Writing with an Aesthetic Stance in Social Studies

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Writing with an Aesthetic Stance in Social Studies
By Helena Goense Al Hadi School July 18, 2005
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Research-Vygotsky

• The sense of a word is the sum of all the
  psychological events aroused in our consciousness
  by the word
• The existence of a dynamic system of meaning, in
  which the affective and the intellectual unite

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Research-Vygotsky
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Research-Louise Rosenblatt

• The reading of any work of literature is, of
  necessity, an individual and unique occurrence
  involving the mind and emotions of some
  particular reader

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Research-Louise Rosenblatt

• The term aesthetic was chosen because its Greek
  source suggested perception through the senses,
  feelings, and intuitions
• The aesthetic reader pays attention to-savours-
  the qualities of the feelings, ideas, situations,
  scenes, personalities, and emotions that are
  called forth and participates in the tensions,
  conflicts, and resolutions of the images, ideas,
  and scenes as they unfold.

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Research- Stanislavski

• The most fundamental principle of
  Stanislavski's teaching is that the actor must
  live the life of the character that he is
  portraying, he must learn to think like the
  character and behave as the character would,
  therefore the portrayal is not confined to the
  performance but will, to some degree, begin to
  overlap into the actor's own life. This, he
  asserts, is the only way to achieve total realism
  and, to reinforce this, the actor must also
  extend this exercise of imagination to encompass
  the costumes that he wears, the articles that
  comprise the set and the props that are used.

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Research- Stanislavski

• It is therefore necessary for the actor to
  approach the role from two levels, the external
  level being the more obvious. The way in which
  the character moves, speaks and behaves must be
  studied and practised, but this performance will
  become mechanical unless it is guided by the
  inner belief in the characters feelings and
  emotions .The actor should draw on his own
  experiences, wherever possible, to understand and
  interpret the emotions and events that the
  character will experience, and the wider the
  actor's experience of life then the greater his
  insight and comprehension will be. The more an
  actor has observed and known, the greater his
  experience the clearer his perception of the
  inner and outer circumstances of the life in his
  play and in his partThis work is not done by
  the intellect alone but by all your
  creativeforces, all the elements of your inner
  creative state on the stagetogether with your
  real life in the sense of the playTherefore, to
  follow the teachings of Stanislavski it is
  necessary for the actor to totally immerse
  himself, body, soul and mind, in the part that he
  is playing

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New Journalism

• Tom Wolfe describing an article in Esquire
  written in New Journalism Style It was a garage
  sale, that piecevignettes, odds and ends of
  scholarship, bits of memoir, short bursts of
  sociology, apostrophes, epithets, moans,
  cacklesthat was its virtue. What interested me
  was not simply the discovery that it is possible
  to write accurate non-fiction with techniques
  usually associated with novels and short stories.

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New Journalism

• It was the discovery that it was possible in
  non-fiction, in journalism, to use any literacy
  device, from the traditional dialogisms of the
  essay to stream-of-consciousness, and to use many
  different kinds simultaneously, or within a
  relatively short spaceto excite the reader both
  intellectually and emotionally

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Saturation Research Paper

• Carol Booth Olsen Ruby Bernstein-Bay Area
  Writing Project
• You saturate yourself with your subject
• Writing non-fiction using fictional techniques
• There will be scenes, characters,
  characterization, and dialogue
• Author identification you can be in or out of the
  story
• As you capture an isolated segment of todays
  world, you say something about the total world

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Saturation Research Paper

• Overview students will research and saturate
  themselves in a historical figure select a
  significant event from that persons life assume
  the persona of that person and, weaving together
  factual information and fictional technique, and
  dramatize the event, showing, not just telling,
  why it is significant.

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Saturation Research Paper

• Prewriting Activities
• Reviewing the student model
• Clustering to find a topic
• Planning Activities
• Conducting research
• Practice in Point of View
• Showing, not telling
• Creating a storyboard
• Writing Activities
• Writing the opening scene
• Read-around
• Writing first draft
• Peer partner scoring of draft
• Editing Activities
• Focus on dialogue
• Focus on verb tense
• Evaluation
• Reflection

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Saturation Research Paper

• Directions for Responding to the Saturation
  Research paper
• (These annotations go directly on the text)
• Pointing
• ? Use yellow highlighter to point to the writer's
  golden lines.
• Telling
• Telling how you are reacting to the piece.
• ? We thought this was really poignant.
• ? Wow! We loved this scene.
• ? This kept us in suspense.
• ? We were with you here.
• etc.
• Summarizing
• ? Summarize what you think the writer was trying
  to convey
• ? So, what you're getting at is
• ? The message you're sending is
• ? A word that seems to summarize the main theme
  of your paper
• Showing
• ? This section reminded us of a watercolor
  sketch.
• ? If this piece were music, it would have
  dissonant chords.

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Modifications

• GT-include within their paper a second genre
• Limited English-Olson suggests prewriting guided
  activities that will help them make a connection
  between their own lives and the life of the
  chosen character. She asks them to think about a
  significant moment in their personal history and
  to cluster and free write about it. After wards
  they are asked to put their free write away and
  tell about the event to a partner.
• The partner must then re-create in writing the
  event.
• To do so the partner must become the person who
• just told the story and assume their voice. This
  
• practice in adopting the persona of a known
• subject helps students make the transition to
• becoming someone they can come to
• know only secondhand.

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Bibliography
http//ausxip.com/lucia/artwork http//web.syr.edu
/hcavino/vygotsky.gif Capossela, T. (1993). The
critical writing workshop. Portsmouth,
Heinemann. Olsen, C.B. (2003) The reading/writing
connection. Boston, AllynBacon. Rosenblatt, L.
(2005). Making meaning with texts. Portsmouth,
Heinemann. Stanislavski, C. (1961). Creating a
role. New York, Routledge. Wolfe, T. (1973). New
Journalism. New York, HarperRow.