8_5

Dramatically Speaking
 * This four-week unit of eighth grade continues an examination of the arts, focusing on the dramatic performance of plays, speeches, and poems. **

In this unit, students read plays such as //Sorry, Wrong Number// and compare them to a Shakespeare play or a film with similar themes. They read and listen to famous speeches by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Barbara Jordan. They read and perform poetry by Nikki Giovanni, Pablo Neruda, and T. S. Eliot. While exploring the different genres, students analyze lines of dialogue, scenes, or words that are critical to the development of the story or message. They analyze how the use of flashback can create a sense of suspense in the reader/listener. They pay special attention to diction, and how connotation may be enhanced through tone and inflection. Students must also choose a genre that they prefer and defend that choice, strengthening their skills at writing arguments. Finally, this unit ends with an informative/explanatory essay in response to the essential question: How is reading a speech, poem, or a script for a play different from performing it?

Essential Question: How is reading a speech, poem, or a script for a play different from performing it? Language Arts ||=  ||=   ||= Week 1 ||= Week 2 ||= Week 3 ||= Week 4 || Matrix ||=  ||= Week 1 ||= Week 2 ||= Week 3 ||= Week 4 || Home K-2 ||= Home 3-6 ||= Home 6-8 ||= Unit 1 ||= Unit 2 ||= Unit 3 ||= Unit 4 ||
 * = English
 * = Math ||= [[image:commoncorepcssd6/Actions-insert-table-icon.png link="@http://inst.pcssd.org/math/CCSS/8/Math8TeachingMatrix.xls"]]
 * = [[image:commoncorepcssd6/PCSSDlogo.JPG link="commoncorepcssd/PCSSD"]]