Team+3+MNLI+12

Team 3

Wendy Crofts and Melissa Farmer Grades 10 & 12 (Newburyport High School) Subject: English

Essential Question: How are 19th century texts still relevant in the 21st century digital age?

Students will turn a 19th century text into a 21st century digital story. Sophomore students will employ web and database research to understand the Romantic Age. Seniors will review prior knowledge from sophomore and junior years, read the text of and critical essays about //The Scarlet Letter//, and create presentations through which they will teach their peers a specific way to, to understand the historical, social, cultural, political, and economic context of the novel and find parallels with contemporary society. Students will conduct background research on the authors. Students will understand how an author employs descriptive language; how point of view affects voice and tone; how symbols and allusions underscore themes; how to transform a 19th century text into a 21st century digital representation, and why 19th century literature is still relevant to their 21st century lives.
 * Project Overview: **

SL 1, 2, 4, 5 W 3, 7, 8, 9 R 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9
 * Common Core Standards Addressed: **

** Unit Plan: ** I. Assess and Activate Prior Knowledge (Carousel and Discussion) Introduce the essential questions with a small group jigsaw discussion in which groups rotate throughout the room: How and why do we read texts from the 19th Century? When you think of the 19th century what comes to mind? What attributes of style and content might you find in a 19th century story? How and why do we read texts from the 21st Century? When you think of the 21st Century what comes to mind? What might you find in a 21st century text? Are there any parallels? What are the characteristics of a 19th century novelist versus a 21st century novel?

Follow up/homework assignment: Research the 21st century novel online. According to your sources, what are some of the characteristics? Find some examples and cite the links in your journals. Be prepared to present and discuss your findings in class tomorrow.

II. Overview of Texts and Authors: Use Romanticism and Gothic Novel PowerPoints to introduce texts. Show students links to the online versions of the text with web addresses as well as how to download to Kindles and iPads. Show students Readability and Natural Reader. Mention the Newburyport Public Library has many books which they can upload as audio books to their iPod or other MP3 player.

Links to online [|The Scarlet Letter] Link to online resource that assists with readability: [|Readablity] Link to online resource that will read aloud: [|NaturalReader]

III. Students Read and Discuss the Texts: Methods for teaching //The Scarlet Letter// include, but are not limited to: cooperative learning groups; formal Socratic Seminars; online journals; in-class discussions; close-reading of key passages, to understand how style and figurative language informs tone and mood in addition to theme; listening to NPR on "Hester Prynne", which includes an interview with John Updike, followed by a discussion; viewing spoofs of the novel as well as discussion of how and why the tools of satire may be employed by artists as means to critique and criticize social concerns.

[|NPR-Hester Prynne] [|Miracle Whip and The Scarlet Letter]

IV. Introduce Projects and Timelines:

The Scarlet Letter in the 21st Century (Senior Project)   

IV. Exemplars

//The Scarlet Letter// in the 21st Century (Senior Project) PowerPoint and Prezi Exemplars:

[|A New Historical Approach to //The Scarlet Letter//]

 

//The Scarlet Letter// Digital Story Telling Project Exemplars:

[|The Scarlet Letter in the 21st Century Podcast] [|The Scaffold to City Streets: The Scarlet Letter Web Comic] [|The Scarlet Letter--Twitter and iMovie] [|Stop Animation Scarlet Letter]

Some potential vehicles for students' digital story: Animoto Xtranormal Pixton iMovie

Project # 2-Sophomore Literature-Romantic Poetry Unit

Essential Question: How can we use 21st century digital tools to enhance our audience's understanding of 19th century poems?

Attached is the culminating project for our unit on Romantic poetry. Students have spent time in and out of class reading, explicating, and discussing a variety of Romantic poems written by the Big 6 Romantic poets of the time. They also have a foundation in understanding Romanticism through a powerpoint introduction, related readings, and research, as well as through the reading of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The details of the project, rubric, and supplemental handouts are here:

I created a slideshow using iMovie to give them an (albeit brief) idea of what their final products would look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy93o0h8R54

The following are some student exemplars (which are far better than my example):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-7wTFse_q8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eim1fF_qeLg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pz24PYtBdw