I. Unit of Study:                                  Family Dynamics - Language Arts

II. Lesson Title/Length of Time:       Family Dynamics

Three consecutive class periods
(two 90-minute and one 45-minute)

III. Author/County:                            Melanie Ware
Frederick County, MD

IV. Grade Level/Subject Area(s):     7th Grade Language Arts

________________________________________________________________________

V. Abstract:

In conjunction with our Family Dynamics Unit, students will examine the personal stresses caused by extended family separation and the ways one could cope in such a situation. This multi-paragraph composition (with emphasis on transitions and supporting details) will take the form of a personal letter from family members to the father of that family in Portugal in the 16th century. He is the captain of a trading vessel who is often gone for extended periods of time.

VI. Background:

Students will need a knowledge of where Portugal is located on the map, noting its proximity to the sea, information on Portugal's role in the trade routes during the 16th century, and an understanding of the notion of saudade. In addition, they will need to have been practicing drama exercises from the beginning of the year to be able to create a tableau. The concept of paragraphs, unity and transitions will also have been previously introduced.

VII. Materials

• A map of the world

• Paper

• Pencils

• CD of Amalia Rodrigues

• PowerPoint with pictures of items traded such as fabric, tobacco, spices, ivories, porcelain, etc.

VIII. Resources

• Notes from Dr. Vicente and other sessions

• Packet on drama

• Standards

• Online resources providing pictures of trade items

IX. Standards/Learner Outcomes

A. Fine Arts Standards

• Critical

To develop, through the visual arts, the ability to perceive and respond to ideas and the environment.

• Historical/Cultural

To develop an understanding of the visual arts as a basic aspect of history and human experience.

B. Content Standards

• Writing to Express Personal Ideas

X. Objectives/Skills

A. Fine Arts Objectives:

• AR.700.15 Recognize how visual art may express a concept, tell a story, evoke a feeling or emotion, and/or symbolize an idea.

• AR.700.25 Identify factors which influence artists in specific historical eras and places.

• AR.700.25.03 Describe how the history of a geographical region may influence an artist’s work.

• AR.700.35 Recognize how visual art reflects social, political, and ethical issues of individuals and society.

B. Content Objectives:

• Generate ideas by using group brainstorming

• Organize prewritten ideas into a draft with a clear beginning, middle and end

• Group related ideas and maintain a consistent focus

• Use transitions to movie logically from one sentence to another and one paragraph to another

• Revise to strengthen transitions, word choices and supporting details

XI. Keywords/Vocabulary

• saudade

• caravel

• trade route

• transitions

• supporting details

• tableau

XII. Motivation

• Play a song from the CD.

• Ask students to listen and identify the feelings evoked by music. (Use typed questions from session on assessment and debriefing.) We will create a web on the board after to record feelings from the music.

• Then I will ask them to think of a situation where someone would feel this way and we will discuss.

• Tie to today's curricular objectives.

XIII. Scope and Sequence

A. Teacher Directed: 

• I will introduce the word saudade, explain its meaning and let students know it originated in Portugal.

• After, we will look at the map and locate Portugal. Looking at the map, we will discuss the trade routes and Portugal's role in them. As we discuss, students will draw the trade route onto a handout of the map of the world. We will look at the power point with picture of trade items.

• Then I will ask students to discuss with a partner why this culture may have originated a music that was filled with the idea of longing, loss, anguish, anxiety and hope. (I am guiding them to the idea of sailors at sea.) Share ideas.

• Ask students if their parents have ever had to be away from home for a long time.

• How long?
• Why were they gone?
• How did they feel while their parent was away?
• How did they get along without them?
• How did mom or dad seem to feel?
• Did you do anything as a family to help each other during this time?

B. Guided Practice:

• Ask students to imagine they were a child in Portugal during the 16th century. Your dad is a captain of a caravel off on a trade mission and is not expected back for one year. Use visualization to have students close their eyes and imagine they are in this situation.  Ask questions such as:

• Where do you go to check to see if your dad is returning? 
• What do you see?  Feel? Taste? Hear?
• Go back to your home. What do you do there?
• What is your mother doing?
• How has she been acting?
• Have you watched her when she was alone?
• What expression did she have on her face?
• How about your brothers or sisters?

• Randomly place students in small groups with a recording sheet. Give them the assignment to discuss in small groups:

• How would you feel?
• What added responsibilities might you have?
• Upon whom would it be hardest in the family?
• How would each member of the family deal with the situation?

• Students will then call out what they wrote team by team with the rule "no repeats" and I would write all of their ideas on the board as I debrief the class.

C. Independent Practice:

Day One: 90 Minutes

Each student in the small group will choose a role from a hat -- wife or child -- and write a rough draft of a letter to the father who is away. A prewriting outline and a rubric will be given to each student who should include a paragraph on each of the following topics:

• How things are going back at home
• How you are feeling personally as wife or child
• How the family has been coping.

Each paragraph must maintain focus and use transitions within the paragraph and the letter itself to help the flow of ideas.

End of Day 1: If rough drafts are not finished, they are homework.

Day Two: 45 Minutes

Students will return to small groups to peer edit letters using PQP and focusing on transitions, paragraph unity and details which make writing interesting to reader. Students will complete final draft today.

Day Three: 90 Minutes

Students will get into small groups and decide upon a pose that best represents the imaginary family's feelings about the father or husband's absence. Students will be asked to say one sentence that sums up their feeling about this absence when they present their tableau to the class. A rubric as presented in our drama session of the six elements of tableau will be given at beginning of activity and be used by students to grade each other. After this experience (before grading each other with the rubric), I will debrief students asking experience oriented questions.

XIV. Assessment

• Final draft of the letter

• Performance in the tableau

(Both using rubrics distributed before activities.)

XV. Closure/Reflection

• Exit Pass on Day One: How did the use of the music help you with this written assignment?

• Exit Pass on Day Two:  What is the most important thing you learned about your writing today?

• Exit Pass on Day Three: Of what part of your group's tableau activity are you most proud? Where do you want to personally improve the next time we use this activity?

Note:  I plan to continue interspersing content on Portugal that I learned in this course throughout the year in various units as follows:

• Survival Unit: A journal entry from a sailor about his uncertainties as he heads off on the trade route for the first time and his plans for survival

• Poetry Unit: A poem about a piece of art from the trade route

• Creative Writing: A story based on a piece of art -- Who made it? Why? What story does it tell? -- using tableau and debriefing to recreate a painting or sculpture first before the writing.

Then, after the MSA, I plan to do a culmination project around the content from the Portuguese unit where students are placed into groups, each representing a country along the trade route. They will produce a map of that section showing resources and people of the region from the 16th century. Then, they will write a play involving dialogue between a native from that country, a Portuguese captain, a lowly sailor and the King. They will perform this play for the class. Each character will need to have a prop representing their role in the trade routes.

At the very end of the year, after reading a variety of Travel Literature, students will create tableaus as we did in our drama session, then write about their "travels" in school during the year as an end of the year project.