Beyond Book Reports:
Using technology and Drama to Share and Celebrate
Literature in the Classroom
Freyja Bergthorson
Loudoun County Public Schools
English SALT, Farmwell Station Middle
Freyja.Bergthorson@lcps.org
Nature of the Beast
(middle / HS students)
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Highly social
Need movement
Easily bored
Must be monitored
Pacing
Desire for fun and recognition from peers
May not ‘value’ English as area of study
Desires options / choice
Naturally curios / inquisitive (at school?)
Nature of the Beast
(middle / HS students)
Nature of the Beast
and English Instruction
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May not value ‘English’
Satisfied with literal (reads good enough)
Needs a ‘reason’ to care about English
Reading and writing are silent,
sedentary, and individual activities
(aka – boring)
Overview
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Poetry Performance Project
Audacity – “The Bells”
Lyric Project
Trailers / choices
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Theater Games
Literature Circle Groups
Shakespeare “Out Loud”
Illuminated Poetry
– Movies
Formative Assessment and
Project Work
• Teacher monitors & corrects
misconceptions
• Peer discussion of content
• Product develops communication
skills (21 Century communication)
• Active engagement of students with
content
Poetry Performance Project
• Guided practice
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– Group
– Teacher
Engagement
Formative Assessment
Emphasis on academic skills
Memorization (a first)
Poetry Performance Project
Process
Students
• Select poems
• Analyze & apply literary terms (SOL)
• Create academic and creative presentation
Teacher • Teach skills for group (explicitly)
• Formative assessment – walk the room
Student Examples
• “Oranges”
• Sonnet
• Eldorado
Playing with Sound
• Poe’s “The Bells” mood, sound devices,
voice
• Support SOL objectives
– Sound devices / figurative language / voice
• Focus on author’s craft and purpose
– Student engagement
Process
• Whole Class / complete table
• Listen to reading – identify type of
bell & sound / stanza
• Identify mood & supporting word
choices / stanza
• Deeper meaning / theme
• Group work – 20 minutes
Student Samples
• 2010 6B online
• “O Captain, My Captain”
IV
Hear the tolling of the bellsIron Bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy meaning of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people- ah, the peopleThey that dwell up in the steeple,
All Alone
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stoneThey are neither man nor womanThey are neither brute nor humanThey are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
IV
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bellsOf the bells:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bellsOf the bells, bells, bellsTo the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bellsOf the bells, bells, bells:
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bellsBells, bells, bellsTo the moaning and the groaning of the bells.
O Captain! My Captain!
O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
Introduction to Poetry
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to water-ski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Billy Collins
Lyric Project
• Music is poetry
• Apply poetic terms & analysis to song
lyrics
• Connects school learning to ‘real
world’
• Student beg to do this project
• Value of sharing projects (how to do
this efficiently)
Student Samples
• Fireflies
• Hungry Like the Wolf
Book Reports / Trailers
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Importance of choices
No summaries
Critical thinking
Writing skills reinforced
Group options
Grading
• Homework they WANT to do!
Student Examples
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The Hand
Drew, Nick, Thomas song
Emily & Luis 451
Nathaniel 451
Giver trailer Phil James
Giver Soundtrack Arens
Giver trailer Alison & Taylor
Body Biography
Literature Circles
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Student choice for books
Grouping
Reluctant readers and…
Clear objectives & monitoring
– Allow for differences / choices
• Self & peer evaluation of progress
• Daily MVP
Student Projects
• Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
Value of Video Analysis
• Students record presentations &
analyze their efforts
• Reflective process to improve
performance
• Video group analysis
– Select focus (general area for
improvement)
– Identify strengths
Theater Games
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The Doctor is in
Tableau
Dumb Show (Shakespeare)
Reduced performances
See additional resources
Importance of Peer Feedback
• Immediate, valued, treasured, raises the
bar, improves climate
Quick & Easy Ways to give feedback
• MVP
• Post-it
• Project guest sheet
• 2 stars and a wish
• Discussion
Illuminated Text
New idea – power point
manipulation of text to
imaginative new form of
communication…
Handouts
Web site - http://cmsweb1.loudoun.k12.va.us/509125612142226/site/default.asp
E-mail – freyja.bergthorson@lcps.org
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Group Support Materials
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Poetry Performance
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“The Bells’
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Lyric Project
Lit Circles Project
451 Project choices
Body Biography
– Instructions
– Rubrics
– Table & web link
It’s all about
Student Engagement!
Fun Extras!
• Kipling’s “If’
• “Lost Generation”
Freyja.Bergthorson@lcps.org
fbergthorson@msn.com