Final Project

The lovely and talented Ms. Allison Witham and I created a Weebly to showcase our final project, What Makes Us Laugh?. It can be found here.

The Joker

This is the music video for Fatboy Slim's cover of the Steve Miller Band song 1973, The Joker:



I would love to have students analyze Fatboy Slim's use of kittens in this video to critique themes of self-promotion and partying commonly seen in music videos. In this video, the audience sees a group of kittens on their way to a Fatboy Slim Concert. On their way, they run into a group of ducklings, positioned much in the same way that attractive women are positioned in music videos. Later, the audience sees the kittens playing poker for money and catnip. In this video, this is hilarious and adorable, but I would also like to have students draw parallels between the kittens playing poker and the glamorization of gambling and drugs in many music videos. In the end, the kittens discover that the concert is sold out and they engage in a fist fight in order to get in. Again, how does this critique the violence typically glamorized in music videos?

Throughout the video the audience sees many signs promoting Fatboy Slim. In this video, how does he critique typical music videos, while still engaging in a culture of self-promotion? Does the fact that this song is a cover of another band's song play into this in any way?

Detective Stories

I am unashamed to admit that I loved Guy Ritchie's 2009 film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, though it only scored a meager 70% on the Tomatometer. I believe that, though the film was, for the most part, a zany, fluffy romp, in many ways it stayed true to the spirit of the original novels.



I know that Sherlock Holmes novels are rarely taught in schools these days, but I think they set up really wonderful discussions about truth and the way that knowledge is acquired. The novels are also wonderful foundations for discussions about conflict and character development.



In a high school class (especially 9th or 10th grade), I would love to show the film alongside a reading of A Study in Scarlet or The Hound of the Baskervilles. I especially like the idea of using a film adaptation of a genre, rather than an adaptation of a specific novel. This way, students are not too hung up on comparing and contrasting plot points and can instead focus on reading the tone of the film exploring how the filmmaker may have changed characters in order to adapt the genre for a modern audience.



I would create a simple graphic organizer to help students compare and contrast elements of the text and the film. Something as basic as a sheet with a column for each would do. Students could fill out the side for the novel before watching the film, and take notes on the side for the film as they watch.



In the end, I would have students write a brief essay comparing and contrasting the tone and spirit of the text and the film and explaining what they might do differently if they were to create a film adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes text. For a more extended project, students could work in groups or as a class to film and edit a trailer for their adaptation of the text.

Harvest of Shame

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about Edward R. Murrow's 1960 documentary Harvest of Shame. In this made-for-tv documentary, Murrow documents the life and work of migrant workers in Florida. 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of Harvest of Shame. It is appalling how little has changed since this film was made:

• Like textile workers at the turn of the last century, Florida tomato harvesters are still paid by the piece. The average piece rate today is 50 cents for every 32-lbs of tomatoes they pick, a rate that has remained virtually unchanged since 1980. As a result of that stagnation, a worker today must pick more than 2.25 tons of tomatoes to earn minimum wage in a typical 10-hour workday -- nearly twice the amount a worker had to pick to earn minimum wage thirty years ago, when the rate was 40 cents per bucket. Most farmworkers today earn less than $12,000 a year.

• In a January 2001 letter to members of Congress, the U.S. Department of Labor described farmworkers as "a labor force in significant economic distress," citing farmworkers' "low wages, sub-poverty annual earnings, [and] significant periods of un- and underemployment" to support its conclusions.

• As a result of intentional exclusion from key New Deal labor reform measures, farmworkers do not have the right to overtime pay, nor the right to organize and collectively bargain with their employers.

• In the most extreme conditions, farmworkers are held against their will and forced to work for little or no pay, facing conditions that meet the stringent legal standards for prosecution under modern-day slavery statutes. Federal Civil Rights officials have successfully prosecuted seven slavery operations involving over 1,000 workers in Florida’s fields since 1997, prompting one federal prosecutor to call Florida "ground zero for modern-day slavery." In 2010, federal prosecutors indicted two more forced labor rings operating in Florida.

(Facts from The Coalition of Immokalee Workers)

I would love to show Harvest of Shame as an introduction to a research project. Students could research issues surrounding agricultural process in the United States today and conclude the unit with a student-generated activism project.

In addition, I would like to teach this documentary alongside a novel that explores issues of migrant labor, such as Pam Munoz Ryan's novel, Esperanza Rising. This novel takes place during the depression and tells the story of a young and wealthy Mexican girl who suddenly loses her father and her family and immigrates to the U.S. with her mother. There, they must adapt to a new country and a new social class as they begin a new life working in the agriculture industry in California. Though the text is target for students in grades 6-9, the novel addresses labor and social issues in a rich and complex way and there is plenty of material for older students to deconstruct.



Murrow concludes, "The migrants have no lobby. Only an enlightened, aroused and perhaps angered public opinion can do anything about the migrants. The people you have seen have the strength to harvest your fruit and vegetables. They do not have the strength to influence legislation. Maybe we do. Good night, and good luck."