Stories around the World in Film

Strategy One (Future)

Giving the strengths of segmentation for developing close reading skills, I intend to keep using it and expanding it in various ways. In what follows I am going to lay out some of the strategies I will use to develop my students' abilities to read closely and write careful analytic papers.

As mentioned previously, I use Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven in my AP English classes. It is written as a series of vignettes making it an easy place to start working with textual segmentation. It also has the added benefit of having a film made from some of the chapters in the book. Where the book is not a strict linear narrative, to make the film the director, Chris Eyre, and Sherman Alexie reconfigured some of the events of the novel into a linear narrative. The novel is a more open-ended text whereas the film is a more tightly constructed one. This allows for further exploration into the nature of narrative and the rhetorical way it strives to construct meaning. It would allow for a discussion concerning the very definition of a narrative: how open-ended can a text be and still be a narrative? Which text is closer to the construction of our own real-life experience? The differences between the two types of texts and what our expectations are when we think of a novel versus a film provide immediate discussion of our expectations when we confront a text that we deem a "narrative." Consideration of these issues would also allow for a variety of written assignments that could be used to assess the students' abilities with narrative analysis as well as their skills in using textual evidence to support their argument.

Lesson One Methodology

Start the unit by introducing the film and the novel. Explain that you will be working extensively with both and that they should start reading the novel immediately so that they are ready to go once we have segmented the film. Then go over a list of general questions that the will help students begin to understand how films use technical and structural devices to craft narrative. Most good college film books will contain a set of basic film analysis questions that you could use. My district uses The Art of Watching Film and there is an extensive question set on pp. 83-84 that I use.⁷ Have the students work on these questions while watching the film. A helpful website to look at for information on the film is imdb.com. It is a valuable resource for technical info and reviews. Now show Smoke Signals. (While there is nothing too strong in the film, it is always a good idea to preview the film so that you will be ready to answer any questions that may arise.) The movie is readily available on DVD and is rated PG-13 so it should be no problem for the AP classroom.

Once you have introduced and shown the film and gone over the questions in discussion, you are ready to begin the segmentation part of the unit. Model a segmentation for them using the opening several minutes of the movie. Demonstrate that many of the thematic elements of the film are laid out in the opening sequences. By working with them for the first five to ten minutes, they should be able to go through the rest of the film by themselves with you stopping it every five to seven minutes and giving them time to write notes. Essentially you are following the procedure laid out above for School of Rock. Once you have finished this, allow time for a brief discussion, then break them into small groups (I find that three students to a group keeps the distraction level down) so that they can work on a group segmentation. As above, this should be followed by coming back together as a class to develop a single segmentation that hopefully everyone agrees on. This process allows students to work on their analytic skill since they will be examining their notes and divisions for their effectiveness. It also allows them to work on their persuasive abilities, especially if they feel strongly about particular moments. They should be ready to ably defend the segment divisions they chose.

Right after the discussion that crafts the overarching segmentation is a good time to evaluate the students' progress. A written assignment that requires them to draw upon their segmentation as a resource for understanding issues, theme(s), and the consequences of these issues and themes would fir in nicely here. It does not have to be long but it should require them to justify their assertions by referencing the text. This is an effective way to assess what is working for the students and what needs to be revisited. It also gives them good practice in making interpretive choices that need defending.

Once there is mastery of the skill of segmentation, it is time to turn their attention to the novel. I will use the first chapter, "Every Little Hurricane," to teach the basics of literary segmentation. The procedure for this should follow the procedure given for the O'Brien chapter, dividing it at those moments when the story takes a turn or there is a new development in character, plot, action, or setting. As with the movie they should do this singly, then in groups, then as a class. As you work through this chapter it will allow for further discussion of setting, characterization, conflict, and point of view. By discussing them in this context, it serves dual purposes. The more time spent on these elements in preparation for the AP exams the better. It also allows the students to explore the ways in which these elements work together to develop and construct a particular story. The close reading necessitated by segmentation will force them to spend time examining the ways these elements are built up from the micro level into macro structures that shape our understanding of the text.

Once the class has achieved a general comfort level with segmentation, you can assign one or two chapters to individual students for them to segment on their own. In this fashion the whole work will wind up segmented and can be compiled into a master layout enabling a variety of practices to be brought into use. By examining how Alexie has structured the entire work you will have the means to see how he develops particular themes or concepts throughout the book and you will be able to pinpoint the specific devices he uses to do this. It will begin revealing the way that he uses literary devices to construct the narrative and control the reader's response to it.

At this point in this particular unit I begin to branch out into assessments that require higher order thinking skills. Because we are working with a film that the director drew from a novel without trying to duplicate the novel, it is not quite a full adaptation, though there is enough overlap that it is worth exploring that connection. It also opens up plenty of other areas for exploration. One higher order thinking skill that can be engaged is that of synthetic thinking by asking the students to evaluate the effectiveness of Eyre's choices in including some sections and not others. They can evaluate the differences in the way the movie and the novel handle the narrative voice as well as the differences in the way the mood and tone of the texts were handled. How did Eyre change them? Where and how did they stay the same? Why? These and other questions regarding the basic literary elements are readily available because of the choices the filmmaker made in bringing this book to screen.

Lesson One Plan

Goal: To develop the students' ability to read a narrative closely and analytically through use of segmentation.

Objectives: As a result of this lesson students will be able to:

1. Examine the ways in which narratives are crafted at the micro level, and the way that small constituent parts work together to create a larger narrative,
2. Defend their segmentation choices,
3. Write an essay in which they defend a particular understanding of the text by using the information gleaned in the segmentation process.

Student materials: pen, paper, copies of Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

Teacher materials: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Smoke Signals (preferably on DVD), DVD player with remote, TV, board, markers, set of questions for watching films (to be distributed to the class).

Procedure:

1. Watch the movie using the questions to guide discussion afterwards.
2. Assign the novel.
3. Have the students segment the film while you show it in short (5-7 minute) increments. This can be modeled for the students by using the opening five minutes.
4. Divide the class into small groups where they will compile a collaborative segmentation.
5. Use the group segmentations to create a master segmentation based on the whole class's work.
6. Assign an essay, or other written assessment that requires them to draw from the choices they have made and use thee class's textual analysis to defend their understanding of the text.
7. Using the novel, work through a segmentation of the first chapter together as a class.
8. Divide the novel up to be segmented by individual students
9. Compile a master segmentation of the novel using the students' work. Copy and distribute it to the class.
10. Using the two segmentations (film and novel), have the students evaluate (in writing) the choices made by the director, the effect of the differences on the viewer/reader, and/or the way these decisions affect our understanding, especially as they pertain to literary elements.