Thursday, January 15, 2015

01.15 - Theme and Message

Everyone worked on the set 11 practice page at the beginning of class today. We reviewed responses together as a class and then returned to our work looking at plot, theme, and message.

As part of our class, everyone identified a narrative (movie, book, short story, folk tale, etc) that they knew well and that others would likely know and wrote down the plot of that narrative. Next, we used that plot summary to play a game in which the summary is turned into a one sentence riddle that people could try out on one another. Here's an example:

Lord of the Rings: Frodo Baggins is accompanied by nine friends in a quest to destroy a magic ring that the evil Lord Sauron wants to reclaim so that he can become all-powerful. Frodo and his friends can only destroy the ring by casting it back into the magma of the volcano where it was forged.

Plot Riddle: Nine friends work together to return a piece of jewelry.

Upon writing their plot riddles, people tried them out on one another. We then shared some of these riddles and followed this with discussion of the themes and messages that are present in these stories.

Next, we took a look at plot, message, and theme in the song "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash. We will wrap up this work tomorrow.

At the end of class, we talked a bit about the midterm which we will be having next week.


Click Image to Enlarge


Handouts:
      (see pages 8-9 for compound-complex sentences)

Homework:

Respond to the reading questions for "A Boy Named Sue".

Write down definitions for the set 11 root words listed on the practice sheet.

Complete or revise your second motif paragraph as necessary (due Friday, Jan 16)

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