S+Hersom,+Abigail

**Office:** Room 316 **Office Phone:** 207-xxx-xxxx **Office Hours:** WF 12-3pm ** E-mail: ** abby.hersom@maine.edu
 * Teacher:** Ms. Hersom

=Summary of Unit= In this unit students will learn the importance of voice in both speaking and writing and start exploring how to develop their own voices. By the end of the unit they will understand that each piece of writing or speech has its own unique voice and that that this voice serves a purpose. Students will learn to create voice through use of word choice, points of emphasis, and tone as well as understand how a person’s background, culture, biases, and beliefs effect their voices development. Students will be asked to consider how these specific words and tones shape a person’s voice as well as this idea of narrator reliability due to personal biases and backgrounds. They will also explore the skills of public speaking and how the stance, dress, voice tone, and hand motions can emphasize or distract from the speaker’s unique voice. By the end of the unit students will know the basic terms associated with voice and public speaking and understand the importance of looking at a speaker’s background or the time period of a piece. They will also have a better understanding on how voice is created and how to enhance this voice using public speaking. Students will be able to describe how voice contributes to a piece and how it can be enhanced by tone and stage presence as well as word choice, emphasis, and tone. They will be able to read or listen to pieces and pick out the tools that the writer/speaker uses to help develop their voice. They will consider backgrounds and biases when looking at pieces of writing and speech and will have a better understanding of their own potential biases and their affect on their unique voice. This unit will be a good introduction to the concept of voice.

=Establish Goals= Common Core State Standards Content Area: English Language Arts Grade Level: Grade 11-12 Domain: Speaking and Listening Standard: Comprehension and Collaboration

=Students will understand that= •each piece of writing or speech has its own unique voice and that this voice has a purpose •writers and speakers create voice through word choice, points of emphasis, and tone •the background, culture, and biases of the speaker create their unique voice

=Essential Questions= •Why are those specific words/tones used to create this individual speaker's voice? •How does the speaker's voice, stance, hand motions, and dress add to and/or create this unique voice? •How does the speaker's background, point of view, and personal beliefs affect their voice as well as their reliability?

=Students will know= •Terminology: voice, tone, bias, audience, perspective, satire, spoken word poetry, persuasive speech •Critical Details: how to create voice, how to public speak, how to enhance voice through performance skills •Key factual information: time period of the piece, the speaker's background, intended audience

=Students will be able to= •describe how voice contributes to a piece •evaluate how the tone as well as the speaker's stage presence emphasize their voice •use word choice, emphasis, and tone to create their own voice •analyze a speaker's word choice and reflect on how this creates the speaker's voice •consider how the speaker's background and beliefs affect their voice •recognize their own backgrounds and biases and how this may affect their own voice

**Performance Task Overview** Have you ever felt like people do not understand you or that no one will listen? Ever wonder if the adults in your life even remember how difficult it was to be your age? What if you could both express your opinions as well as find out what your parents, guardians, and other family members were thinking when they were your age? Ancestry.com is having a competition to see who can develop a new feature for their website that would allow people to actually get to know they ancestors on a more personal level. They are looking for a voice time capsule feature. This feature would combine papers, stories, letters, poems, etc into a video file that allows people to read and see the actual artifacts and thoughts of their ancestors. They would also like the actual voices of these people to be added to the video so that families can have a more personal and realistic experience. The idea is for individuals to really discover who their family members were. They would also like to give people an option to put a time capsule lock on their video to allow privacy until they want these thoughts to be made public (perhaps not until after they are dead). Your job is to make this dream a reality. Your entry should be a multimedia presentation that captures you as an individual using voice alone. They are asking that you use mybrainshark.com because it allows text as well as pictures and audio to be compiled into one compact file. The video with best portrayal of voice will be selected and the winner will be sent on a two week vacation to the country of their origin.

=Expectations=
 * Absent/Late Policy:** Students are responsible for the actual amount that they learn in this class. There is a lot of information and activities that will be done in each class and students are required to attend class. However, we all know that life happens and if it is necessary for you to miss class just let me know. I am more than willing to give extensions or catch you up as long as you communicate with me. If you do miss a class you will be able to look at the wiki to see what you missed, but you should also shoot me an email to make sure that we did not deviate from the proposed lesson for that day. Also, it is required for students to be in class on time because the arrival of late students is distracting. That being said being late is better than not showing up at all so please take that into account.
 * Assignment Expectations:** It is expected that work be turned in on the assigned due date unless you have come and talked to me (well in advance or in extreme circumstances such as illness or family crisis). All work should fit the desired format specified in the assignment and attention to detail is key. I expect that any assigned homework or projects be carefully proofread before being submitted because you do not want to be marked down for careless errors and I do not want to waste my feedback on petty errors but rather spend my time giving helpful feedback. On major assignments I will have multiple nongraded drafts due that allow for peer and teacher feedback. I am willing to discuss your assignments with you before they are due to offer feedback and help as well as after a piece is graded to clarify and explain the reasons for a grade.
 * Classroom Expectations:** Students are expected to be respectful in class. I know that people will not always agree with one another or go about things in the same way, but we should be able to compromise and work together as well as respect those around us. We should treat others with the same respect that we expect them to show us. All of the rules in the school handbook will be enforced in this class and students will be expected to participate in the class.
 * Plagiarism:** Plagiarism is absolutely unacceptable. It is not hard to give credit where credit is due and if you need help with this come see me because I have resources on how to cite any source you may be using. If I find out that a piece has been plagiarized that piece will be given a zero and a meeting will be set up with administration to talk about other possible consequences. See your school handbook for more information on the school policy.

=Benchmarks 900 Point Scale= •**Blog: (50)** Students will watch Sarah Kay's //A Love Letter// and Rudy Fransisco's love poem and then write a blog response comparing and contrasting the two different speeches and address how these could be so different when they are on the same subject. They will look to see if they can identify any techniques that are used and how these made an impact or distinguished one poem from the other. The blog should address questions regarding each authors individual voice as well as what the student thinks voice is. After these blogs are written we will have a class discussion where the students will be given actual terms associated with voice and we will have a class discussion over what different people wrote. The blogs will then be edited to more accurately reflect what voice is. •**Vlog: (100)** Students will watch two speeches: the failed response of Miss South Carolina and the powerful speech given to the US hockey team as depicted in the movie Miracle. They will then be asked to sit down and brainstorm about what creates good public speaking. Why was the //Miracle// speech so powerful while Miss South Carolina's was not? Does the person know what they are talking about? How does stance, appearance, hand motions, movement, tone, and emphasis affect the power of the speech itself. They will then be split up into teams and asked to create an educational vlog teaching online viewers the importance of tone and stage presence during public speaking. Students will need to address both negative and positive ways of public speaking to show their full comprehension of the skills. •**Radio Interview: (150)** After watching the interview of J.K. Rowling, students will be asked to work in pairs to create their own interview. They must pick and research a writer or public speaker who interests them and use this information to create a mock radio interview. Throughout this process of collecting information students will be asked to keep a project notebook that contains all of their sources, possible questions, information, and ideas. This notebook will be checked regularly by me to make sure that students are on track. When the research is finished students will start the actual interview process. They must ask questions to learn more about the writer or speaker's background and beliefs and how these come together to affect their writing or speaking. They will need to record their interview and then publish it as a podcast. •**Podcast: (50)** Students will listen to Sarah Kay's spoken word poem "Point B." They will discuss the different techniques that she uses and then think about ways in which they can convey a topic of their choosing in the form of a spoken word poem. They will then be asked to write their own spoken word poem and publish it as a podcast. •**Autobiographical iMovie: (200)** Students will be asked to create an autobiographical iMovie that uses visuals, audio, music, and text that reflect their background, beliefs, and who they are as an individual. This iMovie will need to be between 2-5 minutes. •**Speech/Podcast (250):** Students will be asked to research and write a speech and then record it as a podcast as well as perform it for the class, using the public speaking tools they have learned.

=Grading Scale=
 * A** (93 -100), **A-** (90 - 92), **B+** (87 - 89), **B** (83 - 86), **B-** (80 - 82), **C+**(77 - 79), **C** (73-76), **C-** (70 - 72), **D+**(67 - 69), **D** (63 - 66), **D-** (60 - 62), **F** (0 - 59).