Jay's STUDENT NEWS CONFERENCE Post - Sneak Preview of Final Exam Day - See Jay's Marilyn Monroe Notecards - A Celebration of Student Writing - Pizza on the Patio!

  Next week, my Spring 2024 students will share their best writing of the semester in front of a live audience in the library patio.  We bring in a professional podium.  We have reserved a large screen for students to support their discussion with meaningful visuals.  In a brief three to five minutes, they highlight the most interesting aspects of their writing projects and writing experience. At the end of their "talk," they will take questions from the audience.

Over the course of the semester, my students read a sixties novel and developed  extensive MLA-style research papers.  They wrote their papers about the Moon Landing, the Women's Movement, the MLK Assassination, Charles Manson.  They scoured our campus databases for the most significant information available.  In the sixties, I was too young to understand what was going on in this country. But I'm certainly old enough now. I encouraged my students to learn from the past to understand what is going on today.  

Jay's Tip:  This is NOT a SPEECH CLASS - But, it is a college-level English class - I ask my students to be READY!

To prepare for our Final Exam Day presentations, I've arranged for time in a classroom workshop for my students to create notecards that will help them effectively reflect their knowledge and authority over their subjects.  They will have 3-5 minutes to share their topics and they will be have 3-5 minutes to take questions from their audience.  In our classroom workshops I encourage my students to meet the following standards:

1. Will their opening “hook” the listeners’ attention?

2. What are the main supporting points that listeners need to know?

3. How many supporting details should they include for each main point?

4. What visual aids can they use to create interest in my topic? (Their Mind Map: It will be projected on the Big Screen right behind them!)

5. Will the conclusion have the proper impact on their listeners?

Throughout the course of the semester, I model a sixties research paper based on the Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe.  At  age 37, Marilyn died of an apparent drug overdose. For over fifty years now, conspiracy theorists have been investigating the details that led to her mysterious death.  Crime  investigators found  Marilyn’s house littered with pill bottles. Some of them contained chloral hydrate, a prescription sleep aid, that would become dangerous if taken in large amounts.  The official autopsy announced “barbiturate poisoning” as the cause of death. The details of Marilyn's last days are murky.  Various witnesses report her despondency over her affairs with the president and his brother.  Others discuss how upbeat she sounded in her last phone calls. The end result saddens us all.    On the first day of class, I show a video that focuses upon the mystery behind her death.  Her story engages my students.  It sets the tone for a semester of research.

Each week I share what I have written about Marilyn in my classroom blog. I find the most interesting parts of Marilyn take place away from the big screen.  In my research paper, I focus upon her childhood and her dreams of becoming a star.  Now, that we have reached the last week of the semester, I model my notecards for a brief presentation of my Marilyn Monroe Project.  They will get me through 3-5 minutes:

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT - Below I practice with notecards for a Final Exam Presentation on the Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe:

Step One - RESEARCH - This is your HOOK - Why did you choose this topic - Where did you first hear of your subject - Why do you care - You must have read something or seen something somewhere. What inspired you to learn more.

(Jay's Sample for Marilyn Monroe:) On the first day of class,  Mr. Lewenstein showed us a video about the Death of Marilyn Monroe.  She died of a drug overdose at age 37.  At the time, she was the most famous woman in the world.  This would be like today finding Taylor Swift dead, alone in bed - EMPTY PILL BOTTLES on her nightstand.  There were a lot of questions but few answers about how and why Marilyn  died.  I wanted to find out more about her life.  This became the basis of my research paper.

 

Step Two - CONTENTION - This is your THESIS - What's your most important point? - Why should your audience care about your project?

Of the hundreds of  thousands of beautiful young women that came to Hollywood with dreams of becoming a star, Marilyn rose to the top like no one else.  Yes she was beautiful, but so were the others.   She was determined to do whatever it took to become a serious actress. Unfortunately, the movie studios didn't take her seriously.  They realized they could make a lot of money SELLING her as a SEX SYMBOL.  They didn't care what she thought.  She had no control over her career.  She was USED and ABUSED.  She was treated like a CASH COW.  This is what may have led her to DRUG and ALCOHOL abuse.

 

Step Three - KEY ARGUMENTS - These might be the KEY ideas that make your topic so INTERESTING.

Marilyn grew up in a life of poverty - This was during the Great Depression. Marilyn's mother was mentally ill - She was committed to a mental institution - She spent her childhood in a series of orphanages and foster homes.  Later in her adult life, Marilyn would show signs of bipolar personality disorder - She was always frightened that mental illness ran in the family. Acting made Marilyn feel like she could be somebody - Maybe that's what DROVE her to work so hard - It's all she had.

 

Step Four - KEY INFORMATION - Come on! - What can you tell your audience so they will want to read your essay?

During World War II - Marilyn's husband was shipped overseas - This left Marilyn to fend for herself - She became A ROSIE THE RIVETER - She worked a traditional man's job in an aircraft plant - because there were no MEN - this was WAR TIME - This gave her a sense of INDEPENDENCE It was in this aircraft plant where a photographer asked if he could take pictures of the women working - When he developed Marilyn's picture, he saw something he had never seen before - She SPARKLED before the camera - This inspired her to do modeling work - and later become a movie actress. In the fifties, beautiful women were often forced into sex by powerful studio executives - Marilyn was a prime candidate - She wanted so desperately to be an actress that she was willing to do  most anything they told her to do - Later, Marilyn would have the courage to share her story of sexual abuse and harrassment with the rest of the world - You can say she was the "ME" in the "ME TOO MOVEMENT

 

Step  Five - LANGUAGE - Here is where you can bring up your DEFINITION PARAGRAPH - This will be STRONG

Sadly, Marilyn was LABELED early on as a SEX SYMBOL - This made her a lot of money - It also may have KILLED her - She was marketed as a SEX BOMB! Marilyn wanted to be regarded a serious actress, but she couldn't get serious roles. No one cared about how she thought or felt - All they seemed to care about was how she looked. It wasn't until she had the power and the money to create her own production company that she was able play a serious role - The movie is called Bus Stop - Mr. Lewenstein reads the stage version in his English 110 class - Most critics agree it was her greatest role and best performance.

 

Step Six - WRITING - Share a SNEAK-PREVIEW of your Research Project - How does it start - How does it end - What did you learn?

* My Marilyn Monroe research paper begins with a Quote Sandwich - .  “I knew how third rate I was,” Marilyn once said in an interview. “I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes, I was wearing inside.  But, my God, how I wanted to learn!  To change, to improve!  I didn’t want anything else.  Not men, not money, not love, but the ability to act. With the arc lights on me and the camera pointed at me, I suddenly knew myself” (Steinem 69). My Marilyn Monroe essay ends with drugs, alcohol and distress - As a woman who fought her way to the top, she confronted forces would that bring her down. Sixty years later, we are not sure what led to her death.

 

Jay’s Origin of News Conference Idea: This Student News Conference idea came to me at the beginning of the Trump presidency; from watching news clips of Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Sara Saunders, Rod Rosenstein, presenting important information to a roomful of reporters.   And taking questions!   I thought what a great format to generate and perpetuate student engagement at semester's end.   The communication goes two ways.  Everyone wins! I envision our Student News Conference as an exciting, non-threatening collaborative atmosphere to reinforce our semester learning and motivate my future students to do the same.

  

I call it a “Celebration of Student Writing.”