Understanding Genre: High School Literature Final Project
My departmental colleagues at Instituto Thomas Jefferson and I created the following task as an end-of-year project for our high school literature students, as a way for them to collaborate in a meaningful way using their second language, developing skills like collaboration, leadership, writing, acting, directing, and applied technology:
Life is full of tiny events which appear meaningless, however each moment, each event, shapes the future. It then begs the question if a particular event never happened how might the present be different? There will be 6 lit groups; each group will be working with a different genre. However, every group will contain the same lead characters, with the same background, and the same initial conflicting event. What happens next is based on circumstance and is up to you. It just needs to fit your given genre.
My students. who chose the genre of historical drama, created a website displaying behind the scenes work, a blog, and the final movie (which won the competition for Best Picture!). They voted on roles and participated as writers, actors, costume-makers, location scouts, film editors, and soundtrack creators. Each student was required to write at least one blog post and publish their own crew member bio, and as part of their grade they were asked to complete a self- and peer- evaluation as well as a final reflection on the experience. To wrap up the project, we held an awards ceremony in which students voted in various categories. Their reaction to the project was overwhelmingly positive, and all the departmental teachers were extremely pleased with the dedication and talent our students showed, as well as their mastery of written and spoken English.
Life is full of tiny events which appear meaningless, however each moment, each event, shapes the future. It then begs the question if a particular event never happened how might the present be different? There will be 6 lit groups; each group will be working with a different genre. However, every group will contain the same lead characters, with the same background, and the same initial conflicting event. What happens next is based on circumstance and is up to you. It just needs to fit your given genre.
My students. who chose the genre of historical drama, created a website displaying behind the scenes work, a blog, and the final movie (which won the competition for Best Picture!). They voted on roles and participated as writers, actors, costume-makers, location scouts, film editors, and soundtrack creators. Each student was required to write at least one blog post and publish their own crew member bio, and as part of their grade they were asked to complete a self- and peer- evaluation as well as a final reflection on the experience. To wrap up the project, we held an awards ceremony in which students voted in various categories. Their reaction to the project was overwhelmingly positive, and all the departmental teachers were extremely pleased with the dedication and talent our students showed, as well as their mastery of written and spoken English.