Lesson Three: “Where is She, Nico?”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What's on for today and why?
Now that the students have read the first chapter, it's time to get in to the fun stuff. Today, the students will be broken up into groups, and will each be given the same scene to perform. They will have to work together to brainstorm how they want the scene to look, and how they are going to act it out. After this activity is completed, the teacher will discuss it with the students as a class. The students will then be told that they must each take the scene they have just performed, and create a hypertext of it. They must then put these hypertexts on their LiveJournals. The teacher will demonstrate how this is done, and in addition will give them their own handout of instructions so that they can follow along.
By having the students act out a scene in front of their classmates, they are learning the importance of the element of performing. In addition, by giving all of the students the same scene, they are learning that one scene can be interpreted in many ways, depending on who the person interpreting it is. The scene will also give the students better perspective on the relationships between the characters, and on what is happening in the story.
What To Do:
1. Discussion of Homework:
As a class, we will discuss the journal entries that everyone had posted from the night before. Some students will share their songs and their insights, which will eventually lead to a discussion about the first chapter of the novel. As a class, we will consider the following questions:
1.What is Nico's position in her family? How does her status make her feel?
2. Conversely, what is Margaret's position in her family? How does Nico feel about this? Is she purely jealous, or is there some admiration there?
3. Most of the first chapter takes place on Mirror Lake. Thinking back to yesterday, what does the lake represent? How does the lake play a huge role in the girls' lives?
This will lead us to a discussion about how the chapter ends, and what it means for the family. Then, the students will be told they will be doing a bit of role playing.
2. Act the Part:
Split the class up into groups of four or five. Give each member of the group a handout, containing the scene you want them to perform. Let them study this sheet for 5-10 minutes, and have them figure out as a group how they want to present it. Tell them to keep voice, inflection, setting, props, and movement in mind when deciding how to perform the scene. Then, in groups, have the students perform their scenes in front of the class. The handout that the students will receive will be the following:
Creating the Scene
Now that you have read the first chapter of Goldengrove, you have an understanding of the way that language is used within the novel, and of the important events that occurred at the end of the chapter. In your groups, read this scene from the end of Chapter 1, located on page 19. Discuss how you would like to perform this scene; what's your setting going to look like? What props are you going to use? Who is going to play the main characters? Do you want a narrator? How do you think these words were intended to sound? You will have 5-10 minutes to think of a way to bring this scene to life, and then you will have to perform it in front of the class. Good luck!
Margaret gave me a long, unreadable look. Was it anger? Affection? The sun in her eyes? She stood. The boat rocked slightly.
“Smoke this.” She smiled and gave me a funny salute she'd copied from Ginger Rogers. Then she dove into the water.
I watched her swim toward the landing. I thought of the seventy-million-year-old fish looking up toward the light and seeing the sleek graceful dolphin streaming just above it. I would have to row home by myself. Exercise was good for me if I wanted to look like Margaret. I needed to rest a while first. Sunspots ticked the back of my eyelids.
I sat up and looked for Margaret. Usually, she lay on the dock, sunning herself and waiting to help me tie up the boat. Maybe she'd gotten a phone call. Something made me shiver, as if I'd floated over a cold spot.
I rowed in as fast as I could and, panting, dragged the boat onto the bank. Our mother was still practicing that spooky Chopin waltz. I couldn't find Margaret anywhere. Still a little breathless, I kept on calling her name.
I had to walk around in front of our mother and wave both arms until she noticed and stopped playing.
I said, “Have you seen Margaret?”
“No,” she said.
“I can't find her,” I said.
“I'm sure she's fine,” she said. “Why wouldn't she be?”
“I can't find her anywhere.” The jagged edge in my voice tore away the cobwebbt trance she'd been in.
Mom stood up from the piano bench. She said, “Where is she, Nico? Go find her.”
3. What Just Happened?
After the students are done performing, there will be a brief discussion about the performances; how the students felt, the choices they made when thinking about performing the scene, how it is different to hear the words out loud rather than read them on a piece of paper, if it is different for them at all. As this discussion is occurring, the teacher will be passing out the hypertext instruction sheets, and setting her computer in the classroom up in order to demonstrate how to create a hypertext.
4. The Hypertexts:
The teacher will describe exactly what a hypertext is to the students, and will give them a demonstration to show them how to create one. As she is demonstrating, the students should be following along on the instruction sheet she has provided. The instruction sheet will appear as follows:
The Hypertext
Now that you are familiar with the scene you had performed in class, you can create a hypertext of it. It's easier than you think! You will have until Thursday night at 10pm to complete this assignment. Here are the directions:
Step One:
Type
the scene that was
provided for you in class into your journal.
Step Two:
Go through the scene, and choose particular words and/or phrases that you either didn't understand, or thought to be interesting.
Step Three:
Highlight the first word or phrase that you found to be interesting. Open a new tab, and search for anything interesting that reminds you of this word. It can be a song, a picture, a story, or even a definition if you are uncertain as to what the word means. Choose one.
Step Four:
Go back to your LiveJournal tab, and click the toolbar arrow under the “Rich Text” tab. Highlight your word or phrase, and click the “Insert Link” button. You will then have the opportunity to copy and paste the link that you have found for this particular word or phrase.
Step Five:
Repeat this process throughout the whole passage. You don't have to highlight every word or phrase, but you should have a decent amount done. The more you have, the better your grade is going to be. Have fun with this!
5. Homework:
For homework, the students will be reading Chapter Two of the novel, and posting their second journal entries. When posting these entries, the students should be keeping these questions in mind:
1. What ends up happening to Margaret? How does the family handle it?
2. Nico finds out that her parents know a lot of the secrets that her and Margaret have tried to hide. Why do you think her parents never tell her that they know these things?
3. How is Nico changing, both physically and mentally? Does your song choice represent growth, or loss? If it doesn't represent either of these concepts, what does it represent? Explain.
In addition to this, the students will be working on their hypertexts that are due Thursday at 10pm.
How Did it Go?
At this point, the students have started the novel, and have begun to connect with its material. They have seen the value in performing, and in the artistic choices authors make when creating a piece of work. Hopefully, the students have been able to see the significance of the lake, and of the role that Margaret plays within her family. In the best case scenario, the students will leave the classroom making predictions of what will happen to Margaret in the next chapter. The students have been working together as a class to accomplish their assignments, and have been able to learn from each other, both in the interpretations different students have about the novel, and through the journal entries the students are posting.
The grading system for the journal entries will stay consistent with the previous lessons; however, the hypertexts will be graded completely separately, out of 100 points.
