Course: Folk Literature, 3203, Grade 12

Key Stage Outcomes:

• Respond critically to complex and sophisticated texts
  
• Examine how texts work to reveal and produce ideologies, identities and positions
  
• Examine how media texts construct notions of roles, behavior, culture and reality
  
• Critically evaluate the information they access

Specific Course Outcomes:

• To help students develop self-knowledge through bringing to the level of conscious awareness and personhood some of those aspects of thought, behaviour, and aesthetic principles that are normally taken for granted.
  
• To have students become aware of some of the social uses of folk literature, and to understand how story, song, recitation, and folk say record a way of life.

Goals: To have the students crtically analyze how the lyrics portray, construct, and represent gender roles, gender identities, ideologies, and stereotypes.

Materials:

• TV
  
• VCR
  
• Lyric sheets for , Baby One More Time, by Britney Spears
  
• Video tape of the video for Baby One More Time, by Britney Spears

Learning Activities: I will split students into groups of four or five and then play the video to the class. I will then pass out a copy of the lyrics and a worksheet that asks questions about the construction and portrayal of gender roles, identities, ideologies and stereotypes. Each group will present their answer to one of the questions to the whole class. One representative, or multiple members of the group can do this. This will form the basis for a brief discussion of each question.

Evaluation: Each group will hand in their work sheet with written answers and these will be graded using a holistic rubric, with each member of the group receiving the same mark. The presentations and discussions will be used for formative evaluation.

Course: Folk Literature, 3203, Grade 12

Key Stage Outcomes:

• Articulate their understanding of ways in which information texts are constructed for particular purposes
  
• Use the cueing systems and a variety of other strategies to construct meaning in reading and viewing complex and sophisticated print and media texts
  
• Access, select and research, in systematic ways, specific information to meet personal and learning needs
  
• Examine how texts work to reveal and produce ideologies, identities and positions

Specific Course Outcomes:

• To help students develop self-knowledge through bringing to the level of conscious awareness and personhood some of those aspects of thought, behavior, and aesthetic principles that are normally taken for granted.
  
• To have students become aware of some of the social uses of folk literature, and to understand how story, song, recitation, and folk say record a way of life.

Goals: To have the students critically analyze an album cover that best represents their personality (values, attitudes, beliefs, activities etc.) and to provide information about why and how it represents them.

Materials Needed:

• A computer lab
  
• Color printer
  
• Personal paper and writing utensil

Learning Activities: We will go as a class to the computer lab where each student will log on to the internet and go to www.undergrid.coverart.net . I will give them twenty minutes to look at different album cover art, and explain that each student is to pick an album cover that best represents their personality (values, attitudes, beliefs, activities etc.). The students will then print off their chosen album cover. On an attached piece of paper they will write an essay explaining why the cover best represents their personality. I will pass out a sheet of guiding questions to help them formulate their thoughts.

Evaluation: I would grade each paper, using a holistic rubric, as a part of their cumulative summative evaluation. I would use this as an opportunity to formatively assess the students writing skills.

Course: Folk Literature, 3203, Grade 12

Key Stage Outcomes:

• Examine others' ideas and synthesize what is helpful to clarify and extend their own understanding
  
• Adapt language and delivery for a variety of audiences and purposes in informal and formal contexts, some of which are characterized by complexity of purpose, procedure and subject matter
  
• Address the demands of a variety of speaking situations, making critical language choices, especially of tone and style
  
• Demonstrate understanding of the ways in which the construction of texts can create, enhance or control meaning

Specific Course Outcomes:

• To help students recognize that folk literature expresses the yearnings, fears, hopes, and dreams that are an integral part of human nature.
  
• To have students become aware of some of the social uses of folk literature, and to understand how story, song, and recitation, and folk say record a way of life.

Goals: To have the students realize that folk music is a vehicle for political activism, promoting political ideology, and giving voice and agency to people.

Materials Needed:

• TV
  
• VCR
  
• Video tape of the video for Testify, by Rage Against The Machine
  
• Personal paper and writing utensil

Learning Activities: I will give a brief introduction in lecture form about how folk music is used to express people's political views and ideologies, and give people voice and agency. I will then proceed to show them the video for the song Testify, by Rage Against The Machine, which is a video with a very overt political message. I will be careful to emphasize that I the video is an example and does not necessarily represent my personal political views. We will watch the video a number of times and then I will instruct the students to write a one-page speech representing the political view and ideology of the video. I will provide a sheet with some questions to consider while doing the exercise. When they have completed the exercise, depending on the remaining time, I will either ask all the students to deliver their speech to the rest of the class, or ask for a few volunteers.

Evaluation: Each student will have to pass in their speech and will be graded using a holistic rubric. The assignment will be a part of their cumulative summative evaluation.
Students' presentation of their speeches will be used as a part of my formative evaluation of their ability to communicate information and ideas effectively and clearly.

Course: Folk Literature, 3203, Grade 12

Key Stage Outcomes:

• Ask discriminating questions to acquire, interpret, analyze, and evaluate concepts, ideas, and information
  
• Examine how media texts construct notions of roles, behaviour, culture and reality
  
• Demonstrate undrstanding of the ways in which the construction of texts can create, enhance or control meaning
  • Make critical choices of form, style and content to address increasingly complex demands of different purposes and audiences
  
  
• Apply their knowledge of what strategies are effective for them as creators of various writing and media productions

Specific Course Outcomes:

• To have students become aware of some of the social uses of folk literature, and to understand how story, song, and recitation, and folk say record a way of life.
  
• To develop the discipline and methodology required for independent study, fieldwork, interviewing, comparative study, and primary research.
  
• To have students realize that the making of folk literature is going on all the time and that many of their parents and grandparents have contributed to it. To help students appreciate how each passing generation shapes and moulds this body pf literature to its own needs and designs.

Goals: To have students realize that folk literature exists in media texts that are a part of their everyday lives. To help students understand the way that media texts are constructed by involving them in the process.

Materials:

• A collection of Rolling Stone magazines, or other magazines containing interviews with popular musicians
  
• Personal paper and a writing utensil

Learning Activities: I will provide a brief lecture on the fact that folk literature is everywhere in our society, from magazines, to film, to newspapers. I will explain that interviews are a part of popular media, and that the questions asked are often very strategic and constructed to illicit a particular response. We will then proceed to look at interviews with popular musicians in magazines, and each student will pick a question to read to the class. Then each student will write ten interview question for their favorite musician based on the knowledge that their questions will determine the information that is elicited from the musician.

Evaluation: I will collect their interview questions and read them over carefully, but I will assess them only for formative evaluation.

Course: Folk Literature, 3203, Grade 12

Key Stage Outcomes:

• Articulate their understanding of ways in which information texts are constructed for particular purposes
  
• Use the cueing system and a variety of strategies to construct meaning in reading and viewing complex and sophisticated print and media texts
  
• Make informed personal responses to increasingly challenging print and media texts and reflect on their responses
  
• Respond critically to complex and sophisticated texts
  • Examine how textual features help a reader and viewer to create meaning of the texts
  
  
• Demonstrate understanding of the ways in which the construction of texts can create, enhance or control meaning

Specific Course Outcomes:

• To help students develop self-knowledge through bringing to the level of conscious awareness and personhood some of those aspects of thought, behavior, and aesthetic principles that are normally taken for granted.
  
• To introduce students to the delights of folk literature in performance through the use of tapes, records, and performers (singers, storytellers, actors). To have students evaluate the effectiveness of the performances.

Goals: To help students understand and appreciate how music is used to manipulate and construct mood, atmosphere, tone, expectations, meanings, and understandings of movies and television shows. To get students to construct mood, atmosphere, tone, expectations, meanings, and understandings of a TV show or movie by changing the accompanying music.

Materials:

• TV
  
• VCR
  
• Four or five tape recordings of parts of movies and TV shows that have music, but no dialogue
  
• Music ready to accompany the movie and TV clips
  
• Tape cassette player
  
• worksheet

Learning Activities: I will give a brief lecture on the function of music in movies and TV shows. Then I will show the students a part of a TV show or movie that has music but no dialogue, and then I will show the same part of the movie or film accompanied by music that I have chosen, so as to manipulate the mood, atmosphere, tone, expectations, meanings and understandings of the clip. I will do about three of these demonstrations and students will have to fill in a worksheet for each one. We will have a brief discussion after each demonstration.

Evaluation: I will collect the worksheets and I will use them as a part of their class participation mark, and as a means of formative evaluation to assess their comprehension of the concepts taught.

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