Modern Shakespeare Criteria A: Investigation

Modern Shakespeare
• Approaches to Learning
• Communicators
Research
• Video (editing)
• TV shows (news)
• Talk shows
• Background
• Sparknotes
• Movie
Our new unit it Design Technology is relevant to Shakespeare in a way. Mrs. Wilson was going to name our unit Bringing Shakespeare to the 21st Century, but it seemed so long so we decided to rename it. The class got torn between the choices of Shining Shakespeare Show and Modern Shakespeare. The first choice was much better of course  , but we ended up with the name Modern Shakespeare because of some people’s lack in humor.
So what this project is about is just as what the name sounds like. During English class, we are reading a play by Shakespeare called Much Ado about Nothing, and for our summative assessment for English class, we are to write a script. The script would be used for the scandal show that is on in today times. And in technology class, we are producing the film version of the script.
For this unit, Approaches to Learning is the fit area of interaction because we are learning a new unit aspect of technology. In the past we have never produced a movie besides a slideshow with pictures and slides with words on it. For this unit, I am very looking forward to learning how to with movie-like features without echoing in the backgrounds, for example.
It is important to learn about Shakespeare not only because he has written many plays in his time, but because he was the first person to write the way he did and he has inspired many other writers. Not only that but it is inspiring and amazing how documents written four hundred years ago are still alive and highly significant today. Shakespeare’s influence is still seen clearly in many ways. He is also credited with being one of the first writers to use any modern style in his writings. In conclusion, it wouldn’t hurt to say that Shakespeare was the master of the artistry of the English language.
From this unit I expect to learn many different aspects about filming with a camera and different stage directions. I suspect that it is very difficult to produce a film. The one thing I am looking very forward to is making Shakespearean plays sound modern and easy for youngsters to understand.
Personally, I have somewhat experience with Shakespeare, meaning that I know what some of his plays refer to. However, I cannot say I know a lot because I have only read three plays by him; The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, and Midsummer Night’s Dream. I believe that I can say that I have more experience with comedies written by him, because Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado about Nothing are both comedies. What makes the content of the play funny is the way he uses his characters to insult one another.
We have a staff crew who, I guess might be very helpful. Mr. Laws is a photographer, who knows about lighting and shading better than any of us. Ms. Leong, the new drama teacher, can be helpful to us with stage directions.
Besides the backstage, we need to survey who wants to be in front of the camera and who behind it. Some people like to act others
What I need to know before researching
• Where is a good place for filming in the school?
• What are the best scenes to include?
• What editing programs are good?
• What kind of programs are we going to use that we have on the school programs
• What is a flip?
• What kind of camera should we use?
• What kind of makeup is good?
• How do we edit a movie?
• How do we get everyone to participate?
• What are the roles of a cameraman?

Design Specification
• Must be funny
• Easy to understand
• Easy to hear (no echo)
• Everything that is supposed to be seen should be seen. (lighting)
• No noise in the background
• No awkward silences
Detailed Test
1. Are the actors/actresses snickering or laughing in the background or while acting?
2. Do the actors know their lines?
3. Are there any awkward silences?
4. What were the problems that I experienced?
5. Was it a success?
1. Jenson, Ashlee. "The Importance of Shakespear." Shakespeare Online. Amanda Mabillard, 29 July 2003. Web. 23 Mar 2010. .

Detailed Test (answered)

Detailed Test
1. Did I answer the unit question? How or why not?
Yes, I did in a way. It wasn’t the best way I could’ve because I lost track of my organization and my whole poster was unplanned-for-answering-the-unit-quesiton.
2. Was my poster/essay easy to understand and provided new information?
Yes. It provided the viewers with a lot of new information and it was in a chronological order from the earliest time.
3. Was my oral presentation decent?
N/A
4. Did I cover the basic background of gum? (who invented it, when it was invented, etc)
Yes. If not, I spent too much babbling about the history and not answering the unit question well.
5. Did I work hard on it as I should have?
Yes. I spent a great amount of time and care into my poster, except it just didn’t turn out the way I expected.
6. Did I follow my plan?
I did in a way, and I finished my task on time and sometimes a little early which led me to finish earlier than I planned.

Evaluation

Evaluation
For my unit project, I decided to create a poster explaining the early times of gum and how it has evolved over the years including by whom it was invented by and how. The aim of this project was to answer the unit question which was “How do inventors come up with ideas and create their invention?” in any way we wanted, i.e: poster, essay, PPP, movie, video, etc. Of course we had to research for some background information and insert the ideas onto the poster, and that is the stage of my project I had a slight difficulty with, which I will mention later. The successful part about my poster is that the fact that the unit question was answered and background information was completed. My final product was colorful and creative and contained the information that was to be contained.
For this summative assessment, as a class, we decided to skip Part B (Design) of the Design Cycle, because everyone was completing different tasks and on different stages. For Part A (Investigation) I researched the inventor of Gum, since that is my topic. My overall research was decent, and when I thought that I had what I needed, then that was when I moved on to the next step; Part C (Plan).
The Planning of my poster was somewhat easy and complex at the same time. The easy part was the fact no research needed to be done. The hard part was every little timing needed to be thought precisely. In my previous project, I completed my tasks according to my plan exactly, and because my previous plan was such a success, I wanted my current plant paper to be just as decent. Because I lost track of time for the investigation part, I had to crush my Plan into the last 15 minutes of class. Mrs. Wilson told us that each and every one of our plan needed to be handed in by the end of class and I started panicking. I couldn’t think straight and I started to cram everything into the next classes we had. However, when I looked at my Plan posted on my blog when I got home, it actually made sense to me, but still, I decided to do some poster planning on the weekends and that way I would be sure that I would get everything done. I finished my Poster earlier than I planned to and that was the “upside” of my whole project.
Creating Poster
Whilst creating my poster, I realized that I completely put off the unit question and how to answer it. And by the time I realized this, I was halfway finished with my poster, meaning that more than half of the poster paper was filled with who and when it was invented. I panicked again and tried to fit everything in the spaces left. My final product was due in less than 3 days, so I couldn’t start over. And that was when I decided to try to fit the answer to the unit question in the remaining space.
How I crammed my answer to the unit question into less than half the poster was how I earned the grade I got and not the grade I should’ve.

Plan WITH Changes