Movies, Mime, Music and Making Connections with Bridging, Pre-reading and Post-reading Tasks ETAI Workshop July 2014

Movies, Mime, Music and Making Connections with the Bridging Literature Task, Pre-reading and Post-reading Activities
ETAI Conference Workshop- July 9, 2014

Power Point from workshop: Movies_Mime_Music_Karen Guth_ETAI Conference_July 9 2014
Presenter: Karen Guth
I. Most learning is about “making connections”. It is one of the higher order thinking skills that is necessary to utilize when understanding a text, the lexis or vocabulary within a context. It is necessary to make a connection when writing the “Bridging” task, between the “new information” presented and the literary piece studied. It is important in the Pre-reading activity when we are trying to make a connection between something the student is familiar with or interested in and the upcoming literary piece which we will study. It is part of the Post-reading activity when we ask students to create something new that somehow has a connection to what they previously learned, as well as show how they have personally connected to the literary piece. Furthermore, we encourage our students to collaborate on much of their work and thus, make a connection to each other as a way to foster learning in our classrooms. Today we will explore these connections through, movies, mime, music and more….
II. Writing a coherent Bridging Answer for the Literature “Bridging Task”
One formula that works for writing a “Bridging” answer:
1. Read the new information and using your dictionary look, up any words you don’t know and make sure you understand what the new information says.
2. Begin writing the first sentence or two of your answer by explaining what the new information means.
3. In the next sentence or two explain how the new information connects to the novel/play, story or poem that we read in class.
4. Bring an example, from the novel/play/story/poem, which supports your answer for number three (how the new information connects to the literary piece studied in class).

5. Write a concluding sentence,” In conclusion we can see how this new information connects to our story/poem/novel/play because ….”

III. Bridging “The Road Not Taken” –  (YouTube Alan Bates) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzUm0wqhE7E

1. The Road Not Taken (by Robert Frost)

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Bridging question one- (The Road Not Taken)

a. At almost 40 years old Robert Frost had not published a single book of poems. He was very discouraged by this. In 1911 he received ownership of a family farm and he and his wife made a momentous decision; to sell this farm and start a new life in London where Frost hoped to be able to publish more of his poetry. He later became the most widely admired and highly honored American poet of the 20th century.
http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.co.il/1999/04/road-not-taken-robert-frost.html
How does this information connect to the poem?

Bridging question two-(The Road Not Taken)
b. “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words” Robert Frost
How does this information connect to the poem?

Bridging question three-(The Road Not Taken)
c. “Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.” Robert Frost
How does this information connect to the poem?

IV. Bridging with biographical information of the author – Amy Tan “Rules of the Game”- The family moved nearly every year, living in Oakland, Fresno, Berkeley, and San Francisco before settling in Santa Clara, California. Although John and Daisy rarely socialized with their neighbors, Amy and her brothers ignored their parents’ objections and tried hard to fit into American society. “They wanted us to have American circumstances and Chinese character,” Tan said in an interview with Elaine Woo in the Los Angeles Times (March 12, 1989).

How does this information connect to the story, “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan?

V. Bridging interview with Ron Jones – The Wave Making Connections between something said in the interview and the story.

VI.  Pre-reading- connecting a poem to music– “The Road Not Taken”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ameYfuCNENw (song)

VII. Pre-reading “The Split Cherry Tree” – Appalachian English
a. Watch the You Tube to connect the dialect in the story to real people in the Appalachian Mountains.

VIII. Post- reading- “Richard Cory” – Simon and Garfunkel – How is their song connected to the poem (also a good compare and contrast HOTS question)? What did Simon and Garfunkel change in their song from what is written in the poem and why do you think they made those changes (also a good HOTS uncovering motives question)?

IX. Making Connections in a Post-reading exercise- the meaning of our senses– Marcel Marceau Mime and The Miracle Worker, by William Gibson

a. Marcel Marceau called mime the art of “making the invisible visible”; whereas, Helen Keller stated, “everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence… ”. She also said, “It is not the senses I have but what I do with them (that) is my kingdom”.
b. What do these two people have in common and what message have they brought to Mankind?

X. Post-reading, “A Summer’s Reading” Orit Keren You Tube – making connections to the story and real pictures-
https://YouTube/watch?v=1nD8juVUh00

a. Describe Mr. Cattanzara’s day working in the IRT station and explain why he said to George, “Don’t do what I did”.
b. Write a thank you letter from George to Mr. C ten years after the story took place in which he describes his life and how his dreams have come true (use information from the You Tube which shows his “old” neighborhood compared to his “new” neighborhood).
XI. Possible Answers for Two Bridging questions on, “The Road Not Taken”

Bridging question one:

At almost 40 years old Robert Frost had not published a single book of poems. He was very discouraged by this. In 1911 he received ownership of a family farm and he and his wife made a momentous decision; to sell this farm and start a new life in London where Frost hoped to be able to publish more of his poetry. He later became the most widely admired and highly honored American poet of the 20th century.

One possible answer:
The new information in the bridging question explains how Robert Frost, who wanted to be a published poet, was not finding someone to publish his work. In 1911 he was at a crossroads when he received ownership of the family farm and decided to sell it, move and start a new life in London. As a result of that decision, he began publishing his poetry and became famous.
This connects to the poem, “The Road Not Taken” because in the poem we read how the author is at a crossroads, trying to decide if he should take the path most people take or “the one less traveled by”. He chooses the one less traveled and says “that has made all the difference”. This is just like Frost’s decision to move to London to publish his poems rather than stay on his family farm to be a farmer all of his life.
Bridging question two:
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words” Robert Frost
How does this information connect to the poem?

One possible answer:
The quotation says that a poem is created when an emotion becomes a thought and the thought then is expressed in words. This connects to the poem, “The Road Not Taken” because we see that the author feels the emotion of having to make a choice between two paths, both of which seem pleasant or similar. That debate inside of him becomes the words of his poem. For example, when he says, both looked “fair” but he chose the one that was, “grassy and wanted wear”. He further expresses in his poem that he chose “the one less traveled by” and that made all of the difference for him in his life.
XII. Possible answer for Post-reading on “The Miracle Worker”:
Mime is without speech- Helen Keller lacked the sense of sight and hearing and yet, these two people, Helen Keller and Marcel Marceau, created “wonders even in darkness and silence”. Our senses are all a gift and yet, one can experience the wonders of the world, contribute to the betterment of mankind and as H.K. said, “it is not the senses I have but what I do with them (that) is my kingdom”.

Remember:
The most important connection is the one we make with our students! We do this with:
-Our passion for learning
-Our love and caring for our students
-Our creativity in the classroom
Including, movies, mime, music and more!