Monthly Archive for May, 2009

Be It Resolved That the MGM Wizard of Oz Movie is a Good Adaption of L. Frank Baum’s Book

Okay, you’ve read the book and seen the movie. Now what?

Next Monday you all will be participating in a debate considering whether or not the MGM movie is a good adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz.  Proper debating (as done in high school and college debating societies) has a very specific structure which we will adapt for you to use.

First of all, you will be randomly assigned to argue for or against this resolution.

Secondly, you will need to prepare to argue your position at the debate on Monday.  Use your books and the list of movie scenes (to jog your memory)  to come up with several points in favor of your position.  These must be ready by the end of today. (You will have the rest of this period and lab to do them.)

Finally, be ready on Monday to argue your position in the actual debate!  We will video it for this blog.  At the end of the debate you will write a blog post giving your personal feelings about this question.  Will your feelings change after the debate?  We will see!

Here are some things to consider when developing your argument:

  • Changes
  • Things left out
  • Characters
  • Additions

A Podcast About Your Pilgrim Story

Today you are going to learn how to record and then create a post with a podcast in it.  This will be practice so that next week you will be able to record your third grade buddy when he or she interviews you.  Today you will be taught by Ms. Nickles how to do this.

Once you understand what to do, get started — do a brief recording of yourself telling about your Pilgrlm story.  It can be in the voice of your character, it could be a piece of your interview, or the beginning of your story.  That is up to you.  Then this will be embedded into a blog post about this project.