11TH GRADE ENGLISH

2009-2010

Storytelling and Moral Leadership

Unit 1: “Work, Class, and Identity:” 

Are we living in a society/world where class defines us?  Are we able to transcend circumstance?

Elements of research: What is research?

Local I-Search project: Cleveland's work/industrial history

I-Search components:

1. Pre-writing. Topic; Why I want to reserach this topic; what do I already know about the topic; what questions do I have about it? (wll help to define and refine research questions)

2. Secondary research: in preparation for interviews and site visits, read what you can find on your topic. Write & cite through this section. Educate yourself before you interview or visit locales.

3. interviews and site visits. Keep a log, transcript, take photos, etc. (document in the most efficient and appropriate way.)

4. Finish the paper. The first three sections need refining. Write your conclusion. Remember that the paper is a narrative re-telling of (the story of....) your search process.

Project suggestions

• Towpath bike ride/canalway towpath history/walking tour
• WPA projects in Cleveland area
• Ethnic/immigrant neighborhoods/churches
• Youngstown working class museum
• Flats/Cleveland steel mills/industry
• Cleveland as shipping/port/lakefront

Readings for the unit:: 

• Flannery O’Connor, “Revelation”
• Elizabeth Bishop “The Waiting Room”
• Toni Cade Bambera, “The Lesson”
• Gregory Mantsios, case studies, “Class in America: Myths and Realities” 
• Sherman Alexie, “What you Pawn, I will Redeem”
• Mike Rose, The Mind at Work
• Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed
• Studs Terkel, Working

As time allows:

•  “The High Price of Materialism”
• Thrity Umrigar excerpt, The Space Between Us
• Agee and Vollman
• Uwem Akpan short stories

Writing: 

• reader response & reflective writing;
• imitation writing (Mike Rose or Studs Terkel or survey);
• mini I-Search

Independent Reading Blogs : click here for link to blog sites

Avalon & independent reading (blog)

• Barbara Ehrenreich
• Eric Schlosser
• Mike Rose
• Thrity Umrigar

Unit 2: Media Culture Part I (part II in spring)

media project (representations of women in media); review McCamley’s PPoint

•             Postman
•             Birkerts
•             Fahrenheit 451
•             Jean Kilbourne

Media Awareness Project

To get  started, you and your group should:

1. Review the packet of information/resources distributedd in class.
2. Visit the following websites:

http://www.mediaed.org  (you may want to preview a relevant film and/or get a copy from your local library)

http://www.media-awareness.ca (interesting lists of topics/issues; links to some limited resources)

1. Find one substantial print resource (article) on your topic
2. Search for additional online resources.
3. Do you r own research, i.e. locate ads relevant to your topic and analyze them.
4. Create a PowerPoint presentation that includes images and/or video and quotes from the texts we provided and the research you did.

submit:

Minimum components of PowerPoint due:

1. Overview of critical literacy/ad analysis.
2. why it’s important
3. method of analysis (i.e., VAPID; VAPID + additional info; another model; OR a combination model)
4. introduction of your topic (portrayal of women, masculinity, health, consumerism, etc.): overview and importance
5. ads (examples)/quotes (quotes from distributed material AND from the sources you have found, including one significant print source)
6. works cited and bibliography ( MLA format?no mistakes; no excuses)

Additionally submit in class (on paper):

1. a copy of the significant print source you located (one per group)
2. your division of labor statement (how your group chose to divide  the work, your role, what each other person contributed.  This should b detailed and private.   Write out the Honor Code at the bottom and sign it, please)
3. a reflective paragraph on how your PowerPoint/presentation might be made better/strengthened for presentation to the freshman class in the spring

Unit 3: Digital Storytelling

Writing workshop:  digital story scripts

Digital Storytelling:  Getting Started

I. Find and tell a story. 

Writing wrokshop in class, writing lab, revision process, connecting to the literature by finding quotes. Perfect and polished before moving on to step two.

II. Record your story in school or at home using Audacitiy:

Tutorial found here: how to use Audacity

YouTube demonstration videos:

Audio setup

Audio editing

III. Gather images, documents, music, etc. (work on this concurrently with steps one and two).

IV. Premier workshop with Ms. White will take place in the Computer Lab during class time (November 23-24).

Digital I-Search; Premiere software;

V. Assembling and constructing your digital story, during class time. Use your free periods and after school to your advantage. Draft due the week of December 7.

Final project:  digital story due: December 15 for T/Th and December 16 for W/F classes

2nd Semester

Unit I: Race

Read Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon

bookmarks sheet 1

bookmarks sheet 2

(Joan/EEAC event)

            Lakeridge humanities conference)

weeks 2-4        

            Reading:

“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” & introductory material

            Spike Lee’s 4 Little Girls

            Lucifer Effect/ Stanford prison experiments (film)

PLAY  (“Crowns” by Regina Taylor?) or Fences or Piano Lesson

            Poetry (Gwendolyn Brooks & Lucille Clifton, Langston Hughes, etc.)

“Bad Neighbors” by Edward Jones

Writing:

Poetry

Race dictionary

Independent reading:

Memoirs? (w/bio?discuss conventions of each?)

Weeks 8-9  mystory paper/intro to transcendentalism

Spring break:

Weeks 10- 14 March                   

Weeks 15:  The Things They Carried