questions about the need for teachers to incorporate and integrate these experiences into their curriculum What you can add to these outside-of-school experiences is a critical perspective that serves to raise critical questions about the perspectives biases value assumptions representations discourses and ideological agendas operating in these digital texts In the introduction to their book on this topic Digital Expressions Media Literacy and English Language Arts Barrie Barrell and Roberta Hammett argues that digital technologies have also integrated media necessitating a curriculum focus on uses of and production of media technology as no longer a traditional add-on training topic but as a tool that serves to help students mediate construct create and create knowledge through the uses of media technology tools As analogue technologies lose ground to digital newcomers the computer monitor and the television screen become one and same and films and television programs like music exist as comfortably on the computer network as in other technologies Thus the hypereality of the television and the virtual reality of the computer are blended as seamlessly as Internet and media cultures The tools of cultural studies supplementing Internet Computer Technology and traditional English classroom practices become the necessary mans of critical of the multiple and varied texts surrounding young people in the st century p David Jonassen argues that learn to use technology tools what he describes as mindtools should become central to learn how to solve problems and construct knowledge http members aol com Mind Ls multimedia htm Books on the topic of mindtools Dikhstra S Jonassen D Sembill D Multimedia learning Results and perspectives New York Peter Lang Jonassen D Howland J Moore J Marra R Learning to solve problems with technology A constructivist perspective Upper Saddle River NJ Prentice Hall Jonassen D Stollenwerk D Computers as mindtools for schools Engaging critical thinking New York The Media Workshop http www mediaworkshop org The Integration of Technology Across the Middle School Curriculum http www pineriver k mi us ms lessonplans lessonplans html For further reading on curriculum integration of media Adans D M Hamm M Media and literacy Learning in an electronic Age--Issues ideas and teaching strategies New York Charles C Thomas Alvermann D Ed Adolescents and literacies in a digital world New York Peter Lang Alvermann D Moon J S Hagood M C Popular culture in the classroom Teaching and researching critical media literacy Newark DE International Reading Association Barrell B R C Hammett R F Mayher J S Pradl G M Eds New traditions in subject English Cross border perspectives New York Teachers College Press Barrell B R C Ed Technology teaching and learning Issues in the integration of technology Calgary Detselig Enterprises Ltd pages Brunner C Talley W The new media literacy handbook An educator's guide to bringing new media into the classroom New York Anchor Books Buckingham D Media education Literacy learning and contemporary culture London Polity Press Buckingham D Sefton-Green J Cultural studies goes to school Reading and teaching popular media Philadelphia Taylor Francis Considine D Haley G E Visual messages Integrating imagery into instruction A teacher resource for media and visual literacy Boulder CO Teacher Ideas Press Doggett S Montgomery P K Beyond the book Technology integration into the secondary school library media curriculum New York Libraries Unlimited Farmer L S J Teaming with opportunity Media programs Community constituencies and technology New York Libraries Unlimited Fleming D Media Teaching London Blackwell Publishers Goodwyn A English teaching and the moving image Philadelphia Taylor Francis Hammett R F Barrell B R C Eds Digital expressions Cultural studies and technology Calgary Detselig Enterprises Ltd Hart A Hicks A Teaching media in the English curriculum New York Stylus Publishing Kooy M Jansen T Watson K Eds Fiction literature and media Amsterdam Amsterdam University Press Krueger E Christel M Seeing and believing How to teach media literacy in the English classroom Portsmouth NH Heinemann Kubey R Ed Media literacy in the information age Current perspectives New York Transaction Publishers Loizeau E B Fraistat N Reimagning textuality Textual studies in the late age of print Madison WI University of Wisconsin Press Mackay M Literacies across Media Playing the Text London Routledge Mayer R Multimedia learning Cambridge University Press Pailliotet A Mosenthal P Eds Reconceptualizing literacy in the Media Age New York JAI Press Richards J C McKenna M C Eds Integrating multiple literacies in K- classrooms Mahwah NJ Lawrence Erlbaum Ross J M The groovy little youth media sourcebook Strategies and techniques from the ListenUp Network New York Listen Up Semali L Transmediation in the classroom A semiotics-based media literacy framework New York Peter Lang Semali L Kincheloe J L Steinberg S R Eds Literacy in multimedia America Integrating media across the curriculum Philadelphia Taylor Francis Inc Tyner K Literacy in a digital world Teaching and learning in the age of information Mahwah NJ Lawrence Erlbaum Unsworth L Teaching multiliteracies across the curriculum Changing contexts of text and image in classroom practice Philadelphia Taylor Francis Drawing on Existing Media Studies Curriculum In this module you will learn ways of formulating your own media studies curriculum as integrated into language arts social studies or second languages cultures curriculum based on interpretive strategies and critical approaches All of this involves adopting an interdisciplinary approach to organizing the curriculum in which you are combining language arts social studies science math or second languages with media studies art In doing so you may want to examine curriculum developed by others curriculum syllabi and units available from the following sites Interdisciplinary lesson plans by author and title http www suhsd k ca us mvm netlinks contents html The Educators Network free sign up units from different disciplines http www theeducatorsnetwork com main Teach with Movies ways of integrating movies into the curriculum http www teachwithmovies org Introduction to Media Studies course at University of Texas http www utexas edu coc rtf fall html ScreenSite http www tcf ua edu ss lots of college syllabi New Mexico Media Literacy Project http www nmmlp org The Media Literacy On-Line Project http interact uoregon edu MediaLit HomePage Media Education Foundation http mediaed org Center for Media Literacy http www medialit org Media Literacy Clearinghouse http www med sc edu Media Channel http www mediachannel org Media Knowledge http www mediaknowledge org The Connecticut Media Literacy Project http www medialit uconn edu Media Working Group http www mwg org Media Awareness Network http www media-awareness ca english index cfm The Media and Communication Studies Page http www aber ac uk media medmenu html Project Look Sharp http www ithaca edu looksharp resources integration EnhanceTV Australian site that provides information about video recourses some of which can be downloaded http www enhancetv com au Studying Film Adaptations of Literature and Theater English teachers frequently employ film adaptations of literature one example of integrating film into the English curriculum In doing so English teachers may bring a bias towards assuming that print or stage literature is somehow a superior form to film while film teachers may assume that film is superior These presuppositions having to with one form being superior to the other often lapses into discussions of whether the film or the text is better failing to consider or judge the uses of specific techniques within a particular form The extent to which a film or text succeeds needs to judged according to criteria specific to that particular medium Many early film adaptations were highly staged as no more than a faithful reproduction of the original theater production These films did not succeed in terms of using the film medium itself to create highly cinematic versions of the original story that employs engaging film techniques These films therefore did not exploit the differences between film and theater forms Differences between film and theater In his textbook Understanding Movies Louis Giannetti http www prenhall com giannetti describes some of the differences between film and theater - time Film can be highly flexible moving backwards with flashbacks or forwards as well as compressing or speeding up time time in the theater is continuous and limited to moving forward in time - space Space in film is two-dimensional and viewers are positioned within that space through different types of shots as close to a person or faraway from that person Space in theater is three-dimensional and audiences can select what they and how they focus their attention However the space in a theater is a closed space once actors leave the stage they are forgotten when film often uses off-frame action the fact that we are aware of someone outside a frame - language Film employs both cinematography and language to convey meaning whereas theater employs primarily language although some theater productions incorporate multimedia videos as part of the production Theater therefore focuses primarily on characters and their relationships within relatively small limited spaces while film can place people in a range of different much more open spaces - directing Film directors often have much more independence control and leeway to construct their own ideas and versions of the original screenplay while theater directors are more limited to adopting the play Film directors can redo a certain scene numerous times until it fits what they want to convey While theater directors certainly will rework scenes once the play begins its run they have little control over the results - settings Film directors can work with a lot of different aspects of settings and forms of space music editing and now computer graphics and simulations while theater directors are limited to the stage space - costumes In both film and theater costumes are used to capture the historical or cultural contexts using costumes to communicate the nature of the historical period character s class gender age eroticism attitude style often through colors or fit or identity and personality as eccentric conventional proper elegant etc Different Modes of Adaptation In adapting a print text or theater production to film directors may vary in terms of the degree and nature of how they use the original content of the text or play They can stick quite close to the original text to create a highly literal reproduction of the text or they can create a totally different version of the original text Giannetti describes three different degrees of fidelity to the original subject matter the loose the faithful and the literal p In a loose adaptation a director may only use the original situation story idea or characters to create a film that bears little resemblance to the original text He cites the examples of Kurosawa s Ran based on King Lear and Throne of Blood based on MacBeth that use only the bear bones of the original story to create his own versions set in an entirely different cultural context Ran translated as chaos takes the story of Lear s tragedy and places it in the midst of th century Japan a time of political instability when feudal war lords battled for control of territory When the Lear character Hidetora decides he wishes to retire he attempts to divide his land between his three sons The heirs in this case must be male as Japanese culture forbids female succession The sexual perversity and scheming of Goneril Regan and Edmund is personified by the Lady Kaede who manipulates the two older brothers out of revenge for her father s death at Hidetora s hands The other female character Lady Sue represents the innocent silent suffering of a model wife Even more compelling than the changes in characterization is Kurosawa s visual style The visuals suggest Noh theater a quiet highly stylized Japanese dramatic dance form Kurosawa utilizes a static camera vibrant color iconology as well as silence itself to suggest a meditation on the death and destruction that ensues Similarly the film Clueless was based on the storyline and comic ironic wit of Jane Austen s Emma but it set in a contemporary world with quite different characters The main character Cher employs contemporary language but maintains Austen s parody of dating romantic rituals as well as class differences Faithful adaptations attempt to recapture the original text as closely as possible a careful translation of the original into film form that retains the characters storylines and most events For example Tom Jones Emma Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing are relatively faithful to their original material In studying examples of these faithful adaptations student could examine how the director adopted specific scenes dialogue or characters into a visual form Faithful adaptations may have difficulty when they attempt to adapt literary texts that rely on complex highly metaphoric language or thematic material often are more difficult to successfully adopt to the screen in a literal manner given the challenge of reproducing in a visual form the meaning of a text s language For example the film adaptation of The Great Gatsby which contains a lot of rich metaphoric language was considered to be marginal by critics because it attempted to literally reproduce the original language Literal adaptations are typically older video versions of play productions with limited use of cinematic techniques as was the case with the BBC for television versions of Shakespeare and Emma Rachel Malchow a graduate student at the University of Minnesota suggests some other modes of adaptation The displaced setting The film changes the time period but maintains fidelity to all other major aspects of original text including language as in Romeo Juliet set in a contemporary world of competing gangs and violence sex and drugs an MTV visual style and contemporary soundtrack Hamlet is set in New York City in which Hamlet is trying to stop the uncle who has usurped control of his father s Denmark Corporation Acculturated In the acculturated adaptation the same characters plot and theme of the original text are retained the film shifts its use of language and setting into new context as in the previously mentioned Clueless as well as Things I Hate About You Things I Hate About You is a modern version of The Taming of the Shrew set in a suburban high school Politicized The politicized adaptation maintains general fidelity to literary aspects of original text but re-focuses theme in order to make a contemporary political statement as in Henry V and Portrait of a Lady Mansfield Park takes Austen s most silent heroine Fanny Price and gives her a voice of her own In this feminist Marxist approach to the text Fanny becomes a writer and uses her literary talent to express her criticism of the hypocrisy she sees around the world related to class and race Hollywood-ized The Hollywood-ized adaptation alters the character plot and or themes in order to appeal to a mass commercial audience as in The Most Dangerous Game and Wuthering Heights Kenneth Branagh s version of Hamlet includes every line of the text but neglects to provide any unifying interpretation of the text as a whole Instead the interest in the film is supplied by cameo appearances by numerous American and British actors opulent sets and scenes replete with special effects but it has no emotional or critical center and becomes instead a typical action hero movie The Radical Homage The Radical Homage involves a highly innovative unconventional version of the original text through use of allusions to the original text heightened awareness of cinematic techniques often deconstructs both original and filmic text as in Prospero s Books and Tempest Al Pacino s Looking for Richard is a fascinating film that blends documentary with a filmed dramatic version of Richard III Pacino roams around New York City asking people on the street and people in show business to comment on their attitudes about Shakespeare Then he gathers a group of famous actors together to create a staging of Richard III which will be accessible to the masses He films rehearsals location scouting and arguments over interpretations of passages Students could also compare difference in adaptations of the same text William McCauley has his high school students contrast different versions of The Scarlet Letter The excellent film version with Meg Foster and John Heard is not only true to the text but it also fully exploits the text's references to color and the interplay of light and darkness It also allows viewers to delve into the psyches of the four main characters and it makes effective use of camera angles such as when Dimmesdale is standing on a balcony but the low camera angle makes it appear that he is actually standing on the scaffold The more recent film with Demi Moore in the lead role is quite different Although I don't show it in class many students have seen it and after a thorough discussion of the text they often label it a comical parody of the novel From the scene showing Pearl being conceived to a rifle-toting Hester defending her hearth and home the film distorts the characters into unrecognizable shadows of Hawthorne's originals Students understand this and as they become more critically adept they see that this distortion is inseparably interwoven with the technical aspects of the film In working with adaptations in the classroom Rachel recommends drawing on Teasley and Wilder that teachers avoid attempting to show entire films as opposed to film clips in order to avoid taking up extensive class time to view hours of a film She also suggests minimal use of literal adaptations which are really more filmed dramas than films She recommends the use of faithful adaptations such as the version of Emma starring Gwenyth Paltrow Franco Zeffirelli s Romeo and Juliet Kenneth Branagh s Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing Teasley and Wilder p recommend pairing up texts and films in terms of - a film set in the same country and period as the novel but with a different focus - a novel and a film adaptation of another novel by the same author the film Tess with another Thomas Hardy novel or the film Grapes of Wrath with another Steinbeck novel - a novel and a film that share a similar situation or theme - books and films from the same literacy genres such as epic tragedy fairy tale satire or myths and legends At the same time it is also important to recognize that not all film adaptations are successful and that it may be more productive to select film and print texts based on similarity of themes topics issues or problems For further reading on film adaptations Aebischer P Wheale N Esche E Eds Remaking Shakespeare Performance Across media genres and cultures New York Palgrave Andrew D Concepts in film theory New York Oxford University Press http www questia com PM qst action openPageViewer docId Bluestone G Novels into film Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press Burt R Ed Shakespeare after mass media New York St Martin's Press Burt R Boose L E Eds Shakespeare the Movie II Popularizing the plays on film TV video and DVD New ork Routledge Cartmall D Whelehan I Eds Adaptations From text to screen Screen to text New York Routledge Cartmell D Hunter I Q Whelehan I Eds Retrovision Reinventing the past in film and fiction New York Pluto Press Corrigan T Film and literature An introduction and reader Upper Saddle River NJ Prentice Hall Coursen H R Teaching Shakespeare with film and television A Guide Westport CT Greenwood Press http www questia com PM qst action openPageViewer docId Elliott K Rethinking the novel film debate New York Cambridge University Press Erksine T L Welsh J M Video versions Film adaptations of plays on video Westport Connecticut Greenwood Press http www questia com PM qst action openPageViewer docId Ferrell W K Literature and film as modern mythology New York Praeger http www questia com PM qst action openPageViewer docId Glavin J Dickens on screen New York Cambridge University Press Lehmann C Starks L S Spectacular Shakespeare Critical theory and popular cinema Teaneck NJ Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Lothe J Narrative in fiction and film An introduction New York Oxford University Press Lupack B T Literary adaptations in Black American cinema From Michieux to Morrison Rochester NY Rochester University Press McFarlane B Novel to film An introduction to the theory of adaptation New York Oxford University Press http www questia com PM qst action openPageViewer docId Miller N Ed Reimagining Shakespeare for Children and Young Adults Philadelphia Taylor Francis Inc Naremore J Ed Film adaptation New Brunswick NJ Rutgers University Press Parrill S Jane Austen on film and television A critical study of the adaptations New York MacFarland Co Pucci S R Thompson J Eds Jane Austen and co Remaking the past in contemporary culture Albany NY SUNY Pres Roberts J The great American playwrights on the screen A critical guide to film TV Video and DVD New York Applause Books Seger L The art of adaptation Turning fact and fiction into film New York Henry Holt Sibley B The Making of the Movie Trilogy The Lord of the Rings Boston Houghton Mifflin Starks L S Lehmann C Eds The Reel Shakespeare Alternative Cinema and Theory Teaneck NJ Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Welsh J M Vela R Tibbetts J C Shakespeare into film Facts on File New York Checkmark Books The Academy Award winners for best adaptations category was dropped after Traffic The Cider House Rules Gods and Monsters L A Confidential Sling Blade Sense and Sensibility Forrest Gump Schindler's List Howards End Silence of the Lambs Driving Miss Daisy Dangerous Liaisons The Last Emperor A Room with a View Out of Africa Amadeus Terms of Endearment Missing On Golden Pond Ordinary People Kramer Vs Kramer Midnight Express Julia All the President's Men One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest The Godfather Part II The Exorcist The Godfather The French Connection M A S H Midnight Cowboy The Lion in Winter In the Heat of the Night A Man for All Seasons Doctor Zhivago Becket Tom Jones To Kill a Mockingbird Judgment at Nuremburg Elmer Gantry Film Adaptations for literature courses recommended by Teasley and Wilder The Dead John Huston PG min This adaptation of James Joyce's short story from Dubliners was John Huston's final film and beautifully captures the setting characters and mood of Joyce's story A Room with a View James Ivory NR min In this magnificent adaptation of E M Forster's novel of Victorian England Lucy Honeychurch is simultaneously horrified and thrilled when George Emerson grabs and kisses her in a meadow outside Florence Italy Nevertheless when she returns home to England she accepts the marriage proposal of the very dull Cecil Vyse The film follows Lucy's dilemma will she marry Cecil or will she finally acknowledge her own passionate side and accept George Sense and Sensibility Ang Lee PG min Of the recent Austen films this is the best--by turns funny romantic and poignant The Dashwood sisters differ in their expectations of romance and marriage but both are thwarted by their family's financial situation Of course it turns out well in the end but not before hearts are broken and happiness seems hopeless Tess Roman Polanski PG min In this adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles Tess is a farm girl who cannot have the love of her aristocratic employer and cannot love her working-class husband The film is beautifully made with attention to the details of life in nineteenth century England Tom Jones Tony Richardson NR min This fast-moving bawdy adaptation of the Henry Fielding novel tells the story of Tom Jones a playboy who is tenderhearted and a defender of the poor but unable to resist women The film's attention to details of everyday life in th century England makes it a valuable source for teaching the social customs of the times Wuthering Heights William Wyler NR min Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon star as doomed lovers Heathcliff and Cathy in this adaptation of Emily Bronte's novel The film leaves out portions of the book but captures its romance and passion Ten Great Film Adaptations of Plays The Crucible Nicholas Hytner PG- min Arthur Miller wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of his play about the Salem witch trials Daniel Day Lewis portrays the flawed John Proctor with Joan Allen as his steadfast wife and Winona Ryder as the wild and vengeful Abigail Director Hytner filming at the Massachusetts shore insisted on strict period detail so teachers using the play to teach about the Colonial Period can have some confidence in the film's portrayal of life in th century America Cyrano de Bergerac France Jean-Paul Rappeneau PG min in French In this lavish production of Edmund Rostand's play Gerard Depardieu plays the large-nosed Cyrano This soldier-poet is fearless in battle and loyal to his friends but terrified to express his love to the beautiful Roxanne Subtitles by Anthony Burgess give viewers a sense of the original French verse Death of a Salesman Volker Schlondorff NR min This excellent adaptation stars Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman John Malkovich as his son and Kate Reid as his wife Originally made for television the film earned numerous honors including Emmys for Hoffman and Malkovich A Man for All Seasons Fred Zinneman G min This compelling story of Sir Thomas More Chancellor of England during the reign of Henry VIII chronicles More's conflict with his king and his unwillingness to approve of the king's divorce from Anne Boleyn The film is particularly valuable in providing students with the cultural and political background of th century England Much Ado About Nothing Kenneth Branagh PG- min Filmed in Tuscany this high-spirited romance about two couples Beatrice and Benedick and Hero and Claudio would win over the most apathetic high school student Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh are excellent as the headstrong Beatrice and Benedick and American actors Michael Keaton Keanu Reaves Denzel Washington and Sean Leonard add interest for students A Raisin in the Sun Daniel Petrie NR min Lorraine Hansberry wrote the screenplay based on her play and seven members of the original New York cast repeat their roles for this adaptation Sidney Poitier plays Walter Lee Younger trying to provide his wife son and mother With the impending arrival of his father's life insurance benefit of family members debate exactly how they can provide the best future for the family Romeo and Juliet Franco Zeffirelli PG min For over thirty years English teachers have used this rich adaptation of Shakespeare's play Title characters Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were newcomers to film in and young enough to emphasize the lovers' youth The supporting cast includes Michael York as Tybalt and Milo O'Shea as Friar Laurence The Taming of the Shrew Franco Zeffirelli NR min Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor are appropriately over-the-top in another lavish Zeffirelli production of a Shakespeare play set in Italy The wooing scene is a rough and tumble wrestling match to rival the WWF Of course students today won't appreciate the subtext of the actors' own tumultuous personal lives but then they can watch Things I Hate About You see above if they want contemporary relevance One caution be sure to locate a widescreen version of this film the pan and scan video version shown on television often can't hold both actors in the frame at once and yields a very strange cinematic experience Wit Mike Nichols PG- min Dr Vivian Bearing is a professor of English literature who specializes in the metaphysical poets In the first scene a doctor gives her the facts about her ovarian cancer and invites her to begin an aggressive regimen of experimental treatments What follows is a riveting experience both in its painful and emotional honesty and in its tribute to the human spirit Emma Thompson who also adapted the screenplay with playwright Margaret Edson gives an extraordinary performance Other texts made into movies from Ayers Crawford pp - The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Smoke Signals A Clockwork Orange Two Years Before the Mast Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep Like Water for Chocolate A Lesson before Dying The Tin Drum The Autobiography of Malcolm X Seabiscuit High Fidelity The World According to Garp Hoop Dreams Girl Interrupted One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest Being There Born on the Fourth of July To Kill a Mockingbird A River Runs through it and Other Stories All the Pretty Horses Master and Commander East of Eden Grapes of Wrath The Joy Luck Club Zoot Suit The Piano Lesson Horror film adaptations employed in Susan Crutchfield s course at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse http perth uwlax edu english pages Faculty Susan's Web Page english htm An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Robert Enrico The Turn of the Screw Henry James The Innocents Jack Clayton Frankenstein Mary Shelley Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Kenneth Branagh Dracula Bram Stoker Bram Stoker's Dracula Francis Ford Coppola Psycho Robert Bloch Psycho Alfred Hitchcock Carrie Stephen King Carrie Brian dePalma Who Goes There John W Campbell Jr The Thing John Carpenter The Forbidden Clive Barker Candyman Bernard Rose The Rocky Horror Show Richard O'Brien The Rocky Horror Picture Show Jim Sharman The film Adaptation about issues of creating an adaptation of a book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orleon played by Meryl Streep by two brothers both played by Nicolas Cage about a Florida man who is obsessed by a rare orchid played by Chris Cooper http www sonypictures com homevideo adaptation-superbit index html Case studies of film adaptations http www nv cc va us home bpool dogwood case html Early film adaptations http etext lib virginia edu railton enam gallerys movieindx html The American Short Story series Part II videos http www filmideas com stories html Cable in the Classroom Shakespeare adaptations http www ciconline com bdp Tanya Gough Shakespeare DVD s Shakespeare Magazine http www shakespearemag com summer dvd asp Mary Ciccone teaching an on-line Shakespeare in Film course through Virtual High School Shakespeare Magazine http www shakespearemag com summer summer asp Mr William Shakespeare lots of links to Shakespeare sites http shakespeare palomar edu Shakespeare High on-line discussion student resources http www shakespearehigh com Complete works of Shakespeare http the-tech mit edu Shakespeare Webquest Macbeth http www berksiu k pa us webquest pmiller index htm Bravo Channel Page to Screen program features adaptations of specific books http www bravotv com Page to Screen American Film Institute http www afi edu showcase asp examples of student-produced adaptations of Lord of the Flies King Lear Julius Caesar and The Crucible includes storyboards outlines video clips and reflections Fiction into Film http fictionintofilm trawna com MacBeth on Film British Film Institute http www bfi org uk education resources teaching secondary macbeth Teach with Movies Lesson Guide Hamlet http www teachwithmovies org samples hamlet html Sites on teaching of literature Romeo Juliet unit http www lausd k ca us lausd resources shakespeare webguide html Interactive Shakespeare Project http www holycross edu departments theatre projects isp Lesson Plans Literature adaptations on A E Channel http www aetv com class teach Literature lesson plans http www teachers net cgi-bin lessons sort cgi searchterm Literature http members aol com DonnAnCiv Literature html http www sdcoe k ca us score cy html http school discovery com lessonplans lit html - Web English Teacher activities for texts organized by author http www webenglishteacher com litmain html Links to literature activities for texts organized by author http www linkstoliterature com Linda s Links books organized by title http www richmond k va us readamillion LITERATURE lindas links to literature htm Sparknotes summaries organized by title http www sparknotes com lit Larry McCaffery greatest works of the th century http www literarycritic com mccaffery html Literature Classics can be search by author or historical period http literatureclassics com Project Gutenberg on-line texts http www gutenberg net Awesome Library organized by author Middle school literature http www awesomelibrary org Classroom English Literature Middle High School Literature html College literature http www awesomelibrary org Classroom English Literature College Literature html Poetry http www awesomelibrary org Classroom English Poetry Poetry html C-Span American Writers series http www americanwriters org Electronic Literature Website links to current on-line literature http directory wordcircuits com dir sites htm Rave-Reviews Best Selling Fiction in American University of Virginia http www lib virginia edu speccol exhibits rave reviews The Folger Shakespeare Library http www folger edu education teaching htm Academy of American Poets http www poets org Voices of the Shuttle hundreds of links http vos ucsb edu browse asp id Songs Inspired By Literature SIBL http www cdbaby com cd sibl Perspectives on American Literature organized by historical period http www csustan edu english reuben pal TABLE HTML Literature of the Contact Zone out-of-print literature that reflect a postcolonial perspective on the literature of empire http www atl ualberta ca litcz Film for the Humanities On-line catalogue organized by topics http www films com Films Home Categories cfm bMouse off type all s Early American Literature course Geoffrey Grimes Mountain View College http www mvc dcccd edu ArtScien Engl INSTRUCT grimes html American Verse Project University of Michigan organized by poet http www hti umich edu cgi t text text-idx tpl browse tpl c amverse The Annenberg Learning Channel series on teaching literature includes some useful material and teaching techniques for interpreting literary texts Conversations In Literature http www learner org redirect august conversations html In Search Of The Novel http www learner org redirect august isonovel html The Expanding Canon Teaching Multicultural Literature In High School http www learner org resources resource html uid Literature courses offered at Virtual High http www govhs org Pages Academics-Catalog search under language arts Ghost stories on film British Film Institute http www bfi org uk education resources teaching secondary ghoststories index php Course materials for studying science fiction http www wsu edu brians science fiction Science Fiction Guides html American Studies literature syllabus http www umsl edu gryan amer studies amstudies syllabus html Webquest for studying individual children s adolescent literature authors http www elmhurst edu library courses edu EDU AuthorWebQuest html Interpretive Strategies For Organizing Curriculum In their book Understanding by Design Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe http www pgcps pg k md us croom understanding by design htm argue that curriculum designers should employ a backwards design to initially define learning goals and objectives what you want your students to be able to do You can define the specific strategies or critical approaches students will employ by first unpacking your own interpretation of a media text and noting the particular thought processes you employed in constructing your responses to a text In doing so you should consider the differences how you respond and how your students respond While you may be able to interpret the symbolic meaning of sign given your knowledge of the cultural codes your students may have more difficulty doing so An alternative perspective on curriculum design frames the curriculum around the use and application of various interpretive strategies or critical approaches that are involved in understanding and producing all different types of texts Interpretive Strategies Comparing differences in experiences of different reading and viewing modes Defining narrative development Interpreting characters actions beliefs agendas goals Contextualizing texts in terms of cultural and historical worlds Defining intertextual hypertextual links between texts Adopting alternative voices and discourses Judging quality of literature and media texts By framing the curriculum in terms of these underlying interpretive strategies you can consider using both print and media digital texts to helps students acquire these strategies and approaches Comparing Differences in Experiences of Different Reading and Viewing Modes One basic strategy has to do with comparing differences between the experience of different media types or texts We often understand an experience A by contrasting it with experience B One useful approach to having students understand and judge the nature of their experience with different experiences within and across different reading and viewing experience is to have them compare the differences in their experiences of different types of texts print text film television radio computer video-games theater multi-media presentation particularly in cases when the different modes are portraying the same content or experience Students can make multiple comparisons between these types of media texts In doing so it is important that they focus on the nature of the differences between their experiences as opposed to attempting to define whether one type is necessarily better than the other type as in judging a book as better than a movie based on the book Nature and level of engagement with different types of media texts Students may also compare differences in the nature and level of engagement across these different types of texts What types of emotions did I experience How did these emotions shape my responses In responding to texts students experience a range of different emotions sympathy happiness relief apprehension joy anger anxiety etc Students may reflect on these emotions by asking the questions What are some reasons for my emotions How did these emotions shape my experiences with the text Formulating reasons for their emotions leads them to consider their beliefs and attitudes the fact that they experienced anger about racism because they have strong ethical beliefs about racism They may also expand on their responses by considering how their emotions shape their experience for example the fact that their anger about racism led them to judge negatively the institutions that were fostering such racism One of the differences between the experience of film and print texts is that film involves a multifaceted appeal to different senses than does a print texts As Homicz and Dreiser note Film allows for a more immediate sensory experience than writing a fact partially due to the greater number of stimuli images sounds writing acting on the movie viewer The mere variety of sensory stimulation gives the person watching the film more indicators as to its possible meaning and so simplifies the process At the same time film as well as photography we might add grants viewers greater freedom in assembling the message than writing does-the first employ a two-dimensional or spatial code the latter a linear one While written language thus forces us to proceed from left to right or right to left as the case may be to understand the meaning of its words images whether moving or stationary allow the eye to wander at will to make out the visual whole This difference may be related to differences in the kind of pleasure students may experience in viewing movies something they may not associate with reading As a result as Homicz and Dreiser argue they may resist study of film in the classroom as undermining the kinds of pleasure they associate with viewing films outside of the classroom On the other hand students may experience certain pleasures in producing or performing texts for example a drama production of a story that entails a different kind of emotional experience than in viewing or reading a text Students could also compare the emotions they experience in viewing live theater or concert performance as opposed to reading a play or listening to a recording They may noted that in the live performance they may experience a sense of being caught up in someone s performance as unique to that particular performance and as shaped by an audience s response They may also compare their emotional response to viewing film in a movie house in which they may become enveloped with the screen with watching television in which they are more aware of the surrounding context or with interactions with other audience members Students could also describe the degree to which they were highly engaged or found a particular media text compelling in terms of being caught up in a dramatic storyline Selmer Bringsjord notes instances of texts that he finds to be dramatically compelling noting that this does not include computer games Lots of computer games are compelling E g I find even current computerized poker games quite compelling and I find The Sims downright fascinating doubtless you have your own favorites But our planet isn't graced by even one dramatically compelling computer game or more generally one such interactive digital entertainment The movie T Dante's Inferno Hamlet Gibson's prophetic Neuromancer the plays of Ibsen -- these things are dramatically compelling they succeed in no small part because they offer captivating narrative and all that that entails e g engaging characters There is no analogue in the interactive digital arena alas Massively multi-player online games are digital interactive and entertaining -- but they have zero literary power which explains why though T engages young kids through at least middle-aged professors such games are demographically one-dimensional The same can be said by my lights for all other electronic genres And students could compare the emotions with music and other forms related to music such as spoken poetry drama music videos film television soundtracks musicals etc In doing so they could describe the differences between simply listening to a song and experiencing that same song as performed as a poem in a play music video or as a film television soundtrack Youth Speaks slam poetry productions http www youthspeaks org youthspeaks FlashSite open html Lesson plans from the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame that involve integrating music with other forms of literacy http www rockhall com programs plans asp Level of interactivity audience participation with texts Students could discuss how differences across the different types of media texts foster different modes of interactive participation In reading a text a reader constructs their own envisionments of characters and events while in viewing a film adaptation they are presented with the director s envisionments which may or may not be consistent with a reader s versions of events being portrayed In experiencing a stage production of a play an audience may select what aspect of the play they want to focus on by attending to a particular point or actor on the stage In contrast in film the film director employs certain shots to guide the viewers attention in ways that convey their intended meaning They use a close-up to focus the audience s attention on a particular character or object particularly objects that function in a symbolic mode The level of audience interaction is obviously much higher for Web sites hypertext fiction and computer games than is the case with print texts film or television In participating in an on-line chat room or MOO audiences are actively engaged in assuming roles and influencing the direction of events Print texts film or television generally involves a linear defined movement through the text based on a set beginning middle and end Digital texts such a Web sites on-line games or Hypertext fiction involve endless options for audiences to select In their experience with selecting their own links audiences may experience a sense of becoming lost or unsure as to their direction Defining Narrative Development A second strategy involves the ability to define the narrative or storyline development operating in a text a process that varies according to differences in form Interpreting literary texts requires readers to infer the relationships between specific events and to construct the plot development how certain events cause or can be explained by other events They are also detecting conflicts between characters and how those conflicts will be resolved And they are continually predicting subsequent events predictions that help them determine the nature of the storyline based on their knowledge of prototypical genre types If for example they predict that the ending will be a happy one they know that they are operating in the familiar world of a comedy storyline In examining film adaptations students may compare the differences between storyline development in the original text and the film version In doing so they may note instances in which certain events were omitted added or rearranged and reasons for these changes in the original text In many cases the film version cannot include all of the events of the text or certain events in a story may be truncated given lack of time The film version of the nonfiction book Seabiscuit omitted events from the book that portrayed the several times the horse lost in a race with a hundred-thousand dollar purse Students could compare the storyline variation in the many different versions of King Lear from Shakespeare Magazine http www shakespearemag com handouts lear asp Students may note how shots and editing techniques are employed to help audiences make predictions The use of an establishing shot serves to help audiences predict that a particular setting or context may play a role in subsequent events Or a close-up on a certain object or person may suggest that this object or person will play an important role in later shots The use of off-frame action in which a person may be lurking suggests that an audience may eventually learn of that person s identity And cutting to future events or flashbacks to past events serves to develop the storyline The film version will also rely on images signs and music to help audiences predict outcomes Certain images such as the changes in the boys face paint and behavior in Lord of the Flies help audiences predict changes in the character s behavior the fact that the boys are going to become more war-like And in horror or mystery story adaptations the use of eerie music implies that something untoward will occur Students may list different predictions they are making and the shots editing techniques images and sounds they used to make these predictions Students could also examine how they construct narrative development in other forms For example in hypertext or computer game forms audiences construct their own narrative versions based on their choices of certain optional paths or directions Students may keep track of the choices they make in navigating a hypertext or computer game and reasons for those choices based on their narrative knowledge This suggests that computer games may be used to teach narrative structures particularly given the increasing popularity and increasing quality of computer games which now outnumber DVD s and videos in sales Carlson Zoeverna Jackson suggests having students identify certain games and their experiences in playing those games based on the following questions What character did they choose and why What was their quest How long did they play the game How many times did they play the game Did they play the game alone or with friends etc Was the narrative in the video game interesting Why or why not She then suggests that students create their own video games by creating a narrative and a storyboard for such a game and if possible an actual web-site Students would then reflect on the following questions How does your video game function as a storytelling device What is the most powerful narrative aspect of your video game What is the weakest narrative aspect of your video game How does your video game relate to or interact with its intended audience Game Research http game-research com http www joystick org http ludology org Game Studies a journal of computer game research http www gamestudies org Games-to-Teach Project educational game development at MIT http www educationarcade org gtt For further reading DiSessa A Changing minds Computers learning and literacy Boston MIT Press Gee J P What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy New York Palgrave Macmillan Herz J C Joystick nation How videogames ate our quarters won our hearts and rewired our minds New York Little Brown Myers D The nature of computer games Play as semiosis New York Peter Lang Prensky M Digital game based learning New York McGraw-Hill Interpreting Characters Actions Beliefs Agendas Goals Another important strategy is students ability to interpret characters beliefs agendas and goals from their actions Their ability to understand characters depends on their ability to go beyond the actions or dialogue in a story to infer what characters believe about each other their agendas or plans and the goals they are trying to achieve Part of this involves the ability to infer actions as social practices represented by the characters actions practices such as the following - Establishing one s position of authority or status Characters are continually negotiating their position of authority or status related to their rights to do certain things Students could infer practices having to do with asserting or establishing their status or power as dominant or subordinate independent or dependent or intimate loving or distant hating - Including or excluding others according to a social hierarchy As part of establishing their authority or status characters include or exclude others according to a perceived social hierarchy They often use language to label characters as the other or different --as being outside of one s valued inner circle - Maintaining and terminating relationships Characters are continually attempting to maintain their relationships through avoiding or mitigating conflicts that may undermine that relationship for example using face-saving strategies to avoid embarrassing others - Detecting signs of honesty and deception in a situation Characters are continually sizing up characters actions to discern signs of honesty sincerity or deception In studying film adaptations students could examine the extent to which the film portrays their conception of a character by the choice of a certain actor or actress as well as the type of acting performance and methods used to portray that character For example Bridget Pool http www nv cc va us home bpool dogwood case cuckoo html describes the adaptation of the characters from Ken Kesey s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest In dropping the use of Chief Bromden s first-person narrative perspective of the novel to employ more of an objective perspective The film also focuses on developing audience identification with the main character McMurphy Another important aspect of characterization in film is the way in which the camerawork and music serves to portray certain character traits In his book Teaching in the Dark which describes methods of integrating film into the literature classroom John Golden describes the portrayal of Henry V in the film adaptation of the Shakespeare play in which Henry delivers the Crispen Day Speech to rally his troops to defeat the French As he begins he is in the center on the men s level but as he continues he moves to a make-shift platform above the gathered crowd The nonidegetic music changes radically to a very light then swelling and rousing melody Throughout his speech we cut from medium shots of Henry back to shots of the soldiers who are clearly being deeply affects by his words When Henry says that We few we happy few are the only ones to share in this glorious victory we the audience see the only close-up in the scene The music reaches its crescendo just as Henry shouts upon St Crispin s day and we see long shots of the men shouting and pumping their fists in the air pp - New York Times Lesson Plan Analyzing Fictional Characters http www nytimes com learning teachers lessons friday html Contextualizing Texts in terms of Cultural and Historical Worlds Another important strategy is the ability to contextualize texts in terms of the setting as cultural and historical worlds This requires students to be able to perceive a media or literary text in relationship to the larger cultural and historical context it is portraying It also involves defining the ways in which audiences perceive the setting related to point of view Explaining or judging characters actions In explaining or judging characters actions or social practices students need to recognize how these actions or social practices are shaped by purposes roles rules beliefs traditions or history operating in social world or cultures Understanding for example Elizabeth Bennett s social practices as a female in the early-nineteenth-century world of Pride and Prejudice requires some understanding of how social behaviors were perceived as appropriate for certain social classes--the aristocracy the landed gentry the mercantile middle class the military and the working class - Purposes To interpret the purposes driving a social world students are inferring what a social world is striving to achieve Inferring this purpose requires going beyond just characters actions to perceive those actions as shaped by larger institutional forces In studying the purposes driving these worlds students may ask Why are people doing what they are doing What are they trying to accomplish What is driving their participation in an activity Are there multiple and possibly conflicting purposes at work in the activity - Roles To interpret roles readers use knowledge of the purposes or objects of an activity and consider how certain roles are designed to fulfill these purposes or objects In studying characters roles students may ask What roles identities do participants or characters enact in a world How do these roles identities vary across different worlds What practices or language do they employ to enact this role or identity What are their feelings about being in a role identity - Rules Readers also interpret characters actions in terms of whether those actions are appropriate or inappropriate given rules or norms operating in a social world In studying characters or people s rules or norms constituting what are considered to be appropriate significant or valid practices within a social world students may ask What is considered to be appropriate versus inappropriate behavior What rules does this suggest Who do you see as following versus not following these rules What do these rules suggest about the type of world the characters inhabit In the late th century world of Pride and Prejudice there are clearly defined rules constituting appropriate dating behavior rules very much related to class distinctions and gender None of the Bennett daughters could themselves initiate contact with members of the opposite sex The reclusive Mr Bennett had to make all contacts and was reticent to do with aristocrats such as D Arcy Rules also serve the purpose or object of a system The larger purpose or object operating in the late th century system was that females needed to marry in order to achieve some financial or social status beyond remaining dependent on their own familiar The rule was that unless they could attract a male who himself had money they were doomed a theme that Jane Austen was continually playing with in her novels - Beliefs Students also interpret characters actions or social practices in terms of the beliefs operating in a world or system Inferring these beliefs helps readers define the relationships between characters what characters believe about each other s status intent power sincerity or motives within a specific context In studying characters or people s beliefs students may ask What reasons do participants give for their practices in a world How do these reasons reflect their beliefs about the practices operating a certain world How do students own beliefs shape their perceptions of or responses to a world - Traditions history And students interpret characters actions or social practices based on the traditions or history operating in a text world or system They recognize that characters may be burdened by the forces of past traditions or historical forces that continue to shape their actions Characters are often challenging traditions creating tensions between principled moral arguments for the need to change and a reaction in terms of the need to maintain existing community rules or conventions In To Kill a Mockingbird the townspeople were accustomed to a separate but equal segregated world Atticus s principled defense of Boo Radley poses based on the vision of a new world of integration challenges the practices of a familiar segregated world In a unit on The Crucible http www sdcoe k ca us score cruc cructg html students explore different background cultural aspects of the Puritan era as well as the McCarthy period of the s that shaped Arthur Miller s writing of the play Students could also examine how film and literature provides them with certain perspectives on certain historical periods For example in the following unit Carl Schulkin involves students in exploring how the Holocaust is depicted in history film and literature http schulkin org classes welchol html You could provide background material about the cultural and historical contexts portrayed in a text through having students search the Web for relevant background material For example the following site provides selections from the DeWitt Clinton High School's Literary Magazine from - http newdeal feri org magpie material students could use to consider how literary texts reflect high school students experiences of the Great Depression Students could then create their own Webquests about certain cultures or periods related to different media texts or literature for use by future students Michael LoMonico in a Cable in the Classroom article Beyond Character Plot and Theme http www ciconline com Enrichment Teaching learningwithtechnology magarticles Beyondcharacter htm provides some examples of student projects http geocities com EGL Gina's poetry WebQuest includes video clips of a South Boston teen reading and discussing Gwendolyn Brook's We Real Cool and a Chinese-American teenager from Atlanta reading and discussing Emily Dickinson's I'm Nobody Who Are You Jill has her students read two news articles about parents who attempted to remove Catcher in the Rye from classrooms in an Alabama high school Then they listen to two NPR programs about book banning and answer multiple-choice questions about these resources Using what they learned they write persuasive essays to be presented at a Board of Education meeting supporting or opposing the parents' challenge Kara introduces her students to the Harlem Renaissance by having them read online articles on the African American oral tradition and the history of jazz Then they listen to audio clips of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald's version of It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit and a jazz-accompanied version of Langston Hughes reading The Weary Blues Webquest Pop Goes the Culture create a virtual museum of the culture of different decades http www lhric org kat culture htm Point of view You may also have students compare the point of view employed in a text and in a film the perspective through which we experience the action in a text and film This includes first person point of view through the eyes of a narrator or character as opposed to a third person in which audiences are not limited in terms of the adopting a certain perspective It is often more difficult to employ a first-person point of view in film because a filmmaker must rely on camera work and voice-over to portray a narrator s or character s perspective There are also instances of different versions of the same events recounted from different perspectives as is the case of Run Lola Run in which the same events are portrayed in three different versions or Memento in which the events are portrayed in reverse order in time John Golden uses the concept of focalization to work with the differences in point of view with his students The first type of focalization is subjective similar to first-person point of view in which the audience adopts the perspective or eye-line of a character The audience perceives everything through the eyes of a character or the perspective may switch back and forth from the character s perspective to a third-person perspective of the character He cites an the example of a lion-hunter in the jungle Imagine for example that we see a man hunting lions in the middle of a jungle We hear a sound and we see him looking around then we cut to what he sees something rushing in the bushes Then maybe we cut back to his face tensing up and then we cut back to the lion leaping out The lion is rushing directly towards the hunter toward the camera and thus toward us We see what he sees and feel what he feels p The second type of focalization is authorial in which the director provides an audience with certain information that is not available to a character Golden cites the example of the same shot of the man in the jungle but now rather than cut to the man s point of view the director shows the lion behind the man who is unaware of the lion s presence In this case the audience acquires information not available to a character information provided for the audience by the director The third type of focalization is neutral in which the there is no attempt to convey certain information either from a character s or the director s perspective Thus the same lion-hunter scene would include shots of the hunt then cut to the lion and then cut back to the man as he runs away from the lion and the camera We might not get an eye-line match not might we see some dramatic low angle emphasizing the power of that lion p One example of effective use of a neutral focalization is the adaptation of the Shirley Jackson short story The Lottery which portrays the ritual of an annual small-town community event in which one community member is selected to be stoned to death The film portrays this event in a highly neutral manner creating an uneasy feeling in the audience that they are witnessing an event that involved little dissent from community members Students could take the same literary text and create different storyboard versions of that text employing different points of view or focalizations to portray the same events from alternative perspectives Media history Changes in the form over time This strategy also includes the ability to interpret media texts in terms of the historical development of that particular media form related to the cultural and historical forces influencing changes in that form For example students could examine how films of the late sixties and early seventies such as Easy Rider American Graffiti The Graduate and Alice s Restaurant represented a shift in films towards a younger audience both in terms of content and style given the rise of a new large group of adolescents who were rebelling against the status quo institutions of that time Media History Project http www mediahistory umn edu History of Media http www medialit org focus hist home html National Museum of Photography Film and Television http www nmsi ac uk nmpft History of Photography http academic enmu edu gerf Film history Based on the material on film history in Module students could examine how different films and film genres reflected the shifting values of a certain decade For example students could explore why certain genres or topics achieve popularity during certain times or decades Comedy films were particularly popular during the Great Depression because they served as a mode of escape from the harsh realities of the time And they could examine how films influenced history for example how World War II propaganda films influenced peoples attitudes towards the war Film and History An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies http www h-net org filmhis This journal examines the impact of motion pictures on our society and how films both represent and interpret history Museum of the Moving Image http www bfi org uk UCLA Film and Television Archive http www cinema ucla edu Film History organized by decades http www filmsite org filmh html Television history Students could also examine how the rise of television in the s changed the film industry which then had to develop new alternative content to lure people into the theaters They could also examine how television influenced history for example how nightly news broadcasts of the Vietnam War resulted in the public s increasingly negative attitude towards that war Television history http histv free fr indexen htm Television history http www tvhistory tv MZTV Museum of Television http www mztv com gallery html Museum of Television and Radio http www mtr org History of Television Technology http members aol com aj x oldtv html Television History Archive Center for the Study of Popular Television Syracuse University http libwww syr edu information media archive main htm Student PowerPoint presentation by Jacob Beaver Bunker and Bart A History of the American Family in Television from Jim Burke s English Companion site http www englishcompanion com assignments exemplars amfamilytv htmv For further reading Roman J Love light and a dream Television's past present and future New York Praeger Publishers http www questia com PM qst action openPageViewer docId Advertising history Advertising also changed in ways that reflected an increasingly image-conscious consumer culture in which ads focus more on selling an image or an experience associated with a product as opposed to specific aspects of that product American Advertising Museum http www admuseum org Ad Access Project Duke University http scriptorium lib duke edu adaccess Media Advertising and Society Barbara Breder University of Iowa http www uiowa edu commstud advertising Digital computer history As previously noted in several modules the rise of computer use has resulted in the re-mediation Bolter Guerin of television and print news which as did film had to change its format The computer has also had served to enhance globalization of the world by providing instant connection throughout the world And the increased use of digital photography has changed the speed and availability of photos in news On the other hand this increased speed does not necessarily enhance global understanding As Ladislaus Semali argues in this readingonline org article http www readingonline org newliteracies lit index asp HREF newliteracies semali images of other countries often contain certain biases that perpetuate myths and stereotypes about those countries for example the notion that African countries are all in a state of constant turmoil and political corruption History of the Web different archive sites http www readingonline org newliteracies lit index asp HREF newliteracies webwatch wayback index html Center for History and New Media George Washington University history of digital media http chnm gmu edu assets historyessays essaystoc html Music history Students could also examine how changes in music mirrored cultural shifts as was the case with rock music in the s or hip hop music in the s and s Rock Pop and Rap Studies in Popular Music History and Culture http www drake edu swiss Homepage final html Rock n Roll Hall of Fame http www rockhall com History of Hip-Hop http www azcentral com ent pop articles hiphophis html For further reading Gardiner W L History of Media New York Trafford Publishing Defining Intertextual hypertextual Connections Between Texts Another important strategy involves defining intertextual and hypertextual connections between texts Intertextual links are used to define connections between language images characters topics or themes based on similarities in languages genres or discourses Intertextuality may also involve connections built on social meanings in which participants make intertextual links in order to build social relationships or connections Bloome Egan-Robertson For example participants in conversation may allude to shared experiences to foster a social bond or an insider reference to exclude others Participation in on-line chat exchanges engages early-adolescents in using intertextual links to foster social interaction Beach Lundell Lewis Fabos Given the high level of online marketing to kids there is a need for students to critically examine the links made in online marketing campaigns for lessons from the Media Awareness Network http www media-awareness ca english resources educational lessons secondary internet online kids strategies cfm Making intertextual links between disparate text types or genres helps students engage in what Semali and Watts-Pailliotet defined as intermediality the ability to construct connections between different sign systems concepts and technology tools Students are engaged in making intertextual links through multi-genre writing about a topic an approach currently popular in secondary writing instruction Romano Multi-genre writing involves using a range of different types of genres reports poems letters diaries stories advertisements field notes photos drawings etc to explore different aspects of and perspectives on a topic Connecting these disparate genre types requires the ability to determine how different types of texts yield different perspectives on the same topic or phenomenon As noted in Module digital media mediate the practice of making these multi-genre intertextual links Hypermedia Flash or various web-page development tools are used to combine hypertext texts linked together by multilinear nodes and multimedia photos video art audio text etc to produce an interactive media experience for participants Jonassen Landow One of the pioneers of hypertext is George Landow whose Hypertext site http www cyberartsweb org cpace ht htov html is a useful introduction to the concept of hypertext as used in teaching particularly teaching literature His Victorian Web Site http www victorianweb org represents a way of organizing a lot of different curriculum material around Victorian literature and around postcolonial literature http www postcolonialweb org Another important pioneer is Janet Murray author of Hamlet on the Holodeck MIT Press http www lcc gatech edu murray She argues that new digital media are changing narrative understanding and production by providing students with highly interactive ways of experiencing the same episode in a story from multiple different perspectives or the same storyline in terms of alternative storyline versions In his course on hypertexts at Oakland University http personalwebs oakland edu mceneane hc winter John E McEneaney has students complete projects that explore a particular topic or phenomenon through combining different media forms including annotated videos interactive games works of fiction or nonfiction in hypertext with supporting media or more visually oriented media that explore visual or performing arts One illustrative project combines music choreography and dance to choreograph a dance by selecting and editing video clips of a dancer that represent a variety of positions and movements This includes using iMovie to create a music video for a game on different elements of music and movement and a character animation to illustrate different types of movements and positions Digital media can also help teachers accommodate to individual differences in student learning by providing additional support for students or by varying instructional design to accommodate for individual differences in learning In their book Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age Universal Design for Learning ASCD on-line version http www cast org teachingeverystudent ideas tes David Rose and Anne Meyer argue that digital media can be used to alter the same material or texts to accommodate for these learning variations QuicktimeProTM Students can import video clips into the PowerPointTM presentations using QuicktimeProTM To import video clips students first put their digital video into a QuickTime format on a CD They then use QuicktimePro to edit clips from their CD to import into the PowerPoint template In showing their PowerPoint they also need to have the CD in their computer to run their presentation VideoPaper Builder TM Students can also use a free program VideoPaper Builder TM http vpb concord org to important texts images and video files into a multimedia web document This tool provides students with menus links frames and slide show templates to help students organize their material on a web site One advantage of this tool is that students can combine clips of their commentary about an image or video clip on the same screen so that they can demonstrate their interpretations of the image or clip Prior to importing their material into VideoPaper Builder TM students must first put their video into a QuickTime format their pictures in a JPG format and their Word documents into an HTML format This tool can also be used with both Mac OSX and Windows InspirationTM Using these various tools to create hypermedia hypertext links between different types of texts requires an awareness of the thematic and conceptual relationships between these texts Students could use InspirationTM http www inspiration com http www tomsynder com products to create visual maps of their texts and materials according to different templates For example students can use the thinking-skills template to develop Venn diagram comparisons between different texts noting ways in which they differ and ways in which they share certain features Noodletools TM One component of combining certain texts involves searching reference databases for different texts and then providing citations for those texts One kid-friendly tool is Noodletools http www noodletools com that provides them with an easy-to-navigate set of category options to search for resources as well as ways to provide citations Learning objects Another development tool is the use of digital learning objects that are employed to support learning in all subject-matter areas These highly visual learning objects often created by tools such as FlashTM combine visual and verbal modes of learning to engage students in interactive simulations The Merlot site contains numerous examples of learning objects in all subject matter areas http www merlot org home One example of a highly engaging learning object is Who Killed William Robinson developed by Ruth Sandwell and John Lutz University of British Columbia This learning object is a simulation based on an actual historical person William Robinson a Black American who was murdered in British Columbia in An Aboriginal man named Tshuanhusset also called Tom was charged with the murder convicted and hanged but a closer look at the evidence challenges the guilty verdict Students need to sift through various clues to determine who may have been the murderer http web uvic ca history-robinson The following is a learning object related to brainstorming ideas for writing http www wisc-online com objects index asp objID WCN All of this has profound implications for helping students learn to construct knowledge through the use of digital tools Nancy Patterson has done extensive work with her middle-school students using StoryspaceTM as tool developed by Eastgate Software http www eastgate com that is used by academics as well as writers to construct hypertexts Patterson describes how she uses hypertext to help students define relationships in a poetry unit as well as a biography unit I want my middle school students to experience this texture of possible readings and see that text is not a fixed entity Students work toward this goal by participating in hypertext projects throughout the school year This article will discuss two of those projects--a poetry web where students annotate a poem of their choosing and a biography web where students select a figure from American history research that figure and create a hypertext web designed to inform others about that person We start this project at the very beginning of the school year before the computer lab is operational And so we begin by simply reading a collection of poems written by Native Americans and discussing them We use the traditional reference materials to start the annotation process I also give students large pieces of paper and after showing them a hand drawn map of a poetry annotation I ask them to draw their own concept maps of several poems Ultimately they will choose one to focus on in more depth And using an lcd display panel our district has yet to purchase an lcd projector and an overhead projector I show them hypertext maps of several poetry webs from previous years These maps are made using Story Space For other examples of Nancy Patterson s use of Storyspace http angelfire com mi patter america hTMl http www npatterson net mid hTMl At the high school level Roberta Hammett describes the examples of a Romeo and Juliet hypermedia that involves a range of different types of texts simultaneously open on the same screen that allow students to perceive intertextual connections between these different texts in terms of thematic links having to do with suicide first love parent-child conflicts or despair These texts include print text the Wordsworth sonnet the student s personal reflection M A M an introduction to the Styx song Babe and the quicktime movie that shows scenes of ninth grade students reading Romeo and Juliet The soundtrack is the Styx song Babe I m leaving I must be on my way I ll be missing you Styx These textual explorations of various moments of despair can lead the students to a deeper understanding of the Shakespeare text Although in composing hypermedia they start with the Shakespeare text and bring in the media culture texts to illustrate it in reading Romeo and Juliet they rather bring understandings formed in multiple experiences with media culture to the classic text In the Suicide strand of the hypermedia clips from several videos and quotations from poems novels and songs illustrate this My Darling My Hamburger Zindel Wanting to Die Edmund Vance Cook Grind Alice in Chains Dead Poets Society Weir and several others have provided the students with understandings of suicide Similarly in the Balcony First Love and Parental Conflict strands popular culture texts demonstrate the variety and number of perspectives on the themes shared in songs and films that students bring to their reading of Shakespeare For Hammett all of this involves the use of media texts to construct new knowledge In composing the Romeo and Juliet hypermedia students learned how movie soundtracks affect and change the mood reactions and meanings of the visual images and scenes They experienced the effects they can create in viewers when they replaced with several different songs the original soundtrack of the Juliet s funeral scene in Zefferelli s movie version of the play Alice in Chains Grind and Girlfriend in a Coma The Smiths when used as soundtracks for the scene seemed to completely change our reaction to and interpretation of the scene Our attention was focused on different visual images and the visual images appeared to be different movement seemed faster and so on By constructing these effects themselves students will have a more practical understanding of how professionals achieve the effects that move them as audiences In the following essay Jamie Myers describes further uses of hypermedia as a tool for responding to literature http www ed psu edu k- culture Students can organize collections of digital texts found through search engines based on certain themes topics or concepts For example Jeff Rice asked students to create a handbook of cool based on images of dress behavior artifacts consumer goods as well as texts from the s to the present as a way of encouraging them to examine different cultural attitudes towards what was considered cool in different decades Students can also use digital texts to apply various critical approaches In a unit on feminist technologies Cari Carpenter created a learning simulation in which groups of students representing a feminist foundation had to made oral presentations convincing a board to donate a million dollars to the development of technologies that would enhance women s lives And Adrien Miles argues that Blogger sites allow for combining different forms of textual links based on GoogleTM searchers and links to previous messages on a site as another way of constructing knowledge as illustrated by the OzBlog site http english ttu edu kairos binder html coverweb vot index html Accommodating for learning diversities CAST The Center for Applied Special Technology http www cast org an organization focusing on the use of technology to address learning diversity provides teachers with various on-line tools for accommodating to these differences For example they noted that for students who need additional directions or support in reading texts digital text can be used to separate the content from the display As a result the same content can be varied to for example for on auditory aspects for the visually impaired or tactile aspects for the auditory impaired And digital texts can by tagged with various prompts to direct students to summarize pose questions or visualize Features such as headers or sidebars as well as summaries and questions can be added to help students as they process texts http www cast org teachingeverystudent ideas presentations digitaltext cfm One of the CAST tools eTrekker provides varied formats or structures of the same material for different learning needs The following on-line example displays two different examples of formats for an inquiry project for two different students http www cast org teachingeverystudent ideas tes chapter cfm Developed for the students and facilitators of four Study Support Centres in Christchurch and Invercargill New Zealand wickED is a quality assured lively learning environment hosted by virtual characters Ed and Wiki and full of student friendly activities and interactives http www tki org nz r wick ed literacy newspaper php http www tki org nz r wick ed themes archive php Another organization MENO Multimedia Education and Narrative Organization http meno open ac uk provides similar assistance in terms of narrative support for differences in learners Other digital media sites Hypertext on the Big Screen http www eastgate com storyspace film Miles html Course on hypertext and literature http www hypertxt com spring ets Inquiry unit on the Inquiry Web Site How does hypertext change literacy practices http www inquiry uiuc edu bin update unit cgi command select xmlfile u xml Course on Reading and Writing in a Digital Age focusing on Hypertext http www drake edu artsci hype hypertext html University of Iowa Communication Studies lots of links on hypertext theory http www uiowa edu commstud resources digitalmedia digitaltheory html Digital Narrative University of Maryland http www inform umd edu EdRes Colleges ARHU Depts CompLit cmltfac mlifton rosebud Digital Pages dn html Center for Digital Storytelling http www storycenter org Hyperhorizons Duke University site on hypertext fiction http www duke edu mshumate hyperfic html Adaptations of Print to Hypertext http www duke edu mshumate print html Introduction to the Visual Arts Laura Ruby University of Hawaii http www hawaii edu lruby art visarts htm Computer-Mediated Learning http www indiana edu r syllabus html English Through the Internet http mofetsrv mofet macam ac il elaine eti Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning http www edb utexas edu resta cscl syllabus A technology-infused English curriculum Coogan P International Electronic Journal For Leadership in Learning http www acs ucalgary ca iejll volume Coogan Project-braced Learning GLEF The George Lucas Educational Foundation http glef org PBL index html Ted Nellen s Cyber English http www tnellen com cybereng Technology integration GLEF The George Lucas Educational Foundation http glef org TI index html Hall Davidson Meaningful Digital Video for Every Classroom http www techlearning com story showArticle jhtml articleID Hypertext fiction Stuart Molthrop Hegirscope http iat ubalt edu moulthrop hypertexts hgs Stephanie Strickland The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot http www wordcircuits com gallery sandsoot Deena Larson Stained Word Window http www wordcircuits com gallery stained index html Webquest Hypertext fiction http english unitecnology ac nz resources webquests hyperfiction features html For further reading on digital literacies hypertexts and hypermedia DeWitt S Strasma K Eds Contexts intertexts and hypertexts pp - Cresskill NJ Hampton Press Kress G van Leeuwen T Multimodel discourse The modes and media of contemporary communication London Arnold Landow G P Hypertext The convergence of contemporary critical theory and technology Baltimore Johns Hopkins Press Myers J Beach R Hypermedia authoring as critical literacy Journal of Adolescent Adult Literacy pp - Myers J Hammett R McKillop A M Opportunities for critical literacy and pedagogy in student-authored hypermedia In D Reinking M McKenna L Labbo R Kieffer Eds Handbook of literacy and technology Transformations in a post- typographic world pp - Mahwah NJ Erlbaum Myers J Hammett R McKillop A M Connecting exploring and exposing the self in hypermedia projects In M Gallego S Hollingsworth Eds What counts as literacy Challenging the school standard pp - New York Teachers College Press Patterson N Weaving a narrative From teens to string to hypertext Voices from the Middle - Adopting Alternative Voices and Discourses Another strategy involves adopting multiple voices and perspectives through making double-voice intertextual references or evoking or mimicking the languages or styles from other texts or worlds Bakhtin Knoeller Speakers and writers employ these intertextual references to establish social relationships and identities Bloome Egan-Robertson Through interaction with others participants construct identities by performing in ways that position them in relation to others' positions-- it is in the connection to another's response that a performance takes shape McNamee p As Bakhtin argued in his concept of answerability people's utterances reflect their relationships with others potential anticipated reactions to their utterances As noted in Module different voices reflect or evoke different discourses or ideological perspectives Characters adopt the voices of science religion medicine business war politics romance education merchandizing etc Examining these different voices leads to understanding underlying ideological conflicts between characters ideological perspectives In the novel and film The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby adopts the voice of the Puritan Ethic working one s way to the top regardless of the means to achieve that goal In the novel and PBS production Great Expectations as in all Dickens s novels characters adopt a range of different voices reflecting business political religious and family discourses Webquest Charles Dickens http www perrysburg k oh us hs English Drew quest html In participating with a range of diverse perspectives and voices in a computer-mediated context students learn to consider alternative perspectives different from their own The more open students are to experimenting with alternative ways of being and knowing the more open they are to entertaining alternative values as opposed to a rigid monologic perspective on the world Middle-school students engaged in synchronous exchanges employed parodies of peers teachers and school discourses for example mimicking the pedantic language of textbook discussion questions As we noted in Module students can also employ Web chat rooms in tappedin org or nicenet org or MOO AOL Buddy Chat IM or Blogger sites to adopt and explore alternative voices and discourses In addition Cynthia Johnson A Few Cool Ways You Too Can Use MOOs Kairos http english ttu edu kairos binder html sectiontwo johnson main htm discusses some ways of using MOOs to help students explore alternative perspectives roles One central component of many MOOs or computer games such as Sims City is that students adopt different alternative voices associated with their online roles For example in a Brave New World MOO http homepages wmich edu r rozema Fun students assume the roles of different characters from the novel who inhabit different spaces or rooms they create based on their reading of the novel In these roles they must then solve problems and conflicts associated with the thematic tensions in the novel In their on-line book chapter The Individual Identity in Electronic Discourse A Portfolio of Voices Boyd Davis and Jeutonne P Brewer examine the ways in which on-line participants adopt a range of different voices associated with experimenting with different identities http wac colostate edu rhetnet rdc htm In analyzing film adaptations students could examine the ways in which the film captures the original voices or language of the text through how the actors perform those voices or perspectives Educational MOOs http cinemaspace berkeley edu Erachel moolist edu html Webquest Call of the Wild http www tc umn edu bosc BOSCHEE cotw webquest Webquest Romeo and Juliet http cmcweb lr k nj us webquest moran rj htm Judging Quality of Literary and Media Texts Another strategy involves the ability to judge the quality of literary and media texts in terms of specific criteria This entails going beyond simply assessing a text in terms of one s subjective reaction as in I really liked the acting to assessing the specific aspects of a text based on some pre-determined criteria There is considerable debate in the field of aesthetics between those who argue that texts should be judged based on criteria and those who argue that one should consider the creator s intentions in judging whether a text is successful The latter group posits that it is difficult to formulate criteria in ways that are not artificial or based on traditional notions of what is good art particularly in the case of contemporary art for which there is no clear understanding of the conventions constituting that art Rather than adopt this either or perspective students could rely on both predetermined criteria and their sense of imputed intentions of a text creator To inductively derive some criteria for judging for example film quality students could go on-line to some of the leading film review sites Rottentomatoes http www rottentomatoes com Movie Review Query Engine http www mrqe com Internet Movie Date Base http www imdb com Check the Grid http www checkthegrid com All Watchers http www allwatchers com MetaCritic http www metacritic com film They could the compare films that receive a high versus low ratings and attempt to discern the criteria reviewers are employing They could also examine different reviews of the same film and note the underlying criteria In some cases the criteria may be somewhat subjective but in other cases reviewers may refer to the quality of the cinematography editing acting directing story development setting authenticity and portrayals of themes And students could formulate criteria for judging literary quality based on the works of literature they have read to date Tim McCormick s Literary Critic an collaborative exchange site to engage in on-line critical analysis http www literarycritic com index shtml They could then compare their judgments of a literary text with a film adaptation recognizing the differences between the two forms Rather than judging the film as better or worse than the book they could then consider reasons why the film succeeds or fails in terms of the cinematography Students could also examine the ways in which judgments of quality are often reflect institutional biases or attitudes For example the Oscar awards tend to reflect the interests of the Hollywood film industry as opposed to the independent film industry Students could review those films that have won Oscars and note what aspects of those films may have contributed to them being winners Oscar winners organized by multiple categories http www oscar com legacy pastwin main html http www oscars org awardsdatabase IMDB site past best movie winners http www imdb com Sections Awards Academy Awards USA New York Times Lesson Plan And the Winner Is Exploring the Role of the Academy Awards and Film in American Society http www nytimes com learning teachers lessons friday html Judging television programs In addition to judging film quality students could formulate those criteria they might apply in judging the quality of television programs which leads them to contrast film and television production techniques For example television is often highly effective in focusing on the talking head in on-screen interviews particularly when using close-ups of people s faces on programs such as Sixty Minutes As with film reviews students could examine on-line television reviews to inductively discern the criteria employed by reviewers Pop Matters http www popmatters com tv reviews archive-v html Students could formulate criteria for judging the quality of television journalism in terms of objectivity accuracy fairness and balance For criteria employed in judging student television productions National Student Television Award of Excellence http www nationalstudent tv judgingdet asp They could also formulate criteria for judging prime-time television drama programs Helena Sheehan Criteria for Judging TV Drama http www comms dcu ie sheehanh criteria htm Web-page quality Students could also judge the quality of Web sites both in terms of design and the objectivity of a site s content In doing so they need to first formulate some criteria that will serve as the basis for judging web sites The Cornell University Library site http www library cornell edu okuref webcrit html identifies the following five criteria as relevant Accuracy of Web documents - Who wrote the page and can you contact him or her - What is the purpose of the document and why was it produced - Is this person qualified to write this document Authority of Web documents - Who published the document and is it separate from the Webmaster - Check the domain of the document what institution publishes this document - Does the publisher list his or her qualifications Objectivity of Web documents - What goals objectives does this page meet - How detailed is the information - What opinions if any are expressed by the author Currency of Web documents - When was it produced - When was it updated' - How up-to-date are the links if any Coverage of the Web documents - Are the links if any evaluated and do they complement the documents' theme - Is it all images or a balance of text and images - Is the information presented cited correctly American Library Association Great Web Sites for Kids http www ala org greatsites Kathy Schrock s educator sites lots of links on evaluating web sites http school discovery com schrockguide eval html Yahoo criteria accessible accurate appropriate and appealing http www yahooligans com tg evaluatingwebsites html University of California Berkeley Library http www lib berkeley edu TeachingLib Guides Internet Evaluate html Students could also judge the content on Web sites in terms of issues of free speech and access Sean Williams developed a writing assignment in which he had students make the case for or against the presence of hate sites on the Internet as well as the objectivity of these sites Students could also analyze the quality of the rhetorical appeals to audiences judging the effectiveness of a site to gain an audience s identification Rhetoric of Mass Media http www vanderbilt edu AnS Comm Courses sloop htm Students could also judge a totally new form of art Web art by going to the Museum of Web Art http www mowa org and assessing examples of Web art at that site While this may be a difficult challenge simply attempting to formulate some possible criteria may lend itself to some interesting discussions about new forms of digital art Mike Morgan Regent University course on Aesthetics Design and Criticism of the World Wide Web http www regent edu acad schcom cmc syllabi cmc - su html Webquest Michael Day Evaluating Webbed Sources for Research http www engl niu edu mday web wmc html Webquest Art criticism judging based on groups making presentations related to description analysis interpretation and judgments http coe west asu edu students kpasinski wq Webquest Art criticism judging based on an art history approach http ed unc edu teach twww hs projects spring session Dayton Plyter julie DESIGNING UNITS In designing units and classroom activities you can therefore organizing activities around students use of these and other strategies You are also organizing units in terms of some coherent overall topic theme issue genre archetypes historical literary period or production In many cases units combine different aspects of these alternatives there is no pure prototypical example for each of these different approaches Topics Organizing your unit around a topic such as power evil suburbia the family etc means that you are finding texts that portray these different topics For example you may select a series of texts that portray mother daughter relationships in film television or literature Students may then compare or contrast the different portrayals of the same topic across different texts It is important to select topics about which students have some familiarity or interest or one s that may engage them One advantage of a topics approach is that topics do not imply the kind of value or cultural orientation associated with a thematic or issue unit Students may construct their own value stance related to a topic for example defining different attitudes towards the topic of mother daughter relationships However without that additional value orientation students may lack motivation to be engaged in a topic Webquest The American Dream http learning loc gov learn lessons dream index html Webquest Victims of Mass Hysteria http kwhaley m com masshysteria htm Webquest Does Social Rank Matter http www kn pacbell com wired fil pages webthewortja html Webquests teaching literature http webquest sdsu edu matrix - -Eng htm Unit media and behavior http edweb sdsu edu courses edtec Units media MediaandBehavior html Themes You may also organize your unit around certain themes portrayed in texts A frequently used theme is that of individualism or conformity to society the extent to which characters must conform to or resist societal norms As we just noted one advantage of thematic units is that students may become engaged with related attitudes or values associated with a theme One disadvantage of thematic units is that they can readily become too didactic in which you attempt to have students learn certain thematic lessons the importance of not conforming to society or the need to be courageous This problem of didacticism relates to how you organize your unit You can organize your unit in both a top-down deductive manner providing students with theoretical perspectives or frames for them to apply in a deductive manner You can also organize your unit in a bottom-up inductive manner encouraging students to make their own connections and applications To avoid the didactic tendency of thematic unit you can move more to an inductive approach allowing students to make their own interpretations and connections that may different from any presupposed central thematic focus Planning a Themed Literature Unit http fac-staff seattleu edu kschlnoe TLU overview html Cyberguides Teaching American literature http www sdcoe k ca us SCORE cy html Thematic units http lessonplanz com Lesson Plans Language Arts Book Activities Grades - http www edhelper com cat htm http edsitement neh gov tab lesson asp subcategory grade - Display Display http query nytimes com gst learning html http www eduref org cgi-bin lessons cgi Language Arts Literature PBS Teacher Resource Teaching literature http www pbs org teachersource arts lit high amlit shtm Designing thematic literature units Kathleen Noe Teacher Education Seattle University http classes seattleu edu masters in teaching teed professor tlu htm Webquest True Love http www geocities com fperez Webquest Good and Evil in Lord of the Flies http www kn pacbell com wired fil pages webgoodevira html Webquest Tragic Heroes in Literature and Life http www teachtheteachers org projects JZarro index htm Issues questions dilemmas You can also organize your units are issues for example the issue of gender and power the degree to which women may have to assume subordinate roles in a culture One advantage of an issue is that students may adopt different competing perspective about an issue tensions that may create interest in that issue One disadvantage of studying issues is that students may bring often rigidly defined stances on issues such as gun control or school vouchers which may not allow for further development or consideration of alternative perspectives Framing units in this manner mirrors adolescents attempts to cope with the complex ill-defined problems issues and dilemmas in their everyday lives Beach Myers Short Harste Part of this involves the ability to pose what if hypothetical questions For example adolescents may be caught in a dilemma in which they have to decide whether to continue a relationship their parents don t approve of or seek to please their parents by ending the relationship Or in responding to Romeo and Juliet they may examine reasons for Romeo and Juliet being caught in the same dilemma of competing allegiances Adolescents often have difficulty knowing how to cope with situations that do not lend themselves to simple easy solutions Rather than throwing up their hands in despair they need some strategies for systematically and thoughtfully coping with ill-defined problems issues and dilemmas in their everyday lives They need to learn how to step back and identify reasons why they have certain concerns or why certain solutions may not work Inquiry-based instruction is based on using the strategies of formulating questions issues or dilemmas contextualizing those questions issues or dilemmas defining how those questions issues or dilemmas are represented in a media text critiquing those representations and formulating alternative solutions Beach Myers For examples of hypermedia inquiry project work by high school students cited in Beach and Myers http www ed psu edu k- socialworlds http www ed psu edu k- teenissues focus on issues of love relationships family For example students may address the issue of suburban sprawl in terms of how suburban development and lifestyle is represented in the media or film In such a unit students could initially study examples of television programs or films that portray suburbia in a positive or negative way They could then determine the ways in which these representations influence perceptions of issues of sprawl One of the most useful Web-based resources for devising inquiry-based instruction is the Inquiry web site at the University of Illinois http www inquiry uiuc edu Not only does this site contain numerous examples of inquiry-based units but the site itself represents an important media text as a place for a shared community exchange around teaching and learning as well as addressing community issues Sites on inquiry-based learning YouthLearn Inquiry-Based Learning http www youthlearn org learning approach inquiry asp Institute for Inquiry hands-on activities http www exploratorium edu IFI activities index html How to Develop an Inquiry-Based Project http www youthlearn org learning activities howto asp George Lucas Foundation Project-based Learning http www glef org PBL index html National Science Foundation monograph about inquiry-based learning http www nsf gov pubs nsf Annenberg frequently asked questions about inquiry-based learning http www learner org channel workshops inquiry faq html questions that teachers can use to promote the inquiry process http tlc ousd k ca us acody inquiryquery html Use of technology such as Inspiration mapping to foster inquiry http www biopoint com inquiry ibr html To foster inquiry-based learning teachers employ what is known as problem-based case-based or scenario-based approaches to create situations in which students are faced with problems or difficulties they need to address and formulation alternative solutions Randel Kindley in Scenario-Based E-Learning A Step Beyond Traditional E-Learning http www learningcircuits org may kindley html argues that students are most likely to learn when placed in situations Scenario-based learning is similar to the experiential model of learning The adherents of experiential learning are fairly adamant about how people learn Learning seldom takes place by rote Learning occurs because we immerse ourselves in a situation in which we're forced to perform We get feedback from our environment and adjust our behavior We do this automatically and with such frequency in a compressed timeframe that we hardly notice we're going through a learning process Indeed we may not even be able to recite particular principles or describe how and why we engaged in a specific behavior Yet we're still able to replicate that behavior with increasing skill as we practice If we were to ask Michael Jordan to map out the actions that describe his drive reverse and back-handed layup he would probably look at us dumbfounded and say I just do it On advantage of Web-based learning is that students can participate in complex simulations such as Sim City Populous or Alpha Centauri to define problems or issues associated with housing transportation shopping business schooling waste disposal day care etc in developing communication For example in Sim City if players do not zone for incinerators or landfills the city piles up with trash It is also important that these situations contain complex ill-structured problems that do not lend themselves to easy solutions In his book Designing World Class E-Learning Roger Shank argues that learning is most likely to occur when people have to face and deal with problems or issues It is through learning how to address and cope with problems that people develop new ways of thinking or behaving He therefore argues that Web-based learning courses based on cases need to include complex problems conflicts or dilemmas Schank R Inside multi-media case based instruction Mahwah NJ Lawrence Erlbaum http www questia com PM qst action openPageViewer docId This suggests the value of focusing in on complex issues or dilemmas portrayed in literature or media texts as well as issues or dilemmas associated with use of any media texts for issue the issue of whether violent or sexist computer games should be censored One useful online Webquest-type tool for creating inquiry-based activities and lessons is the WISE instructional development site http wise berkeley edu This site developed by the National Science Foundation initially for use in science education builds in specific question-asking reflection and journal-writing prompts and activities For example certain screens pop up that ask students to write in their journals about the questions or issues they are studying Teachers can use this tool to construct highly interactive activities that actively engage students in their learning Sites on problem-based learning Problem-based learning Maastricht University http www unimaas nl pbl The Learning Tree Problem-based learning http edweb sdsu edu clrit learningtree Ltree html Center for Educational Technologies http www cotf edu ete teacher teacherout html Genres You may also organize your unit around studying a particular genre short story novel ballad rap drama memoir biography poetry film noir or hybrid combinations or mixtures of genres evident in a multi-genre approach to writing instruction Romano As was noted in Module on film and television genres one advantage of a genre approach is that students learn a larger literacy practice of making generalizations about similarities between different texts based on certain genre features For example have read a number of different autobiographical essays students may then identify similar features common to those essays One disadvantage of a genre approach is that is leads readily into pigeonholing or categorizing texts as representing certain genre features without critically analyzing those texts Moreover such reductionist genre approaches can also reify a formalist approach to English instruction overemphasizing the study of formal structures without examining other aspects of texts For example it may be assumed that all short stories have rising action conflict and resolution when in fact there are many stories that do not follow that formal structure In organizing genre units you need to work deductively to provide certain frameworks or concepts about genre features while at the same time allowing students to make their own inductive connections between texts You may also organize a unit around producing or writing certain genres integrating reading and writing instruction Students need to have opportunities to create their own genre texts based on their study of genre For example after studying the genre of rap they create their own raps In studying texts students may then focus on techniques being employed with an eye towards producing such texts In writing texts they then draw on their genre knowledge in providing feedback to each other s texts Google literary genre sites http directory google com Top Arts Literature Genres Fantasy science fiction literature http www uri edu artsci english clf index html http www sfwa org http www sff net people Amy Sheldon listcont htm http www hycyber com HFindex html http www FantasyReaders com http scholar lib vt edu ejournals ALAN v n bucher html http web ics purdue edu felluga sf pop sf html Historical fiction http uts cc utexas edu soon histfiction http home midsouth rr com ochsner Romance http directory google com Top Arts Literature Genres Romance Authors http www rwanational org http www rna-uk org site html Mystery http www MysteryNet com http www sldirectory com mystery html http www mysteryinkonline com http www stopyourekillingme com http www mysterywriters org http themysteryreader com http www umich edu umfandsf symbolismproject symbolism html Monstrosity index html Autobiography http www educationplanet com search Teacher Resources Thematic Units Literature Autobiography Poetry resources online poems http www poets org http www english uiuc edu maps http www hti umich edu a amverse http www poetryslam com http www lit kobe-u ac jp hishika c poet htm http www yale edu ynhti curriculum units http www poetryforge org http teenwriting about com gi dynamic offsite htm site http teacher b com creative poetry htm http www onlinepoetryclassroom org how LessonPlans cfm prmPageID http www poetryexpress org http www webenglishteacher com Drama resources http www unexpectedproductions org new playbook playbook html http www creativedrama com http www webenglishteacher com drama html http www thevirtualdramastudio co uk vds htm http www sk sympatico ca erachi http members iinet net au kimbo lessons index htm http newark rutgers edu jlynch Lit theatre html Historical periods or cultural movements You may also create units based on certain historical periods or cultural movements for example the portrayal of World War II in films the rise of Hip-Hop culture in music or the Harlem Renaissance in American literature music and art In studying these periods you can incorporate background historical events or cultural attitudes shaping texts as well as similarities between literature art music and popular media One disadvantage is that it may simply become matter of covering a lot of historical information or facts about features of the period without fostering critical response to the literature itself Jack Lynch lots of resources for teaching American literature http newark rutgers edu jlynch Lit american html Voices of the Shuttle American Literature resources for specific authors http vos ucsb edu browse asp id University of Colorado lot of links to American British World literature http www colorado edu English mispag Web Pages specific html anchor Literary Movements in American literature http guweb gonzaga edu faculty campbell enl litfram html Google British literature sites http directory google com Top Arts Literature World Literature British Georgia Department of Education American literature sequenced lesson plans http www glc k ga us seqlps sudisplay asp SUID History of American literature organized by periods http www bibliomania com frameset html http www csustan edu english reuben pal table html Annenberg video series American Passages http www learner org resources series html University of Michigan The Making of America http www hti umich edu m moagrp Georgetown University Electronic Archives for teaching American literature http www georgetown edu tamlit tamlit-home html A Hypertext of American History http odur let rug nl usa Webquest American history and literature http www-cchs ccsd k wy us cchs web jiliff home main html Webquests Elizabethan England http www loudoun k va us schools lchs english lewis elizabethan http www mcps k md us schools wjhs mediactr englishpathfinder romeo http www it css sd bc ca lrc BElizabethanEngland htm http www fairfield k ct us fairfieldhs cfairfieldhs http www ksd org grissom elizabethan html http www cchs ccsd k co us cchs resources class projects Webquest for th Elizabethanindex html http www standrews austin tx us library Shakespeare th htm Life in Elizabethan England http renaissance dm net compendium home html Mr William Shakespeare and the Internet award-winning site http shakespeare palomar edu The Romantics http www rc umd edu praxis http www rc umd edu rchs index html Webquests The Puritan period background for The Crucible Hawthorne s stories The Scarlet Letter The Witch of Blackbird Pond etc http www esc k tx us etprojects formats webquests spring jay amlitwq default html http www katy isd tenet edu pathways resources la witch whatme htm http www bestschools org hs webquest crucible htm http www maxwell syr edu plegal tips t prod asconawq html http www elmoreco com technology Coordinators webquests americanexperience webquest - american experience htm http www lakelandschools org wphs Denella TheCrucible htm http www teachnet-lab org MBHS Scragg Crucible lessons html http tiger towson edu users pgalla WitchWebquest html http www cesa k wi us teares it webquests crucible index html Resources for teaching The Crucible http www webenglishteacher com miller html Threads of Change in th Century America http seed tripod com task htm Webquest th Century American Women Writers http www student uncwil edu shb webquest webquest html Resources th Century British literature http newark rutgers edu jlynch Lit th html Webquests The Roaring s background for books by Fitzgerald Hemingway etc http webquests esu org wq http www kn pacbell com wired fil pages webtheroarch html http www natick k ma us schools nhs departments english hagemeister fitz webquest Fitzgerald html http www esc k tx us etprojects formats webquests friends barbara default html http www ccsdschools com instructionaltechnology webpages WebQuests jims hvalentine index html http www ccsdschools com instructionaltechnology webpages WebQuests jbe jfleming index html Webquests The Harlem Renaissance http www kn sbc com wired fil pages webaraisinka html http www plainfield k in us hschool webq webq http www manteno k il us webquest high LanguageArts HarlemRenaissance Harlem Renaissance htm http www web-and-flow com members rachey harlemwriters webquest htm http staff gpschools org arok frauweb WebQuesthtml htm http www arlington k va us schools gunston people teams core navigate harlem http eprentice sdsu edu J CR amunski webquest harlem html Resources on The Harlem 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