Steps For Producing the Academy Awards

Student Comments about the Academy Awards

Overview

What will be taught?  

Students will read a novel they are interested in reading and create a project that summarizes the book and shows an audience a piece of the story. They will be taught elements of a persuasive essay. Afterwards, they will write a persuasive essay to convince "The Academy" to vote or not vote for their novel in the category for which it is nominated.

What will students do and learn?

They will read a novel, discuss their books with their group, take and pass an AR test, create a visual representation of the book, and write a 5 paragraph persuasive essay.

Rationale - Purpose for the unit as a whole. The WHY questions.

Why would you teach this unit?

Promote a love of reading; encourage students to read books outside of their typical genre choice; foster student discussion of novels; expose students to a variety of books from one author; have that author come in to talk to the students about the writing process and encourage students to write more.

Why would this qualify as an Engaged Learning unit?

Students have a choice of which book they will be reading. They also have a choice of how they would like to present the book in visual form and for the presentation at the ceremony. Students are encouraged to work with their group and "think out of the box" to create unique visuals and presentations using several forms of technology.

Why is technology an important component of this unit?

Students who choose to do presentations using iMovie or PowerPoint give the audience a taste of the novel in a creative way. Before the use of iMovie, students filmed their movies on VHS and could not edit their videos. They also read poems on stage instead of being able to record their voices on a PowerPoint and produce the quality they desired.

Why is this project authentic/meaningful, and challenging for students?

This project is meaningful and authentic for the students because they were given the choice of which books they wanted to read. They were also given the choice of whether they wanted to be a presenter or be a part of a nominee group. They also were given the opportunity to choose what type of project they wanted to do to present the book. It was challenging because students were expected to use some sort of technology to complete part of their project. They were encouraged to "think outside of the box" and be as creative as their minds would allow.

Goals - Content, Cognitive and Social - The WHAT questions

What new attributes (knowledge, skills, attitudes) do you expect students to gain?

At the end of this unit, we expect students to be able to summarize and express their opinions about the characters, plot, and themes of the book they read. We expect them to be able to express their thoughts about the book in visual form and give a brief presentation of a scene from the book using iMoive, Powerpoint, a live poetry reading, song singing, or acting out of a skit. Students will work in groups to achieve a common goal. Students will use communication and social skills to combine ideas into a final team idea for each aspect of the project. Emphasis will be on the creativity and the quality of the projects and how they relate to the story.

What school, district, state and national standards/benchmarks are addressed?

STATE GOAL 1: Read with understanding and fluency.

B. Apply reading strategies to improve understanding and fluency.

1.B.3c Continuously check and clarify for understanding (e.g., in addition to previous skills, draw comparisons to other readings).

1.B.3d Read age-appropriate material with fluency and accuracy.

C. Comprehend a broad range of reading materials.

1.C.3a Use information to form, explain and support questions and predictions.

1.C.3b Interpret and analyze entire narrative text using story elements, point of view and theme.

STATE GOAL 2: Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras and ideas.

Learning Standards

A. Understand how literary elements and techniques are used to convey meaning.

2.A.3b Describe how the development of theme, character, plot and setting contribute to the overall impact of a piece of literature.

B. Read and interpret a variety of literary works.

2.B.3a Respond to literary material from personal, creative and critical points of view.

2.B.3c Analyze how characters in literature deal with conflict, solve problems and relate to real-life situations.

STATE GOAL 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.

A. Use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization and structure.

3.A.3 Write compositions that contain complete sentences and effective paragraphs using English conventions.

B. Compose well-organized and coherent writing for specific purposes and audiences.

3.B.3a Produce documents that convey a clear understanding and interpretation of ideas and information and display focus, organization, elaboration and coherence.

C. Communicate ideas in writing to accomplish a variety of purposes.

3.C.3a Compose narrative, informative, and persuasive writings (e.g., in addition to previous writings, literature reviews, instructions, news articles, correspondence) for a specified audience.

3.C.3b Using available technology, produce compositions and multimedia works for specified audien 

STATE GOAL 4: Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations.

A. Listen effectively in formal and informal situations.

4.A.3b Compare a speaker's verbal and nonverbal messages.

4.A.3c Restate and carry out multistep oral instructions.

4.A.3d Demonstrate the ability to identify and manage barriers to listening (e.g., noise, speaker credibility, environmental distractions).

B. Speak effectively using language appropriate to the situation and audience.

4.B.3b Design and produce reports and multi-media compositions that represent group projects.

4.B.3c Develop strategies to manage or overcome communication anxiety and apprehension (e.g., sentence outlining, note cards).

4.B.3d Use verbal and nonverbal communication strategies to maintain communications and to resolve conflict.

STATE GOAL 5: Use the language arts to acquire, assess and communicate information

B. Apply acquired information, concepts and ideas to communicate in a variety of formats.

5.C.3b Prepare and orally present original work (e.g., poems, monologues, reports, plays, stories) supported by research.

Learning Activities - The activities required to achieve the goals.

•Nomination Process: Each student nominates a book of his/her choice in a variety of categories determined by a class brainstorming session. Possible categories include Best Author, Best Mystery, Most Likeable Character, Most Enotional Novel, etc.

•Teacher creates a ballot based on the students' nominations. Use judgment to create a ballot that focuses on quality literature with a variety of reading levels.

•Recruit Presenters. There are 2 Presenters per category. Students should be reliable, responsible, and self-motivated. Enthusiasm, energy, and talent will add to the show.

•Formulate Nominee groups and explain the project.

•Students check out their books and begin reading them. Give a week to two weeks for them to finish their books before beginning work on the project.

•Allow 3-4 weeks of in class time to complete all of the projects. Every day does not need to be devoted to Academy Awards. A schedule needs to be created with the team to determine what time is needed.

The How Questions.

Student Assessment- Enables student and teacher to measure student's attainment of goals.

What are my scoring characteristics? (What do I want to measure? What is an important outcome of this unit?)

Students are graded on the quality of their presentations, visuals, speeches, and individual contribution to the group project. Each student is graded independently using a rubric. Group grades are not given. There is a rubric for Nominee groups and a separate one for Presenters. Rubrics focus on including all required aspects of the project, accuracy, creativity, and neatness. Students are given the persuasive essay assignment which is scored holistically using the district guidelines for the ISAT 40 minute writing sample. Language arts teachers who choose to take those drafts and have students edit them and turn in for a final essay grade after the ceremony.

What will indicate that students are novices, practitioners, or experts?

Students are expected to take and pass an Accelerated Reader test to demonstrate that they have read and understand the novel they chose to read. The visual needs to express a "catchy phrase" that will peak interest in the novel. This phrase demonstrates that students understand the climax of the book. The presentation is another way of showing that they understand the story. Students are to choose the most exciting scene in the book to present at the ceremony. The essays demonstrate the extent to which students understand the characters, what they choose to do in the story, the problem and solution the author created.

How will I measure and communicate student progress on the goals?

Every day of group work teachers check in with the whole class and see what each group needs. They must ask questions such as:

-How far is each group member in the book?

-What does each group member feel about the book? Do you like it? What will happen next? Would you recommend it to others? Who are the characters? Why did the character act as they did? Etc.

-Close daily monitoring and goal setting must be done with each group. Set goals with each group daily. Make sure each group member has mapped out their roles and are following through with their individual contributions.

How can students be involved in establishing goals and criteria for the assessment?

Students are shown examples of past visuals, poems, movies, and videos of kids acting out skits. Class discussion is generated to critique all projects and have kids come up with criteria for high quality projects. Daily checks with the teacher insure that students are task and goal oriented.

How will the assessments be implemented to ensure that they are generative? Seamless and ongoing? Equitable for all students? An authentic task?

-The daily checks by each teacher insures that they are aware of how students are progressing towards their goals.

-Each student will have goals within their group. Students will read books of their choice. -The books will be at or slightly above or below their ZPD.

-All tasks the students will complete will focus on the book.

How will students demonstrate their knowledge and skills?

-Knowledge will be demonstrated through oral discussions during teachers' daily monitoring of group progress, through the use of technology to present their novel, through the visual, and persuasive essay.

Management

 How will you manage student work individually and in groups? - What resources will you need to do this unit?

-art supplies for the visuals (roll paper, paint, markers, construction paper, glue, etc.)

-computer lab use for students to edit iMoives and create Powerpoint presentations

-technology staff available to sit with groups and help with editing of iMovies and Powerpoint production

-enough copies of all novels for each group

-copies of novels for the author visit

-letter cutting machine

-blocks of time to allow students to work for a sustained amount of time for approximately 5 weeks

How will the room(s) be arranged.

Students are required to choose their 3 top choices of books they want to read from the nomincc list. Students will be grouped according to one of the 3 they have chosen. The groups are divided randomly between each of the 4 reading/LA teachers in the morning block and the 4 in the afternoon block. Consideration was taken for students who required more assistance.

Where will equipment and materials be located to promote maximum use?

•Students have access to the letter cutting machine in the library. Each teacher is assigned a certain day for the use of the letter cutter. Teachers formulate a sign up sheet for letting cutting each day they have use of the letter cutter.

•Students have computer access in the library computer lab and the 7th grade mini lab. •Students have access to editing help from the technology department. One week is set aside for morning block students; the next week is set aside for afternoon block students. •Roll paper for the visuals is available in the library.

•Each teacher has art supplies in their won classroom for students to use for their visual. If students choose to do a 3D visual, they are expected to bring in cardboard and other needed materials on their own.

Where will students need to work and how can they be accommodated?

Students will be placed in groups according to the books they choose to read. Each language arts teacher will be randomly assigned 5-6 groups to be in charge of in each block they have. Presenters will be evenly distributed amongst teachers.

How will students with special needs be helped?

-After students make their choices for the 3 books they would like to read, teachers review the selections of those students with special needs (IEP for reading, OHI, TIP and reading lab students). Place students with books they will be successful with. This may require teachers to adjust the nomination list if there is not a variety of lower level books for students to choose from. Students should be assigned books they not only want to read but that are within their reading level as well as attainable for the student to finish in a timely manner (about 2 weeks generally).

-Special needs students should be placed with teachers who understand their needs &endash; academic and organizational. The teachers working with these students need to know them well enough to understand their working habits and academic capabilities.

Unit Evaluation

What will I need to do, be aware of, and/or gather while teaching the unit in order to answer these questions:

What was effective?

•Allowing students to be grouped according to the book they want to read regardless of which teacher they had was very effective. It was difficult to manage at first because teachers had students they didn't know.

•Showing students more examples of all the projects and generating discussion about high quality projects helped students understand what was required of them.

•Students had ample time to prepare and complete their projects as well as rehearse skits and acceptance speeches.

•Requiring students to read a Ben Mikealsen book when Academy Awards began before they began the nominee process was beneficial because a lot of his books ended up to be nominated.

•Giving students the choice of which books they could read and what project they could do allowed for high motivation and creativity.

What wasn't effective?

•Students had a lot of time to work on their visuals and not enough time to have group discussions about the book.

•More time needs to be devoted to focusing on the book and less time on the production of the visuals.

What will I do differently next time?

•Give students 10 minutes each day at the beginning of the work period to discuss or write journal entries about the book, make predictions, and share opinions.

•Have students give their acceptance speeches in front of the class before the ceremony and grade them in class.

•Back up all iMovies and Power Point presentations before the ceremony to alleviate technical difficulties at the ceremony.