Illustrative Lesson On Parodies Slide One

1. Illustrative Lesson On ParodiesSlide One • “Identify and describe characteristics associated with parodies.” • Break down the objective: Identify means to find and know, to tell what they are. Describe how to tell about a parody and say why it is a parody and not satire or irony, for example. • There are three characteristics which are associated with parodies.

2. ParodySlide Two • Funny • Imitates Someone or Some Situation • Familiar to Audience

3. Three Characteristics Make A Parody • The first thing that makes a parody a parody is that it is funny; if it is not funny, then it is not a parody. • The second characteristic is that a parody imitates a person or a situation; for example, “Here’s my imitation of our ESL teacher when someone does not have their homework…”. • The third requirement for a parody is that the audience must be familiar with the person or situation imitated; if they are not, then they will not see the humor in the parody. Slide Three

4. Is this a parody? • Little Ms. Muffet sat at her table, eating her oatmeal and milk. Along came a spider, and sat down beside her, and said “What’s in the bowl, Baby?” • Slide Four

5. Is this a parody? • Once upon a time, a long time ago, there lived an old man in the middle of a huge forest. There were no roads or paths to his little hut, and no one ever came to see him, yet he was not lonely. • Slide Five

6. Is this a parody? • A boy from the school Eastway Middle • Failed ‘cause he studied so little, • He got a job washing dishes, • And while he washes he wishes • He’d studied instead of just piddled. • Slide Six

7. Is this a parody? Many people think earthworms are pretty gross creatures. Actually, they are very clean animals, and they are extremely important for good healthy soil. However, because they do not interact with humans in the way that dogs or cats do, worms do not make good pets. Slide Seven

8. Which one is the only parody? • If you picked the first one, your got it right. • Now let’s generate some more parody ideas. Work with one or two others, and write down some possible parodies. Here are some examples: • A teacher patrolling the halls. • Your Mom or Dad talking to you about grades, alcohol, drugs, the clothes you wear, cleaning up your room, or something else. Slide Eight

9. Short Stories • “Identify and describe the characteristics associated with short stories.” • A short story is one that can be read in one or two sittings. Short stories are literature. Novels, drama, and poetry are also categories, or genres, of literature. But what makes a short story different is- - -are you ready? • It’s short! Slide Nine

10. What makes it short? • There are three reasons: • There is a small number of characters. • There is a tight focus on a single plot, or a single main idea of the story. • The climax (what happens and how the story turns out) occurs at the end of the story. • Now we will look at three short stories: a model (done by the teacher); the second one will be done together with student input. The third one will be independent practice, what you will do in our next class with short story number three. • Slide Ten

11. A Short Story Checklist • Characteristics: • A small number of characters; write down the names of all the characters; how many are there? • A tight focus on a single plot; what is the main idea? • The climax occurs at the end of the story; what page and what lines present the climax of the story? • Tomorrow in class you will read a short story and write a paragraph telling why the short story for independent practice is classified as a short story. • You may use your short story checklist while writing. Slide Eleven

12. A Thesis Statement May Appear In Expository Writing • A thesis statement, such as “Billy is the fastest runner in the class,” might be a good way to begin an expository paragraph. Some people might disagree with your statement, however, so you have to provide details that prove Billy is the fastest. • An expository composition presents facts, examples, illustrations, descriptions ,and reasons to prove the statement is true. Readers of an expository composition will either accept the thesis statement based upon the proofs presented, or reject the statement as false because the details and proofs are not sufficient to support the thesis statement. OK, is there more? Slide Twelve

13. Writing a paragraph to prove that “Bo’s Adventure” is a short story. The first sentence of the first paragraph in an expository composition is usually, in essence, a thesis statement, such as: “ ‘Bo’s Adventure’ is a short story.” Pre-writing activities should include a checklist of characteristics of short stories. By comparing this checklist of accepted characteristics of short stories with details of “Bo’s Adventure,” the thesis statement can be proven or disproven. Pre-Writing Activities. Review characteristics of short stories using the list below against “Bo’s Adventure” to see if it is a short story or not. Can be read in one or two sittings. Few characters appear in the story. There is a concentrated focus on a single plot. The climax comes at the end. Let’s put all this into a good introductory paragraph now. Slide Thirteen

14. Model Expository Paragraph The story of “Bo’s Adventures” is a short story. It is eleven pages long, and can be read and enjoyed in one class period, or even during dinner if you don’t want to talk to your parents. There are only three characters in “Bo’s Adventure,” and the only plot is how Bo escapes from his kidnapper. The climax is at the end of the story. Slide Fourteen

15. Expository, The Second Paragraph “The main character is a seventh grader named BoBo. He is the good guy. The bad guy is named Joe Rizzo. The story tells how Rizzo kidnapped BoBo , what happened, and how BoBo escaped with the help of a stranger. To find out what happened, you will have to read it right up to the last word. I enjoyed this short story very much.” Slide Fifteen

16. Expository Writing Summary Expository writing surrounds us; though appearing in different forms, it usually falls into one of five categories. To write a description is a good place to begin. Writing a list of items in a sequence may come next. Third, comparison-contrast describes the similarities and differences between two things, and they may be presented AAAA-BBBB, or AB, AB, AB, AB. Finally, there are cause-and-effect and problem-solution expository writing. These are the five main examples of expository writing. Slide Sixteen

17. Expository vs. Argumentative WritingSlide Seventeen Argumentative essays include expository characteristics, but successful argumentative writing exhibits one distinct purpose, viz., to lure the reader away from one set of beliefs and convince the reader to adopt a new set of beliefs to supplant the former. Therein lies the essence of writing called argumentative. The audience is the reader who proclaims different, superior, beliefs.

18. Satire, Another Literary Term • “Identify and describe the characteristics of satire.” • Characteristics of satire: • Satire is a bitter verbal attack that humiliates or portrays as evil or foolish some person or issue that the author is opposed to. • Satire is NOT funny; it is usually political or social. • Satire blends criticism with wit for the purpose of changing someone or something to make it better. • As a rule, satire attacks an institution itself, not a single individual. Slide Eighteen

19. Review of Characteristics of Satire • Bitter • Not meant to be funny • Usually attacks political or social issues • Blends criticism with wit • Purpose is to change some condition • Usually attacks the big picture, not an individual, for example, the government, not the President. Slide nineteen

20. Examples of TV Satire • The Simpsons • South Park • Slide Twenty

21. Irony, Another Literary Term • “Identify characteristics associated with literary works containing irony.” • Irony may surprise you in three ways: • What characters think is true turns out to be false. • What the reader thinks is going to happen does not happen—something unexpected happens. • What a character means by his or her actions is not interpreted that way by other characters. Slide Twenty-One

22. “The Pearls,” An Example of Irony • In this short story, a woman borrowed a string of pearls to wear to a ball. She lost the pearls. Rather than tell the owner of the pearl necklace that it had been lost, the woman made tremendous sacrifices to buy expensive and genuine pearls to replace the lost necklace, only to discover when she gave it to the owner that the pearl necklace she had borrowed and lost were fake pearls of no value to the owner. What the character thought was real turned out to be fake, and she had spent every penny she had. Slide Twenty-Two

23. Poetry Is What Poets Write • A poem is a composition in verse. • It does not have to rhyme, like “Hickory Dickory Dock, The mouse ran up the clock.” • A poem may be long or short. • Poetry is the rhythmic creation of beauty in words. • Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of feelings. Slide Twenty-Three

24. Write A Poem I’m down in the dumps, I fell into a funk, If I don’t learn this English, I’m going to flunk. • Notice that the first word in each line is capitalized. • When you read it aloud, you can feel the rhythm of the lines. Slide Twenty-Four

25. Beat and Rhyme • Not every poem has beat and rhyme, but many of them do. • Pick up your pencil and get ready to write a poem for three minutes about anything at all—school, class, your bus, your grades, your pets, your teacher—anything at all. • Slide Twenty-five

26. Does your poem meet the three criteria? • Is your poem a composition with a beginning, a middle, and an end? • Does it have distinct lines with the first word of each line capitalized? • Pair and share each other’s poems. Talk about the poems, the definitions, and the characteristics. • Get ready now for BALLADS, a kind of poem-story-song. Slide Twenty-Six

27. What is a ballad? • A ballad is always about a catastrophe, a terrible event. • It is rhythmic. • It tells about something in the past. • It tells a story. • It is impersonally presented, like a newspaper story, so that the reader, writer, or singer appears not to be involved. • Let’s look at a ballad. Slide Twenty-Seven

28. The Wreck of School Bus 740by Joe Riggs Slide Twenty-Eight Through the North Carolina country drove the Charlotte school bus. From Alexander School, up toward Cornelius, Sissy Farrington of Mooresville was called to sub the bus, Bus Seven-Forty left that day, for home without a fuss.

29. Second Verse Slide Twenty-Nine It was a Friday afternoon, on May the seventeen, The sun it was a-shining, the countryside was green. The students from the junior high were happy and carefree. They were talking of the dance that night, a dance they’d never see.

30. Third Verse Slide Thirty Many people who knew Sissy, they said she was the best. She studied hard and loved her job; she always passed the test. She said safety was her goal, and kept it on her mind; It would seem a better driver would be very hard to find.

31. Fourth Verse Slide Thirty-One When the bus came to the track that day, on board there were sixteen. Going west on Bailey road, coming up on One-Fifteen, The track was clear, no train in sight, and Seven-Forty rolled, A moment later came the crash, the story has been told.

32. Fifth Verse Slide Thirty-Two Sissy pulled into Route One-Fifteen, no danger did she see. A tractor dump-truck crushed the bus against a sad oak tree. Three seventh-graders died at once, the other twelve hurt bad; The people never saw a scene so terrible, so sad.

33. Sixth Verse Slide Thirty-Three It was the worst disaster that the people ever saw. The parents, TV, medics came, the school and the law. The papers wrote the story; we saw it on TV, Joey, Jeanne, and Leslie, gone forever are the three.

34. Seventh Verse Slide Thirty-Four So parents, teachers, drivers, come close and hear me sing. You never know from morn to night just what the day may bring. Our children are on loan to us, each moment we may fall. So love each other while you can, before the Master’s call.

35. What makes this a ballad? Does it tell a story? Is it rhythmic? Is it history? Is it catastrophic? Is it presented like a newspaper story? Slide Thirty-Five

36. You Have To Hear The Beats Before You Write Poetry With Meter • Before you can write poetry with meter, we have to be sure what a syllable is and how to count them. Slide Thirty-Six • Once you have mastered syllables and know how to count them, you can generate poetry with meter. • Syllables are the separated parts of words that you see when you look up a word in a dictionary. Let’s look at some examples.

37. How many syllables? • Word-1 • Number-2 • Syllables-3 • Dictionary-4 • How many syllables are in the name of your school? • How many syllables are in your first and last names? Slide Thirty-Seven

38. Finding Particular Syllables The air was a little colder in our city then. What is the fourth syllable in the sentence? Report card grades are very important. What is the tenth syllable in the sentence? Today is Friday, April seventh. What number is the syllable SEV in seventh? After football practice, everyone was tired. What number is the syllable TIRED? Slide Thirty-Eight

39. Let’s Write Some Poetry With Meter! • There was a teacher from Spain, (7) • Who always liked to complain. (7) • She gave us a test, (5) • And said, “Do your best,” (5) • Then promptly she went insane. (7) • The meter map for this poem is 7,7,5,5,7. • Now let’s look at the rhyme scheme. • Slide Thirty-Nine

40. Which lines rhyme? • There was a teacher from Spain, (A) • Who always liked to complain. (A) • She gave us a test, (B) • And said, “Do your best,” (B) • Then promptly she went insane. (A) • The rhyme scheme is AABBA. • Now you know how to construct a simple poem and how to describe both the meter and the rhyme scheme. It’s your turn to write a poem! Slide Forty

41. A List Of Some Archetypal CharactersSlide Forty-One • The Child • The Hero • The Great Mother • The Wise Old Man or Wise Old Woman • The Trickster or Fox • The Devil or Satan • The Mentor • The One Who Has A Rebirth • Why are these important?

42. Importance Of Archetypal CharactersSlide Forty-Two • Knowledge of these generic character types allows someone to describe a certain piece of literature with respect to character development. • For example, most TV shows and movies have a good guy (like The Hero) and a bad guy (like The Devil, Satan, or The Trickster). • Good guys are generally called Protagonists. Bad guys can be called Antagonists. What about themes that occur over and over in literature?

43. Themes of LiteratureSlide Forty-Three • Maturation, also called Coming of Age, depicts the period of adolescence, when the child comes of age by having to make some adult-like decisions usually regarding right and wrong, or good and evil. • Compare your personal experiences to the author’s meaning and the events in a given piece of literature to show how emotions and experiences are shared by many people across many cultures and historical times.

44. The Author’s MeaningSlide Forty-Four • Create an artistic, dramatic, or written product that hypothesizes or describes the author’s meaning in a given piece of literature. The product can be role-playing, a letter, or a visual piece of art work. Think of movie posters, movie reviews, book covers, and previews, or trailers. • What else do we need to know about literature?

45. The SettingSlide Forty-Five • Setting, when it refers to literature, movies, and plays, refers to the time and place of the literary work. For example, the setting could be New York City in 1929 when the stock market crashed. This is important because it helps the audience understand what was going on in that period leading to the Great Depression. What is the setting in Little Red Riding Hood?

46. Little Red Riding Hood DescriptorsSlide Forty • Setting: A long time ago, in a big forest. • Archetypal characters: The Devil, big bad wolf, the bad guy, who wants to catch and eat the little girl. The Child, who is the intended victim, who cannot defend herself against the Wolf. The Hero, who arrives in time to save The Child.

47. How Does The Setting Affect The Plot? Slide Forty-Seven • It is important that every student know the plot (or meaning) of the piece of literature being studied. • This is handily done by walking through some familiar pieces of literature and modeling for the class different ways the setting might affect the plot. • Setting With Local Color comes up next.

48. Setting With Local ColorSlide Forty-Eight • Local Color is a term that describes using regional detail to add interest to a narrative story. Local color is generally not crucial to the plot or understanding the motivation of the characters. • Local Color is concerned with the quaint, agreeably curious, strange or unusual, in a kind of picturesque way, and may be called “decoration” for the story. Check out the example on the next slide.

49. Local Color Example In SpeechSlide Forty-Nine • “Now, the key to this ear part about how the local folk talk is ratcheer. Alls ya’ll have to do hyah is to whip a few examples on the class an’ ney can catch on purdy quick what is it, this here thing called local color.” • Besides the language, local color also includes such events as Pageland’s Watermelon Festival, Spivey Corner’s Hollerin’ Contest, Old Time Fiddlers’ Conventions, The Ramp Festival, Rock Hill’s Come See Me Festival, and the famous Pumpkin Rolling Contest around Halloween up in the high country. Tractor Pulls and Nascar Racing are also popular, as well as bass and catfish tournaments .

50. Drama: Should I save it for my Mama? • A drama is a play. It is performed with actors on a stage. • It is performed in front of an audience who are present in person at the performance. • What are three characteristics of drama? • Slide Fifty