King Arthur – The Once and Future King

Prefatory Statement: The literature surrounding King Arthur has captured the attention and hearts of readers ever since Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain. Within 30 years of his creation, numerous stories of King Arthur were created, and since that time, the twelfth century, the number has kept multiplying. Many of the stories and events central to King Arthur’s life have been written from a variety of perspectives. It is a subject that has been consistently open to analysis and interpretation; therefore, the performance package created to be a part of this unit will focus on the standard Arts Analysis and Interpretation.

Through this substandard students can explore issues of class, morality, chivalry, and gender, which has been, and will be central to peoples’ lives throughout eternity. Hopefully questions such as: "Are people still stuck into the social class in which they were born?" and "Has morality been lost in the modern world, or has it improved through better treatment of minorities and females?" can be explored if not answered.

In order to meet such goals, the unit will include analysis of narrative structure, analysis of literary work, the creation of a class anthology, and many other activities. These projects will be complimented by discussions on Arthurian history, social structure within the literature, womens’ roles in the literature, and chivalric acts in the past and present. These discussions will be based on the readings of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Andrea Hopkins’ "The Quest of the Holy Grail," and sections from other literature such as "Pyle’s The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, and most importantly, from the origin of Arthur as we know him, Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain.

Class Specification: This unit is created for students in eleventh or twelfth grade. Because of the wide availability of translations, King Arthur literature can be read by people of any age. However, in order to complete this unit, students should have some previous exposure to literary analysis, which makes this unit appropriate for higher grades. Unfortunately, most, if not all, of the characters in this literature are Caucasian characters, which makes it more difficult for some students to relate to the characters than others. Different literature would be more appropriate and just as able to meet the objectives of this unit in classrooms that are richly diverse in culture and race. On the other hand, the literature can be used for students of any socio-economic class. None of the students will be able to relate to the grandeur style that King Arthur and his court lived in, but all will be familiar to its characteristics from its continuous use in other media. Arthurian literature should not, however, be dismissed as trivial or irrelevant because of this. It is at this particular age that students begin to notice and reflect upon the different ways that females and low socio-economic people are treated. Arthurian literature takes place during a time when treatment of these peoples was dramatically different than we like to think that it is today. The distance between the student’s world and the text can be used to instigate discussions on inequality appropriate for this age level.

Significant Assumptions:

In writing this unit I have assumed that:

• Students have been exposed to literary analysis through the writings of other critics or from the informed opinions, views, and research of previous teachers.
• Students are familiar with the concept of chivalry.
• Students have had exposure to court settings in other reading or media.
• Students will be able to effectively work together in order to create an anthology.
• Students know how to use the WWW.
• Students, with some prompting, will have enough motivation to read a piece of literature on their own.
• Students will be more motivated to polish their work because it will be part of the anthology, which means that the work will be published for a real audience.
• Students will be able to identify the differences in women’s roles in the past and present.
• Students will have some desire to learn about a different culture.
• Giving students choices helps to increase motivation.

Desired Outcomes:

Students will be able to demonstrate all standard specifications listed under the Minnesota High School Graduation Standard Arts Analysis and Interpretation. After completion of assessment tasks, students will be able to demonstrate the ability to interpret and evaluate complex works of literature by:

1. describing the elements and structure of literature; the artistic intent; and the historical, cultural, and social background of the selected literature;
2. applying specific critical criteria to interpret and analyze the selected literature;
3. describing how particular effects are produced by the artist’s use of the elements of literature; and
4. communicating an informed interpretation using the vocabulary of literature.

By the end of the unit, students will have also learned:

• to effectively work in groups and solve problems with group members that arise
• to explain how Arthurian literature has evolved throughout the centuries
• to identify common characteristics in the literature
• to describe the relationships between well-known characters
• to analyze the characters and their actions

Possible Whole-Class Activities:

• Discuss women’s roles in Arthurian literature
• Discuss the social structure within the literature
• Dramatize parts of Carr’s King Arthur
• Discuss Arthurian history
• Explore other short stories where chivalric acts help to develop the theme
• Create an anthology including analytical papers as well as creative writing
• Watch portions of The First Knight and/or other related movies

Possible Small-Group Activities:

• Share copychanges (see Gere 108-109)
• Peer edit individual pieces of writing (handout used to hold students accountable for participation in small-groups attached to the end of the unit)
• Interview a member of the community who is considered a modern day hero
• Examine Kennedy’s Camelot (as it was referred) to Arthur’s Camelot ("Legend of the King")
• Research who the original King Arthur might have been

Possible Individual Activities:

• Create character sketches after researching information on the WWW
• Create a piece of fiction incorporating characteristics of Arthurian literature
• Write a newspaper article glorifying an action by one of the characters and another which glorifies a community member
• Read assigned literature
• Create a storyboard ("Performance Package")
• Do research on what daily life in a medieval castle was like. Students can tell their stories as "A Day in the Life of…,"choosing a knight or a lady of the court, or perhaps a knave. Remind students to consider the dress, food, activities, chores, and amenities or lack thereof. Other aspects that could be considered are festivals, celebrations, challenges, or any other facet of daily existence they find interesting. ("Legend of the King")
• Write a book review (Beach and Marshall 147)
• Test

Ongoing Activities:

After reading the two short stories, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," and "The Quest of the Holy Grail" and holding a class discussion, students will select a piece of more modern King Arthur literature from a recommended list and begin writing responses to their stories in their literature logs. Included in their responses should be a description of the characters, identification of themes found throughout the work, descriptions of the author’s use of formal elements, and their general reactions to the work. They should have finished reading the book by the middle of the fourth week.

Student Resources:

• Copies of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (possibly included in their anthology)
• Copies of the end of Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur (possibly included in their anthology)
• Copies of "Utherpendragon Sires Arthur" from Geoffrey Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain
• Copies of a section from Howard Pyle’s The Story of King Arthur and His Knights
• Copies of Andrea Hopkins’ "The Quest of the Holy Grail" from Chronicles of King Arthur
• Access to the Internet and word processing
• Notebook
• Community members
• Tag board
• Markers, pens, and pencils

Unit Launch: Week One, Day One, 50 minute lesson

Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• define and explain the notion of chivalry and heroic personas
• imitate elements of writing that journalists use to describe a person and illustrate his/her actions
• begin identifying characteristics of a successful or unsuccessful workgroup

Methods:

• Activity 1 (Introduction)

• Activity 2

• Activity 3

1. What is considered a great heroic act today?
2. How can positive role models be considered heroic or chivalric? (5 minutes)

• Activity 4                

Explain to students that in-groups of two they will be looking  through the community paper for a person who they believe represents a positive role model and/or has performed a heroic act. At the same time, tell students to examine the way journalists write a story. Have students split into groups and hand out the newspapers. (5 minutes)

• Activity 5

• Activity 6 (Closure)

Homework: For the next week, search the paper for a person who you believe to be a hero or chivalrous person and would like to interview. Once you find such a person write an entry in your journal explaining your choice and questions that you would ask him or her if given the opportunity to interview that person.

Assessment:

I know students will have met the objectives if:

• they actively discuss their preconceived notions of chivalry.
• they use journalistic elements in their future newspaper article.
• they are able to select one person from the paper to illustrate their understanding of modern day heroes when working in pairs.

Organization of the Unit:

Week 1

After the unit launch on day 1, which is used as a pre-reading exercise, a brief lecture on day two about Arthurian literature will be given. They will then be assigned a common character from this literature to research, such as Morgan le Fay, Merlin, Arthur, Guenevere, Modered, Galahad, Sir Kay, Gawain, and Lancelot. After this research, which can be done through movies, literature, library sources, and the WWW, students will be asked to write a poem about this character, or if they choose, a short scene incorporating two of the characters. These should be finished and ready to share by the end of the week. After reading their creation, they, the "experts," may be asked questions about their characters and their role in the literature (assignment can be found later in the unit).

In the meantime, students will read "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." This will lead to discussions on chivalry and the women’s roles in the story. Essays on women’s roles in the literature can be found on the WWW at the Arthurian Studies site listed at the end of the unit.

For the weekend, students will be asked to read the first half of Hopkins’ "The Quest of the Holy Grail" and make their final selection for the interview they will do the following week. They should make two selections in case they are unable to get in touch with or interview their first choice.

Week 2

Students will finish reading "The Quest of the Holy Grail," and we will examine chivalry within the story. The class discussion could start by asking students to respond in their literature logs to this question, "Which knights are exemplary examples of chivalry and why are they?" Some students will most likely respond by writing about the failings of many of the knights, which would be a good point for discussion.

During this week, students must also contact their modern day hero and set up an interview after we have held a class discussion about interview techniques. This activity will probably be more manageable if students whom selected the same person are allowed to work together by each student taking one half of the interview. However, I would not mention this until students have stated whom they would like to interview in order to get students to work with classmates that they usually do not interact with.

The class will also examine the structure of the two short stories that we have read. This can be done through a contemporary model of Freitag’s Pyramid (Noden 143). In Harry Noden’s book Image Grammar you can also find seven common plot patterns to be discussed. In order to prepare students to analyze the stories they will soon begin to read, it would b beneficial to examine one of the short stories in class and ask students to do the other on their own. Afterwards, the narrative structure and plot pattern of the second story would be discussed with the whole class.

For Monday, students will begin reading a book from the following list (found on the WWW) and write a rough draft of their interview in the format of a newspaper article.

Options for student selected literature:

• T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone
• T.H. White’s The Queen of Air and Darkness
• T.H. White’s The Ill-Made Knight
• T.H. White’s The Candle in the Wind
• Portion of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur (to be discussed with the teacher)
• Mrs. T.K. Hervey’s The Feasts of Camelot
• Robert Rice’s The Last Pendragon
• T.H. White’s The Book of Merlin
• Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Light beyond the Forest
• Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Road to Camlann
• Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave
• Mary Stewart’s The Hollow Hills
• Mary Stewart’s The Last Enchantment
• Mary Stewart’s The Wicked Day
• Persia Woolley’s Child of the Northern Spring
• Persia Woolley’s Queen of the Summer Stars
• Persia Woolley’s Guinevere; The Legend in Autumn
• Sharan Newman’s Guinevere
• Sharan Newman’s The Chessboard Queen
• Sharan Newman’s Guinevere Evermore
• Anne McCaffrey’s Black Horses for the King
• Peter Dickinson’s Merlin’s Dreams
• Robert Nathan’s The Elixir
• Ann Curry’s The Book of Brendan
• Sanders Anne Laubenthal’s Excalibur
• Pamela F. Service’s Winter of Magic’s Return
• Pamela F. Services’s Tomorrows Magic
• While most of these books were recommended under the Arthurian Studies site for young adult readers, they should be reviewed before teacher recommendation.

Lesson Plan: Week 2, Day 3, 50 minute lesson

Objectives: By the end of this lesson students will be able to:

• identify bad and good interview techniques
• write good interview questions

Methods:

• Activity 1

• Activity 2

• Activity 3

• Activity 4

• Activity 5

• Activity 6

Homework: Finish writing the interview questions and contact the person to be interviewed. Set up a time for the interview outside of school, which should take place before the following Monday. Make any special travel arrangements that are needed for students. Start looking at the books on the list for student selected literature and decide which book you will read by Friday.

Assessment:

I know students will have met the objectives if:

• they are able to evaluate the class questions and write their own good interview questions.
• they are able to provide their classmates with both positive and negative feedback on the mock interview.

Week 3

The week will start with students peer editing one another’s articles and polishing them for publication, first for the class and secondly for the anthology. Students will also be given time in class each day to read their selected piece of literature and make entries in their literature logs. This will hopefully get students into the literature, so they will have the self-motivation to finish it on their own time. Because students will be spending a great amount of time reading that piece of literature, the only other assigned reading for the week will be a short piece from Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain, "Utherpendragon Sires Arthur."

Week 4

By day four of this week, students should have finished the piece of work that they selected to read. They should also have read the assigned section from Pyle’s The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, which describes how King Arthur was persuaded into a beheading game and how Gawain met his wife. This story can be easily compared to "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Discussion of the two stories should answer the questions "What do the women in each story have in common?" and "What are the similarities and differences between the two games?"

The rest of the time in class will be spent reading and creating a rough plot diagram and storyboard of Pyle’s story along with discussing the elements of a short story and its effects. The plot diagram will be created in small groups, but the storyboard will be a whole class activity because of its unfamiliarity to many students.

When creating a storyboard, "students extract a series of events from a text to create a script based on these events. They then transform these events into scenes, portraying characters as stick-figures. For each scene, they describe the use of camera shots (close-up, medium, long shot, wide-angle), angles (from above vs. below), time (number of seconds), special effects (slow motion, dissolve, fades, freeze frame, and so on), lighting effects, and dialogue" (Beach and Marshall 115). Storyboards force students to be analytical of the work. To define a storyboard further, drawings are put on a piece of tag board and divided into sections, much like a cartoon, with dialogue written beneath the drawings. The drawings are simpler when compared to a cartoon, but the directions (stage directions) become very detailed. For example, when creating a storyboard for Pyle’s work, questions such as: "Are we going to tell the story from the point of view of a certain character?" and "How would certain characters position themselves towards other characters?" should be answered before creating the storyboard. Students will be encouraged to start working on their own plot diagram and storyboard at home.

Elements of a short story (majority of definitions taken from Fictions):

• Plot: the essential structure of a story arranged according to a coherent sequence of events.
• Setting: the time, place, and social reality within which a story takes place. In a limited sense, setting refers to the physical landscape; in a broader sense, setting refers to the cultural landscape—the assumptions, rituals, and shared beliefs that shape the characters and their world.
• Theme: the central or unifying idea about human experience that grows out of all the other elements in the story. Occasionally the theme may be stated directly by the author or indirectly by one of the characters. More often the theme must be derived from an attempt o understand the complex interaction of forces within the narrative.
• Characterization: the methods by which writers create, reveal, or develop their characters. Writers can focus on the external reality of their characters by describing their appearance, actions, or manner of speech. They can also portray the inner reality of their characters by revealing their thoughts and feelings.
• Point of View: the vantage point or perspective from which the story it told. Point of view refers to both position (the narrator’s proximity to the action in time and space) and person (the narrator’s character and attitude).

1. Third-person omniscient
2. Third-person limited omniscient
3. First-person
4. Objective

• Symbolism: using a person, act, or thing for literal significance and additional abstract meanings.
• Allusion: a reference to a famous historical, fictional, or mythological person, place, or event outside the story. Allusions enrich a story by suggesting similarities to comparable circumstances in another time or place.
• Figurative Language: metaphorical language.
• Exposition: the part of the story, near the beginning, that introduces the elements of setting, character, and conflict that exist prior to the major action of the story.
• Conflict: the struggle that grows out of the collision of various forces within a story.
• Rising Action: rising action takes place after the exposition and includes internal response, attempt, complications, conflict, sub-climaxes, and turning points. When a story reaches its climax the rising action has finished.
• Climax: the moment within the story when the major action reaches its turning point. The climax marks the end of the story’s development and propels it toward its conclusion.
• Falling Action: it is the action that takes place between the climax and resolution.
• Resolution: the events that occur after the climax and bring the conflicts in the story to an appropriate conclusion.

Lesson Plan: Week Four, Day Four, 50 minute lesson

Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• create their own plot diagram that graphically depicts a pattern of events
• identify the narrative components of Pyle’s short story

Method:

• Activity 1 (Introduction)

1. What was the conflict in Pyle’s work?
2. How was a resolution reached? (5 minutes)

• Activity 2

• Activity 3

• Activity 4 (Closure)

Homework: Students should come to class having identified all of the components of a narrative structure in their own work. They should also write in their literature logs about which character they would have chosen to tell the story if they were the authors of the work.

Assessment:

I know students will have met the objectives if:

• they come to class the next day being able to identify each of the components of the narrative structure in their own piece of selected literature.
• the majority of the class agrees on what the components are of Pyle’s story.

Week 5 and Week 6

Until day four continue to work on the storyboards in class and discuss any issues that arise. From day four of week five until day four of the final week, students will spend time in class working on their plot diagrams, storyboards, and written analyses of their literary work. Day three of week six will be spent peer-editing the written analyses as day four and day five will be spent presenting the information to the whole class. If any time is left, I would choose to show the rest of "The First Knight."

Assignments:

Assignment 1 – Due week 1, day 5

King Arthur Unit

Your assignment is to research a common character (from the list below) in Arthurian Literature and write a poem about this character. When researching, look at a few of the stories, consider what we have already read, watch a movie portraying an Arthurian story, go to the library and on the Web. Show me that you spent time researching this character; put all your sources on a work cited sheet. I expect to see at least three sources. If you prefer to write a short scene with your chosen character and another, you may do that instead of a poem. Otherwise, there are no restrictions. These will be shared with the rest of the class and possibly published in the class anthology. After your reading you may be asked questions pertaining to that character. Dazzle us!

One source for information on the common characters is located at:

http://www.britannia.com/history/artbios.html

Common characters in Arthurian literature:

• King Arthur
• Guinevere
• Lancelot
• Excalibur (yes, this may be considered a main "character")
• Ygerna
• Galahad
• Modred
• Morgan le Fay
• Gawain
• Merlin
• Sir Kay
• If you want to pick someone who is not on this list, talk to me.

You will be graded on:

• Creativity (5 points)
• 3 sources (3 points)
• knowledge about character (2 points)

Assignment 2 – due week 3, day 3

King Arthur Unit

Your assignment is to look through the community paper and find a person whom you consider to be a modern day hero, role model, and chivalrous. After our discussion in class about interviewing, you are required to write 15 appropriate questions for the interview, contact the community member, interview him or her, and write an article in the format of a newspaper about his or her great deed(s). A rough draft of the article is due on day 1 of week 3, and the final draft is due on day 3 of week 3. Along with the polished article, you will hand in the questions that you wrote and a short reflection. The reflection should answer these questions:

How does my article reflect the conventions used by newspaper journalists?

If I could do the interview over, what would I change?

What was the best question that I asked and why?

You will be graded on:

• the quality and quantity (15) of the questions (4 points)
• the finished article (8 points)
  1. clarity
  2. mechanics
  3. format
  4. who, what, where, when, why
• the self reflection (3 points)

Grade for the unit is determined as follows:

• Assignment One, poem or scene (10 points)
• Assignment Two, article (15 points)
• Participation (5 points)
  1. finishes assigned readings
  2. participates in class discussions
• Group work determined by the peer’s evaluation and teacher observations (5 points)
• Plot Diagram (10 points)
• Storyboard (20 points)
• Analysis of process and work for Task 1 (5 points)
• Comprehensive analysis of literary work (15 points)
• Presentation (15 points)

100-92=A

91-84=B

83-75=C

74-66=D

65- ß =F

Learning Area: Literature and the Arts

Level: High School

Content Standard: Literature and arts analysis and interpretation – Literature

Task: Analyze Narrative Structure

Standard:

A student shall demonstrate the ability to interpret and evaluate complex works of literature by:

1. describing the elements and structure of literature; the artistic intent;

   and the historical, cultural, and social background of the selected literature;

2. applying specific critical criteria to interpret and analyze historical, cultural, and social background the selected literature;
3. describing how particular effects (mood, personal response) are produced by the artist’s use of the elements of literature (plot, setting, theme, characterization, point of view); and
4. communicating an informed interpretation using the vocabulary of literature (symbolism, allusion, figurative language, plot, setting, theme, characterization, point of view, exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution).

Products/Evidence of Learning:

Plot Diagram

Storyboard

Written analysis of process and work

Task Description:

Overview: Students select a piece of Arthurian literature, analyze the narrative structure through the creation of a plot diagram, develop a storyboard based on one of its key event/scene, and evaluate the process of creating a storyboard. The plot diagram and storyboard will be used as aids in a presentation for the class.

1. Read one work of Arthurian literature. Analyze the narrative structure of the work by creating a plot diagram that graphically depicts the pattern of events (dramatic tension and release; conflict and resolution) in the story. Each element on Freitag’s Pyramid must be depicted.
2. Next, develop a storyboard based on the work’s narrative structure that has at least six sections. If you feel that the key event cannot be captured in six sections, you may use two tag boards. The storyboard can show setting, conflicts, and character relationships in more detail than the plot diagram. In creating the storyboard, portray a selected key event/scene. Determine what criteria you will use to select the event. For example, one way to select key events is to see plot as driven by characters; the climax, its resolution, and the effects on the characters become critical features in understanding theme. Therefore, one criterion to use in the selection of key events is that of the illumination of character. Elements that should be included in the storyboard are camera angles, time, special effects, lighting effects, and dialogue. Other elements that may be considered are background music, location for shooting, etc. Divide the tag board into six sections and draw the characters as stick figures if you are not artistically talented. Around the characters should be the details about the above elements. For example, you might write that a certain image would slowly dissolve from the screen. Make sure that you have reasons for your decisions. Dialogue is written beneath each section.
3. Finally, write a two to three page description evaluating the process and explaining how you made your decisions. How did you choose which scene to portray? How did you choose which point of view your storyboard would be told from? What kind of effects did your artistic/technical decisions make in your creation? What kind of information would you have liked to have been given from the author or was it all fully explained? Do you believe that your creation better illustrates the scene when compared to the literature? Why or why not?

Checklist for Task 1

Y=Yes

N=No Evidence Shown

Student Teacher

______ The plot diagram accurately depicts: ______

           _____ the functions of a short story’s components.
           _____ the relationships among the components of a
                      short story.

______ The plot diagram consistently incorporates ______

             vocabulary of the literary form.

______ The storyboard is complete by including a ______

            description of the following elements:
             _____ camera angles
             _____ time
             _____ special effects
             _____ lighting effects
             _____ dialogue.

______ The dialogue in the storyboard is realistic and ______

             is told from and reasonable point of view.

______ The setting is fully explained. ______

______ The analysis of the process answers all of the ______

             questions in the task description.

Learning Area: Literature and the Arts

Level: High School

Content Standard: Literature and arts analysis and interpretation – Literature

Task: Comprehensive Analysis of a Literary Work

Standard:

A student shall demonstrate the ability to interpret and evaluate complex works of literature by:

1. describing the elements and structure of literature; the artistic intent; and the historical, cultural, and social background of the selected literature;
2. applying specific critical criteria to interpret and analyze historical, cultural, and social background the selected literature;
3. describing how particular effects (mood, personal response) are produced by the artist’s use of the elements of literature (plot, setting, theme, characterization, point of view); and
4. communicating an informed interpretation using the vocabulary of literature (symbolism, allusion, figurative language, plot, setting, theme, characterization, point of view, exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution).

Products/Evidence of Learning:

Analysis of a literary work

Task Description:

Overview: Students will select a piece of Arthurian literature (the same as in Task 1). They will then research its author, any previous work that may have influenced the author, and social, political, and cultural events of the time period in which the work was written. Along with these elements, the students will include their reaction to the text and descriptions of the writer’s use of the formal elements of fiction with examples. This will not only include the elements on Freitag’s Pyramid, but also such elements as symbolism, allusion, figurative language, plot, setting, theme, characterization, point of view, exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. These finding will be presented to the class.

1. Choose a piece of Arthurian literature (same as in Task 1) from the approved list.
2. When reading the work, make notes in your literature log about themes found throughout the work (at least 3), your general reactions to the work, and descriptions of the writer’s use of formal elements of fiction. These elements would include the ones listed on Freitag’s Pyramid along with symbolism, figurative language, allusion, characterization, and any of the other above elements that have been discussed in class.
3. Find information about the author, historical, social, and cultural events of the time period in which the work was written and describe how these factors influenced the development of the work or are reflected in the work. Even though the work may have been written recently consider such questions as: where does (or did) the author live, did that have any bearing on the work, what works might have influenced the author, what life events might have affected authorial intent, and what cultural events were popular in the area and time period in which the author lived?
4. Your findings must be typed up in a readable format in order for me to know that you did each step. Chart Freitag’s Pyramid with the stories actions in place of the elements names. Ask each question in number three and follow it with an answer.
5. Present all of this information (themes, reactions, descriptions of formal elements, background information) to the class using your plot diagrams and storyboards as aids in your presentation. You will need some other type of visual aid to clarify all of the information that you are presenting. Some options are PowerPoint, transparencies, handouts, or tag board.

Checklist for Task 2

Y=Yes

N=No evidence shown

Student Teacher

______ The analysis effectively connects elements and ______

             structure with effect and artistic intent.

______ The analysis consistently connects background ______

             and context with meaning and point of view.

______ The analysis repeatedly incorporates the ______

             vocabulary of the literary form.

______ Interpretation of the work is consistent with the ______

             analysis.

______ Examples and specific details are used to support ______

             the found themes.

______ Examples and specific details are used to support ______

            descriptions of the author’s formal elements.

______ Findings have been typed in a readable format. ______

______ Plot diagram and storyboard is used to illustrate ______

             the analysis.

______ Another visual aid is used during the presentation ______

             to clarify meaning for the audience.

______ Sources are cited on the extra visual aid. ______

Presentation Rubric

For 15 points:

• The speaker must be audible, maintain eye contact, control the pacing of the presentation, provide comments that support the visual aids, make natural transitions, be knowledgeable about the topic, and use the vocabulary of literature.
• The visual aids must be neat, easily readable, and used to support the presented information.
• The content must include numerous examples of the work that support the themes and the author’s use of formal elements. Background information, social, historical, authorial, and cultural as it relates to the literature, must be a part of the information.

For 10 points:

• The speaker must have four of the above seven elements of an effective speaker.
• The visual aids must be neat, easily readable, and used to support the presented information.
• The content must include some examples of the work that support the themes and the author’s use of formal elements. Background information, social and authorial as it relates to the literature, must be a part of the information.

For 5 points:

• The speaker must have three of the above seven elements of an effective speaker.
• The visual aids must be used to support the presented information.
• The content must include the themes and formal elements found in the work. Background information, social and authorial as it relates to the literature, must be a part of the information.

Learning Area: Literature and the Arts

Level: High School

Content Standard: Literature and arts analysis and interpretation – Literature

Task: Class Anthology

The following is a brief description of a revised task which can be found at

http://mecr.state.mn.us/ppconsview?PP_ID=30412&GYEAR=2002. This is a task that would be worked on throughout the year, and it would include written work from other units as well as this one. A detailed task description and checklist would be included in a later unit.

Evidence of Learning:

Individually created works and introductions contributed to the class anthology.

Extended definition of story

Task Summary:

Overview: Students will work together as a class to produce a class anthology with student created work. They will select creative writing and critical analyses, one of each from every student, to be published in the anthology. Creative writing selections must be polished and preceded by an introduction, which explains the context from which it came. Each critical analysis will be preceded by an introduction containing: bibliographic information, summary of the author’s work, and an explanation of the value of each selection to the reader. After the anthology is published, students will review all of the contributed critical analyses and write and extended definition of a story. Included in this definition will be the criteria for what makes a story and a detailed explanation of the value of a good story. In order for the definition to be considered complete, students must have:

• a list of the elements that must be included in a piece of literature before it can be classified as a story.
• an explanation of what makes a good story instead of a bad one.
• three reasons/values to read a good story.

Once all tasks have been completed, students will be scored based on the following rubric.

Scores are ranked 4-1 with 4 being highest score and 1 being lowest. Scores reflect a professional judgment based on multiple evidence of sustained student work over time.

To receive a score of 4, a student:

• Demonstrates precise and fluent knowledge of the tools, skills, elements, principles and history.
• Makes artistic choices that are based on expanding, transforming or combining options to improve or refine the work.
• Is creatively expressive through synthesized use of elements, principles, skills, techniques and materials in creation or performance,

To receive a score of 3, a student:

• Demonstrates accurate and articulate knowledge of the tools, skills, elements, principles and history.
• Makes artistic choices that are based on informed intent to improve or refine the work.
• Is creatively expressive through crafted or modified use of elements, principles, skills, techniques and materials in creation or performance.

To receive a score of 2, a student:

• Demonstrates correct knowledge of the tools, skills, elements, principles and history.
• Makes artistic choices that are based on a considered range of options.
• Is creatively expressive through conventional use of elements, principles, skills, techniques and materials in creation or performance

To receive a score of 1, a student:

• Demonstrates general and/or commonplace knowledge of the tools, skills, elements, principles and history.
• Makes artistic choices that are based on automatic responses to personal likes and dislikes.
• Is creatively expressive through mechanical use of elements, principles, skills, techniques and materials in creation or performance.

Teacher Resources (note: The required section from Pyle’s work is included in Modern Arthurian Literature: An Anthology of English and American Arthuriana from the Renaissance to the Present):

"Arts and Literature: Arthurian Studies." 5 Nov. 1999.      

       <http://historymedren.about.com/education/historymedren/msubarth.htm>.

Beach, Richard, and James Marshall. Teaching Literature in the        

       Secondary School.Orlando: Harcourt Brace, 1991.

Gere, Anne Ruggles., et. al. Language and Reflection: An Integrated

       Approach to Teaching English. Upper Saddle River, New

       Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1992.

Hopkins, Andrea. Chronicles of King Arthur. New York: Viking

       Penguin, 1993.

"Le Morte d’ Arthur: The Legend of the King." 12 Nov. 1999.

       <http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/arthur/activities.html>.

Lupak, Alan ed. Modern Arthurian Literature: An anthology of

       English and American Arthuriana from the Renaissance to the

       Present. New York: Garland, 1992.

"MECR Performance Package Consolidated View." 25 Oct. 1999.

       <http://mecr.state.mn.us/ppconsview?PP_ID=30412&GYEAR=2002>.

Noden, Harry R. Image Grammar: Using Grammatical Structures to        

       Teach Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999.

Trimmer, Joseph F., and C. Wade Jennings, eds. Fictions. 3rd ed.

       New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1994.