In this final paper, a lesson plan will be prepared based on a drama text, a radio play named “Grandpa and the Statue” written by Arthur Miller. The text is taken from a course book titled “Prentice Hall Litarature- Bronze” which aims at providing students with the literary texts as a reading material. In this book, different kinds of text types such as short stories, poetry, drama, non-fiction, novel are included and presented to the students with the study of literary terms and usage.
Here, one of these texts whose title is given above will be used in an advanced class of one of the secondary schools in a literature class. Here, I will name the school as “Mef” on account of the fact that I did my trainee programme there and observed a literature class which is exactly suitable to give as a sample. The class was an advanced literature course of the third class of the secondary school. Furthermore, they were studying the book from which I take my sample text, “Grandpa and the Statue”. They were studying the literary terms such as plot, character, setting, theme by studying all kinds of texts in the book- drama, short story, poetry,etc. The application was different in Mef from most of the schools from the point that they were not studying grammar much after the second year of the secondary school since they had been studying it from the first class of the primary school- even before- till the last class of the high school. In the third classes of the secondary school and the high school, they were studying on fictional, or non-fictional texts as a material in their English classes.
Having chosen the class appropriately, the text that will be studied in this project will be familiar and suitable to the students to a great deal. When it comes to evaluating the lesson plan, it can be said that the information about the textuality will help a lot by its criterion on seven standards of textuality which are:
Before the lesson: The text is assigned to the students for the fact that it is too long to be read in the lesson in 45 min. It should be kept in mind that the Ss are used to reading these types of literary texts at home as a homework being conscious about the fact that this literature lesson can only be accomplished in that way; otherwise time wouldn’t be enough.
Class: 8th. grade (ages between 14-15)
Level of the class: Advanced
Size of the class: 20
The course book used: Prentice Hall Literature- Bronze
The Text used: Drama ( a play) “Grandpa and the Statue” by Arthur Miller
Pages: 218- 231
Time: 45 min.
Previous Learning: “Setting” in short stories.
Objectives:
General: Giving information about the role of a “dialogue” in a play (in general in communication) and the characteristics of “drama”.
Specific: Ss will be able to understand the setting, the time, the features of characters of the event from the dialogues.
Ss will be able to understand the functions of the explanations in brackets given in a play and infer clues for sounds to pretend to be listening to it on the radio.
Ss will be able to read and analyze “drama” as a text type. They will learn about the dramatic strategies used in a play.
Materials used: The “text” in their book,the handout as a supplementary material, a cassette.
Situation: Before the lesson, reading of the text is assigned to Ss because of the fact that the text is too long (13 pages) to be read in a lesson in 45 minutes.
Procedure:
· Warm up activity( approximately 5 minutes): Before the lesson the teacher assigned one of the students to come into the class and read the “announcer” part; during this time the teacher turns on the cassette playing a soft music suitable for setting the scene by supplying the Ss with the background. After the student finishes reading his/her part, the teacher stops the tape-recorder. Then the other student who is assigned by the teacher with August’s part starts reading his part and the teacher reads the Monaghan’s. As August’s turn comes again, the teacher concentrates on August’s turn and make sthe Ss focus on it; because the text has explanation as “(slight pause)”. The sample conversation finishes here and the teacher thanks the Ss and asks the whole class what they have understood from that explanation; what it means to them.
· Activity 1( about 5 min.): The teacher asks the Ss to read and find out the explanations made in italics in a play and asks them to read some examples and make inferences about what they can signify. The teacher asks:
“Why do you think the playwright uses such explanations? What does he want to emphasize?”
· Activity 2( about 15 min.): The teacher distrubutes the handouts and they try to give answers for the questions on the handouts by making discussion and do activities told. The handout includes(The handout is attached to the paper before the evaluation):
- Questions providing the Ss to get an overview of the text- especiallly as a text type since “drama” is new for them.
- Questions which need recalling the text: They are both related with the setting of the play and comprehension qq.
- Critical thinking and reading: They provide the Ss to evaluate the situation and comment on it by using their all stored knowledge.
· Activity 3( approximately 10 min.): The teacher tells Ss to look at the conversation (on pp.223-4) taking place between the children on a street; the teacher reads the conversation and asks for the comments on it; they discuss the situation in the conversation.
· Activity 4( about 10 min.): The teacher gives the characteristics and layout of “drama” as a literary text type. She explains the importance of the dialogue, setting, explanations in brackets, interruptions, characters’ way of talking, etc. ( The teacher’s outline of dramatic strategies is given in the evaluation part.)
· Homework: The teacher tells the Ss to convert a short story into a play by using the dramatic strategies learnt in this lesson –the basic outline is also given in Activity 3. The Ss are free to choose the text (short story); it can be from one of the texts they studied before in the lesson or another one that they like.
A. Overview upon the text:
1. Do we understand for what purpose was the play written? Do we have any clues for this within the text or the explanations made before the text is the only clue for us?
2. Does the playwright accomplish the purpose? If so, how?
3. Why does the playwright use the explanations in brackets? What do they signify?
4. What can you understand from these explanations?
B. Recalling the text:
1. Where does the event take place?
2. Do we know the time of the event? Does the time change? If so, how can we understand?
3. Tell us about the characters in the play. Why are there three Monaghan? Do they talk to each other?
4. How does Grandfather refuse Sheen’s request?
5. What does Grandpa predict will happen to the Statue after it’s put up? How do we understand?
6. What does the Veteran tell Grandpa that changes his mind about the Statue of Liberty? How do we understand this? What clues do the playwright present us in the play to come to that point?
C. Critical Thinking and Reading:
1. Why do you think Monaghan responds to Sheean with the following lines?
Monaghan: “I’m not intrested, Sheean”
Sheean: Now hold up on that a minute. Let me tell you the facts...
Monaghan: I’m not...!
Sheean: Before you answer me...
Monaghan: I’m not throwin’ me good money away for somethin’ I don’t even know exists.
Sheean: Now what do you mean by that?
...
In terms of the above conversation, comment on the characters’ being efficient and powerful in communication. Who is more dominant? Is Sheean succesful enough to convince Monaghan or Monaghan stands against whatever he says? What would you say, how would you react to convince one and not to be convinced?
EVALUATION OF THE LESSON PLAN IN TERMS OF TEXTUALITY
Here, the process of preparing the lesson plan given above will be evaluated in terms of the seven standards of textuality following the sequence of items in the lesson plan.
1. The Reason for Choosing This Text:
The general aim of this course is to teach literary text types (Intertextuality requires to know the text type to give meaning by means of the stored knowledge or the text-presented knowledge or the combination of both) and terms while providing them with appropriate reading materials as it is pointed out in the “objectives” part of the lesson plan. Since the Ss are familiar with literary text types –for example the previously learnt subject was “setting” in short stories-, which provides Ss to utilize from their experience, the stored knowledge and to shapen the new one more easily (Intertextuality). Here, the type of “drama” is intended to be taught by the teacher and the sub-item is “dialogue”, which means that the text is suitable for exemplifying textuality. The teacher’s intention (Intentionality)here is to help the Ss to know the “drama” as a new (Informativity) text type by providing them with the suitable setting( Situationality). She studies “setting” which composes of four primary concepts(goal negation- Coherence) to help the Ss to imagine as they are listening to it since the play is such a text type that it requires to be visualized or heard somehow. While doing this, the teacher emphasizes the explanations given in brackets which give idea about the intonation, pitch of voice of the characters (Cohesion). Finally, if the intention of the teacher is successfully accomplished via these activities it means that the Ss receive the right message and learn the aimed subject by following the intended directed messages (Acceptability) sent by the teacher.
2. The Role of the Materials Used
The music as a background: To make the Ss include in the setting and help them to visualize the situation; it is essential to use such an authentic and unusual way. It is strenghtened by the participation of two Ss to the warm-up scene.( Note that the other Ss don’t know that these two Ss are assigned to such a task.)
The text used: The most important characteristics which enable us to use seven standars of textuality effectively is that the text is composed of “dialogues”, which are the basis of communication. What is more, not only does it include the oral communication through conversations but also it includes implicatures about the body language with the information in the parantheses.
The handout distributed: To evaluate the function of each part will be more explanatory:
Overview upon the text:
1. Do we understand for what purpose was the play written? Do we have any clues for this within the text or the explanations made before the text is the only clue for us?: Here the aim is to see if the Ss can grasp the playwright’s intention ( the teacher’s intention is “to see it”). It would be helpful to point out here that before the text, in the “Look For” section, the following explanation is made: “ Granpa and the Statue was originally written to be presented on the radio. Since it is a radio play , as you read, pretend that you are only listening to it, not seeing it performed on the stage. Imagine the sound of the characters’ voices. How would you read the lines? Notice the bracketed directions for music: They signal that the action is shifting from one place to another or from one time to another.”. As it seen here the intention of the text is clearly defined from the beginning and it shows way to the Ss while reading the text. The explanations are also mainly for introducing the new(Informativity) text (Intertextuality) to the Ss by providing the setting (Situationality).
2. Does the playwright accomplish the purpose? If so, how?: The answer of “how” even is given above, which enables the readers to get the right meaning.(Acceptability) Furthermore, while the palywright is utilizing the strategies for drama, he refers to Intertextuality, which includes the storage of that knowledge.( The teacher might note down the strategies of drama on the left side of the board to be used in the forth step of the lesson while drawing the outline of “drama” as a new text type.)
3. Why does the playwright use the explanations in brackets? What do they signify?: The teacher expects the answers such as to imply the change of setting, characters’ manner, voice, etc..
4. What can you understand from these explanations?: Ss’ reception is mainly related with “Acceptability” again; this quetion is to see if the explanations are read by the Ss as it is intended by the playwright and accepted in the right manner.
Recalling the text:
1. Where does the event take place?
2. Do we know the time of the event? Does the time change? If so, how can we understand?: the explanations also provide the clear access to another time.
3. Tell us about the characters in the play. Why are there three Monaghan? Do they talk to each other?
Events, time, characters are all for setting the scene clearly in order for the Ss to visualize the situation successfully while at the same time are the components of coherence.
4. How does Grandfather refuse Sheen’s request?
5. What does Grandpa predict will happen to the Statue after it’s put up? How do we understand?
“refuse”, “predict” are functions used in communication which serve for goal negotiations that are the items of situationality.
6. What does the Veteran tell Grandpa that changes his mind about the Statue of Liberty? How do we understand this? What clues does the playwright present us in the play to come to that point?: Veteran refers to “Philippine War”, which means that the playwright refers to another text (Text allusion- Intertextuality). However the reader cannot understand what Veteran is talking about before noticing the footnote which is the answer of “how “here.
Critical Thinking and Reading:
1. Why do you think Monaghan responds to Sheean with the following lines?
Sheean: Now hold up on that a minute. Let me tell you the facts...
Monaghan: I’m not...!
Sheean: Before you answer me...
Monaghan: I’m not throwin’ me good money away for somethin’ I don’t even know exists.
Sheean: Now what do you mean by that?
...
Here recurrence is used as a cohesive device which makes the Monaghan speech impressive and determined; that’s why Sheean always feels to find a way to make explanation and convince him. It should be kept in mind that he couldn’t succeed to do this. Here the Ss most probably realize the effect of repeating the same phrases, which signifies that Monaghan is determined. Yet again, since this is “critical thinking” and open to comments, there should’t be eexpected one single answer; maybe one can focus on the another type of textuality without awareness of it that it is textuality and accoplish to prove himself.
3. Activities
Warm up activity: Here the intention of the teacher is to involve the Ss in the setting of the play to make them understand better the role of music, the role of the explanations in a radio play( Intentionality; with the Ss’ participation and having an understanding of the implied message supplies Acceptability); for this reason the teacher especially focuses on August’s reading of his second turn; the student reading that part should give slight pause to give the effect in the original play(Situationality) .
Activity 1: The task of finding more examples related with the previous activity is to give variety and to make the Ss comprehend better the importance of the explanations which serve the aims explained also in the “Look For” section. Apart from this, The Ss’ inference from these instructions in the play gives rise to the energence of their stored knowledge on Conventional Implicatures that are used in communication. The role of the question asked by the teacher serves the reinforcement of that awareness.
Activity 2:The role of handout has been study in “materials” section.
Activity 3:The conversation on pp.223-4 is given below with its most remarkable points:( It takes place between the children on a street)
Young Monaghan: Makes explanation...Then, the scene changes.
(Banging of rocks against milk can)
George.(Kid) What’re you doin?
Child Monaghan: What do we look like we’re doing?
George: I’m going someplace tomorrow.
Charley.(Kid) I know, church. Watch out, I’m throwin’.
(Can being hit)
George: I mean after church.
Jack. Where?
George. My old man’s going to take me out on the Statues of Lýberty boat.
(Banging against can abrubtly stops)
Child Monaghan. You’re not going out on the statue, are you?
George. Sure, that’s where we’re going.
Child Monaghan. But you’re liable to get killed. Supposing there’s high wind tomorrow?
George. My old man says that statue couldn’t fall down if all the wind in the world and John L. Sullivian hit it at the same time.
Child Monaghan. Is that so?
George. Yeh, that’so...
Child Monaghan. Is that so?
George. Yeh, That’s so.
...
While studying the above conversation in the class, the Ss will have to use the discursive devices and the items of textuality since it is the sample of real, everyday conversation and explains the characteristics of the “drama”. To analyze them, in the first part the dialogue includes the change of the setting as time and place especially. After Young Monaghan explains the situation with the help of the explanation in paranthesis we understand that the scene changes. Following this, the Ss are able to see another explanation in bracket: “(Kid)” which implies that the children will be talking. The language that the children uses is also crucial to be pointed out here; George says, “...doin?” which is the sample of everyday speech. (There are also unfinished, interrupted sentences in the text ). The parallel examples are “doin’?, throwin’?”. (The language use according to the situation). Following this, Charley says, “...Watch out , I’m throwin’.” Which has “no relevance” (From one of Grice’s maxims- Intentionlity); but the situation is made relevant with the help of the explanation in paranthesis: “(Can being hit)”. The other child goes on his speech without any discontinuity ( Informativity, Intertextuality); because the third grade information in the text is downgraded to the second via the explanation in paranthesis. The understanding of the other children is provided through the “cooperation principle”; because in everyday speech such kind of problems are solved with the help of the commonly shared communication knowledge. Here the children are talking about where George is going for the next day and their play doesn’t prevent the steam of the conversation; it means that the speaker’s , George’s, intention is accepted by the others. The teacher’s role in the class is that showing the Ss that such type of conversations are used in every day life as we use in our L1 and they can be understood without any problems.(The term “cooperation principle” won’t be used there of course). In the ongoing conversation Child Monaghan asks, “You’re not going out on the statue, are you?”; he uses quetion tags as a strategy to emphasize his side for the situation and check his understanding. (Intertextuality) After George’s confirmation , he tries to convince George atarting his conversation with “But...” . Accordingly George uses a strategy by referring a convincing agent- John L. Sullivan, who is so powerful for the children; that’s why Child Monaghan begins to question the situation, “Is that so?”. Also in case John L. Sullivan might not be known by the readers , the playwright gives explanation in the footnote ( Text allusion- Intertextuality) since the time of the text is not the same with the time of the receiver’s reading. The repetition of “Is that so?” and “Yeh, that’s so” also exemplifies the effect of recurrence( Cohesion) The Ss will be able to see the effect of recurrence in a literary text but surely without naming it so.
Activity 4: The teacher gives the characteristics and layout of “drama” as a literary text type. She explains the importance of the dialogue, setting, explanations in brackets, interruptions, characters’ way of talking, etc. The teacher’s outline of dramatical strategies is given below:
The teacher explains the Ss that they can menaingfully understand the play although the setting changes many times on account of the fact that Young Monaghan sometimes tells or remembers his past in which he is talking to his grandfather, his friends from childhood, his father’s speech with the others at that time. The teacher makes them see that they can accomplish this via the organization of drama and dramatical strategies by writing on the board( By the way, the teacher uses her notes on the board written during the handout study):
The teacher explains the functions of the items on the board in detail and tell the Ss that they have understood the play with the help of these strategies used by the playwright. She says that in fact, every single action or how every line is spoken should not be explained in detail. Including stage directions only when they are necessary to understand the action of the sketch. (The teacher makes use of both Grice’s quantity principle, whose claim is to be as informative as required and the importance of Informativity; unnecessary information sometimes decreases the effect of informativity)
Then, the teacher wants the Ss to explain the play in terms of the given items on the board. For example:
Homework: Converting a short story to another text type will give the practise of Intertextuality to the Ss. Furhtermore they will be using the strategies they have learnt for the text type of “drama” (Informativity) by using dramatical strategies, effective dialogue patterns with the escort of the explanations-directions in parantheses(Situationality). Furhermore, the explanations will give the clue of the speaker’s intention told by the Ss.(Intentionality)They will build up a situation, use some grammatical strategies(Cohesion) by using the related concepts and giving importance to the primary concepts first(Coherence). If the Ss accomplish this assignment then it means that they have successfully sorted out the new subject as the teacher aimed to do.(Intentionality, Acceptability)
Bibliography:
BEAUGRANDE, R.A., DRESSLER, W.U. (1981) Introduction to Text Linguistics, London and New York: Longman
Prentice Hall Literature Bronze, Teacher’s edition (1989) “Grandpa and the Statue” New Jersey: Prentice Hall Literature Bronze.