Lesson Plan - Nathanael

Lesson : Same Same but different, How culture affects interpretation the of imagery in relation to theme.

Level/Stream : Secondary 3 Express

Students : Class of 36 students, Mixed abilities, more visual and auditory learners

Learning Environment : ICT Resource room or Computer Lab where each student has his/her own computer station with internet access to facilitate individual and group work concurrently. The computers should share a network which would allow a sharing of information

Lesson Prerequisites: Prior to the lesson, students should be able to have knowledge on theme and imagery and have read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Lesson objectives: By the end of the lesson, students should be able to

1. state and explain how imagery can be used to convey theme.

2. describe how social context/culture plays a part in defining the meaning of certain images.

3. experiment on different ways that theme can be portrayed through adaptations.

Time: 2 periods (70mins)

Introduction: Does a picture speak a thousand words? (10 mins)

- The teacher flashes a series of pictures/images one at a time to the class. For every picture/image shown, students are supposed to come up with a short interpretation of the picture in one or two words. This may come in the form of symbols, emotions, hidden messages mood or tone evoked by the picture.

eg: Rose - Love, Owl - Wisdom, Elephant - Strength

- Students are also told to come up with explanations to their interpretations.

- The teacher then gets 2 or 3 students to share their interpretations and explanations for each picture flashed drawing attention to the fact that there are various possible interpretations to each image.

- The teacher then poses questions to the students to think of what factors came into play that led to the different interpretations by the students, hinting at culture.

Body: 1 play, 3 ways . (40 mins)

- The teacher revises what theme is with the students, and asks the students to highlight the various themes present in Romeo and Juliet.

- The teacher instructs students to form groups of 3 or 4 and in their groups to pick on of the following themes in Romeo and Juliet: 'Conflict' or 'Power struggle'

- Based on the theme chosen, the group is then instructed to look look at the prologue and Act 1 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet. In their groups, students are tasked to pick out certain images present in the piece of text that they think best conveys the theme of Conflict' or 'Power struggle' in Romeo and Juliet.

- After which the group does the same thing (Pick out images and how they convey 'conflict' or 'Power struggle') to the opening scene of three different adaptations of Romeo and Juliet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6zKB6_mo_M (Elizabethan Context - Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1954))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7lP4E_s80o (American Context - Romeo + Juliet (1996))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wmcgeer7Mk (Singaporean Context - Chicken Rice War (1998))

- Students will access to a simple graphic organizer in google docs (Created by the teacher) in which they compare and contrast the three adaptations with the original text in the efforts to analyze how different social contexts affect the way images are used to convey meaning and relate to theme.

Image | What meaning does it convey| How does it relate to theme| How is it similar or different from the original text.

Conclusion & Assignment : Be the bard (20 mins)

- The Teacher gets a few groups to share their graphic organizers to the class as a form of summary to the lesson to emphasize the point that images play a part in conveying theme in a text and that meanings of images can differ across different cultural contexts.

- The teacher then instructs the groups on the homework assignment which they would have to do. In this assignment, students are to pick any scene they like in the play Romeo and Juliet and come with with their own written adaptation of the scene which they would perform in the next lesson to emphasize how images can help convey meaning and relate to a particular theme of their choice in the play. The scene, about 5 - 10 minutes long, can be adapted in any context the students wish. Students are encouraged to use props.

Rationale

This lesson plan is based on the ideas of John Dewey, William Kilpatrick, New Historical Criticism and Reader Response Criticism. John Dewey argues that the school is a social institution that should represent life as real and vital to the student as well as it being a place for social interaction to occur allowing the student to be made aware of the present social consciousness. Culture is an important part of society and social consciousness. By exposing students to the idea of culture and how it affects in the way a society looks at things (eg: images) and also allowing them to make their own interpretations based on their particular culture, it creates an avenue for social consciousness to take place in students. The film 'Chicken rice war' presents a local take on the shakespearean play, allowing students to relate to play better which is further reiterated by the graphic organizer activity in which they compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the film and the text.

The assignment not only acts as a tie in activity that encourages collaborative, constructive and self directed learning, it also fits in into Kilpatrick's idea of synthesizing the different aspects of the learning process into a unified project, in this case a written adaptation of a scene in the play. This gives autonomy to the students to decide what they want to do, allowing intrinsic motivation. The collaborative aspect of the group project provides an avenue for social skills to develop in the students as well.

The activities in the introduction and the body tie in with the ideas of new historical criticism and reader response theory. I strongly believe in new historical criticism as I feel that the understanding and knowledge of the social and historical context of a piece of text is significant in the reading of the text. It allows the reader to understand the text better as one can better understand the purpose and intent behind the written piece of work. Hence, the idea of exposing the students to adaptations of the play allows them to see how the social context affects the way meaning is being conveyed. The introduction activity allows individual interpretation to take place which is related to the reader response theory where the text or in this case the picture is used by the students to actively and personally make out meaning. This also allows students to bring in their prior knowledge and cultural baggage or understanding into their interpretations. :)