Embedded Files
Grade Level: 7th
Teacher Name: Dana Oesterlin
Artist Name: Timothy Rey
Overview:
Big Idea: Sound and Fury
Inquiry Question: How can one use voice/sound to interpret global fury?
How is personal expression affected by and reflected in critical digital spaces?
—1—
How did your team conceive your project? How was inquiry introduced to students and how did you integrate the inquiry process into your project? We conceived of the project after observing a tumultuous year in which civil unrest and inequality were on full display. We began to ask ourselves: how does the presence or absence of sound influence our personal passion and fury around civil rights, the different ways we can share our points of view?
—2—
From the initial proposal, to the midyear report, to the project conclusion, how did your team’s project change over the course of the school year? What motivated each change? We began by planning to culminate the project, by students creating their own personal 'brand' complete with logo and socially motivated/inspired message, but by the time of implementation, it was clear that we needed to shift the focus of the final message. Students were instructed to create a PSA in the end.
—3—
How did the project end? Considering the goals you set for yourselves in your proposal, did you achieve what your team sought out to do? We feel that the project surpassed our expectations in three main ways:
Students engagement
Student focus
Student final project
—4—
Choose 1 standard that you worked on and discuss how the standard intersected with a part of your project.
CCSS.ELA.-LITERACY.RL.7.2.-"Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, provide an objective summary of the text."
The idea of sound and silence and how it is used to actually amplify the voice of the individual was a central theme of our project. This idea grew out of our first day/ poem and prompt using the text 'Sounds I Don't Expect to Hear.' Students were asked to create a List Poem and to make it personal. The leap proved not to be a challenge for them, and set the tone for the work to come. This is of great importance. The individual responds to sound at a primal level. It is not simply notations on a page, or sonic waves that hit the ear. There is an emotional response sound and image from early childhood. This idea of working with white space (the place in poems on which nothing is written), physical sound (via the PSA/ final summary and sound recordings), listening (via the musical notations and music played during the notations).
—5—
What did you learn about your students and how they learned? What did you learn about the way you teach? Timothy Rey (Artist). Dana and I were able to learn from each other as the project proceeded. Both in pedagogy and approach. I learned to be adaptable, at a moment's notice, responding to student engagement and needs for the day's lesson., so that the project did not lose forward momentum.
Documentation of Process:
Each day was begun with a free-write/ meditative prompt.
Each day was begun with a free-write/ meditative prompt.
Here, students were asked to imagine many sounds in one minute!
Here, students were asked to imagine many sounds in one minute!
Following our warm-up, in each session, we explored different aspects of our theme 'Sound and Fury', bit by bit.
Following our warm-up, in each session, we explored different aspects of our theme 'Sound and Fury', bit by bit.
We began our journey by creating a List Poem on sound. Even hesitant writers will often engage in creating a list or catalog poem. Our model was 'Sounds I Don't Expect to Hear' by Suzanne Buffam.
We began our journey by creating a List Poem on sound. Even hesitant writers will often engage in creating a list or catalog poem. Our model was 'Sounds I Don't Expect to Hear' by Suzanne Buffam.
NOTE: Student samples are embedded throughout this report.
Students were asked to listen to different types of music and, using only lines or dots, notate the sounds they heard.
Students were asked to listen to different types of music and, using only lines or dots, notate the sounds they heard.
Students listened to this Sonia Sanchez poem and noted how she uses silence and talks about the importance of children's voices.
Students listened to this Sonia Sanchez poem and noted how she uses silence and talks about the importance of children's voices.
Students then crafted their own poems on voice.
Students then crafted their own poems on voice.
'The Hill We Climb' by Amanda Gorman (excerpt)
'The Hill We Climb' by Amanda Gorman (excerpt)
The sound of performance poetry
Students were asked to consider what 'hills' they climb in life, and what 'hills' we encounter in America, after watching Amanda perform her poem.
Students were asked to consider what 'hills' they climb in life, and what 'hills' we encounter in America, after watching Amanda perform her poem.
We then explored the voice/ sound of the media, via poet Gwendolyn Brooks and her use of 'verse journalism.
We then explored the voice/ sound of the media, via poet Gwendolyn Brooks and her use of 'verse journalism.
Students then crafted their own cut-up media/headline poems.
Students then crafted their own cut-up media/headline poems.
They heard poet, and CAPE teaching artist, Timothy Rey, read his poem '9 Minutes'. The poem uses silence and empty space to break the traditional pattern set up in the initial beats of the poem.
Students were then asked what it is to consider taking away sound, or to use silence to say things that sound cannot.
'9 Minutes' (excerpt)
They then experimented with redaction, and taking away words from one of their poems and playing with poem placement of the page and voice.
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