Using modern media to explore timeless themes:
Old Tumwater Brewery
Grade: 10-12, ELA
Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
Understandings:
Central themes (American dream, loneliness, power, fear) in Of Mice and Men are present and relevant in our daily lives
A variety of modern medias can be used to illustrate sequential narrative structures
Blogs, comics, and movies are sequential and time-based by nature
Essential Questions:
How do the communities that we live in reflect the themes present in Of Mice and Men?
What is the American dream? Is it an attainable ideal? Is it ideal?
Why do we see the same themes reappearing throughout stories in books, movies, comics, etc?
How do themes intersect to provide deeper/more powerful meaning?
SWBAT:
Identify, describe, and analyze the themes of American dream, loneliness, power and fear.
Show a narrative arc and exploration of key theme through sequential artwork
Develop their story through the use of camera and editing software
Performance tasks:
Creation of sequential narrative art strip
Creation of photo essay or video
Presentation of final project
Other Evidence:
List 5-6 types of technology that you could integrate to support learning in your unit:
Photo journal
- Viewing images, researching, historical weaving, creating a diary
- Connecting themes within a fictional text to community and lived experiences
- Time for camera troubleshooting, access issues, software to edit
Blog
- Viewing images, researching, historical weaving, creating a diary
- Connecting the development of theme across the story with fictionalized and/or authentic blog entries
- Access to computers, time to learn software
Video
- viewing images/video, taking photos/video, researching, historical role play
- Connecting themes within a fictional text to community and lived experiences
- Time for camera troubleshooting, access issues, software to edit
Mock newspaper layout/article
- viewing images, researching, interviewing, reading text
- Connecting the development of theme across the story with fictionalized and/or authentic articles
- Access to computers, time to learn software, familiarization with newspapers
Graphic novel
- viewing images, researching, interviewing, reading text, historical weaving
- Connecting the development of theme across the story with fictionalized and/or authentic graphic novelization
- Access to computers and/or drawing tools, time to learn software, familiarization with graphic novels