Agenda Speak: What should you be looking for? Finish movie Class discussion: Thoughts on Speak?

1. Agenda • Speak: What should you be looking for? • Finish movie • Class discussion: Thoughts on Speak? • Categorize characters based on gender roles • Group discussion • Writing prompt

2. Example: Andy Evans What is your opinion on Andy so far? How is he portrayed? -Tough? -Sensitive? So far, does he fit the male stereotype we’ve looked at in the media? What should you be looking for?

3. Did you enjoy the film? Are you happy with the ending? How would you characterize Melinda in her flashbacks? At the beginning of the film? At the end? Class discussion

4. Do you think Melinda’s lack of speech is an exaggeration of what could happen to someone in her situation? Do you think her lack of speech was effective in conveying her pain/internal struggle? Does Melinda fit the gender role stereotype? Class discussion

5. 2 charts: male characters females characters Categorize Characters by gender roles

6. We have spent considerable time and effort exploring gender stereotypes that exist in various forms of media that affect both women and men. The film Speak is a media object that both affirms and confronts common gender stereotypes. In a well-developed response, discuss one gender stereotype that the film Speak affirms or presents, and one gender stereotype that the film Speak challenges or explodes. Writing prompt

7. rubric

8. The film Speak is a media object that both affirms and confronts common stereotypes. Most of the teen aged female characters feed the stereotype of freshman aged high school girls being dippy, obsessed with boys and popularity. Heather, a new student who starts attending school with Melinda (the protagonist) is a prime example of this. On the other hand, Melinda lives in a home where her parents both explode stereotypical parental roles (nurture, domestic work, providing for the family). I will discuss how the film’s portrayal of these characters continue and interrupt gender stereotypes. Heather is stereotypical in appearance: she’s blonde, tall, thin, wears brightly coloured, accessorized outfits and speaks using lots of “likes.” Her immediate priority upon arriving at school is to figure out who is popular, and how to get in with the right crowd. All her efforts (classes, joining clubs) revolve around building her reputation. This has a dark side too. Heather is quick to abandon Melinda when maintaining a friendship with her makes it difficult to increase her popularity. Heather tries to smooth things over without apologizing by offering Melinda a “second chance” in a desperate attempt to save face with her new crowd. All of these things show how Speak portrays many teen girls as clique-ish, driven by popularity and appearance, stereotypes that are common in the media. sample

9. In contrast, Melinda’s parents are the opposite of what the media tells us parents are. Dads are money earning but emotionally stunted, chore avoiding doofuses. Moms are emotional therapists who are chefs and always available to their families. In Speak, Melinda’s mother is the primary earner financially. She is a manager at a store, and is constantly absorbed with work issues. She is a terrible cook, and while she cares about Melinda, she is very awkward in her ability to connect with a teenage daughter. Melinda’s Dad is handy and good at cooking and keeping house, and while he’s not great with words, he has a far greater “feel” for Melinda as a person and is able to connect through moments where he spends time with her rather than talking. He’s also out of work. By looking at these ideas, we can see how Speakturns gender stereotypes about parenting roles inside out. While the media is often guilty in showing society narrow and problematic pictures of what male and females “are,” sometimes it also opens a window that helps us see how men and women are more than common expectations. Where Heather, Melinda’s schoolmate, embodies all the negative qualities of snotty, selfish, popularity obsessed teen girls, Melinda’s parents reveal that social norms are not universal, and that both men and women are able to fill roles outside of the usual. As a media object, Speak provides us with good food for thought about what we do and don’t accept about what it means to be a man or woman. Sample continued

10. Theme: A central message or idea – there can be multiple themes. - a moral or life lesson - strategy: consider title Theme

11. How to figure out the theme

12. What is the theme of Speak? theme

13. Silence has a place and a purpose, but sometimes speaking is necessary (standing up for yourself) theme

14. Motif: a recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story - Through repetition, a motif can help produce other literary aspects such as theme or mood Ask yourself: What word/phrase image or object repeats throughout the movie? motif

15. In your IRP journal, you will be asked to do the following with the passages given: Step 1: Annotate-add notes and comments to any part of the passage which you consider meaningful and want to keep track of Step 2: Illustrate-what would this scene look like? Consider details given, the mood, colors, what the deeper meaning is Step 3: Reflect -Why did you illustrate the passage this way? What meaning does this passage hold? How is it contributing to the development of the story and/or Melinda? Passages: what do i do?

16. The back wall has built-in shelves filled with dusty textbooks and a few bottles of bleach. A stained armchair and an old fashioned desk peek from behind a collection of mops and brooms. A cracked mirror tilts over a sink littered with dead roaches crocheted together with cobwebs. The taps are so rusted they don't turn. No janitor has chilled in this closet for a very long time. They have a new lounge and supply room by the loading dock. All the girls avoid it because of the way they stare and whistle softly when we walk by. This closet is abandoned— it has no purpose, no name. It is the perfect place for me. (26) Marking term 1: first Passage (annotate)

17. Marking term 1: first Passage (illustrate & reflect) The abandoned janitor closet reveals a lot about how Melinda views herself. The closet “has no purpose, no name” and for this reason Melinda thinks “It is the perfect place for me”. This shows Melinda feels like she is not important and no one would care about what she has to say, which is that she was raped. The dusty textbooks on the shelf represent knowledge that is locked away, like Melinda’s voice and the truth of what happened to her. The closet is also full of death as shown with the dead roaches and the poison (bleach) which illustrates that she also feels dead inside and this is where she belongs. The broken mirror represents a distorted image of the person Melinda once was so I drew her looking at her altered reflection, showing she does not recognize herself anymore. I chose for the closet to be dark because it represents Melinda and she is at an unhappy/dark place in her life. The light shining from the top of the photo shows that the closet is where she feels safe.

18. For a solid week, ever since the pep rally, I've been painting watercolors of trees that have been hit by lightning. I try to paint them so they are nearly dead, but not totally. Mr. Freeman doesn't say a word to me about them. He just raises his eyebrows. One picture is so dark you can barely see the tree at all. (31) Marking term 1: second passage

19. Questions to get you started: -What happened to Melinda at the pep rally? -What is watercolor? -What can we assume about the trees appearance? -How is Melinda’s painting connected to how she feels? Marking term 1: second passage

20. My illustration: marking period 1 passage 2

21. Rubric (analysis)

22. Rubric (illustration)

23. Break down of marks Analysis:Marking Period 2 /5 Marking Period 3 /5 Marking Period 4 /5 Total:_______________/15 Illustration:Marking Period 2 /5 Marking Period 3 /5 Marking Period 4 /5 Total:_______________/15

24. Applesmell soaks the air. One time when I was little, my parents took me to an orchard. Daddy set me high in an apple tree. It was like falling up into a storybook, yummy and red and leaf and the branch not shaking a bit. Bees bumbled through the air, so stuffed with apple they couldn't be bothered to sting me. The sun warmed my hair, and a wind pushed my mother into my father's arms, and all the apple-picking parents and children smiled for a long, long minute. That's how biology class smells. I bite my apple. White teeth red apple hard juice deep bite. David sputters. David: "You're not supposed to do that! She'll kill you! You're supposed to cut it! Didn't you even listen? You'll lose points!"Clearly, David missed the apple-tree-sitting requirement of childhood.I cut the rest of my apple into four fat pieces. My apple has twelve seeds. One of the seeds has split its shell and reaches a white hand upward. An apple tree growing from an apple seed growing in an apple. I show the little plantseed to Ms. Keen. She gives me extra credit. David rolls his eyes. Biology is so cool. (66) Marking period 2: passage 1

25. I wish Mr. Freeman would put a tree in his masterpiece. I can't figure out how to make mine look real. I have already ruined six linoleum blocks. I can see it in my head: a strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching to the sun. There's a tree in front of my house just like it. I can feel the wind blow and hear the mockingbird whistling on the way back to her nest. But when I try to carve it, it looks like a dead tree, toothpicks, a child's drawing. I can't bring it to life. I'd love to give it up. (78) Marking period 2: passage 2

26. A fat white seed sleeps in the sky. Slush is frozen over. People say that winter lasts forever, but it's because they obsess over the thermometer. North in the mountains, the maple syrup is trickling. Brave geese punch through the thin ice left on the lake. Underground, pale seeds roll over in their sleep. Starting to get restless. Starting to dream green. (133) Marking period 3: passage 1

27. The next chapter steals my breath away. It takes me out of the room. It confuses me, while one little part of my brain jumps up and down screaming, "I get it! I get it!" Cubism. Seeing beyond what is on the surface. Moving both eyes and a nose to the side of the face. Dicing bodies and tables and guitars as if they were celery sticks, and rearranging them so that you have to really see them to see them. Amazing. What did the world look like to him? I wish he had gone to high school at Merryweather. I bet we could have hung out. I search the whole book and never see one picture of a tree. Maybe Picasso couldn't do trees either. Why did I get stuck with such a lame idea? I sketch a Cubist tree with hundreds of skinny rectangles for branches. They look like lockers, boxes, glass shards, lips with triangle brown leaves. I drop the sketch on Mr. Freeman's desk. "Now you're getting somewhere," he says. He gives me a thumbs-up. (119) Marking period 3: passage 2

28. Cubism: the reduction of natural forms to their geometrical equivalents (shapes) -Famous artist: Picasso "Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face or what's behind it?" cubism

29. Marking Period 4 = last passages. You should have all 4 marking periods completed by the end of today’s class (Friday at the very latest but no class time) Your tree illustrations should reflect Melinda’s transformation. They should all look different and consider the mood, season, language, style, and your interpretation. (Example: no bright tree full of leaves and life when description says “half dead”) Your reflections should not only summarize, but you should also be analysing (go beyond what the words on the page tell you. How does it reflect on Melinda? What is the meaning? Your annotations should help with this.) Done early? Check again! Go through the rubric, self assess. Not sure? Ask me.  Things to think about

30. Marking period 4: passage 1 (context)

31. I put on old jeans and unearth a rake from the back of the garage. I start on the leaves suffocating the bushes. I bet Dad hasn't cleaned them out for years. They look harmless and dry on top, but under that top layer they're wet and slimy. White mold snakes from one leaf to the next. The leaves stick together like floppy pages in a decomposing book. I rake a mountain into the front yard and there are still more, like the earth pukes up leaf gunk when I'm not looking. I have to fight the bushes. They snag the tines of the rake and hold them—they don't like me cleaning out all that rot. It takes an hour. Finally, the rake scrapes its metal fingernails along damp brown dirt. I get down on my knees to reach behind and drag out the last leaves. Ms. Keen would be proud of me. I observe. Worms caught in the sun squirm for cover. Pale green shoots of something alive have been struggling under the leaves. As I watch, they straighten to face the sun. I swear I can see them grow. (166) Marking period 4: passage 1

32. My tree is definitely breathing; little shallow breaths like it just shot up through the ground this morning. This one is not perfectly symmetrical. The bark is rough. I try to make it look as if initials had been carved in it a long time ago. One of the lower branches is sick. If this tree really lives someplace, that branch better drop soon, so it doesn't kill the whole thing. Roots knob out of the ground and the crown reaches for the sun, tall and healthy. The new growth is the best part. Lilac flows through the open windows with a few lazy bees. I carve and Mr. Freeman mixes orange and red to get the right shade of sunrise. Tires squeal out of the parking lot, another sober student farewell. I'm staring summer school in the face, so there's no real hurry. But I want to finish this tree. (296) Marking period 4: passage 2

33. MLA = Modern Language Association You will be asked to write many papers in MLA format for the rest of your academic studies Take notes! Learning now can only help you be more prepared for the future. MLA style

34. Mla style – getting started (layout) No separate title page Last name before page number of each page in top right hand corner First page - Top left hand corner:Your NameTeacher’s NameClassDate the assignment is due/handed in Title (centered) = no bold/italics/underline Introduction Body Conclusion

35. Always double space Indent each new paragraph (for any paper) If typing on computer, usually the font is 12pt Times New Roman (unless otherwise stated) Don’t forget a Works Cited page to show where your quotes and/or information came from Mla style – other information

36. Example: Short Quote Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263). According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree. An improvement was the development of boats, which allowed farmers to “sell to new places” and resulted in a “substantial increase in a farmer’s ability to earn income” (Darren 76). He creates a framework for the rest of his book as he offers his readers stories of his own trials and errors: “When I first became a farmer, I tried to do everything by myself but I realized it wasn’t possible” (Darren 5). Mla style - quotes

37. Example: Long Quote: By the end of the novel, Melinda is starting to move past what happened to her at the party. Although everything is not resolved, she is stronger than the beginning and she is learning to stand up for herself. Melinda’s transformation is demonstrated in her final art project depicting the tree: My tree is definitely breathing; little shallow breaths like it just shot up through the ground this morning. This one is not perfectly symmetrical. The bark is rough. I try to make it look as if initials had been carved in it a long time ago. One of the lower branches is sick. If this tree really lives someplace, that branch better drop soon, so it doesn't kill the whole thing. Roots knob out of the ground and the crown reaches for the sun, tall and healthy. The new growth is the best part. (Anderson 296) Mla style - quotes

38. Mla style - works cited At the end of your paper, on a new page AlphabeticalWorks Cited (centered)Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication. For Speak:Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1999. Print.

39. In this unit, we have explored the concept of motif- a literary device where an author uses a symbol or object on a recurring basis. In Laurie Halse Andersen’s Speak, a prominent motif is the tree. It wears several hats- Melinda’s year long art project, a part of the setting (landscaping in front of her house, an item in the background of the scene when Melinda is raped, etc). No matter how it appears, the tree is unquestionably linked to Melinda and her transformation/journey as a character throughout the novel. In your response, explain how learning about the tree as a motif in Speak impacted your understanding and appreciation of Melinda and her internal conflict as protagonist of this novel. Final reflection

40. rubric