the allegory of the cave
DESCRIPTION
A multi-media approach to bridging the gap between text and student. The Allegory of the Cave. Précis. Honors World Literature, S ophomore E nglish 26 students- 8 make 18 female Plato’s Republic, “ Allegory of the Cave ” Making meaning of text in a modern world. What is “the Cave”?. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE
A multi-media approach to bridging the gap between text and student
Précis
Honors World Literature, Sophomore English
26 students- 8 make 18 female Plato’s Republic, “Allegory of the
Cave” Making meaning of text in a modern
world
What is “the Cave”?
Extended Allegory with many interpretations Prisoners chained to a wall in a cave,
unable to move their heads Puppeteers located behind them present
images on the wall immediately in front of the prisoners
Over time, prisoners come to know the shadows as reality
One prisoner breaks free and makes their way into the “light” to experience the reality for themselves
Return to cave to present truth- not accepted!
Assignment The group must develop a multimedia (Video,
audio, still pictures, etc…) project to represent how the “allegory of the cave” applies to our world. “How are we prisoners chained in a cave?”
In completing this assignment, the group would need to do the following: Brainstorm ways that Plato’s theory of forms is relevant
in our day and age (this is the difficult part, I instructed them to spend some time brainstorming)
It is helpful to have them focus on the symbolism of some of the following:
o the caveo the chainso prisonerso the fireo the suno shadowso puppeteers
Helpful hints for students Once again, it is essential that they plan their approach
to representing the allegory in our world (think outside the box!)
I provided them with a basic storyboard layout. I will load the template on the share drive so that they can complete this in a paperless format. (some issues in our building with sharing docs at this point in time)
Find images, audio, video… whatever you need, to create the project. We have laptops (2 per group) and a video camera (1 per group) at their disposal. They were not allowed to leave the building during
the course of the school day to film and they were asked to not disrupt any classes to shoot footage. I informed them that they were their own writers, camera crew, directors, actors, editors, researchers, etc.
(Divvy up the roles to get this accomplished, they will not get it done without teamwork and organization)
Struggles- we all have them! Student s lack of experience with shooting
video Student inexperience with video editing
software (moviemaker, imovie, etc.)
TIME! It is essential that you allot time so that the
students have enough time to discuss, plan , shoot and edit their video. This is not something that you should rush (TRUST ME)
Colleagues may dismiss the idea as trivial or a waste of valuable curriculum time.
BENEFITS Encourages close reading
Students have to explain and defend their work Actively engages the students in the text Focuses on the visual nature of the text Creates a student/learner centered classroom Wider range of student involvement
Every student has his/her strengths to contribute Touches on different learning styles
Helps students recognize the different interpretations of text and it encourages more active involvement from all students No one “right answer”
IT’S FUN!