Three paragraphs on my personal TPACK

Three Paragraphs on your personal TPACK

TPACK Problem description

Students often have a hard time understanding Joseph Conrad’s style of writing in Heart of Darkness. Meaning is derived from extensive use of imagery, simile, personification and metaphor.

Content Components

Understanding imagery, simile, personification and metaphor as literary devices, distinguishing one from another and understanding the tone and mood this language creates.

Pedagogical Components

Differentiated learning

A.    What is the TP knowledge for the solution?  (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)

The use of imagery in the Heart of Darkness creates a mood, tone and feeling I would like my students to understand. One approach is to present a scene from Apocalypse Now (which is based on the book Heart of Darkness) because it shows the feeling and emotion the language is trying to convey in a medium my students can easily relate to. The curriculum requires that my students write a paper about the work and in preparation for this, my students will make weekly journal entries in response to guiding questions about the sections they are reading via a Wiki. Some of these assignments will include writing a journal entry in the language and style of Joseph Conrad, or writing a journal entry from the perspective of one of the characters in the novella.

B.    What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?  Be sure to think about representation.)

I would use Handbrake to extract a scene from the movie Apocalypse now, because as mentioned before, many of my students can more easily relate to the feelings and emotions portrayed in a film. I would also use Edmodo for my students to have a safe and enclosed environment where they can access assignments and resources, upload journal entries and maintain a dialogue with me and fellow students.

C.   What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies.

We would start with a close reading of a key passage, perhaps the first few pages of first chapter that sets the stage for the story and in the language that conveys the mood. This is also one of the easier passages to read. Because some of my students are familiar with the use of imagery at this point in my course, I would solicit examples of these. Then I would use a tool Cherice showed us in the Un-class: 

1. I would give my students 5 minutes to find as many uses of imagery as they could in different sections of a passage and write them down them on sticky notes. 
2. I would ask them to bring all their notes in groups of 6 and sort them under types of imagery categories: simile, metaphor, personification, symbolism, etc.

This is an easy way for them to identify literary features particular to Conrad as well as experience the tone, mode and feeling this language creates in the reader.