Viola's+Whitman+Project

__Update__: For a more detailed look at the assignment, please read Viola's revised blog on using the daguerreotype to teach Whitman.


 * Viola's** **blog on the daguerreotype as an important cultural object in reading Whitman's poem****.

Viola's** ****blog on using the cultural object in teaching Whitman & outline on what students are required to do**** **.**

**I. Results** **A. Primary goal: What do you want the students to understand more fully about "Song of Myself"? ** //Why is this topic important to Whitman? How does this topic connect to other themes or concerns of the poem? How might this topic or question engage students' interest and/or experience? How does this topic or question related to broader issues in literature? How does it relate to broader cultural or social issues? // 
 * What is the daguerreotype? How did it come about? What was its role in 19th century society and culture?
 * How does it function in Whitman's "Song of Myself" as a democratic form of art and a democratizing tool?
 * How does the daguerreotype function as a mediator for the individual and the public?

By examining some daguerreotypes from the period, as well as Whitman's own daguerreotype portraits from 1848-1854, we will attempt to answer these questions relating the daguerreotype to the text:


 * Who is the subject in the portrait?
 * What do the pose, expression, gesture, etc. tell us about the subject?
 * How do the material objects in the picture contextualize the picture, and what do they tell us about the subject or the time period?
 * What can we tell about Whitman from these daguerreotypes? Can we relate the // stories // within his daguerreotypes with the stories in "Song of Myself?"
 * How does the level of precision involved in taking daguerreotypes affect the way the subject is represented?

** B. Secondary goals: what do you want students to understand about reading poetry? about how to write about poetry? about how to connect text and context? **


 * What techniques does Whitman use in order to weave democratic qualities into his poem?
 * Can we relate what we've learned and discussed about the daguerreotype with the ideas in "My Picture-Gallery"?
 * What do "Song of Myself" and "My Picture-Gallery" tell us about the relationship between the textual and the visual?
 * What do "Song of Myself" and "My Picture-Gallery" tell us about the role of the visual in society? Can we see "Song of Myself" as more than a textual construction, as a form of visual media?

**II. Evidence of learning:** How will students demonstrate that they are answering the question? What will your evidence of student learning look like? **A types of writing/evidence:** i. formal writing or project (summative) essay; curation; rhetorical; ii. informal writing (formative).  **1.** Students will produce written evidence of learning on their individual blogs, using specific examples from Whitman's text(s) to support their ideas (Whitman's poem is still the primary text that students should focus on). Each quote used must be accompanied by an explanation of how the quote supports the premise that photography democratizes or does not democratize cultural production.  -- this will allow them to practice close reading and writing skills, with feedback given by the teacher, as well as comments from fellow students. This also will happen after class discussions on the daguerreotypes, so that students will have some foundation on how to read both the visual and textual media.  
 * 2.** Students will learn collaboratively on the democratic platform, the wiki. They will share their findings, discoveries, and researches after having done the required research on Whitman and the daguerreotype. They will use this shared platform to critically reflect on their work and discuss problems/issues with one another. -- through research, collaboration, and shared findings annotated by the students (why they found their findings helpful or not, etc.), they will have some historical and cultural knowledge of the daguerreotype, as well as practice learning through open discussions. 
 * 3.** After research, class discussions, analyses of daguerreotypes, open online discussions, blog-writing, etc., students will create their own "Picture-Gallery" alongside a chosen passage from "Song of Myself," and post it on their individual blogs. They will be given the liberty to choose their own passage to write about, and find a daguerreotype from the period that enhances their reading of that passage and the poem as a whole. The passage must be representative of or adds insight into the culture at the time, or to the poem as whole (for instance, how does this passage paint a picture of democracy? etc.); the daguerreotype--which can be either a portrait, an architecture, or a landscape, must illuminate the student's understanding of the passage and the poem, rather than just a direct literal pictorial depiction of the passage. They will have practiced foundational skills for close reading skills via the class discussions and close examination on the daguerreotypes, as well as through their own researches and collaborative discussions. Finally, they will each be required to look at their classmates' blogs and comment on 2-3 of them.

**III. Design**

A. what knowledge or skills will students need in order to produce their evidence of student learning? knowledge about the poem; cultural or historical knowledge; knowledge about Whitman? skills in reading? skills in analysis/making connections? skills in writing?


 * 1) Knowledge about the poem -- through close reading in class, guided by Teacher and class discussions.
 * 2) Reading skills -- Students will practice reading skills via guidance by teacher in class & class discussions.
 * 3) Cultural & historical knowledge -- through __required research__ on the Internet and collaboration of research findings & discoveries on the wiki.
 * 4) Students will practice writing skills by doing assignment #1, which requires them to blog -- Teacher will provide feedback.
 * 5) Creative thinking

C. how will you structure these activities? do some have to come before others? which? why? are some more or less important than others? are some more or less formal than others?


 * 1) In-class discussion & close reading of poem will have to come first -- guide students in close readings via in-class discussions on the poem --> this is key and the most important part of learning. **First comes class-time/discussions with Teacher's lead/guidance, next comes research & development via collaborative learning, and finally, they should be allowed to tap into these acquired skills by working on an individual project (in this case, the rewrite of Whitman's poem).**
 * 2) Research will come next -- as a collaborative assignment (research findings will be posted & shared on the class wiki), students will feel less intimidated about "research," so that learning becomes a shared experience, and important information can be shared so that everyone can benefit from it.
 * 3) The project should happen later, after the research and in-class discussions have happened. This is to allow students to maximize on their abilities, after having sharpened their reading and research skills.