Analyzing Elements of Drama, Poetry and Characters using the Tony Award Winning Musical In the Heights Building

Background Knowledge (week one): Immigration to New York City, Geography of New York City, Types of Dramatic Writing, Musical Theater April 16, 2012 May 18, 2012 Fifth Grade English/Language Arts Note: From April 24th 27th we will be learning and reading about the Holocaust. I worked with the Baltimore Jewish Council to secure a Holocaust survivor to speak to our 5th and 8th graders. The only day the survivor, Mrs. Edith Cord, was available was April 27th. Due to this, we will be dedicating April 24th 27th to this topic. The connection between immigration and the Holocaust will be made as another period of time when immigration patterns to New York changed due to wars abroad. Rationale Historically, after the Maryland State Assessment, English/Language Arts instruction for fifth graders at Patterson Park has focused on poetry and drama. For poetry, my co-teacher presented a project idea that she had done the previous year an individual poetry book for each student. With poetry covered, I was (gratefully) left with the task of covering drama. For me, this was an exciting and challenging topic. Exciting because I am a huge fan of Shakespeare, theater and musical theater, and challenging, because I would need to be selective in identify just a few areas to cover in three weeks. Trying to identify a handful of aspects of drama was challenging, so I first consulted with the Maryland State Standards for guidance. Upon first glance, I identified more than a dozen applicable learning objectives in the areas of General Reading Processes, Comprehension of Literary Text, Writing and Language. These objectives include skills such as acquiring new vocabulary, analyzing elements of drama, understanding use and selection of language, reading critically to evaluate, identifying character traits, and describing relationships between characters. Before settling down with In the Heights, (and, admittingly even a few times since), I toyed with the idea of doing a unit on Shakespeare and short plays by Tennessee Williams. During a planning brainstorm with my co-teacher, I said as I listen to my favorite musical on my ride to work, I just wish I could use it to teach our students. The following three words made my day, why dont you, she said. It was that small bit of encouragement that I needed to blend together my own interest and the learning needs of our students. As I listen to the words of the script and the songs used in In The Heights, I cannot help but myself analyze the characters, marvel at the clever use of language and rap, and relate to the overarching themes of triumph, struggle, community, and hope. All of these themes are set to the backdrop of a tight-knit Latino community in Washington Heights in New York City. I believe that the themes, characters, use of language and music will entice our students to learn about different genres of drama. Many, if not most of our students have not been exposed to theater that depicts our country as we know it today a melting pot of cultures or that uses colloquial language and modern-style music

(a combination of rap and salsa) to tell a story. Some of the overarching themes in the musical are: chasing your dreams and finding what it means to have a home. Students will work on literary analysis skills such as analyzing the script and lyrics to determine what a character says about themselves, what other characters say about them, and how the characters are connected. Students will be continuously asked to make text-to-self and text-to-world connections based on the themes and struggles of the characters. We will work on distinguishing between the characters use of figurative versus literal language to describe themselves and their surroundings. Unit Outline Week One Building Background Knowledge (Immigration, Geography of New York City, Elements of Drama, Monologues) Week Two Act One (characters, character traits) Week Three Act Two (how characters have changed) Essential/Guiding Questions: How can theater be used to tell the story of a community? Are songs valid forms of self-expression? How have changes in immigration changed the culture of our nation? Summative assessments: Students will be creating their own Playbill using a template. Our Playbills will have three sections, highlighting our main areas of focus: o Immigration & Culture o The Holocaust o In The Heights Students will have the opportunity to self-select 5 pieces of work are compiled into their Playbills from the work we have completed over the course of the four weeks. Required new pieces of work will be: o A character analysis including character traits, behaviors and summary. o A song analysis including summarizing the main ideas, noting specific use of language and describing the significance of the song to the show. o An evaluation of In the Heights evaluating the overall lyrics, messages, themes and characters. A rubric will be created to ensure that content quality and grammar are adhered to. Students will be using laptops to input their writing from their hand-written rough drafts into the electronic template. We will print our Playbills and present to each other, creating a rubric for students to evaluate each others work as well.