Lesson 17: GRAPHIC!

What’s on for today and why?

            In this lesson students will discuss the graphic nature of this chapter and personally reflect on it. Teacher will share about their own feelings and how this chapter affected her as well.  This class is an open forum to discuss and share.  By this time, the students are familiar with each other and they have learned to respect each other’s opinions and feelings.  This chapter will also be discussed in relation to the rape scene.  Finally, the students will write found poetry based off a section that is not too graphic, but uses language effectively.

            This is meant to get students to open up about how this chapter makes them feel because it should be talked about.  We can discuss torture and what torture is like.  The discussion will be angled to get students to analyze why the scene is so emotionally changed, discussing the effective use of the language before getting into the actual actions of the scene.  The found poetry means to get students to again take hold of the language in Graceland and get them to embrace and manipulate it, keeping them interested in it and not horrified by it because of that one scene.

What to do?

1.      Journal:

This chapter was pretty graphic.  How did this chapter affect you?  What are your thoughts and feelings on it?  How did you feel about the torture scenes?  Did these scenes create questions?  What are they? 

2.      Open Forum:

Ask to hear about journals and open the floor to discussion.  Angle it in a way that gets students to try to figure out why this scene is so emotionally charged.  Ask if this is less/more graphic than the rape scenes or if it is about the same.  Discuss effective use of language before discussing content interpretation/analysis. 

Ask what it means that these things went on while being tortured.  What is torture?  Torture through humiliation and shame?  How is this shameful and how is it provoked?  Should Elvis feel ashamed? Did he do anything wrong?

3.      Found Poetry:

This is a familiar activity with the class, so assign page 297 and let them go.  Give them to the end of the class period to complete it.

4.      Homework:

Read Chapter 29 and type up Found Poetry.  Hand in the next day.  .

How’d it go?

            If the students were shy about sharing and it was quiet for a while, that is okay because of the graphic nature of this scene.  If they started to open up and referred to particular parts, they are using language to make their case, congratulate yourself!  If they students were excited as they were doing found poetry, working diligent and happy about their final pieces they are claiming Graceland through original writing and interpretation of language. The typed found poetry will be graded, given back and put in their portfolios, graded according to the checklist.