Students will learn language art skills through the medium of performance. We will watch, listen to, read, and discuss important plays, movies, poetry, speeches, paintings, and songs. The students will understand the power of the arts as we focus on the ideas they bring to our culture today. Basic logic and faulty thinking will be touched on, but the emphasis will be on arguing a viewpoint based on the evidence found in the material.

I have formulated a list from which I will pull from. It is not a race to go through the material, but rather a deep dive. We may not complete the list, but we will get a sampling of some of the most powerful performance art.

We will cover vocabulary, spelling, and reading comprehension while promoting active reading and listening. One goal of this class is to understand that literature is more than big, old, stuffy books. It is a powerful tool to create empathy, understanding, and possibly even change.

Language arts through performance will provide the stimulus for critical thinking, argumentation, as well as analysis of methods of writing. We will focus on the six traits of exceptional writing (ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, mechanics) as we uncover the secrets found within the material.

All language arts skills will be challenged and enhanced through classroom discussions.

Required: One presentation each semester by the student highlighting something that they feel adds to the literary canon.

We will pull material from the following plays, movies, poetry, speeches, paintings, and songs:

   1.         Selected readings of the KJV of the Bible

   2.         Excerpts from Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Macbeth by Shakespeare

   3.         Dear Evan Hanson (PLAY) - *if I can find it; if not then the movie version which is rated PG-13

   4.         Turning Red (MOVIE) - rated PG

   5.         Jaws – (MOVIE) rated a strong PG

   6.         To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (MOVIE) rated PG

   7.         Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back (MOVIE) rated PG

   8.         The Life of Pi - (MOVIE) rated PG

   9.         Passing by Nella Larsen (audio book)

10.         “The Bet” by Anton Chekov

11.         “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

12.          “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift

13.         Poetry selections from “Out of the Dust”

14.         Poetry from Langton Hughes and Walt Whitman

15.         Poetry from Edgar Alan Poe and Emily Dickinson

16.         Frederick Douglass’ “The Fourth of July” speech

17.         MLK’s “I Have a Dream” and “The Mountaintop” speeches

18.         Analyzing selected songs from plays such as Les Miserables, Hamilton, Rent, Six, Hades Town, Tommy, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Fiddler on the Roof

19.         Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Ambassadors

20.         Guernica by Pablo Picasso

21.         Starry Night by Van Gogh

22.         Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci

23.         Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer

24.         Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais

25.         Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt

26.         The Scream by Edvard Munch

27.         Lascaux Cave Painting