Strategy 3: Travel into the Twilight Zone

LESSON DAY 11:

TITLE: Sound in Language - Using Repetition and Parallel Structures in Language to Describe Oppression

SUBJECT: American Literature and Composition

GRADE: 10^th

QCC(s): 18, 27, 28, 41

GENERAL OBJECTIVES: (IRA/NCTE standards for the English Language Arts)

Students will:

• Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate text. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics). (No. 3)

• Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different process elements appropriately to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes. (No. 5)

• Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literary communities. (No. 11)

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: (Georgia’s Quality Core Curriculum)

Students will:

• Participate in the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading, and publishing. (Topic: Core Skills – L.A. 9-12 No. 18)

• Develop imaginative expression in writing (fresh ideas, diction, and voice). (Topic: Writing/Usage/Grammar – L.A. 9-12 No. 27)

• Use techniques appropriate to different stages of the writing process to achieve fluency, control, and proficiency. (Topic: Writing/Usage/Grammar Grammar – L.A. 9-12 No. 28)

• Write in narrative, descriptive, persuasive, and expository modes with emphasis on exposition. (Topic: Writing/Usage/Grammar – L.A. 9-12 No. 41)

PROCEDURES/TEARCHER NOTES:

As students enter the class they will put their finished papers into the appropriate class period tray. (see syllabus)

Daily Writing Prompt: [20 minutes] –more time given as this is a longer poem

As students enter the class each day they will be given a new expository prompt either in a handout, written on the board or projected by an overhead. Students will respond to the text by writing a paragraph.

Prompt:

THE MOUSE'S PETITION

By Anna Letitia Barbauld

(Found in the trap where he had been confined all night by Dr. Priestley, for the sake of making experiments with different kinds of air.)

OH! hear a pensive prisoner's prayer,

For liberty that sighs;

And never let thine heart be shut

Against the prisoner's cries!

For here forlorn and sad I sit,

Within the wiry grate;

And tremble at th' approaching morn,

Which brings impending fate.

If e'er thy breast with freedom glowed,

And spurned a tyrant's chain,

Let not thy strong oppressive force

A free-born mouse detain.

Oh! do not stain with guiltless blood

Thy hospitable hearth!

Nor triumph that thy wiles betrayed

A prize so little worth.

The scattered gleanings of a feast

My scanty meals supply;

But if thine unrelenting heart

That slender boon deny,

The cheerful light, the vital air,

Are blessings widely given;

Let Nature's commoners enjoy

The common gifts of Heaven.

The well-taught philosophic mind

To all compassion gives;

Casts round the world an equal eye,

And feels for all that lives.

If mind, as ancient sages taught,

A never dying flame,

Still shifts through matter's varying forms,

In every form the same,

Beware, lest in the worm you crush,

A brother's soul you find;

And tremble lest thy luckless hand

Dislodge a kindred mind.

Or, if this transient gleam of day

Be all of life we share,

Let pity plead within thy breast

That little all to spare.

So may thy hospitable board

With health and peace be crowned;

And every charm of heartfelt ease

Beneath thy roof be found.

So when destruction lurks unseen,

Which men, like mice, may share,

May some kind angel clear thy path,

And break the hidden snare.

Question the students will answer: Think about what you have just read. Write an expository paragraph to turn in explaining your response to the text.

Quick Write: Students will create a fast response paragraph as quickly as possible. When the students have finished their fast response, they should place it in their class folder, put their pen/pencil down and remain quiet.

Overview of main lesson:

The teacher will illustrate how the sound of language (repetition and parallel structures) can be create meaning beyond simple description.

Step 1: [10 minutes]

Introduction – The teacher will play the introduction from Rod Serling's Twilight Zone series:

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears, and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call ... THE TWILIGHT ZONE. (Zicree 1989, 31)

This speech will be heard along with the following dialogue:

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices---to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own---for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone. (Zicree 1989, 91)

Step 2: [15 minutes]

Students will identify the rhythmic examples they hear. (Examples cited in the class underlined on the overhead.)

Step 3: [10 minutes]

Next the teacher will divide the class into groups of 2 to 3 students and distribute a template of Rod Serling’s classic introduction. (see attached)

Step 4: [20 minutes]

Explain to the class that the task of each group is to create an imaginary ‘zone’ of oppression (examples Nazi Germany, Taliban in Afghanistan, etc.), filling in the blanks to create a their description.

CLOSING: [15 minutes, remainder homework]

After each group has created their ‘zone’ of an oppressive society a group representative will present it to the rest of the class. Then each individual student will use their group-created ‘zone’ as the prompt to create a further paragraph describing the ‘zone.’ "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" text will provide an example of the length and the rhythmic language desired.

MATERIALS:

TV/VCR

"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," The Twilight Zone, (CBS/Fox Video)

Overhead projector

ADDITIONAL TEACHER NOTES:

Text versions of the dialogue will be projected on the overhead during the later activity for students to refer to as an example.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS: Students will need to have paper, pen/pencil.

EVALUATION:

Discussion: The discussion prior to the activity will assess the students’ prior knowledge and if they are understanding the concepts being learned.

Homework: Presentation of the groups completed ‘zone’ as well as their homework paragraph will provide concrete assessments of the students’ understanding of repetition and parallel structures in language. The in-class group activity and homework paragraph will each contribute to the students’ Classwork portion of their grade.

ACCOMMODATIONS: See accommodation sheet

REFERENCES:

Barbauld, Anna Letitia. “The Mouse's Petition.” Poets' Corner. 22 Nov 2001

http://www.geocities.com/~spanoudi/poems/barbau01.html

Adapted from: Chapter 1, Strategy 3: Travel into the Twilight Zone:

Noden, Harry R. Image Grammar; Using Grammatical Structures to Teach

Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999.

The Twilight Zone. "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," March 4, 1960.

Videocassette. Fox Video, 1989.

OVERHEAD

“Introduction,” The Twilight Zone

"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," The Twilight Zone

HANDOUT

The _________________________ Zone

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as _________________ as ______________ and as _________________ as _______________. It is the __________________ ____________________ between _________________ and ________________, between ______________ and _________________, and it lies between the ________________ of _______________ _______________, and the __________________ of his/her __________________. This is the dimension of __________________. It is an area which we call ... THE __________________ ZONE.