As we delve deeper into our film study unit, the 20-1 class is hard at work perfecting their presentations of their own film analysis. As stated in a previous blog post, the students had to pick a film from the drama genre that ties into our semester's theme of the human condition. From action-packed films such as Braveheart, to romantic book adaptations such as The Fault in Our Stars, the students have chosen quite a variety of films to analyze and discuss. The themes of each vary, but they're all somehow related to the human condition. Because the students got to choose the film for this assignment and really take it on as their own to discuss and represent, they're invested in making their presentation memorable and interesting for their peers. Each student seems to have a passion for the movie they picked, and I cannot wait to see their finished products!
The grade 9 class has just started their KHS Reads: Short Story Edition assignment. The students were given the task to find their own short story to read, analyze, and write a synopsis for. They had to find their own short story in order to work in groups where they would share their synopsis and try to persuade their group members into believing that their short story is worthy of being read as a class.
Their assignment will have them discussing their short story and the stories that their peers have found. They will analyze each one and have a voting process that will eliminate group members’ short stories daily until there is only one story standing within the group. We have 5 groups within the class, so when each group finds their top story, that group will make a new synopsis to share with the entire class and the voting process will begin again! It’s a new and exciting unit that has the students taking ownership of “their” story. It’s a great way to have them share several different stories and themes in a short amount of time.
What does the winning short story and student receive, you ask? Pride, of course, and the feeling of ultimate domination!
The winning short story will provide a start to our overall short story unit. Last year's winning story was Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. From that, we had a class theme of "A guilty conscience can never be overridden" and we chose other short stories that coincided with that theme and surrounded our short story unit around that theme.
All in all, each student read at least 6 short stories (3 from their own group and 3 from our winning unit theme). That's a lot of reading and a lot of discussion!
One of the things I adore about this unit is that the students get to pick their stories, "fight" for their lives in their group, grasp an understanding of theme and discuss what it is about our winning short story that garnered enough attention to be crowned the best!
This assignment will take the greater part of two weeks and I will keep you updated on their progress!
I can't wait to hear your discussions and see who the big winner will be! Good luck, grade 9s!
My ELA 20-1 class just finished viewing the film Life
is Beautiful, starring Roberto Benigni (1998).
In 1930s Italy, a carefree Jewish bookkeeper named Guido
starts a fairy tale life by courting and marrying a lovely woman from a nearby
city. Guido and his wife have a son and live happily together until the
occupation of Italy by German forces. In an attempt to hold his family together
and help his son survive the horrors of a Jewish Concentration Camp, Guido
imagines that the Holocaust is a game and that the grand prize for winning is a
tank. - IMDb Summary
Throughout the film, the students were given questions to
discuss between viewings. We watched 4 parts of the film, with the questions
being specifically related to that viewing day. I wanted to show the students
the evolution of the film, from the tone to the mood to the costumes and
lighting. They were introduced to the use of different camera angles and how
they add to a film’s tone as well. It’s been an interesting unit with hearing
their thoughts on the film and how they were wavering on whether it’s a
light-hearted film or an absolute tragedy. The bonus is that even though the
film is in Italian and subtitled for them to read, by the
second viewing they hardly noticed that they were reading dialogue the entire film. It’s been an
awesome unit thus far.
They now have an essay assignment that they have been
working on and they will also be introduced to a film analysis assignment on
Monday that I hope they enjoy as much as my ENG 20-1 class enjoyed last year. Their film analysis assignment states that they have to choose a film from the drama genre that would fit with our semester’s theme of “the human condition”. They have to analyze their film and discuss the actor’s portrayals, cinematography, theme, symbols, music, and motifs. I'm excited to see what films they choose and their completed projects! I'll keep you updated on those projects (including the assignment handout and
PowerPoint slides we went over)!
Watch the movie trailer below! AND Roberto Benigni’s
acceptance speech at the 1998 Oscars (It won Best Foreign Film, Best Original
Score, and Roberto Benigni, actor and director, won Best Actor; beating out
Edward Norton AND Tom Hanks).
The grade 9 ELA class have been working on their Found Poetry assignments which have them "finding" their own poem within a set of song lyrics that they find interesting. When we started our poetry unit, we spent a lot of time discussing theme, tone, and mood, and interpreting various types of poems, including "My Papa's Waltz" which got the class in a bit of a heated frenzy when we tried to decipher its meaning. The agitation and friendly arguments made me smile because the students were quarrelling about POETRY! How awesome.
In their assignment, they had to chose lyrics that were interesting and maybe had some sort of meaning to them. The key was to make a new found poem using the words from the lyrics in order, and they couldn't add or alter words from their lyrics to make their new found poem. Another thing they had to keep in mind was that they had ensure that their new found poem had a different theme and tone than the lyrics they chose. In their assignments, they have to contrast the theme and tone from their song lyrics to their new found poem. Quite the task, indeed (but they're definitely up for the challenge)!
Before introducing their assignment, I showed them a poem of my own. I didn't mention that I had "found" it, but we simply discussed its meaning, theme, and mood.
She loves me
But can’t stand to see me
Try to fight the feeling
Alone.
The thought is killing me
You think you’ve got it
There’s nothing at all
Nothing is forever
Denial.
You don’t want me here
Don’t make me break.
After we discussed the poem, I showed them where I got it from:
After the confusion subsided, they thought it was "cool" that you could do that. I explained that even simply taking words from an upbeat song that have a negative connotation, placing them in order, and tweaking the punctuation by italicizing words or adding emphasis with an exclamation mark can make all the difference.
I cannot wait to see and read the end results! Check out the students hard at work trying to "find" their new poems!
As we delve deeper into our film study unit, the 20-1 class is hard at work perfecting their presentations of their own film analysis. As stated in a previous blog post, the students had to pick a film from the drama genre that ties into our semester's theme of the human condition. From action-packed films such as Braveheart, to romantic book adaptations such as The Fault in Our Stars, the students have chosen quite a variety of films to analyze and discuss. The themes of each vary, but they're all somehow related to the human condition. Because the students got to choose the film for this assignment and really take it on as their own to discuss and represent, they're invested in making their presentation memorable and interesting for their peers. Each student seems to have a passion for the movie they picked, and I cannot wait to see their finished products! 
