ENGLISH GRADE 12 ELECTIVE 1053:
SPORTS AND POPULAR CULTURE[1]
Open Honors, Semester, 3.0 Credits
About This Curriculum Guide
This study guide is formatted in easy-to-copy single pages, which may be used separately or in any combination which works for your instructional practice. The textual resources lists, learning objectives, suggested instructional activities, and list of assessments, among other items included, are designed to be a fluid pathway rather than an arbitrary and direct highway. Please feel free to reorganize, add to, and mold this curriculum guide in ways that make sense to you as a teacher and to your particular roster of students.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The objective of this course is to examine critically the changing relationship between sports and popular culture by connecting the “fun” of sports to understanding how meanings of who we are become constructed and distributed in society. This course will expose students to the influence and power of sports in contemporary American popular culture, including economic dimensions of sports media such as production, marketing, and consumerization of youth sports, fandom, and media events.
We will draw upon television, radio, internet, film, and other media sources to examine the politics of “identities,” including popular icons such as children’s toys; national identities and globalization; representation of gender and race within sports media; and depictions of particular sports and athletes. Throughout, we will explore the social, cultural, and political meanings of the sporting “spectacle” as well as the impact of technologies (both old and new) on sports performance and spectatorship.
SPORTS LITERATURE AS REFLECTION OF SOCIETY
A proliferation of texts in the last 50+ years focuses on or incorporates sports. This body of work about sports symbolizes the extent to which U.S. writers of all kinds --- composers of fiction, print and electronic journalists, screenwriters, even Presidents --- explore the intersection of sports and society. Sports as a topic is: (1) a source of allusion, metaphor, and symbol; (2) a social context in which to explore American values and beliefs; (3) a cultural phenomenon expressing the best and the worst in the U.S. national character.
Why sports? Sports provide composers with ubiquitous connections to the general public. Even individuals who detest sports understand cultural symbols that arise from the world of sports. As a result, this course will focus on the textual uses of sports and will attempt to discover how composers use the creative language of sports to transmit cultural values.
FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL EXPECTATIONS FOR
STUDENT LEARNING, ACADEMIC:
In order for Franklin High School students to become responsible and passionate learners within this curriculum, we expect them to be able to:
1. Communicate effectively through writing
2. Read critically with understanding
COURSE-SPECIFIC LEARNING GOALS
By taking this course, students should be able to:
TEXTS AS REFLECTION OF NEW MILLENIUM LITERACIES
In the May 2010 issue of Wired magazine, Simon & Schuster’s senior publishing manager, Lisa Wasielweski referred to print text as “p-texts,” as will this curriculum guide. Such new terminology is reflective of the wide array of texts available to readers today. In addition, here “e-texts” refer to electronic texts, or texts available through open source Internet access. Often, students can upload e-texts onto their cell phones in the classroom (with teacher guidance and supervision). “A-texts” here refer to audio texts, and small sections of a-texts create wonderful discourse analysis opportunities. “V-texts” here refer to visual texts.
CORE P-TEXTS
Bruchac, Joseph, et al. Sports Shorts: An Anthology of Short Stories. 2005: Lerner Publications: New York, NY.
Rader, Benjamin G. American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Televised Sports. 2009. Pearson: Lincoln, NE.
Wilson, August. Fences. 1986. Penguin: New York, NY.
Anthology of Classic Sports Short Stories
While currently out of print, the following text is a rich source of short stories around the topic of sports, written primarily by classic American authors. Moreover, several of the short stories may be available as e-texts.
Schulman, L.M. (Ed.). The Random House Book of Sports Stories. 2000. Random House: New York, NY.
SUGGESTED TEXTUAL RESOURCES FOR SPORTS AND POPULAR CULTURE
“As a teacher, I'd say that the best things textbooks do are a) make my life easier by supplying me with reading passages, questions, and projects for the kids to do, b) organize the class material in such a way that we can stay on a steady course, and c) make it easy for colleagues and I teaching the same classes to ‘keep on the same page,’ so to speak. And in all three cases, the textbook serves the teacher quite well. Unfortunately, the textbook does not serve the students quite as well.
The students do not learn ‘better’ because my life as a teacher is ‘easier.’ Convenience is not a form of effective pedagogy. My students learn better when they take the active role in finding and choosing texts, asking their own questions, and creating their own projects.”
“Texts” transcend print, are multimodal, and encompass a wide variety of twenty-first century literacies. Texts comprise written, visual, audio, digital, and performance texts and include such artifacts as speeches, podcasts, films, television shows, commercials, cartoons, music lyrics, music videos, video games, e-mails, web pages, social networking spaces, instant and text messaging, children’s books, satellite radio broadcasts, podcasts, comic books, graphic novels, magazines, advertisements, and full-length novels, among others.
Teachers of this course who incorporate p-texts as one of several textual mechanisms will assist students to become better prepared as fully literate adults. Moreover, as Ray suggests above, students can suggest texts that will enrich everyone’s literacy learning experiences around the intersection of sports and society. Together, teacher and students can grow together as literate learners in the twenty-first century.
Scholarly E-textual Resources
Each of the following scholarly resources was available for review in 2010 through EBSCO Host/ Academic Search or Google. These scholarly e-texts sources are best used in full text form for teacher review and in excerpted form for student examination.
Coakley, Jay. Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies. Boston: McGraw-Hill. 2003.
614 pp.
Eichberg, Henning. Body Cultures: Essays on Sport, Space, and Identity. Routledge. London: 1998.
Golden, Mark. Sport and Society in Ancient Greece. Cambridge, CUP, 1998. XIII, 216 pp.
Dunning, Eric. Sport Matters: Sociological Studies of Sport, Violence and Civilization. London: Routledge, 1999. 281 pp.
Houlihan, Barrie. Sport and Society: A Student Introduction. London, Sage. 2008, 2nd ed., 585 pp.
Lapchick, Richard E. “Crime and Athletes: New Racial Stereotypes.” Society. Mar/Apr2000, Vol. 37 Issue 3, p14-20.
Maguire, Joseph. Global Sport, Identities, Societies, Civilizations. Cambridge: Polity, 1999. 239 pp.
Maguire, Joseph and Kevin Young. Theory, Sport and Society, London: JAI Elsevier, 2002, 372 pp.
Renson, Roland. “Fair Play: Its Origins and Meanings in Sport and Society.” Kinesiology, Jun2009, Vol. 41 Issue 1, p5-18.
Scambler, Graham. Sport and Society: History, Power and Culture. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2005, 212 pp.
“Sport and Society in Latin America.” NACLA Report on the Americas, Mar/Apr2004, Vol. 37 Issue 5.
Washington, Robert E. and David Karen. “Sport and Society.” Annual Review of Sociology, 2001, Vol. 27 Issue 1, p187- 213.
Independent Reading (IR) Selections
Students who have choice over the titles they read tend to feel empowered. The following websites offer lists of full-length p-texts titles that should appeal to students. Of course, a teacher may feel more comfortable creating a dedicated list of titles from which students can draw.
Over the course of the semester, a student should read at least 400 IR pages. To do so, a student may choose two full-length p-text or e-text titles. Of essential importance, however, is that the student’s IR selections capture the intersection of sport and society and also be appropriate for the student’s reading level.
http://www.sportspectator.com/fancentral/lists/bestsportsbooks.html
http://marylaine.com/bookbyte/sports.html
http://www.baseballssteroidera.com/books/steroids-in-baseball-books.htm
Film as Text
V-texts capture human experiences in ways that other texts simply cannot, due to the capacity for us to see ourselves --- literally --- as humans in conflict. Hundreds of films from the western world over the last century have used the topic of sports to explore society. The most comprehensive list of sports films seems to reside at Wikipedia. Wikipedia's list of sports films offers a chronology, starting with silent films and moving to the present.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports_films
The teacher can lead students through introductory instruction of film through a number of approaches. A survey of websites available through the Web English Teacher might be valuable.
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/film.html
A fine p-text that offers various insights into film in the classroom is Reading in the Dark: Using Film as a Tool in the English Classroom, by John Golden.
Also, the following text, which has a primary student classroom as intended audience, might be adapted for a heterogeneous high school classroom.
Teaching Visual Literacy in the Primary Classroom: Comic Books, Film, Television and Picture Narratives, by Tim Stafford.
Over the course of the semester, a student should view and analyze at least one film that captures the intersection of sport and society. The teacher should communicate with parents/ guardians via permission slip if a senior --- even if eighteen years old – wishes to view a film that exceeds PG-13 rating. Good communication with families is always good practice.
Audio Texts for Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis is a method of stepping back from listening to communicative language in order to analyze what is said and how the utterance is designed. The objects of discourse analysis—writing, talk, conversation, or communicative event —are variously defined in terms of coherent sequences of sentences, propositions, speech acts, and/ or turns.
Topics of discourse analysis can include:
For more information about discourse analysis, a teacher might consult “Discourse Analysis” from the University of Texas:
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~palmquis/courses/discourse.htm
Over the course of the semester, a student should conduct at least two discourse analyses. The student should listen to and analyze at least five minute sections of a-texts that capture the intersection of sport and society.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS ABOUT SPORTS AND POPULAR CULTURE LITERACY
Reader Response (Personal)
How do I define a “hero?”
Who are the heroes in my own life?
What must an athlete do to cross over into the category of hero?
How do I feel when my sports heroes do not live up to my expectations? How does my view of society become framed by sports discourse?
How does a discourse of heroism in sports impact my life as a sports participant and viewer?
How often have I thought about equity when I participate in or observe sporting events?
Must an individual have personal experience in a sport to appreciate the sport textually?
What is the role of the imagination for sports viewers like me?
Which sport stories have affected my life, and why?
New Criticism/ Formalist (Classic Literacy Criticism)
How does prior knowledge change a reader’s experience?
What is “literature?” What structures and elements are necessary for a text to be considered literature? Can the topic of “sports” become the foundation for literature?
What is “high culture?” Why do some people exclude the topic of sports from high culture?
Are some narrative structures more suitable for sports stories than others? If so, which ones?
Are some genres more suitable for sports stories than others? If so, which ones?
What is “discourse?” How do grammatical structures influence the way discourse affects people?
What are the significances of metaphors, allusions, and symbols in the texts that embrace sports?
How does specific imagery contribute to the persuasive value of the text?
If true literature contains the “search for identity,” then should live sports events --- due to their essential human turmoil—be considered literary texts?
Cultural Criticism (Socio-cultural/ Marxist)
How are humans socialized? What are the major sources of socialization? -*How does socialization help/hurt humans?
What is “culture?” What is “popular culture?” What is “sports culture?”
How does popular culture influence group behavior? How does popular culture influence the way professional sports are constructed?
What are the key components of sports culture? How do norms and values impact a culture?
What are “systems?” What are “institutions?” What are “structures?”
What are the major social systems, institutions, and structures in sports?
How do the major mechanisms in society affect sports values and norms?
What is “status?” What are the social statuses is the United States?
How do social statuses create social order? How is status important in sports?
How are roles and statuses interrelated? Are some roles in sports more prestigious than others?
What is “role conflict?” How can role conflict in sports be solved?
To what degree are race and racial relations still issues in professional sports?
What is “consumerism?” What is the relationship between commerce and professional sports?
Biographical Criticism
How do composers of sports texts influence their audiences?
Must a composer of sports texts have personal experiences participating in that sport in order to be credible?
Can the passage of time change the point of view of composers of sports texts? If so, why?
How do diversity and social changes across decades affect sports culture?
How does status affect points of view, especially with historical and current events?
How are composers' personal experiences reflected in their works?
Who and what does the composer value, and why?
Can a composer of a sports text ever be strictly objective?
When is subjectivity appropriate?
What is the “media?” What systems, structures, and institutions comprise the media?
What is the role of the media in professional sports?
Would the media have a place in professional sports if commercialism were not so prominent?
What is “bias?” Is the media necessarily biased?
How do the media treat non-traditional athletes and non-traditional sporting events?
Can the media alter the success of an athlete’s career?
Psychological/ Psychoanalytical Criticism
How do texts translate the inner voices of athletes and viewers?
What is the “ego?” How does the ego emerge in sports?
Is having a larger ego an asset or a detriment in sports?
How are body, mind, and spirit interconnected in the life of an athlete?
How do the inner workings of the mind of the athlete affect performance?
When can an athlete’s psychological self conflict with her or his external self?
How does the desire to be accepted as an individual emerge in professional sports?
Is it the role of the athlete to validate the hopes and dreams of fans?
How does the viewing of sports help people to feel like they belong?
Feminist Criticism/ Gender Criticism
What is the role of body image and physique in an athlete's life?
How are trends in fashion and trends in professional sports interconnected?
What is “gender?” What social commentary do texts make about gender and sexual roles?
What is the discourse like across texts regarding the female gender? Are there particular symbols that represent a specific female way of being in sports?
In what ways are females silenced in sports texts?
What are the contexts in which female voices emerge in amateur or professional sports?
Do traditional gender stereotypes impact the contemporary American sports scene? If so, how?
How is homosexuality represented in contemporary professional sports?
Are persons who are attracted to persons of the same sex welcomed in professional sports?
ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY
OVERVIEW OF SUGGESTED CONTENT
Introduction to Culture, Popular Culture, and Sports Culture
The Hero and Heroic Depictions in Professional Sports
A Historical Background of Sports Culture
Language Choices and Multiple Genre Connections across Professional Sports
A Look at How Acceptance and Resistance Emerge in Professional Sports
Depictions of Gender in Professional Sports
Materialism in Sports and Society
Contemporary Representations of Race through Language Use
Sports as National Identity in a Global World
Production and Marketing of Youth Sports
Cultural Transmission through Sports Games and Children’s Toys
SPECIFIC SUGGESTED COURSE CONTENT
Introduction to Culture, Popular Culture, and Sports Culture
Must a sport be comprised of a team, or can individual athletic events be called “sports?” What activities are necessary for an athletic event to be titled a “sport?” Is competition integral to sports, and, if so, why? In what ways do people interact with sports outside of playing or watching games? How do culture, popular culture, and sports culture intersect? How do sports reflect society?
Suggested Lesson Plans:
Define “sports,” “popular culture,” “sports culture,” and “society.” Discuss ways that sports affect one’s personal identity. Describe Franklin’s regional identity in sports, especially with the town’s proximity to Boston and Foxboro. Discuss that way that geography helps create a region’s sports identity. Compare and contrast national and global identity in sports and their popular culture representations in the media. Describe the sports that other countries around the world engage in but Americans have little familiarity. Hypothesize why global distinctions around sports exist. Write about an intersection of sports and society that they find particularly interesting. (This composition can become a working document and be revisited throughout the course of the class.)
poetry
The Hero and Heroic Depictions in Professional Sports
What traits does a hero possess? How do definitions of the “hero” evolve ever time? How are literary definitions of the “hero” similar or different than contemporary definitions of the “hero” in professional sports? Who are contemporary examples of heroes within professional sports, and why?
Suggested Lesson Plans:
&Identify elements of the “heroic archetype.”& Discuss with students the controversy about young people and heroes. Is it true that adolescents in contemporary U.S. society have no heroes or that the heroes they do have are not good role models? &Brainstorm a list of heroes today and the traits of those heroes. &Research heroes who personified good citizenship, who took risks to secure freedom, who worked for civil rights, who sought female rights, who were adventurers, who were artists/ performers/ composers, or who achieved military/ political/ environmental accolades. & Extend the traits of the heroes found in research outward to professional athletes: a) historical; b) contemporary. & Compose an Athletes Heroes Hall of Fame within your classroom. Invite guests to the official "museum opening."
Additional Possible Texts: Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey
Language Choices and Multiple Genre Connections across Professional Sports
What is “discourse?” How does the way an individual chooses words affect the way other individuals respond to those words? Are there typical conventions of language that permeate professional sports discourse? How do some language choices include or exclude some social groups and individuals? Are there patterns of language across genres that focus on sports?
Suggested Lesson Plans:
U Define “discourse.” U Give examples of how discourse changes depending on context and audience. U Diagram simple sentence structures. U Define “syntax” and “semantics.” U Diagram active voice and passive voice simple sentence constructions. U Model active versus parsive voice grammatical constructions. Use contemporary textual examples across p-texts, e-texts, a-texts, and v-texts. U Define “agency.” U Describe how active or passive voice grammatical constructions create or reduces agency.
Additional Possible Texts: Classroom Discourse Analysis: A Tool for Critical Reflection (Discourse and Social Processes), by Betsy Rymes
Songs with sports references
A Historical Background of Sports Culture
What elements of ancient sports competitions remain in contemporary professional sports? How were historical events in society reflected in the sports events of their time? What social categories emerge in discussions of historical sports events and participants?
Suggested Lesson Plans:
Create a dual timeline of the 20th and 21st centuries: a) U.S. national events; b) U.S. sporting events. Research one or more key social issues that arose in these time periods. Describe the intersection of sports and society as a historical construct. Hypothesize why sports reflected social trends.
“The TV Sports Documentary,” by Ron Steinman, http://www.dvnetwork.net/tdf/dv/features/tvsports/index.html
Free documentaries online about sports.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/category/sports/
A Look at How Acceptance and Resistance Emerge in Professional Sports
What is “power?” Why do some individuals have power, and others do not? What is “silence?” Why are some professional athletes “silenced?” What does it mean to be “Othered?” What does it mean to have “agency?” Why do some professional athletes have agency, and others do not? How have individuals and some previously Othered social groups transcended barriers within professional sports and gained access?
Suggested Lesson Plans:
X Define “power.” X Simulate social situations in which some individuals are empowered and others are disempowered. X Define “silence.” X Define “voice.” X Model scenarios in which individuals would choose silence or voice. X Extend discussion outward to amateur and professional sports and athletes’ positionings of self to group. X Define “Othered.” X Identify situations and contexts in which historically Othered social groups have transcended social and institutional barriers in sports.
Additional Possible Texts: Anti-Defamation League educational lesson plans;
Southern Poverty Law Center educational information.
Depictions of Gender in Professional Sports
What are the experiences of females who break the barriers of male-dominated professional sports? How do the media depict females in sports? Who are some famous females athletes --- historically or in contemporary times? How does the image of a female athlete become complicated or compromised by sexual imagery?
Suggested Lesson Plans:
Define “gender” and “gender constructions.” Brainstorm list of traits typically associated with “males” versus “females.” Conduct a discourse analysis around several texts in which females, generally, and female athletes, specifically, are the focus. Relate findings back to historical constructions and contemporary contexts of power. Describe whether or not successful athletes have voice. Discuss “Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture” at www.mediaed.org/assets/products/234/presskit_234.pdf Critically examine the ways in which media can shape our perceptions of females and female athletes.
Additional Possible Texts: “Audio Sports Online,” http://www.audiosportsonline.net/
“Gender Bias in Televised Sports: Special Issue on Women,” by Margaret Carlisle Duncan
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2495
Regional sports talk radio
Materialism in Sports and Society
Are professional sports dependent upon a market economy for their success? How does the media promote consumerism in fans? How do texts about sports transmit a culture of buying? Would media outlets or professional sports exist in the U.S. today without the market economy on which the U.S. is based?
$ Define what a “market economy” is. $ Compare a “market economy” to other economies. $ Define “consumerism.” $ Model and exemplify lifestyle options that are founded on ideals other than consumerism. $ Distinguish the different roles of people in sports. $ Define “ agent” and “market segment.” $ Research the ratio of advertising to play time in broadcast sports. $ Research major media outlets and their corporate umbrellas of ownership. $ Investigate network producers’ decisions about sporting events and their production elements. $ Deconstruct the elements of a sports broadcast against the backdrop of consumerism.
Suggested Lesson Plans:
Additional Possible Texts: Superbowl commercials
Contemporary Representations of Race through Language Use
How have males of color been treated in the last century in the realm of professional sports? How has race been a reflection of social legislation and social perspectives? Have female athletes of color been able to transcend historical constructions of race in the same way that male athletes of color have?
Suggested Lesson Plans:
® Review the three sub-genres of English studies: poetry, prose, and drama. ® Review dramatic conventions. ® Introduce Fences by August Wilson. ® Revisit historical construction of race in professional sports. ® Zoom in on the Negro leagues in baseball. ® Introduce setting of Fences. ® Explore poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. ® Describe the African-American experience after World War II. ® Read, act out, and discuss Fences. ® Play forward the contexts of professional athletes of color.
Additional Possible Texts: “Fences: Education for Liberation Network” instructional activities, available at http://www.edliberation.org/resources/records/fences
U.S. blues songs
Sports as National Identity in a Global World
Do professional sports have a role to play in turning our world into a global village? Why do people choose to become fans of a particular team? What really motivates players to become professional sports people?
Suggested Lesson Plans:
Additional Possible Texts: “The Mind of a Sports Fan,” available at http://www.macmillanglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/global_elesson025_mindofasportsfan_TN1.pdf.
Production and Marketing of Youth Sports
What symbols permeate youth sports culture? Are youth sports more heavily weighted toward fair play, new knowledge, or competition? How is the search for identity an essential element of youth sports? How does socio-economic class affect a youth athlete’s potential for success?
Suggested Lesson Plans:
ÑBrainstorm traits that are particular to youth culture. Ñ Design icons/ symbols that could represent these traits.Ñ Identify reasons a company would utilize youth marketing through research of youth audiences. Ñ Debate its use, appeal, and ethical considerations.Ñ Identify different types of youth consumers. Ñ Define “sports marketing,” “exchange,” and “producer.” Ñ Determine how companies market non-sports products using sports. Ñ Diagram the components of the event triangle: “event,” “sponsor,” and “fan.” Ñ Explain the effects of media broadcasting on the event triangle. ÑDescribe activities to market a sports property. Ñ Identify the ways that youth sports fans are valuable target markets: a) Sales-- opportunities, merchandising; b) Image – development, matching w/ event, branding; c) Relationships – hospitality & its use in customer relationships; d) Awareness – visibility, promotion. Ñ Identify and understand the components of the youth marketing mix as it relates to sports marketing. ÑDefine Sportscape – all elements of marketing that make a game more than a game. Ñ Explore elements: aesthetics, music, color, smells, lighting, motion. Ñ Identify the components of the promotion mix: advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and sponsorship. Ñ Recognize and discuss media types, advantages, and limitations.
Additional Possible Text: The documentary, The Corporation
Cultural Transmission through Sports Games and Children’s Toys
What is the purpose of a toy? Why do children play games? Must games have equipment that is machine manufactured in order to be fun? Why are so many children’s toys little more than miniature versions of adult sports equipment? Does the cost of a child’s sports toy influence the child’s desire to be part of adult sports, whether as participant or observer?
Suggested Lesson Plans:
J Distinguish “games” from “toys.” J Create a timeline of toys and games of the students’ lives from infancy to current late adolescence. J Conduct a discourse analysis of advertising targeted for children. J Create a “truth in advertising” blog for children. JExplore the differing concepts of program material and commercials for children, identifying the different purposes of each. J View a series of commercials aimed at children , reactions to them, and their effectiveness. J Design alternative versions of commercials for children. J Explore the relationship between commercials and programming, examining the link between children's cartoon characters and sales of related products such as dolls or clothing. J Develop a Top Ten List of media recommendations for children’s advertising.
SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES
“The curriculum shall engage all students
in problem solving, and higher order thinking…”
Sports are vibrant, interpersonal activities which allow humans to explore and develop kinesthetic, psychological, and intellectual dimensions of the body and mind. Certainly, a class around the topic of sports has as its ultimate intention to imbue students with deeper literacy learning. To teach a class around the topic of sports is to teach interactively, as interactive instruction draws upon students’ engagement to tackle texts and composition.
Interactive instruction depends on discussion and sharing among all participants so students can evolve in their social and critical thinking skills, organize their thoughts, and develop persuasive arguments. Teachers who incorporate interactive instruction take into account a range of small and large groupings so students have ample opportunities to refine their observation, listening, interpersonal, and intervention skills and abilities.
PlasmaLink Web Services provides the following Glossary of Instructional Strategies as a resource for all educators. ©1996-2007. It contains hundreds of instructional strategies from which any teacher assigned to the Grade 12 Sports and Popular Culture elective in the English Department can draw.
http://glossary.plasmalink.com/glossary.html
“The curriculum shall … provide opportunities
for the authentic application of knowledge and skills.”
SUGGESTED ASSESSMENTS AROUND SPORTS AND POPULAR CULTURE
Yes, you will need to assess students’ progress and comprehension in addition to fostering the love of literacy through this course. In traditional assessments, students choose a response from a given list, such as multiple-choice, true/false, or matching. In this sports and popular culture elective in the English Department at FHS, alternative assessment is a more efficacious way to engage students. Alternative assessments are any type of assessment in which students create a response to a question or task. Creation is the highest level of achievement for any learner.
Franklin High School has created a series of school-wide rubrics. In any applicable assessment, the teacher should refer to these rubrics.
Assessment can be intriguing for students and teachers alike if alternative book reports are the backwards design goal. Here are a few websites with motivating twists on the traditional book report.
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/bookreports.html
http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~jcope/Eng3391/ABRIdeas.pdf
An interesting book review rubric that can be incorporated across a variety of alternative book reports is located at:
http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/bk.rep.fic.htm
Film literacy is a meeting place of the English Department and media studies. Both focus on textuality’s inherent narrative structure and the search for human meaning in life. Teachers and students alike draw on visual and print texts as means to read their worlds. What do these texts say about the human experience? How do they construct meaning? Whose interests do they serve?
An article called "Lights! Camera! Action!—A Grammar of Film for Media Literacy" by Carolyn Fortuna ---available on the following website--- will help you as the course teacher to get a foundational understanding about the ways that film analysis is literacy:
https://sites.google.com/site/sportsandpopularculture/film-as-visual-representation-of-sports
Media literacy guru Frank Baker offers many links to film as literacy learning:
http://www.frankwbaker.com/motion_pictures.htm
Here are some websites that will help teachers of this course to incorporate film as literacy. The links below contain numerous approaches to film instruction and assessment:
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/film.html
Throughout the course, students should stop and respond intellectually, emotionally, morally, and spiritually–- not necessarily in that order or in all ways–to our readings. The teacher should pose questions such as:
What do you really think and feel about this text?
Do you like/hate/get inspired by this text? Why?
What larger issues in our culture/society does this text address or cause you to reflect on?
How has your thinking about the intersection of sports and society changed as a result of reading this text?
What will you do differently now that you have read this text?
The teacher should prompt students to support their responses with reasons, details, examples, and facts. Through the collective readings, students will already know the plots and core characters. Teacher: write with your students! Model for students how ideas and thoughtfulness can become the foundation for future, more layered compositions across textualities.
Summative Presentation
[1] This Curriculum Guide was designed and composed in August, 2010 by Carolyn Fortuna, Ph.D, English teacher at Franklin High School, MA. Please feel free to contact her at c4tuna@aol.com anytime.