Video Clip Assignment Description and Rubric

FIGHT THE POWER (Or not)!!!
Essay or First Person Stream of Consciousness Narrative Writing assignment

Proposal Cover Letter                            Due: 1 Week
First Draft/Peer Review day                Due: 2 Weeks
Final Draft                                                Due: 3 ½ Weeks

You must choose between:
(a). Writing a persuasive essay defending/condemning people throughout history who have done just what they have been told to do despite of the moral implications. Research is not required to do this assignment; however, arguing from current and past events will certainly help build your case in either direction. You might START your research in some of these places:

Milgram Experiment
Stanford Prison Experiment
Asch Conformity Experiment
Nuremberg Defense

With Power Comes a Selfish Point of View:

The persuasive essay should be interesting and it will probably require 3 or more pages to argue your point effectively. Consider, some historical or fictional examples (As we are reading Lord of the Flies) of people that you might want to defend or bring to justice, who have simply “follow authority,” even when the nature of that authority brought pain to other people.

Also, write a 1 page or less cover letter or proposal that will act as SPW#3. You will share your proposal to the class and explain which historical people/person you are going to defend/prosecute and what makes this case interesting. Why are you motivated to write about this topic? Why should we be motivated to read? What will we learn?

(b). Writing a first person stream of consciousness narrative, that places you in the mind of either an authority figure or a person obeying this authority without considering the implications. I’m interested in how “real” you can portray the thoughts of people in either position. To make this real, you will probably need to do some research, although technically it is not required. Here are some good places to look to get a psychological profile of people in power/authority positions:

Milgram Experiment
Stanford Prison Experiment
Asch Conformity Experiment
Nuremberg Defense

With Power Comes a Selfish Point of View:

This assignment requires you to be creative, and knowledgeable about people. This option requires different things. I’d expect at least 3 pages that build up the scenario in which your narrator is operating and the thoughts running through her/his head.

Also, write a 1 page or less cover letter or proposal that will act as SPW#3. You will share your proposal to the class and explain which historical point of view you are going to stream thoughts from and what makes this potentially interesting. Why are you motivated to write about this topic? Why should we be motivated to read? What will we learn? What might surprise us?

Rubric:
Peer Review/Cover letter/Revision and drafting                                     _____/30 points

Ideas/Content                                                                                                          _____/30 points
o Complexity of thought and full development of ideas
o Creative, innovative, inventive, imaginative

Structure and Organization                                                                                _____ / 20 points
o The works reflect in depth thought on all levels.
o The word reflects a logical argument or logical stream of thought.

Voice/Tone                                                                                                       _____/ 20 points
o Sense of ownership—writing beyond the grade
o Non-Verbal Rhetorical Choices (image, font, formatting)
o Writing real, writing small, writing authentically (intent/purpose)
o Tone is appropriate for genre and respectful of audience/s

Conventions                                                                                                      _____ /10 points
o original title
o Distinct separation of genres
o 12-point, readable font
o Minor errors do not detract from content
o Punctuation, grammar, and usage contribute to style (Grammars A & B)
o Capitalization and spelling are generally correct

TOTAL                                                                                                               _____ / 110 points

Video Clip Assignment Teaching Rationale

I chose to gear this assignment toward 10th grade students, although this activity can probably be worked into any 8-12th grade classroom. There are all sorts of relevant literary and nonliterary subjects that this video refers indirectly to, such as: 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Book Thief, Lord of the Flies, Nuremberg Trials, Psychological experiments, Any novel dependent on 1st person stream of consciousness, Criminal Defense/Prosecution.

Also, I chose these clips because, I thought these clips were funny. However, besides simply being funny, these practical jokes have practical applications for understanding characters in stories that we cold be currently reading and can lead to deeper discussions about what it means to have authority and obey authority. This would also lead to discussions about human nature and theoretical psychology.
Some of the hypothetical questions for class discussion might include: Why did these guys go along with these nonsense ideas? Would you have gone along with Cousin Sal’s directions? How can you be sure that you wouldn’t? If someone in a suit promises you something that you want, but tells you to do something for it, don’t you do it? How are clothes rhetorical choices that signify places in power i.e. Why was Sal wearing a suit a good prop to pull off the practical joke? What about Nazi Germany how did authority change people’s decision making then? After an explanation of the Milgram Experiment, what do students think about authority now? How does this relate to our current novel?

The potential for classroom discussion with these videos is nearly endless. I’m excited about implementing such an assignment in my own classroom soon; however I will have to consider certain things: Planning class time for peer review, printing out cover letters and final drafts, computer lab time and providing adequate time for students to meet or consult with me.

———————————————————————————————-

Examples of SOME of the GPS that this Assignment Meets:

ELA10RL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods. The student

a. Relates a literary work to non-literary documents and/or other texts from its literary period.

b. Relates a literary work to non-literary documents and/or other texts relevant to its historical setting.

ELA10W4 The student practices both timed and process writing and, when applicable, uses the writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate writing. The student

a. Plans and drafts independently and resourcefully.

b. Revises writing to improve the logic and coherence of the organization and controlling perspective.

c. Revises writing for specific audiences, purposes, and formality of the contexts.

d. Revises writing to sharpen the precision of word choice and achieve desired tone.

e. Edits writing to improve word choice, grammar, punctuation, etc.

ELA10W1 The student produces writing that establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals closure. The student

a. Establishes a clear, distinctive, and coherent thesis or perspective and maintains a consistent tone and focus throughout.
b. Selects a focus, structure, and point of view relevant to the purpose, genre expectations, audience, length, and format requirements.
c. Constructs arguable topic sentences, when applicable, to guide unified paragraphs.
d. Uses precise language, action verbs, sensory details, appropriate modifiers, and active rather than passive voice.
e. Writes texts of a length appropriate to address the topic or tell the story.
f. Uses traditional structures for conveying information (i.e., chronological order, cause and effect, similarity and difference, and posing and answering a question).
g. Supports statements and claims with anecdotes, descriptions, facts and statistics, and specific examples.