Check out this trailer for a movie called "We Are Wizards," which seems to be about a Harry Potter fandom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQSreoCRJeM
The letters they are referring to are from when TimeWarner was trying to shut down all kids' Harry Potter fan sites. Their lawyers sent scary letters to kids about taking down their fan sites or else TimeWarner would take legal action against them. You can imagine how frightening that was for kids and their parents!
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2 comments:
Hi Everyone,
I am having difficulty posting my writing sequence items so I will just add them as a comment. Natalie
Here goes:
Introduction:
• The learning sequence planned is a writing unit (as well as reading unit, as the two are undeniably integrated) in which grade 6 students are introduced to a variety of fantasy literature texts and one movie. The students will then choose between writing a longer fantasy story divided into chapters or a fantasy picture book. The students will follow Eva Bearne’s and Helen Wolsencraft’s (2008) prescribed writing process in partners. Along with the small group projects, the students will work on a class project, a short fantasy story, in which the steps of the writing process will correspond.
Main Purposes:
• The assignment will facilitate in-depth studying Fantasy as a genre, which in turn will give support to the concept of genre theory (Dean, 2008). The students will come to understand that writing and interpreting writing will be different depending on the genre (Dean, 2008); each type has a different focus and style.
• The assignment will give the students a practical experience with the writing process: Familiarity with text type, capture ideas, plan, draft, revise, proof read, present (Bearne, Wolstencraft, 2008).
Rationale:
• The literature being presented, the information taught, and the projects the students complete both as a class and in small groups are engaging and constructive for the students. The students will be introduced to many pieces of fantasy literature, modeling and encouraging the critical study of quality literature. The students will learn about key characteristics of fantasy literature, giving them skills for critical literacy and introducing the concept of adjusting the way one reads and writes according to genre. As the students are writing their pieces of fantasy fiction, they will be involved in creative writing, an intrinsically rewarding process making them “motivated to explore without any apparent external reward Kelly, Leggo”, 2008)
Learning Outcomes:
Outcome 2.2 Respond to texts
-Experience various texts
• discuss common topics or themes in a variety of oral, print and other media texts
Outcome 2.3 Understand forms, elements, techniques
-Understand forms and genres
• identify key characteristics of a variety of forms or genres of oral, print and other media texts
Outcome 2.4 Create original text
-Generate Ideas
• choose life themes encountered in reading, listening and viewing activities, and in own experiences, for creating oral, print and other media texts
Outcome 4.1 Enhance & improve
-Revise and edit
• revise to provide focus, expand relevant ideas and eliminate unnecessary information
Writing Sequence:
• Writing sequence chart adapted from Visual Approaches to Teaching Writing by Eve Bearne and Helen Wolstencraft (2008)
Overview of Teaching Sequence (all steps in teaching sequence adapted from Bearne, Wolstencraft, 2008):
• Familiarity with text type:
As the unit planned is a reading/writing unit, and as an important phase of writing is to become familiar with the text type and genre, the unit will begin with shared and independent reading and studying of several fantasy texts and a film. To introduce fantasy fiction, these stories will be read to and by the class:
-Tuesday by David Weisner (1991) which does not contain all fantasy elements
-Twelve Dancing Princesses by The Brothers Grimm (1979)
-A Wish Named Arnold by Charles De Lint from Gage Cornerstones (1999)
-Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (1997) (shared and independent reading) compared to the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Warner Brothers.
-Turn! Turn! Turn! By Pete Seeger (2006) as a non-example
I will discuss with the class that fantasy does not have to be realistic and there may be some things that we do not understand at the beginning but we just need to keep reading and unfamiliar words and ideas will be explained (idea taken from Dr. Jill McClay in a spoken interview, 2008). I will read the first part of some of the chapters of the Harry Potter novel to the students and encourage them to read the rest on their own as well as reading the first chapter of Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2003) and encourage the students to continue reading. The Gage Cornerstones resource also presents 3 elements of a fantasy story: moral, emotional, and magical. We will compare the other stories read to this standard.
• Capture Ideas:
We will brainstorm different life themes that we think of and have explored in literature in a simple list on the board such as: death of a family member, obedience, a desire to have something.
Students will generate and share ideas from their own ideas in a snowball activity (taken from Professor Jenifer Kozak, in class, Sept 5) where the students write ideas on a piece of paper, crumple up the paper, and throw it to the other side of the room, after which each student picks up a new piece of paper to look at other ideas.
Ideas will be recorded on a mind map:
Students may also record ideas on a story map (adapted from Natalie White (Carlson) for EDEL 406):
A storyboard is commonly used by filmmakers to give a quick snapshot of ideas for the film. The students can draw quick sketches or find pictures that illustrated their ideas.
Example of a story board:
*The main character is a beautiful young queen.
She had a magical dress that was made out of pieces of the sky
* Images taken from Microsoft Clip Art.
The story map and storyboard will also be used in the planning part of the sequence in more detail with solid ideas.
• Plan, Draft, Revise, Proof read, and Present:
Before the teacher initiates each of the rest of the steps in the writing process, he or she will model the steps by writing a short fantasy story with the class and choosing pictures to accompany it. In the Capturing Ideas or Planning process, students will decide between writing a picture book or chapter book to create with a partner.
Assessment/Evaluation:
Assessment of the writing process, because writing a piece of fantasy fiction will be a new experience for the children will be a pass/fail grade based on effort and adherence to the elements of a narrative, the elements of fantasy fiction, making at least one major revision in from first to final draft, and cohesion in story and/or illustrations.
Students will evaluate their own products using this rubric:
4 I created an excellent piece of fantasy fiction-I used all of the narrative elements, fantasy elements, made a major revision, and did my best on the project.
3 I created a good piece of fantasy fiction- I used several I used all of the narrative elements, fantasy elements, made a major revision, and tried hard on the project
2 I created an OK piece of fantasy fiction- I used some of the important elements but I maybe did not do my best.
1 I need to work more on fantasy fiction
References/Resources
Bearne, E., & Wolstencraft, H. (2007). Visual Approaches to Teaching Writing.
London: Paul Chapman
Carroll, L., Peak, M. L.(2003). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; and, Through the
looking glass: and what Alice found there. London: Bloomsbury Publishing
Dean, D. (2008). Genre Theory: teaching writing, and being. Urbana, Illinois: National
Council of Teachers of English
Grimm, J., Grimm, W. (1979). Twelve Dancing Princesses. Mahwah, NJ: Troll
Associates
Kelly, R., Leggo, C. (2008) Creative Expression, Creative Education: creativity as a
primary rationale for education. Calgary: Destelig Enterprises Ltd.
McClymont, Christine, et al. (1999). Gage Cornerstones: Canadian Language Arts Anthology 6. Vancouver: Gage Educational Publishing
Rowling, J.K. (1997) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London: Bloomsbury
Publishing
Seeger, P. (2003) Turn! Turn! Turn!. NewYork: Simon & Shuster Books for Young
Readers
Weisner, D. (1991). Tuesday. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company
Name: Jason Cheung
Title of planning sequence and grade level: Creation of Graphic Novel for Grade 6 students.
Purpose/Rationale: This writing sequence focuses on the narrative aspects and creation of a graphic novel. Students will be given a choice of three books to read: Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone, and Varjek Paw, by S.F. Said. Students will then develop ideas to create a fan fiction based graphic novel of a trailer, sequel or unwritten chapter to the book they have chosen to read.
I believe this will be an engaging activity for grade 6 students because it will challenge them to create a story in which they have control of the outcomes of characters in the story that they have chosen to read. As well the grade 6 students will have the opportunity to be creative in bring a character that they have enjoyed reading about to life.
Writing Sequence:
Familiarity with text type:
In this section I plan to read a couple short graphic novels with my students in small groups and explore the different types of text conventions involved in graphic novels so that my students have sense of what to look for and what kinds of techniques different authors use. A chapter from a popular manga can be read to the students: Naruto – Volume 1, by Masashi Kishimoto. This first chapter involves humor and life themes in which all students can make connections.
Capture Ideas:
As the students read through their chosen novels, I will encourage and demonstrate strategies of developing ideas as well. Strategies such as webs, brainstorming and writing notes on sticky pads are good ways to collect thoughts and ideas. Some thoughts to keep track of are the settings, characters, etc.
Plan:
Students will now decide on the setting, font, background, colour and develop characters in the stories they have read and being creating the characters in their chosen novels. The teacher will then provide examples of these features and discuss with students the kinds of effects these features bring to the graphic novel and students will decide what suits their writing best. By now the teacher will have shown examples of other types of graphic novels. It is important to discuss the framing sequences of graphic novels for this determines the pace of the narration. Page 65-67 in the text talks about this. As well discuss the different speech bubbles involved (p.59). Grammarmancomics.com is a great resource to teach the students about parts of speech.
Drafting, Revise, Proof Reading:
For this writing sequence is it important to refer back to previous discussions of text designs and techniques that can be used for graphic novels. When revising the writing encourage students to reorganize their work and check what parts of their stories can be adjusted to improve the cohesion and meaning. And in proof reading show students work that the teacher has edited before and teach strategies as to how students can help each other proof read each others work as well as other strategies such as reading their stories backwards.
Present:
The teacher can make copies of the students finished or unfinished graphic novels. Students can then read their peers work and give feedback as to what they liked about the piece of writing in a class discussion.
Resources:
Bearne, Eve; Wolstencroft, Helen (2007). Visual approaches to teaching writing. Thousands Oak, CA: Paul Chapman Publishing.
- Page 65-67 is a good way to explain graphic novel narrations.
Boyd, Brian. Grammarman EFL/ESL comics for students and teachers. Retrieved December 10, 2008, Website: http://www.grammarmancomic.com/index.html
- Provides writing tips in comic strips. Other good resources as well.
Dickens, Charles (2006). Oliver twist. Hauppauge, NY: Barrons.
- Good for showing examples of graphic novels.
Gaiman, Neil (2002). Coraline. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
- Fun book for students to read and can build upon the ideas.
Kishimoto, Masashi (2003). Naruto, volume 1. Japan: Shonen Jump.
- This is a good chapter to read to the students as it provides humor and a situation that students can relate with the main character. Provides different text conventions as well.
Morice, Dave (2002). Poetry comics an animated anthology. New York, NY: Teachers and Writers Collaborative.
- good for showing examples of graphic novels.
Rowling, J.K (2000). Harry potter and the philosopher’s stone. Vancouver, B.C: Raincoast Books.
- Book that students are familiar with and enjoy, also good to build ideas upon.
Said, S.F (2003). Varjek paw. New York, NY: Yearling
- Interesting book about a cat with special powers. Cat has problems that students can make connections with
Smith, Jeff (2003). Bone, volume 1. Colombus, OH: Cartoon Books.
- good for showing examples of graphic novels.
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