I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Perspectives

Essential Question:

How might the study of “Ordinary People” in different genres raise awareness of the possibility

Bridge:

Reacting to Change

Content:

Point of View/"Ordinary People"

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: For students to examine the individual roles people play in their own families.

Activity: Students bring in a photo or draw a depiction of their families and the roles each member plays within the family unit (peacemaker, doer, clown, disciplinarian, etc.). In groups, students share their pictures and describe the different roles to the group.

Assessment: As a group activity: level of involvement in response to students' pictures.

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: To recognize the variety of roles people play in family (the organizer, the clown, the peacemaker, the problem solver, etc.) and when roles conflict with one another.

Activity: In groups, students: 1) generate a list of the various roles described in Q1 activity. 2) They speculate on roles that might come in conflict with one another.

Assessment: Group involvement, ability to speculate on possible conflicts.

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: For students to investigate events which change the roles we play in our families.

Activity: Role play scenarios in which perspectives change as a result of death, divorce, job loss, college, relocation, etc. Students write a short paragraph explaining how the various roles altered when an unexpected event changed the way the family operated as a unit.

Assessment: Quality of student roleplays and accompanying paragraphs.

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: To study the difference in point of view as depicted in the chapters written in the father's voice and the chapters written in the son's voice. To discuss the different perspectives created by the film version. To introduce the idea of "dislike" as characterized in the article, "A Problem of Dislike," as a possible motivation for Beth in the film version.

Activity: Read novel, choosing metaphors and axioms from each character's point of view; view film, read article.

Assessment: Homework, group activities, discussion, quote tests which identify speaker and describe the significance of the particular metaphor or axiom.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: To show how each character's perspective changes during the course of the novel, film.

Activity: Quote text to identify the different voices and to discuss the significance of the lines, metaphors, axioms; comparison/contrast paper on novel. In this paper, the students will explore why the screenwriter and director chose to change the perspective in the film based on the following topics: Beth Jarrett: A Problem of Dislike?; Calvin Jarrett: Passive or Active?; The Jarrett Family: a Breakdown in Communication.

Assessment: Grades based on: ability to identify point of view, significance of chosen lines from novel, film; comprehensiveness of exploration in two genres; writing ability.

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: Students will explore the "missing" perspective in the novel (Beth's); students will speculate on a happier ending to the film; students will extract the most meaningful statements, metaphors, or axioms as ones we can all remember to help us through rough times.

Activity: 1) Students write an epilogue to the film showing what happened to the Jarrett family. 2) Students write three chapters from Beth's point of view and indicate where in the novel they would be most suitable. 3) Students create posters to show how our own perspectives have changed as a result of Ordinary People.

Assessment: Grades based on creativity, comprehensiveness.

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: To see the importance of perspective in genre, character, future situations.

Activity: Students will critique each others' projects with perspective in mind. Students will create new situations which could relate to the axioms chosen in the novel.

Assessment: Peer editing, visual impact.

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: To celebrate: the changing perspectives of the characters in both novel and film, and our own awareness of the possibility for change in perspective in our own future situations.

Activity: Display of original work under the overall heading "Extraordinary Thoughts from Ordinary People."

Assessment: Quality of individual and group display as well as the ability to articulate how the messages in the novel and film can be integrated in our own lives and the lives of others.

Assessment, Phase Five,Performance, Creative Use of Material Learned: