backReturn to Unit 2: MWF

Unit 2, Day 24:  Friday, October 12

 

What you’ll do today in class:

 

-         Discuss viewing strategies for analyzing TV shows to find evidence for substantiating claims

-         Assign pre-writing focus activity for Essay 3

 

Connection to course goals:  The activities for today emphasize critical viewing strategies and how students can apply them to focus and develop their own analyses of TV shows.  In addition, the prewriting activity asks students to begin defining and analyzing some choices for writing their Essay 3. 

 

INTRODUCTION:

 

1.      Introduce Essay 3 conferences and have students sign up for conferences for Day 26 (2 minutes):  Briefly explain the purpose of the upcoming conference and circulate the sign-up sheet.  Remind students that missing conference will count as an absence for that day.

 

2.      Discuss strategies for what aspects of the show to consider for finding evidence (5-7 minutes): Emphasize that there are several types of potential “textual evidence” available to students beyond more obvious ones such as dialogue.  While dialogue is certainly often very useful, it should not be the only type of evidence from the show they use to support their claim.  The more they can show how different aspects of the show substantiate the claim they’re making, the stronger the analysis and paper will be.

 

·        What analytical “tools” or “strategies” are suggested in RC for examining daytime talk TV shows?  How might they be applied to analysis of other TV genres (sit-coms, “reality” shows, family shows, etc.)?

·        Why should we bother to focus closely on these aspects of the show?  How might they be important to the overall message(s) a show puts forth?

·        How can these parts of the show contribute to what a viewer sees?

·        What, specifically, could you focus on in the show if you were looking at each of these parts?  (For example, if you were focusing on spatial arrangement, what would you actually be paying attention to in the show?)

 

3.      Assign each of the 4 groups one aspect of the show to focus on this time when viewing: content/dialogue; characters; set design; spatial arrangement; camera space/angles

(2-3 minutes)

 

4.      While groups view the segment, have them write down as many details as possible about their assigned aspect of the show (5-7 minutes):  Tell students not to worry about how it relates yet.  Just have every person in the group make as many observations as they can about that aspect assigned to the group. 

 

5.      Have groups compile their list of details and make a new group list to record on an OH (5-7 minutes)

 

6.      Have groups present their list of details for their aspect and record these details on the board (5-7 minutes):   Get students to write down the list of details themselves to give them ideas later for kinds of evidence they might use in their own analyses.

 

7.      Practice using these textual details as support for a claim (10 minutes):  Using one or more of the claims the groups came up with that you wrote on the board earlier, ask the class to look for details they could use from the board to support that claim.

 

·        What evidence from the show segment have we identified that might support this claim?

·        What audience might you write to with this claim?

·        Which forms of evidence (of the ones we identified) would work best to support this claim for this audience and the exigence for choosing that audience?

 

CONCLUSION:

 

8.      Explain the forum—if you haven’t already used it in Unit 1 (5 minutes):  Use the SyllaBase instruction sheet included in the appendix.

 

9.      Introduce the Forum Assignment—pre-writing focus activity (5 minutes):  Explain to students the purpose of this assignment, specific expectations for what they’ll write, and due dates.  See the appendix for the Forum Pre-writing Focus Activity assignment sheet.

 

Assignment for Day 25: 

 

-         Complete the Pre-writing Focus Assignment on the forum for the TV show you’ve chosen to write on for your Essay 3.  Also, read and respond to 2 other students’ postings (see Part 2 on the Pre-writing assignment sheet in the appendix for directions).