<p><strong><em></em></strong><strong>Rationale:</strong> This is an opening activity for a mini-unit in my Film as Dramatic Literature Class, a semester-long senior elective that meets every other day. In the unit, the students explore how  Debra Granik's film <em>Winter's Bone </em>explores the impact of environment, social class,  and gender on the coming of age of a young female protagonist, Ree Dolley (played by Jennifer Lawrence). To help the students empathize with Ree, a young woman who comes from an environment that more privileged viewers may see as ugly, brutal, and -- in the words of one reviewer-- "post apocalyptic"-- I selected several photographs that feature abandoned environments. While many feature urban spaces ,rather than <em>Winter's Bone's </em>more rural setting, they are valuable for the way they all imbue isolation or desolation with beauty and pride.</p> <p><strong>Process: </strong></p> <p>1) The students will work in groups and each group will receive a print-out of one image to work with.</p> <p>2) In these groups, the students will engage in the "Beauty and Truth" thinking routine: Where do you see beauty in these spaces? Where do you find truth? Students will use specific evidence from there thinking and make their understanding visible by recording their ideas on post-it notes on the images.</p> <p>3) We will hang the images in the classroom so that students can re-consider and continue to think about their understandings as the unit proceeds</p> <p><strong>Outcomes: </strong>Hopefully, by deliberately looking for  and reflecting on the beauty in such spaces, students can understand why the young protagonist of the film is so loyal to her struggling community.</p>

<p><strong>Rationale:</strong> Midway through watching<em> Winter's Bone</em>, I will ask the students to pause, step back, and imagine the buried histories of the people who live in Ree's world.</p> <p>The students will use the "Step In, Step Out, Step Back," and "Unveiling Stories" thinking routines to imagine the inner lives of the subjects of the photos (taken from two different photographic portfolios at SAAM: Roger Minick's <em>Ozark Portfolio</em> and Terry Evans <em>Kansas  Documentary Survey portfolio</em>). They can even  assign an identity of a film character to the images: for example, perhaps the young girl holding chickens is pre-teen Merab, or maybe the young boy glancing shyly out of the shadows is young Teardrop.</p> <p><strong>Process:</strong></p><p><strong>"Step In, Step Out, Step Back" Directions</strong></p><p>1) Choose. Identify a person or agent in the situation.<br />2) Step-in. Given what you see and know at this time, what do you think this person might experience, feel, believe, or know?<br />3) Step-out. What else would you like (or need) to learn in order to understand this person's perspective better?<br />4) Step-back. Given your exploration of this perspective so far, what doyou notice about your own perspective and what it takes to take somebody else's?</p><p><strong>Unveiling Stories</strong></p><p>The questions to ask include:</p> <ol><li>What is <em><u>the</u></em> story?</li><li>What is the human story?</li><li>What is the new story?</li><li>What is the world story?</li><li>What is the untold story?</li></ol><p><strong>Wrap Up: </strong>After engaging in these thinking dispositions, students are invited to use Sharpie to mark up the images (with words or text) to add this additional information and to capture some of the "hidden" or "obscured" information or factors which might inform these characters' lives.</p>

This lesson serves as a pre-reading/activating activity for Zora Neale Hurston's novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Ideally, it should be delivered before students have gained exposure to the text ( and before they have read a summary). In this activity, students will use VTS protocols on "Portrait of Mnonja" by Mickalene Thomas and "SOB, SOB" by Kerry James Marshall to explore themes related to the text and to anticipate Hurston’s complex characterization of Janie Crawford, the protagonist of the novel. Students will have a chance to engage with literature and anticipate Huston's style in the second half of the activity by engaging in a "Think-Pair-Share" with an out of context quotation from the novel. The student pairs will combine their literary analysis with their visual analysis to determine which quotations should be collaged with each painting, and they will have the opportunity to share out and justify their opinions. Learning Targets: 1)Students can use visual art to practice their ability to close-read and unpack 2)Students can synthesize multi-media resources to develop opinions 3)Students can use visual art to anticipate themes and characterization in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" #SAAMteach

<p>This is my collection of images that connect with this film pairing,</p>