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"The past is never dead. It's not even past." William Faulkner
An Introduction to the Renaissance Solo Work: Not a group work - but a solo work. Students will work on this for the period. It is done as solo work for a reason - a kind of meta-reason. If the Renaissance was about the birth of humanism, and man's inward look at himself - I feel it's important to have students do this on their own. To see what their own feelings about the ideas shown in their text book's intro are about. Of course, I link it with things we have done - and will do. To top it off - while the students are writing - a slide show of important Renaissance paintings is projected in the background and a score of variations on a song from the Renaissance - "Greensleeves" (written by the Renaissance man, Henry VIII) plays in the background.
Lesson Overview
Lesson Overview
Before the students get started on their Solo Work (essentially an in-class essay), I show two slides to the students. The first slide is a medieval painting of the Raising of Lazarus - the painting is accompanied by Medieval Gregorian Chant audio. Next, I show a Renaissance Painting on that very same subject (accompanied by the start of a playlist of versions of Greensleeves). The differences could not be more striking. Perspective, realism, emotion, technique - everything, has jumped forward in leaps and bounds. Hopefully this serves as a meta-focus for the solo work they will complete this period.
The introduction talks about how we are still living our country's past wars - the civil war, the Vietnam war... Those events have dictated how much of our society is strutured, polarized, etc. The implication is that time periods and leaps like the Renaissance are also still affecting our current lives.
That said - let me quickly go over what this Solo Work will cover:
Getting students to think about the word Renaissance means.
Connecting Pico della Mirandola's "On the dignity of Humanity with Renaissance ideals - with past works we've read.
Connecting that same text to "What a piece of work is man" from Hamlet.
Connecting the idea of the Printing Press to the Renaissance - but also contrasting it with our digital printing presses.
Trying to get students to see - how close this time period was to us - rather than how far away.
Do time periods ever really end - or is there is a never-ending overlap?
For more on this Solo Work - see the handout below.
Handouts
Handouts
Most Recent Handouts & Tests
Most Recent Handouts & Tests
See above for a detailed description.
Notice that once again for these historical introductions - this is a TEST not a QUIZ. The reason is simple - the reading is longer and for most students the studying is much harder. Nonfiction takes longer to read, it doesn't hold the interest (for some), etc. I also usually ask more questions - to give them more of a chance - in case they missed something. Most students score lower on nonfiction tests than they do on the short fiction reading content quizzes.
These are some very beautiful paintings that I played up in the front of the room while the students are writing their solo work. I do urge them to look up every once in a while - but that is completely up to them. The slide show is set up to either advance on its own after 30 seconds - or with a click. While the slides are going, I play the playlist below of versions of "Greensleeves".
Another "Meta" aspect of this lesson. This song was allegedly written by one of the most famous Renaissance men of all times: "Henry VII". One of the questions on their Solo Work references him - and there was plenty of Henry VIII in their reading. But - one thing that I want them to take away from the songs is the idea that so many modern (plenty of modern interpretations of the song) can come from the history- "the past is not dead - it is not even past." And we did a few short months ago an important lesson with some ballads - including one that was sung by a student, "Greensleeves".
Remote Enhancements
Remote Enhancements
During Remote Learning we did this lesson - I played the Slide Show in my teacher video window - and played the music in the background.
Like so many lessons that fell by the wayside due to time (not enough time with my classes - too much time with testing and extra-academic activities), I stopped doing this Group Work after a few years. It serves a number of very useful purposes: 1) Getting students to look at (again) how women fared historically compared to men 2) Preparing students for the research paper by having them examine nonfiction historical accounts and coming up with topics and a thesis. There are Jigsaw (the whole class collaborates) and nonJigsaw versions of this Group Work included.
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
Thoughts on the Lesson
The more I look at English Teacher Groups, the more I believe that there is a place in the curriculum for classes (and lessons) like mine. There is a pervading belief that the only texts that speak to students are those from our very present day. I not only don't think this is true - I think it does a disservice to our entire educational system. Great art is timeless - mediocre art is fleeting. It may take more effort to show students the power of great, older literature. But really the words do most of the work.
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