English 10 – Who or What is American? TONE MOVIE

Much of the work we will explore this year deals with the American experience – what it means to be American, how the time period shaped the nation, how the face of America has changed. As we will see, defining what America is can be a daunting undertaking. Our first unit of the year asks you to define for yourselves who or what is an American.

In order to do this, you will need to spend some time thinking about your own identity--who or what are you, and how are you shaped by factors such as your family, culture, peer group, nationality, knowledge, experiences, school?

In our first unit, you will be working on developing your reading skills, your digital research and presentation skills, and your study habits. You will be able to show what you know, believe, and feel. This unit also includes your first assessments, so here’s your chance to show your teacher what you know and can do as well as what you’ll need to learn.

Tone Movie Task Details:

●You will carefully select, read, and analyze a short piece of text (e.g. a stanza, a few sentences) from a class poem, song, article, document, or story about America.

●You will create a 30 second to one minute movie to present your interpretation of TONE for the text you’ve chosen. Here is the tone words list and chart:

●You will upload your movie to YouTube and we will view the best in class. You will give constructive feedback on your peers’ movies and reflect on your own work.

●Due date: September 1 & 2

●This is a formative assessment that will introduce many of the skills and class tools required for English 10. This assignment also serves to show your teacher your current skills in reading, analysis, work ethic, creativity and digital presentation.

Process:

●Choose your extract from the class texts.

●Analyze and annotate the extract closely: consider content and context (purpose and audience). Observe and analyze theme, style, word choice, syntax, point of view, and anything else you find important. Complete the analysis table for your piece of text.

●Create a storyboard/table with your text, tone/meaning and your ideas for images, audio,editing effects, etc. Organizer worksheet: Look at 2013 English 10 book trailer models for possible editing tools and their effects on the presentation.

●Your text should be either spoken, written or both. Consider your font choice for written text: this adds to the tone.

●Review the plan - with teachers, classmates, friends, family.

●Create your movie using iMovie or Moviemaker.

Skills Checklist: The student has met the following requirements for a formative score.

___ Choose a short extract from one of the class readings (e.g. one stanza, verse, paragraph).

___ Annotate your extract.

___ Create a storyboard with chosen text

___ Find, use, and properly cite legal images and audio clips.

___ Turn in a hard copy of MLA citations page--this must be correct or will need revision.

___ Credit modified source list/credits at the end of your movie.

___ Make a 30 second to one-minute movie.

___ Upload your movie to YouTube.

___ Assess your own movie using the self-assessment rubric and write a reflective blog post.

___ Use the self-assessment rubric to comment constructively on two or three other students’ movies. (Your teacher will assign these.) Post your comment as a blog post.

How to get help: Ms. Pratt’s detailed Google site

also digital frontiers club, google, YouTube... Ask your friends!

Tone Movie Rubric: Self-Assessment RubricNAME:

Tone:Length:

Lines used (write them here):

CATEGORY / Exemplary (A) / Meets Expectations (B) / Approaches Expectations (C) / Below Expectations (D)
Images / Images help create a distinct, original (and perhaps an innovative) tone. / Images create a presentation of tone that matches the interpretation of the excerpt. / An attempt was made to use images that create a tone, but it needs more work. The choice of images is logical. / Little or no attempt has been taken to use images to create an appropriate tone.
Audio / The music and sound effects stir an emotional response and create a distinct, original (and perhaps an innovative) tone. If present, the voice track is clean and fully understandable. The pace reflects the tone. The viewer is always engaged. / The music and sound effects stir an emotional response that matches the tone. The pace is appropriate to the tone. The viewer is engaged. / The music and sound effects are adequate; they neither distract from nor enhance the tone. Effective pacing and rhythm attempted. The viewer is not engaged consistently. / The music and sound effects are distracting, inappropriate or missing.. No attempt to match the pace of the movie to the tone.. The viewer was not engaged.
Video Editing / Effects and editing work to create a distinct, original (and perhaps an innovative) tone. / Effects do not distract from the tone and at times enhance the tone. / Purposeful editing attempted but may distract from the tone. / Movie demonstrates little or no attempt to use effects and editing to create tone. Effects and editing distract from the tone.
Overall Score and Comment