They never fail to amaze me, though, even when I have my doubts.
Before I explain the concept behind this multi-step synthesis project based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat," I have to say that I put hours of mental sweat into planning it and consulted multiple colleagues to work out as many of the "kinks" as possible, so that it was ready to roll on the day I introduced it...
...and was formally observed teaching it. Like I said, probably a little insane.
Anyway, here's the concept!
Step 1 - Read and Analyze "The Black Cat"
We took about two days to read, discuss, and analyze the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, focusing on the skills of the horror unit (diction and imagery contributing to mood, characterization and narrator reliability, etc.). We also discussed whether or not the narrator was responsible for his actions, including all the possible factors that might influence that decision.
Step 2 - Investigate the Insanity Defense of the 19th Century
In order to fold in a high-level, complex nonfiction text, I used excerpts from an article by John Cleman that described the legal aspects of the insanity defense as it was used in Edgar Allan Poe's time. Although many characteristics are similar to today's insanity defense, people of Poe's time were also determined to be insane on the basis of things like phrenology (which was, in effect, studying the bumps of the head to determine personality traits, including sanity). The students read the article excerpt and created this how-to guide to paraphrase their understanding (I typed in a few examples):
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| "How to Be Declared Insane in 19th Century England" |
Step 3 - Put the Narrator on Trial-- in Script Form!
The natural connection between the short story and the historical background (at least, in my mind) was to have students use the insanity defense of Poe's time to argue the culpability of the narrator in "The Black Cat." However, I wanted this to be a moment of individual ownership and serious thinking for my students, so simply having another mock trial in class wasn't enough for me.
Instead, I decided I wanted them to write a script describing the trial.
You're probably thinking I'm crazy, that there are too many steps involved, that students won't know how to write a script... Well, luckily for me, I spent hours laboring over this project baby, chatting with my wonderful fellow teachers about what challenges they might face in attempting such a task, and I came prepared for these hurdles. I scaffolded the steps thus:
- Introduce and explain the project requirements
- Model how to turn prose into script with silly examples
- Analyze my sample script starter - how I used script conventions and created mood and character
- For some classes, we even got students up to form a miniature court room to help them visualize the scene
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| My sample script used to analyze mood and character |
The students felt challenged, and empowered, and a little scared... in fact, one left the room (during my formal observation, no less) saying in awe, "Mrs. Vinton makes us think REALLY hard...!" I just laughed and told her I would take that criticism any day.
What does any of this have to do with new media literacies? The point of this philosophy is to use as many different modes as possible to engage and challenge our students, and I felt like using fiction, historical nonfiction, and creative writing all in one project hit so many different modes that I could hardly ignore sharing it with you.
That, and I'm just THAT pumped up about this project.
LOVE this. I, too, fall victim to the sometimes-seen-as-insane lesson planning. I actually taught "The Black Cat" to 7th graders one year and I think much is lost on them. Parts of this lesson might have been helpful to avoid that, though, like the idea of a mock trial. (Consequently I did a mock trial for The Hound of the Baskervilles with 8th graders last year and although it was a front-load organizational nightmare for a teacher planning it for the first time, the students absolutely loved it. It gave the anti-fiction kids a chance to shine for once during novel discussion while still engaging the lovers of mystery and character evaluation. Could not ask for a more perfect meld of learning styles!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! Keep the insanity alive :)
Brilliant Idea Cori! I loved teaching lessons about narrators and point of view, not entirely the focus of all you were talking about but Im going to swing this around I think. Poe is great to use for that. Students often take for granted a narrator. Just because they are telling the story we assume everything is true. I taught one of my favorite lessons on one of my favorite Poe stories, "The Cask of Amontillado" to teach students about the unreliable narrator.
ReplyDeletePutting the narrator on trial is also brilliant, going along with the point of view. I had a high school teacher that required us to make take sides in a court case involving the "A Turn and A Screw." (To tell the truth I can barely remember the contents of the book.)
I loved what you did by taking the medium of the text and putting it into a different format. That's a really interesting twist!
This is so cool, what a great job here, Cori! I really like what you did, and that you are so excited about it! Students notice those kinds of things and are more into when we are!
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