Lessons+for+Glee

=__**Lesson 1**__=
 * __Learning Objectives:__**
 * LA.1112.2.1.1 Benchmark Description: The student will analyze and compare historically and culturally significant works of literature, identifying the relationships among the major genres (e.g., poetry, fiction, nonfiction, short story, dramatic literature, essay) and the literary devices unique to each, and analyze how they support and enhance the theme and main ideas of the text;


 * LA.1112.2.1.4 Benchmark Description: The student will analyze the way in which the theme or meaning of a selection represents a view or comment on life, providing textual evidence for the identified theme;


 * LA.1112.2.1.5 Benchmark Description: The student will analyze and discuss characteristics of subgenres (e.g., satire, parody, allegory) that overlap or cut across the lines of genre classifications such as poetry, novel, drama, short story, essay or editorial;

Note: While these standards fall under the category of “Literary Analysis” rather than “Media Literacy” according to the Sunshine State Standards, these objectives can be applied to analyzing media. Thus, these objectives are extended to include a variety of media genres for the purpose of these lessons.


 * Students will also be able to identify major plots and subplots within a narrative.


 * Students will be able to explain how music contributes to the plot of a musical narrative and explain how music develops a theme.

While most of the narrative structures students will have examined in studying novels, short stories, and media like movies or short films, studying TV provides an opportunity to examine open narrative structures. Thus, for overt instruction, students will learn about terms such as dangling causes, open narratives, and major/minor story arcs. These concepts are important for considering the open narrative structure in the TV musical //Glee//.
 * __Brief description:__**

To begin the lesson, the teacher will ask that students get into groups to brainstorm the differences in the storylines they see on TV and those that they see in movies so that they can attend to what they already know about these types of story structures (spontaneous understandings). Before watching an episode of //Glee//, the teacher will provide simple definitions for the terms dangling cause, open narrative, and major/minor story arcs (conceptual understandings, metalanguage). To introduce story arcs, she will draw a diagram on the board of major and minor arcs as she reminds students that they will be plotting the story arcs of the //Glee// episode.

For situated practice, students will try to examine these concepts in the context of //Glee//. During the show, they are to jot notes about dangling causes, the plotlines, and the overall narrative structure. Additionally, they are to take note of any themes that they notice (one can assume that students are familiar with identifying themes).

After watching the program, students will break into groups and will be given a piece of butcher paper. Their groups will map out the major and minor story arcs, make a list of dangling causes, and attempt to apply Freytag’s triangle. The purpose of this activity is for students to attempt to represent how //Glee// tells a story within the episode and to identify portions of the show that will probably be addressed in future episodes. When they present their butcher paper to the class, they will attempt to answer one major question: How does the viewer know the difference between major and minor story arcs within a plot? Why is this important to a TV viewer?

For critical framing, the teacher will parlay student’s presentations into a large group discussion about the nature of open narratives in relation to the genre of TV series. Why might stories on TV be structured in such a way?

Finally, the class will briefly delve more specifically into the genre of musicals. With students, she will brainstorm a list of themes examined in the show (students took notes on themes during the show). Next, the teacher will ask students to recall the music that they heard during the course of the program (the music is particularly easy to remember for this musical because the songs are songs from pop culture). Thus, she will generate a second list on the board. To wrap-up class, she will ask that students free-write about connections that they notice between the music of the show and either the themes or the plotlines they examined. For homework, they will do some further research about musicals by watching another episode of //Glee// from Fox.com, watching a musical on DVD, or recalling a musical with which they are familiar. They are to do any appropriate research that will help them answer the following question: How does music function to develop a plotline or a theme in a musical?