Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-70 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Think of a story, poem or play you have read and also watched, heard or played in another form: a movie, a show, an audiobook, a stage play or a game. Name one thing the other version could do that the book could not, and one thing the book did better."

   List answers in two columns on the board: "The version could..." and "The book could..." Students will often name sights and sounds for the first column (a scary soundtrack, a huge battle) and imagination or detail for the second ("I pictured it my own way," "the book told me what she was thinking"). Point out that each answer names a technique (a tool a storyteller uses) and an effect (what the tool does to the audience). RL.7.7 asks students to compare and contrast a written work with a production of it, and to explain the effects of the tools each medium has.

2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes

   Terms to know:

   • Medium (plural media): the form a work comes in. The written page is one medium; a live stage production, a film, an audio recording and a multimedia version are others.
   • Production: one performance or recording of a written work. Staged: performed live in front of an audience. Filmed: recorded with a camera. Audio: sound only, such as a radio play, an audiobook or a podcast. Multimedia: a version that mixes several media, such as words, pictures, animation and sound in an app or on a web page.
   • Technique: a tool a storyteller uses. Unique to a medium: a tool that one medium has and another does not. A reader cannot hear a thunder sheet, and a listener cannot see a close-up.
   • Effect: what a technique does to the audience: what it makes them notice, feel or understand.
   • Compare: tell how two versions are alike. Contrast: tell how they are different.
   • Stage direction: a note in a play's script, usually in italics, that tells what happens or how the stage looks. Lighting: how a stage or a film scene is lit: bright or dark, which color, and where the light falls.
   • Film words: a shot is one unbroken piece of film. A wide shot shows a whole place; a close-up fills the screen with one face or object. Focus is how sharp or blurred something looks. A low angle means the camera looks up at someone, which makes them seem big or powerful; a high angle looks down, which makes them seem small. Editing is the work of joining shots and adjusting their color and sound after filming.

   Introduce the play. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote The Tempest around 1611. A tempest is a violent storm. The play opens on a ship caught in a storm at sea, carrying Alonso, the King of Naples, his son Ferdinand, his brother Sebastian, the lord Antonio and an old adviser, Gonzalo. The ship's crew, led by the Boatswain (the officer in charge of the sailors and the deck, pronounced "BOH-sun"), fights to save it. In the next scene, the audience learns that the storm was raised by magic and that no one was drowned, but the passengers do not know that yet.

   The script prints short forms of the speakers' names: Mast. is the Master (the ship's captain), Boats. the Boatswain, Alon. Alonso, Ant. Antonio, Seb. Sebastian and Gon. Gonzalo. Words to know: yarely and yare (quickly), bestir (get moving), play the men (act like men), mar our labour (spoil our work), roarers (roaring waves), counsellor (an adviser to a king), mischance (bad luck), within (offstage, out of sight), lay her a-hold and lay her off (steer the ship away from the shore), we split (the ship is breaking apart), furlong (an eighth of a mile), furze (a prickly bush), fain (gladly). Exit means one person leaves the stage, and Exeunt means several leave. Read the script aloud once with volunteers, then read the notes for two imagined productions written for this page: one for the stage and one for film.

   1On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.

   2Enter a Ship-Master and a Boatswain.

   3Mast. Boatswain!

   4Boats. Here, master: what cheer?

   5Mast. Good, speak to the mariners: fall to’t, yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. [Exit.

   6Enter Mariners.

   7Boats. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master’s whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

   8Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others.

   9Alon. Good boatswain, have care. Where’s the master? Play the men.

   10Boats. I pray now, keep below.

   11Ant. Where is the master, boatswain?

   12Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm.

   13Gon. Nay, good, be patient.

   14Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not.

   15Gon. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

   16Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a Counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts! Out of our way, I say. [Exit.

   [...]

   17Re-enter Boatswain.

   18Boats. Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! Bring her to try with main-course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather or our office.

   [...]

   19Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two courses off to sea again; lay her off.

   20Enter Mariners wet.

   21Mariners. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!

   22Boats. What, must our mouths be cold?

   23Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let’s assist them, For our case is as theirs.

   24Seb. I’m out of patience.

   [...]

   25[A confused noise within: “Mercy on us!”-- “We split, we split!”-- “Farewell my wife and children!”-- “Farewell, brother!”-- “We split, we split, we split!”]

   26Ant. Let’s all sink with the king.

   27Seb. Let’s take leave of him. [Exeunt Ant. and Seb.

   28Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exeunt.

   1Director's note. A theater has no ocean, so our storm is made of light, sound and the actors' bodies. The set is a wooden deck with one tall mast and a tangle of ropes. The whole deck tilts toward the audience, so the actors must lean and grab the ropes to stay on their feet.

   2Lighting. The play opens in total darkness. Then white flashes of light from above the stage, timed with each clap of thunder, show the sailors frozen in place for a split second. Between the flashes, a dim blue-green light covers the stage, so the audience only half sees the faces.

   3Sound. The thunder comes from a large sheet of metal shaken backstage, and recorded wind plays from speakers at the back of the theater, so the storm seems to come from behind the audience as well as in front of it. The Boatswain has to shout over the noise. We let the storm swallow some of his words on purpose, but the audience always hears "you do assist the storm."

   4Movement. All the actors sway together, as if one wave is rolling under the whole ship. When the Mariners enter wet, they have been soaked with buckets of real water just offstage.

   5Costume and color. The King and his lords wear deep purple and gold. The sailors wear gray and faded blue. On the dark stage, the rich colors show the audience at once who the nobles are, and how little their rank helps them here.

   6The cries. The voices that shout "We split, we split!" come from actors hidden in the aisles among the audience. Then the lights go out, the sound stops, and in the silence one spotlight finds Gonzalo alone. He speaks his wish for "an acre of barren ground" quietly, almost to himself.

   1Filmmaker's note. Our film was shot partly at sea on an old sailing ship and partly in a studio water tank, where machines pour tons of water onto a deck. A camera can go where no theater seat can, so we used it to put viewers inside the storm.

   2The opening. The film begins with a wide shot from high above: a tiny ship on a black sea, lit for one second by lightning. Then we cut straight down to the deck.

   3Camera movement. For the whole scene, the camera is held by hand and tilts with the deck, so the horizon swings up and down behind the actors. Some viewers told us the scene made them feel seasick, which is what we wanted.

   4Close-up and focus. When the Boatswain says "You do assist the storm," the camera moves in to a close-up of his wet, angry face. The lords behind him go out of focus, blurred, as if they do not matter.

   5Camera angles. We filmed the Boatswain from a low angle, looking up at him, so he seems to tower over the King. From the top of the mast, we filmed the lords from a high angle, looking down, so they look small and helpless on the deck.

   6Color. In editing, we drained most of the color from the storm and left it gray-green. Only one color stays bright: the King's red cloak.

   7Sound. We recorded all the dialogue again later in a quiet studio, so every word is clear over the storm. When the ship splits, the camera plunges underwater, and the cries of "Farewell, brother!" become muffled and far away.

   8The last shot. Gonzalo says his last line with waves breaking over him. Then the screen goes black, and the thunder stops.

   • Lighting on the stage

     The script gives the storm one stage direction: "a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard" (paragraph 1). How does Production A use lighting, and what is the effect?

     Result: On the page, the reader has to build the storm in the mind from one line and from the shouting that follows. Production A turns the lightning into real light: white flashes "show the sailors frozen in place for a split second," and between them "a dim blue-green light" leaves the faces half seen (Production A, paragraph 2). Effect: the audience sees the storm in bursts, as the sailors would, and never gets a calm, clear look at the deck. Live light in a dark theater is a tool of the stage; the printed script can only name it.

   • Camera focus and angles in a film

     The Boatswain tells the King's party, "What cares these roarers for the name of king?" (paragraph 14). How does Production B show this idea with the camera?

     Result: The film shoots the Boatswain "from a low angle, looking up at him, so he seems to tower over the King," and the lords "from a high angle, looking down, so they look small and helpless" (Production B, paragraph 5). When he says "You do assist the storm," a close-up fills the screen with his face while the lords blur "out of focus" (paragraph 4). Effect: viewers see at once who matters in a storm, the sailor who knows the ship. A reader gets the same idea only from the Boatswain's words. Both versions say that the storm does not care about a king; the film makes viewers see it.

   • Sound in three media

     Compare how the page, the stage and the film handle the Boatswain's shouted lines (paragraphs 10-16).

     Result: Alike: all three keep the Boatswain's words, and all three present him as a busy man with no time for the lords. Different: a reader reads every word clearly at his or her own pace. Production A lets "the storm swallow some of his words on purpose," so the audience struggles to hear, as the lords do. Production B "recorded all the dialogue again later in a quiet studio, so every word is clear over the storm" (Production B, paragraph 7). Effect: the stage makes the audience feel the confusion of the storm, and the film keeps the words clear while the pictures carry the danger. Recording a voice again in a studio is a film technique; a live theater cannot do it.

   • Color in two productions

     The script never says what anyone wears. How do the two productions use color, and why?

     Result: Production A dresses the lords in "deep purple and gold" and the sailors in "gray and faded blue" (Production A, paragraph 5), so the audience can tell the two groups apart from far back in the theater. Production B drains the color from the whole storm in editing and leaves "Only one color" bright, "the King's red cloak" (Production B, paragraph 6). Effect: on the stage, color sorts the characters into nobles and crew; in the film, the one red spot keeps pulling the viewer's eye to the King, a small bright figure lost in a gray storm. Changing color after filming is a technique of film editing; a stage can only light and dress what is really there.

   Name it, find it, explain it, compare it. Model four moves for every technique (Diagram 2): name the technique and the medium it belongs to; find the words in the written work it comes from; explain its effect on the audience; and compare that effect with what a reader gets from the page. Give two sentence frames: "The text says ___ (paragraph __), and the production uses ___, a technique of ___." and "The effect is ___, while a reader of the text ___."

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs compare the script with Productions A and B moment by moment and fill in Diagram 1 with the class. Ask each question before reading the teacher note.

   1. The cries. The script prints the cries as a stage direction: "A confused noise within" (paragraph 25). Where do the cries come from in each production, and what is the effect? Teacher note: in Production A, actors "hidden in the aisles among the audience" shout them, so the audience is surrounded by the sinking ship. In Production B, the camera "plunges underwater" and the cries become "muffled and far away," so viewers seem to sink with the passengers. A reader sees the cries as words in brackets and must imagine the noise. Both productions make the cries come from all around, but the stage uses the theater itself and the film uses the camera and the soundtrack.
   2. The ending. Compare how the two productions end the scene with Gonzalo's wish for "an acre of barren ground" (paragraph 28). Teacher note: alike: both keep his words and make them the last thing the audience hears. Different: Production A cuts the sound and light and gives him one spotlight, so his quiet voice stands out in the silence. Production B keeps the storm going, "with waves breaking over him," then cuts to black. The spotlight makes the moment private and a little funny; the waves make it frightening. Both are possible readings of the same words.
   3. What the page can do. Ask: what does the reader of the script have that neither production gives? Teacher note: the reader can reread, go at any speed and see the stage directions, such as "Enter Mariners wet" (paragraph 20). The reader also imagines the storm freely: no one decides for the reader how dark it is or how the Boatswain looks. A production must make those choices, and every choice gives up the others.

   Each pair then writes three sentences: one that compares (how the text and a production are alike), one that contrasts (how they differ), and one that explains the effect of a technique unique to the stage or to film, each with a paragraph number from the script and a quotation from the production notes.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students now work on their own with a short story and an audio version of it. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American writer of poems and dark, mysterious tales. In "The Masque of the Red Death," a terrible sickness called the Red Death is spreading through the land. Prince Prospero (no relation to the magician in The Tempest) shuts himself and a thousand friends inside a walled abbey (a large building that was once a monastery) and throws a masked ball to forget the danger outside. The excerpt describes the seven rooms where the ball is held. Read the story first, then the notes for an imagined audio drama of it.

   Words to know: masque (a masked ball, a dance where guests wear masks), seclusion (staying shut away), pestilence (a deadly disease that spreads), voluptuous (rich and luxurious), imperial suite (a grand row of connected rooms), Gothic window (a tall window with a pointed top), prevailing hue (main color), casements (windows), shrouded (covered), countenances (faces), precincts (area), ebony (a hard black wood), monotonous (the same over and over), brazen (made of brass), constrained (forced), evolutions (turns in a dance), disconcert (upset), giddiest (the silliest and most excited), sedate (calm and serious), reverie (a daydream).

   1It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.

   2It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were seven—an imperial suite. [...] To the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue—and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet—a deep blood color. [...] But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.

   3It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation.

   1Producer's note. Our twelve-minute audio drama was made for a podcast, a recorded audio program that people play on a phone or a computer. Listeners see nothing, so every color in Poe's story has to reach them through sound.

   2The narrator. We kept Poe's narrator. One actor reads his words in a low, calm voice, very close to the microphone, so it feels as if he is speaking into your ear. We shortened his list of rooms: listeners hear only about the blue room, the green room and the black room.

   3Music for each room. Each of the seven rooms has its own version of the same waltz. In the blue room, flutes play it quickly and lightly. As the listener moves west through the rooms, fewer instruments play and the music gets lower and slower, until the black room, where one cello plays it very slowly.

   4Footsteps. We recorded footsteps on stone floors. In the black room, the footsteps suddenly become soft and muffled.

   5The clock. The ebony clock is the loudest sound in the drama. We recorded a church bell and slowed the recording down to make it deeper. Each time the clock strikes, the music stops, and listeners hear only the chime and the nervous breathing of the dancers. After the last chime, we leave four full seconds of silence.

   6A new line. Because listeners cannot see the scarlet windows, we added a line that is not in the story. A guest whispers, "The glass in there is red as blood. I will not go in."

   7Left and right. The drama is recorded in stereo, so some sounds come only from the left speaker or earbud and some only from the right. As the listener moves from room to room, the music slides from the right ear to the left, and the clock always ticks on the left.

   On the handout, students fill in a three-column chart (What the story says, What the audio drama does, The effect) for every paragraph of the producer's notes. Then they write two sentences: one that names a way the story and the audio drama are alike, and one that explains the effect of a technique only audio can use. The quiz uses this story and these notes, so do not discuss answers until students have finished the chart.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Name one technique a film can use that the printed script of The Tempest cannot, and give its effect in one sentence. (2) Name one thing a reader of the script gets that an audience does not.

   Teacher note on language and content: the texts are kept exactly as published, including Shakespeare's older forms ("thou hast," "fall to't") and British spellings such as "labour." Three short cuts in the Tempest scene, each marked [...], leave out insults the lords and the Boatswain trade and two jokes about hanging; nothing else in the scene is changed. Poe's story takes place during a deadly plague and ends, after this excerpt, with the death of the Prince and his guests. The excerpt describes only the rooms and the clock, and it contains no violence. Before the quiz, some classes may want a short word that the story is meant to be eerie, not realistic.

   For homework: students read a nonsense poem and notes for an imagined multimedia version of it, printed below. Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) was the pen name of an English writer and mathematician who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Alice finds a poem printed backward, reads it in a mirror, and says it "seems very pretty" but is "rather hard to understand!" Many of its words were made up by Carroll. A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph in prose, and onomatopoeia is a word that imitates a sound, such as "snicker-snack." Some real words to know: gyre (to spin), foe (enemy), slain (killed), beamish (beaming, happy), chortled (laughed with joy, a word Carroll invented that is now in dictionaries).

   1’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
   Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
   All mimsy were the borogoves,
   And the mome raths outgrabe.

   5“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
   The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
   Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
   The frumious Bandersnatch!”

   He took his vorpal sword in hand:
   10Long time the manxome foe he sought—
   So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
   And stood awhile in thought.

   And as in uffish thought he stood,
   The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
   15Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
   And burbled as it came!

   One, two! One, two! And through and through
   The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
   He left it dead, and with its head
   20He went galumphing back.

   “And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
   Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
   O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
   He chortled in his joy.

   25’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
   Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
   All mimsy were the borogoves,
   And the mome raths outgrabe.

   1Designer's note. Our multimedia version of "Jabberwocky" is an app for tablets. It puts the poem's printed words together with drawings, animation, sound and pop-ups that the reader can open.

   2One stanza at a time. The screen shows one stanza at a time. Nothing moves on until the reader swipes, so each reader sets the pace.

   3Pop-ups. Some nonsense words glow softly. When a reader taps "brillig" or "slithy," a box opens with Humpty Dumpty's explanation from later in Carroll's book, such as "'Brillig' means four o'clock in the afternoon." Humpty Dumpty never explains words like "vorpal" or "frumious," so when a reader taps one of those, the box says only: "Nobody knows. What do you picture?"

   4The creature. The Jabberwock is never shown clearly. When the reader reaches its "eyes of flame," a dark shadow slowly grows behind the words, and two orange eyes open in it.

   5Sound. A narrator reads each stanza aloud if the reader taps a speaker button. On "snicker-snack," readers hear two quick sword sounds, and on "galumphing," a clumsy tuba plays.

   6The fight. At "One, two! One, two!" the app waits. The reader has to tap the screen twice to make the sword strike, and then the shadow breaks apart.

   7Color. The first and last stanzas are drawn in the same dusky purples and greens. Only the middle of the poem, where the fight happens, uses bright red and orange.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In RL.7.7, what is a technique unique to a medium?

   AAny change a production makes to the story, such as a new ending or a character left out BA tool one medium can use and another cannot, such as a close-up in a film CThe part of a story that stays exactly the same in every version of it DA word in the written text that the reader has to look up in a dictionary

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   How does a reader of Poe's story learn the colors of the seven rooms?

   AThe narrator names the colors in words, one room after another BPrince Prospero leads his guests from room to room and names each color CThe story is printed with a colored picture of each of the seven rooms DThe guests argue about the colors while they dance from room to room

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does the audio drama add the whispered line "The glass in there is red as blood. I will not go in"?

   APoe's narrator never says that the guests were afraid to enter the black room BThe producers wanted a new character to take the Prince's place CListeners cannot see the scarlet windows, so a voice has to tell them DThe line is copied word for word from a later part of Poe's story

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which statement names something the story and the audio drama have in common?

   ABoth describe all seven rooms, one color at a time, from east to west BBoth are told entirely through dialogue, with no narrator at all CBoth use a slowed-down church bell to create the sound of the clock DBoth show that the music stops each time the ebony clock strikes

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The audio drama gives each room its own version of a waltz, lower and slower as the listener moves west. Which part of the story does this technique stand in for?

   AThe guests' strange masks and costumes, which the Prince chose for them himself BThe order of the colored rooms, from bright blue in the east to black in the west CThe high stone wall and iron gates that shut the guests away from the Red Death outside DThe light laughter of the guests after the clock stops chiming

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What is the likely effect of the four seconds of silence after the last chime?

   AIt lets listeners share the guests' fear before the dance goes on BIt tells listeners that the audio drama has come to an end CIt hides a mistake in the recording of the church bell DIt gives the narrator time to name the colors of all seven rooms again

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which technique in the audio drama is unique to audio, one that the printed story cannot use?

   AA narrator who describes each of the rooms in words BA list of the colors of the rooms CSound that slides from the right ear to the left DA clock that makes the dancers stop

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The audio drama shortens the narrator's list to the blue, green and black rooms. What does a listener lose?

   AThe gigantic black clock of ebony, which stands against the western wall BThe step-by-step order of seven colors leading toward the black room CThe knowledge that the guests are dancing at a masked ball DThe narrator's calm voice, which is replaced by the Prince's

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In the black room, the footsteps "suddenly become soft and muffled." Which words from the story does this sound come from?

   A"there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony" B"the fifth with white" C"a tall and narrow Gothic window" D"a carpet of the same material and hue"

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The narrator reads "very close to the microphone." What effect does this have that the printed story cannot create in the same way?

    AIt makes the narrator sound as if he is speaking into the listener's ear BIt lets the listener see the narrator's face and hands while he tells the story CIt makes every room sound exactly the same, so none stands out DIt lets the listener skip ahead to the black room at any time

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    How is the clock different for a reader of the story and a listener of the audio drama?

    AThe reader is told that the clock is silent, and the listener hears it ring BThe reader is told that the clock is in the blue room, and the listener hears it in the black room CThe reader is told how the chime sounds and must imagine it; the listener hears a real bell DThe reader hears the chime described by the Prince; the listener hears it from the narrator

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which sentence best compares and contrasts the two versions?

    ABoth frighten the audience with the clock, but only the story names every room's color BBoth name all seven colors of the rooms, but only the audio drama has a clock in the black room CThe story is frightening and the audio drama is funny, so they have nothing in common DThe audio drama keeps every word of the story and adds music, so the two are the same

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A film director wants to show Poe's "blood-tinted panes" (paragraph 2). Which technique is unique to film?

    AA narrator who reads the sentence about the scarlet glass aloud BA slow close-up that moves across the red glass to a guest's frightened face CRed cloth hung in the aisles of a theater during a live performance DA pop-up box that opens with a picture of the red window when a reader taps the word

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A film of Poe's story shows the ebony clock from a low angle, with the camera near the floor looking up at it as it strikes. What is the likely effect?

    AThe clock seems small and harmless, easy for the dancers to ignore BThe clock seems far away, at the other end of the seven rooms CThe clock seems huge and threatening, towering over the dancers DThe clock seems to be part of a dream that one guest is having

15. Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A ghost story says that a hallway "smelled of dust and old roses." An audiobook of the story is being recorded. What is the best way for the audiobook to handle this sentence?

    ACut the sentence, because an audiobook is not allowed to describe smells BPlay the sound of a vase of roses being knocked over in the hallway CShow a close-up of dusty roses while the narrator keeps on reading DKeep the words in the narrator's voice, since sound cannot carry a smell

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    In 3-4 sentences, compare and contrast the black room in Poe's story (paragraph 2) with the black room in the audio drama. Give one likeness, one difference, and the effect of one sound technique.

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17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose one sound technique in the audio drama (the room music, the footsteps, the clock bell or the stereo sound). In 2-3 sentences, explain its effect, with a quotation from the story that the technique comes from.

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18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write 2-3 sentences of notes for a stage production of the seven rooms that uses a technique of the stage, such as lighting. Then explain in one sentence how its effect would differ from the audio drama's.

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19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    In 2-3 sentences, explain one thing Poe's written words can do with the rooms that is hard for an audio drama to do, and one thing the audio drama does that the words cannot.

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20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    In 2-3 sentences, explain why RL.7.7 asks students to analyze the effects of techniques instead of only listing how a production differs from the written work.

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These standards connect to RL.7.7: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.