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Outline
The purpose of this paper will be to provide an outline for a lesson which will implement the use of drama in the classroom. Given here will be a brief overview, later a more detailed listing of specific points and events.
The purpose of the question, either of the above, is to simply introduce the topic and to begin a discussion. Once students have entered a dialogue focusing on murder mysteries, another question is posed: Does anyone know who invented murder mysteries?
For this part, I assume that the answer will be no, but it really doesn’t matter.
What is important here is that the class be introduced to the topic of Edgar Allan Poe. Once Poe’s name is mentioned I expect a few comments: “Did he write ‘The Raven?’” “I’ve heard of him?” Or other such comments. I don’t expect the class to be overly knowledgeable about the author.
The next step will be to tell the class where we will be heading next. At this point the drama part of the lesson will be introduced. To give a general overview, the next part of the lesson will involve a board meeting. The students will take the roles of writers and researchers who will work for a literary publication, the teacher-in-role will be the publications editor. At this point, the students will be told the focus of the lesson. They are to work for the publication and write an article which will honor the literary man of the year. This year’s chosen writer is Edgar Allan Poe. He is to be honored for excellence and innovation in the field of fiction, both poetry and prose. The staff of the publication will be broken into three teams, one which will research a piece of poetry, one which will research a piece of prose, and one which will focus on writing a comprehensive biography of the writer.
The students will be told that they have one week to do research and to make notes, after this time, the editor will review what has been found, and decide how to proceed. The students will, at this point, be broken into three groups and assigned specific tasks. The next five classes will be spent in the Learning Resource Center as students do their preliminary work on their assigned topics.
The focus of this section of the lesson will be the actual research and note-making which the students will be doing. Hopefully, by this part of the lesson, most students will be making progress and learning much about the fascinating author. It is most important, however, that those students working on Poe’s biography be well into their work. Their work will serve as the springboard for conflict to come.
During these classes the teacher-in-role will hover and oversee. He may guide students along but should become too involved in the work which is being done. It is very important that the work be the students own and that they feel they are accomplishing something worthwhile.
At the end of this period, the teacher-in-role will go to each of the groups and collect what has been done. He will explain that he must take the work to the publication’s advertisers to see what they think. All of the students’ work thus far will now be critiqued by the advertisers. They will have to wait until the next class to hear the results.
At the start of this session the teacher-in-role and the students will once again take part in a board meeting. The editor’s demeanor this time, however, will be much less bright. He will explain to the students that there is a major problem. The advertisers feel that Edgar Allan Poe is not the type of man they want associated with their products. Information which has come to light as a result of the biographical research has been less than appealing. Hopefully, at this point, the students will have invested enough time and effort so that they do not wish to see their work go down the drain.
The next issue to be discussed in the meeting is “What are we going to do?” The students will be pressed to find some sort of solution to their dilemma. Whether it be on their own, or through the editor’s guidance, it is important that the author be honored. Hopefully, the students will by this time see that Poe is a very important author, one worthy of recognition despite his abnormal personal life. The ideal situation would be that the students will want to take their case to the advertisers, to tell them about the man they are honoring, to prove that he is worth honoring. The editor may help the students argument by reminding them that the purpose of this award is to recognize the author for his contributions to writing, not his personal life, and that perhaps they can make the advertisers see things the same way.
Once students have worked together on an argument to present to the advertisers, have them do so. The teacher-in-role will play one of the larger advertisers and meet with the students. At this point in the lesson the students will have to present a valid and convincing argument. They will have to include information which they have found through their research and may also wish to include examples of other well-known and contributing writers who have led less-than-perfect personal lives.
At this point, if the students have presented a good argument, the advertisers will give them permission to continue with their work. If they have not, however, the advertisers will turn them down. If this is the case, have the students re-evaluate their approach and attempt to persuade the advertisers again. Once they have permission to continue, allow them to go on with their work.
At this point, the students are free to continue with their work. They have decided and argued that Poe should be honored as man of the year and will now present this information to their readers. The article is to be finalized and put into print. The teacher-in-role should feel free to write an editor’s note which will appear at the beginning of the students’ article.
After all is said and done, the staff of the publication may get together to celebrate and discuss their work. The board room may be opened for a party, complete with champagne and caviar. The writers will be congratulated for a job well done and perhaps even introduced to the next piece which is to be written.
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Guidelines for understanding
Before reading the instructions for delivering this lesson it is important that one have a clear understanding of the complete lesson to be taught. Therefore, it is important that the outline which appears previously should be read completely before continuing. Also, the reader should note that the text will appear in several forms. Regular instruction will appear in regular text as seen here. Text which represents Teacher Thinking will appear in bold lettering. Dialogue will also play a role in this lesson and will be found in “quotation marks.” Separate dialogues will be preceded by either TV, TIRV, SV, or SIRV (Teacher Voice, Teacher-in-role Voice, Student Voice, and Student-in-role Voice respectively).
It must also be noted here that this lesson will be presented here in its entirety. It will be up to the teacher to decide where a class starts and stops during each class.
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TV: “Does anyone here like murder mysteries?”
SV: “We love mysteries!”
TV: “Who has an example of a good murder mystery?”
SV: “I do, I do! How about that television show, Law and Order.”
TV: “Very good guys. Okay, one more question. Who makes up all of these stories?”
SV: “The old lady on Murder She Wrote, she writes murder stories.”
TV: “Great, those are some really good examples. Now what if I told you we were going to look at the author who wrote the very first murder mystery stories?”
SV: “That sounds pretty cool.”
TV: “Actually, the same man was a very good poet as well. His name was Edgar Allan Poe and he was an American.”
SV: “I heard of him, they did one of his poems on The Simpsons.”
TV: “That’s right, The Simpsons did an adaptation of “The Raven.” That is a very famous poem and it was written by the guy we are going to talk about.”
The purpose of this little dialogue is to get the students interested in the topic. This discussion will show the students that a man who wrote over one hundred years ago has had a very profound effect on contemporary scary stories. At this point I want to connect the writing of Poe to something which every student has encountered. Edgar Allan Poe is the father of the modern murder mystery.
TV: “Okay, I have an interesting activity planned for us for the next little while. We are going to turn this classroom into an office. Each of you are going to be writers and researchers who work for a magazine. I am going to be the magazine’s editor. Our job is going to be to honor the magazine’s choice for man of the year: Edgar Allan Poe. Any questions?”
SV: “How long does this have to be?”
TV: “I don’t know?”
SV: “What do you mean you don’t know? Can we just pass in a paragraph?”
TV: “I think if we are going to honor one of the most important authors who has ever lived, he deserves more than a paragraph.”
SV: “Do we all write our own?”
TV: “ No, I think that it’s best if we work together.”
SV: “How do we know who is going to do what?”
TV: “I tell you what guys, how about we meet with the magazine’s editor. He will be able to answer your questions a lot better than I can. Let’s set up the board room and I’ll go and get the editor.”
SV: “How do we set up a board room?”
TV: “Well, what does a board room look like?”
SV: “I think they have a really long table with a lot of seats around it. The boss sits at the head of the table and talks to everyone else.”
TV: “Sounds good to me. How about we make a line of desks. We’ll put one row of desks side by side, and another facing it, then I’ll put the editor’s chair at the end.
At this point the students move about the classroom arranging their desks. The teacher should need to say very little here and should let the students figure it out on their own. Hopefully this will set the tone for the rest of the lesson. After their initial meeting with the editor, they will be figuring things out for themselves and doing most of the work on their own.
Once the desks are arranged...
TV: “Okay, is everyone ready to meet with the boss?”
SV: “Yes.”
TV: “Alright, here I go...are you sure that you are all ready to meet with the editor of your magazine?”
SV: “Wait, we should all have paper to take notes.”
TV: “Very good point, after all, he is going to tell you everything you need to know about this project so you want to make sure that you get it.”
SV: “Come on everyone, get some paper!”
By this time it seems that the students are really getting into the project. Keep things going here. As soon as they are back in their seats with their paper out, tell them you are going to get the editor.
TV: “Okay, seems like everyone is ready. I’ll go and get the editor. Any questions before I go?”
SV: “What’s his name sir?”
TV: “Oh yes, very important question, and something you guys should know I guess. The editor’s name is Paul J. Itzer. He likes for you guys to call him PJ. Anything else?” PAUSE “Okay then, I’ll be right back.”
The teacher will now leave the classroom to go and get PJ. I think the best thing for the teacher to do here would be to wait outside the door for a few minutes. This will give the students a chance to talk about what is happening. Also, they will have a chance to talk about what they think PJ will say and also to talk about any questions they may wish to ask.
PJ will not knock before he enters, and will close the door loudly once he does. If
the students continue to chat after he enters he will stand at the door and look at them until they stop. He will then lay his briefcase on the desk and stand next to his chair.
TIRV (PJ): “Good morning ladies and gentlemen.”
SIRV (Staff): “Good morning sir.”
TIRV (PJ): “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, readers of all ages. Once a year, we, the staff of American Writers’ Journal, select an author, past or present, to honor as our man or woman, of the year. This year, the author chosen is the great story-writer and poet, Edgar Allan Poe. What I want you people to do is to write me an article telling me why Mr. Poe should receive such an honor. Are there any questions?”
SIRV (Staff): “What do you want us to do?”
TIRV (PJ): “What do you mean ‘what do I want you to do?’ You’ve all seen our previous Man of the Year articles. All I’m looking for is a little biography and a little blurb about one of his most famous pieces, nine to twelve pages, fifteen max! We are looking at maybe one page for the title and a few photos with captions, so let’s say a maximum of fourteen pages.”
SIRV (Staff): “How do you expect us to do this?”
TIRV (PJ): Well, previously, the staff has been divided into groups, so I guess that’s your best bet. Half of you work on the biography, and half on a poem...no wait, a short story...wait...How about both? Yeah, that’s good, we’ll go with three groups this year, one group can work on the biography, one on a short story, and one on a poem.”
SIRV (Staff): “How long do we have to do this PJ?”
TIRV (PJ): “Well, I’m going to give you people a week to put your feelers out and to do some preliminary research. I guess we’ll meet here in a week, to see what you’ve found. From there we’ll get into writing the article. You people will know where to take it from there. As for the groups, I think you guys are quite capable of picking your own groups.”
SIRV (Staff): “That’s it? That’s all you are going to tell us?”
TIRV (PJ): “Hey, you guys have been writing for years, you have a general idea of what I want. You’ll come up with something good.”
At this point PJ picks up his briefcase and leaves the room. The teacher will pause for a moment outside and then re-enter.
TV: “Okay guys, what happened while I was gone?”
SV: “PJ was here and he told us that we had to write an article about Edgar Allan Poe.”
TV: “Fourteen pages, that sounds like a lot of work.”
SV: “We’re allowed to work in groups.”
TV: “So who is what group?”
SV: “We don’t know yet. There have to be three groups, and each will work on a different part of the article.”
TV: “Okay, well I guess you’d better get yourselves into three groups and decide who is going to do what.”
At this point the teacher should stand back and allow the students to get themselves into groups. Each time the teacher stands back and allows students to make these decisions he is placing more of the projects ownership into the hands of the students. I think they will work harder on a project which they have partially designed.
SV: “Okay sir, we’re ready. We are going to do the biography, that group is going to work on a poem, and the other group is going to work on a short story. We’ve decided that we are going to try to pick a story that is one of the first murder mysteries.”
It would be nice for the students to come up with the idea of using one of Poe’s murder mysteries as the story they pick for the article. I have found that students often have a nice way of surprising a teacher. I’ve added such a surprise here.
TV: “That’s a great idea, perhaps you guys could devote a little bit of your section to tell us about how Edgar Allan Poe invented the murder mystery.
SV: “That’s what we were going to do.”
TV: “Well, PJ told you guys what he wanted done, I guess the best thing for you to do would be to get into your groups, decide what exactly you have to do, and then decide how your are going to do it.”
SV: “Okay guys, everyone into their groups.”
Once the students have separated into groups the teacher should go around to each group to check on their progress. If a group becomes stuck the teacher may offer advice. The students should decide, on their own or with the teacher’s input, that they should head to the Resource Center to do a little research. I suggest that the teacher does not ask the Resource Center Staff to ready materials. Learning to do effective research can be one of the outcomes of this lesson.
The teacher should allow the students to do their own work for the remainder of the week. Guidance is appropriate when necessary, but the teacher should allow the students to see their own mistakes instead of telling them what is wrong and how to fix it.
At the beginning of the next week the students will be ready to again meet with PJ. This time they are to show him what they have accomplished.
At the start of class...
TV: “Hello everyone, are we supposed to meet with PJ today?”
SV: “Yes.”
TV: “Okay then, let’s get the board room ready.”
It should take the students very little time to arrange the desks. The use of the board room serves a dual purpose here. First of all, and most obviously, it is the place where the drama is going to take place. Secondly, however, it will serve as a means to return the students to the drama. They have spent nearly a week being researchers and writers; the board room reminds them that this is their job.
TV: “Okay, is everybody ready, can I go get PJ?”
SV: “Yes. Go, tell him we are ready.”
The students may be expecting another waiting period before PJ comes in. There will be no waiting this time. Before the teacher can shut the door he will spin around and assume the role of PJ. He will walk briskly to the end of the table, clap his hands together, and rub them. This will show the students that PJ is a busy man and has much to do. They should not waste his time.
TIRV (PJ): “Okay folks, how’s everything going?”
SIRV (Staff): “Pretty good sir, we’ve got a nice bit of work done.”
TIRV (PJ): “Great, pass it up along please, so that I can have a look at it.”
SIRV (Staff): “Here you go sir.”
TIRV (PJ): “Thank-you very much folks. I’ll review this tonight and let you know what I think tomorrow. It looks as though you guys have been working hard all week, why don’t you take the rest of the day off and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
PJ then turns and leaves. Once again he has left the ball in the hands of the students. If the students have put a reasonable amount of work in on the project allow them to have the rest of the class off. It is up to them (within reason of course) what they do with the time.
TV: “Well guys, what did PJ say?”
SV: “He didn’t say anything.
TV: “Really, well what do you want to do in your free class?”
For the next session to work properly, the group of students working on the biography must have completed a fair bit of research. The notes which were passed to PJ must contain some details about Edgar Allan Poe’s personal life. If the teacher has ensured that the biographers have done their research, the rest of the program will go without a hitch.
At the beginning of the next class the students will again meet with PJ.
TV: “Okay guys, get the board room ready, PJ is on his way.”
SV: “Come on everyone, let’s get these desks together.”
The teacher should leave the classroom just before the students finish moving the desk and try to time his return so that they are just getting seated when he enters. This will leave the students little or no time to chat. They will not know what to expect when PJ enters and should be more than surprised by what he has to say.
PJ opens the door and allows to close on its own as he walks briskly to the table. He drops his papers (the students work which was submitted last class) on the table and takes his seat.
TIRV (PJ): “Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid I have some very disheartening news. While I myself like the work you have put together thus far, I’m afraid that I cannot say the same for the advertisers. They found much of the information uncovered by the biographers to be disgusting and inappropriate. Many of our advertisers do not want their products associated with an alcoholic, incestuous, pedophile. Therefore, we have no other choice but to drop the article.
SIRV (Staff): “Sir are you saying that we’ve wasted all this time?”
TIRV (PJ): “Whoa everybody, one at a time.” I’m afraid that the advertisers just don’t agree with our choice and have said that they will pull their ads if we run the article.”
SIRV (Staff): “Is there some way around this sir?”
TIRV (PJ): “I hear two good suggestions there but I don’t know if there is anything we can do to make this work. It would be a lot of work to find new advertisers to run in this issue, I think our best bet would be to try to convince the advertisers that we are honoring the man for his work and not his personal life. If you guys can do that, we should be able to finish and run the article. If not, we will have to scrap the whole thing.
SIRV (Staff): “Can we meet with the advertisers?”
TIRV (PJ): “There is no time, they are situated all over the country.”
SIRV (Staff): “How about if we write them a letter arguing our case?”
TIRV (PJ): Well, I tell you folks what, you go ahead and write your letters. You have two days, then I will have to send them off. Any longer than that and we will not have time to come up with another article if need be.”
SIRV (Staff): “I guess we’ll write the letters then sir.”
TIRV (PJ): “Sounds good to me. You guys are all good writers so if you can come up with a good argument I don’t think you’ll have a problem. Good luck and I’ll see you in two days.
PJ stands and leaves the room, he leaves the students’ work on the table. The students are now forced to write letters to the advertisers. The teacher can provide a listing of advertisers which have to be petitioned.
What is actually happening here is the students are writing letters arguing that they be allowed to finish their projects. I have no doubt that the students will by this time feel a strong sense of ownership for this project and do everything in their power to be allowed to finish it. After two days, PJ will return to collect the letters and speak briefly with his staff.
At the beginning of class...
SV: “Sir, is PJ coming in today?”
TV: “That’s right, he is supposed to be here today, I guess we’d better set up the board room.”
While the students are setting up the board room the teacher may leave. It is suggested that he spend a few minutes outside the door to build suspense. By now the students should be getting very anxious. They are about to send off their pleas to be allowed to continue working on their projects.
When PJ finally enters he will be exhausted. He has been worrying about the article just as much as the students have. He enters and sits in his seat.
TIRV (PJ): “Good morning everyone, how did the letter-writing go?”
SIRV (Staff): “We think it went pretty good sir.”
TIRV (PJ): “Great, that’s really good news.” PJ stands and takes the letters. “I’d like to say that I have nothing but faith in you people. I’m sure we’ll get to print this article. I’m going to go post these, and I’ll let you all know when I hear back. The company has decided that we only need seventy-five percent of the advertisers to go ahead with the article. Until you hear from me, I’d like you to keep working on the article. Continue with the biography; continue with the short story; continue with the poetry. I know we’re going to print this article. Good luck with it!”
SIRV (Staff): “Thanks sir.”
PJ leaves and the students are left once again to work on their projects. For the next couple classes the teacher will be hounded by students wondering if PJ has heard back from the advertisers. Allow three or four classes before giving any information. After three classes you can tell your students that half of the letters are back, but only seventy percent give the article approval. During the next class, you can give the students the final result.
If the students do a good job writing their letters, allow them to continue with the project. If they do poorly, you may use this as an opportunity to teach persuasive writing. Take a class or two to move outside the current project and have the students write their letters again. Once they write well enough to achieve a seventy-five percent approval, allow them to go on with their work.
On the day when PJ finally returns with the good news...
TIRV (PJ): “Great news everyone, great news! We are going ahead with the article. You all did a fantastic job and the advertisers have decided that we can go ahead with the article. Edgar Allan Poe will be honored this year after all.
SIRV (Staff): “Woohoo!”
TIRV (PJ): “That’s correct people, that’s correct. We have six more days to complete this thing so let’s get going. I suggest you take the next four days to get the work done, the fifth to edit, and the final to revise. I will be waiting in my office in six days time for the article. Looks like everything is smooth sailing from here on in.”
PJ gets up from the table and leaves the room. The students are now left with a deadline. Things will probably get pretty hectic in the next few days as students scurry to get their article in on time for publication. By this stage of the project the students should be well into their work and have a clear path for the direction the article will take. The teacher may now feel free to help the students through their work.
The students are to continue with the project until completion and then turn it into the teacher who will pass it on to PJ. Once the project has been graded, PJ will return to congratulate the students on a job well done.
At the beginning of class...
TV: “Well guys, the article was published and everything seems to have gone well. PJ will be here in a few minutes to congratulate you personally on a job-well-done. You all should fell very proud. Actually, I think I hear him now, I’ll go let him in.”
The teacher will step outside the door and re-enter in role.
TIRV (PJ): “Well guys, you pulled it off. I must say, you’ve all done an extraordinary job. Not only did you write a magnificent article, you also managed to persuade the advertisers into allowing us to print it. I look forward to working with this group again in the future, I don’t think I’ve ever worked with such a talented group of young people. You deserve a round of applause. Give yourselves a hand.”
Applause.
If the teacher wishes, the students may now celebrate. An executive party may ensue with a hoard of treats and snacks and glasses of champagne (ginger ale) for all.
It appears that the most effective method of introducing this type of lesson is
through a question.
Question: Does anyone here like murder mysteries?
Who likes to be scared?
Who has heard of Sherlock Holmes?
“I like scary stories.”
“Yeah, they are alright I guess.”
“What about Sherlock Holmes?”
“Stephen King writes murder mysteries too!”
“Sounds better than reading poetry.”
“No wait, everybody get in their seats.”
“Yeah, and let’s all be quiet when he comes in.”
“Okay, shhh guys. We’re ready.”
SIRV (Staff): “Good morning PJ.”
“Who’s going in each group sir?”
“Yeah and he said we would know what to do and it has to be fourteen pages long.”
“What should we do next?”
“Yeah, come on everybody.”
“Here’s mine sir.”
“Ours is all there PJ.”
“Yeah, he just took all of our stuff and said he’d let us know tomorrow.”
“He said we could have a free class.”
“We can’t put our work in the magazine?”
“They are saying that we can’t honor this man’s writing because of his personal life? Everybody is a little weird.”
“Yeah, is there anything we can do to change their minds?”
“How about we find new advertisers?”
“Yeah, that sounds good!”
“They should see our side of the story now.”
“Thanks PJ.”
“Alright! So we can finish the job now and have it printed?”
