Every year on my class’s final exam, I give my students the same bonus question. For a few extra points on the exam, they are asked to draw a picture of me on the back of their test booklet. I take my favorites out of all those drawings, frame them in my classroom, and hang them in the Mr. Pearce Art Gallery.
These are some of the drawings from my Senior level English course; they get to take their final exams a week early in preparation for graduation.
Continuing to share my students’ awesome Romeo and Juliet movie pitch projects. In brief, students in my classes are assigned a scene from the last half of R&J and asked to create a modern take on the material for moviegoing audiences.
One of the things I believe made this year such a successful one in regards to these projects is my taking a slightly different approach to mentoring. I asked students to think more this year about creating a believable “feud” dynamic than I ever have before. That work reflects itself in quite a few of these projects.
To wit, I received several “Marvel Comics vs. DC Comics” Romeo & Juliet pitches. I have to imagine the popularity of superhero movies lead students down this route, casting the R&J roles based personalities of the various hero characters. In both of these projects, independent of one another, the students cast Deadpool as Mercutio… which kind of fits, if you think about it.
(FYI, the Batman/Spider-Man poster is not meant to lead you to believe those two heroes are the Romeo and Juliet of that pitch… although that is something of an unintended consequence.)
Here’s another cool take using pre-existing characters: A Romeo & Juliet casting the major roles from the play around the eternal divide between Nintendo and Sega. I wasn’t even aware this particular feud was still going on, but I’ve been since assured it is. In this version, Sonic the Hedgehog woos Princess Peach.
More in upcoming weeks…
One of my go-to projects for my ninth graders with Romeo & Juliet is a movie based presentation. I assign the students roles as movie producers with the task of updating R&J for modern audiences while retaining much of the original’s spirit. Groups are assigned specific scenes from Acts 3, 4, and 5 of the play and asked to complete a variety of tasks (write a modern screenplay, cast the movie with explanations, create a soundtrack for the film) based around their assigned scene, and their vision in general.
By far, this is the most popular project I do over the course of the year. Seniors come back to visit me and opine that it’s the most fun they’ve had in English during their high school years… and they felt they learned a lot. I’m especially proud of this year’s batch of pitches.
This first one is one of the most complete versions of my assignment I’ve ever received. Besides an immediately understandable feud dynamic, every other aspect of their presentations was well thought out and fantastic.
This next one imagines Romeo & Juliet where all the principal cast members are overweight. While that could have come off as a cruel joke, the students involved did a fantastic job of leavening the humor with smart writing. Each of the two families owned an operated a Chicago based fast food restaurant.
I’ve been so heartened to see an uptick in same sex Romeo and Juliet pitches from my classes in recent years. I feel like a take on R&J like this would have been unheard of in my time as a high schooler but I usually get a few of these a year. It makes me happy that something like this is becoming second nature to young folks.
More to come over the next few weeks…
Every year on my class’s final exam, I give my students the same bonus question. For two extra points on the exam, they have to draw a picture of me on the back of their test booklet. I take my favorites out of all those drawings, frame them, and hang them in the Mr. Pearce Art Gallery.
Every Sunday for the next few weeks, I’ll be presenting my students’ work to Tumblr as an attempt to curate these wonderful works of art.
Every year on my class’s final exam, I give my students the same bonus question. For two extra points on the exam, they have to draw a picture of me on the back of their test booklet. I take my favorites out of all those drawings, frame them, and hang them in the Mr. Pearce Art Gallery.
Every Sunday for the next few weeks, I’ll be presenting my students’ work to Tumblr as an attempt to curate these wonderful works of art.
No comic today but here are a couple of things I’ve been sitting on for a few months.
A sketch page I stole from Sade, one of my students this year. I thought it was so good I couldn’t resist. It reminds me of the kind of thing I do in my sketchbook from time to time. Look at this, she’s so good!
Early in the first days of school, a student of mine came over to my desk and asked me if I liked the movie King Kong– I have a picture of one of the theatrical posters from the original 1933 movie above my desk. I told him heck yes, I love Kong… and we got into a discussion about the flick. I could tell he was a fan because he knew all about the unfilmed “spider pit” sequence from the original flick.
Well, a few days later he brought this to me. PREPARE YOURSELF FOR SOME AWESOMENESS:
I don’t think you’ll argue with me when I point out what a better artist this guy is than I’ll ever be. Just look at how amazing this thing is… and then wait for tomorrow when I post his second drawing.
I’ve slacked off big time in scanning some of these terrific student drawings of me in the last few weeks. To refresh: Every year on my final exam, I give students a one point bonus if (after they are finished with the scholastic portion of the test) they draw a picture of me. I spend the better part of the year drawing pictures of myself on the chalkboard, so I’m interested to see what their take on me is.
I got a LOT of Batman drawings this year, so let’s jump into it!
Teachable Moments 