2) Unit Two: Scandals in Sports

LESSON ONE: INTERTEXTUAL INVESTIGATIONS

In our first part of class, you will be able to ..... explain how, when we analyze different media concurrently, we learn to step back and understand them in new ways.

Let's Get Started! Review the last lessons we had in Unit One prior to vacation.

  • Sports Autobiographies (distribute rubrics)
  • Viewing Check about segment one of Not Just a Game: Power, Politics, and American Sport (distribute)
  • Carousel Posters: Previewing Prior Knowledge

Reflect on Not Just a Game: Power, Politics, and American Sport by applying the notes you took and our Carousel Posters to this template, called "Reflecting on Power and Politics in U.S Sports."

Next, we'll move together through an e-learning module:

Scandals in Sport

An E-Learning Module for Sports and Popular Culture Students

By the end of this session, you will be able to draw conclusions about why scandals occur in sports and why the general public is so mesmerized by scandals.

Introduction

So far this semester, we have been exploring the ways that sport is a reflection of society and starting to ask questions about how sport can be a mechanism to improve society. In doing so, we are learning to read the world of sports and media through keener understandings about the way that persuasion works.

Now you will begin to research the broad dimensions of how sports and scandals intersect. The information you compile will become part of a multimodal presentation that you will teach to the class. This week, you'll become much more knowledgeable about how scandals have affected sports like football, baseball, soccer, rugby, bicycling, cricket, motorsports, horseracing, and other popular sports. You'll have the chance to see how college and Olympic sports have been drawn into scandals and controversies. You'll how different substances or political influences have affected sports and created scandals. And you'll meet Common Core standards to write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

E-Learning Module Overview

Here's your Big Task: You are an investigator whose responsibility it will be to uncover one particular sports scandal and to determine who was responsible, what decisions were made that exceeded the rules and regulations, how individuals benefited by breaking those rules, and what the consequences of the scandal were on the sport as a whole.

To prepare, you must go through a series of learning events to better understand these and other elements of the sports scandal. You will create a Web page on your own Google website that captures important information you locate during each step of "The Process" below as well as your own investigation into one particular scandal.

You must do each step of the Process below. Create a Google Doc and title it, "Scandals in Sports: Process." When you are done, you will show your work to Dr. Carolyn, who will give you a grade based on your thoroughness and insights. Afterward, you will choose a particular scandal and compose a Product: an expository narrative. Each student in a class must choose a different scandal to investigate, and you must register your choice of scandal with Dr. Carolyn.

E-Learning Module: Process

In each step of this e-learning module, you will view, read, or listen to a text. Then you will compose a response based on a series of directions that follow. As you work through the E-Learning Module, please title each step: for example, Step One: Definition, Please.

Step One: Definition, Please

Read over these definitions of a "scandal" from the Free Dictionary. Afterward, define it in your own words.

Step Two: Applying a Theory of Scandals to a Sports Scandal

First, read over Elements of a Scandal. Then, view this documentary film trailer: The Armstrong Lie.

Compare the elements of a scandal to Armstrong's story. Which elements are evident? Why? Write a well-worded, 3-4 sentence paragraph.

Step Three: Why We Love a Scandal

Read this article from Psychology Today about Five Reasons We Love a Scandal. Make a short list of the five reasons the author cites. Then create a slogan that explains why people love a scandal in your own words. Be creative and clever! Have fun (but be socially appropriate, please.)

Step Four: What Makes a Top Sporting Scandal?

View the video slideshow, "Top 10 Sporting Scandals." Which of the sporting scandals are the most serious? Why? Create a bulleted list of five sporting scandals that you feel are most serious. After each, write a phrase that indicates why these are so serious. This is also an excellent source:

The 12 Biggest Sports Scandals of 2015 from Rolling Stone

Step Five: Unpacking NFL Concussions as a Sports Scandal

We'll view the 2015 film trailer, Concussion. Afterward, we'll do a think-pair-share in response to the following prompt:

"Knowing what we now do about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), should families allow their children to play sports that have significant possibilities of CET?"

Finally, you'll write a well-worded, 3-4 sentence paragraph in which you independently answer the prompt.

Step Six: 12H (or extra credit, 12CP): How Missing Non-Dominant Voices Affect Sports

Research suggests that non-dominant voices can shift hegemonic reproduction toward more equitable playing fields. Non-dominant voices in the sports world, when presented with repeated opportunities for reflection and metacognitive deliberation, seem to be able to critically analyze society's contradictions more than can Insiders to sports. Read the following article: In Coverage of NFL Scandals, Female Voices Puncture the Din. Afterward, write a 3-4 sentence personal response. In your response, talk about how you feel about opportunities within sports to improve society. Use the following Language of Interpretation to frame your position.

Homework: Everybody: Please make sure you have completed Steps 1-3 of the Process. 12H/ Extra Credit, 12CP: Also, complete Step 6.

LESSON TWO: YOUR OWN INVESTIGATION OF A SPORTS AND POPULAR CULTURE SCANDAL

By the end of class, you will be able to... choose and investigate one particular scandal that has occurred in the world of sports and popular culture.

Let's Get Started! Please retrieve your Google Doc with your E-Learning Module work. We'll complete Steps Four and Five, then Dr. Carolyn will check off this assignment today in class.

Preview: You'll do research then write an expository narrative to help someone else to understand various important elements of a sporting scandal.

First, go to Google and do a keyword search: "Top Sporting Scandals." Take time to look through the various websites in order to be able to have a clear and comprehensive understanding of the various scandals that have appeared in the world of sports.

Choose one sports scandal and register it with Dr. Carolyn. Please choose well, as no two students will be allowed to investigate the same sporting scandal. Here is the registration list of topics and pseudonyms.

Research your sporting scandal carefully. Take lots of notes, and be sure to create a Works Cited page as you go along. Then it's time to create your own investigative report!

Here is Dr. Carolyn's Sample Digital Project, which should serve as a model for your own composing.

With the time remaining in today's class, start to enter information onto your personal Google website, under your Unit 2 page.

Homework: Continue to investigate your Sports and Popular Culture Scandal. During tomorrow's class, we'll mark out fields for different areas of the required research and begin to fill in those fields.

LESSON THREE: FROM RESEARCH TO DIGITAL COMPOSING

By the end of class, you will be able to... analyze a sports and popular culture scandal along multiple dimensions and take a position about its relevance.

Day 1. Let's Get Started! Please open up your personal Google website. Go to Unit Two: Scandals in Sports. Together, we'll mark out fields for the different areas of your required research and begin to fill in those fields.

Here is the rubric to guide you as you compose.

Day 1. Homework: Complete a first full draft of your digital composition. You'll get feedback from a small group of assigned peers tomorrow.

Day 2. Focus Group Sporting Scandals Homework: Revise and finish your digital composition. You'll be presenting in a different small group of assigned peers tomorrow.

Day 3. Final product Celebrations Sharing Session: Sporting Scandal Investigations: Summarizing, Explaining, and Responding Sheet

Afterward, please take this survey as a way for us to move into our new unit. Thanks!

Homework: None

LESSON FOUR: WRITING A LETTER OF REQUEST

By the end of class, you will be able to... use commonly accepted conventions to communicate with local celebrities and athletes

Let's Get Started! What types of Sports and/ or Popular Culture guest speakers might actually come to Franklin High?

Please click through to this Google Doc. Follow the directions.

Homework: Finish your letter, if you did not do so today in class. Please print your letter. Dr. Carolyn will edit it prior to giving you permission to represent Franklin High School by mailing it. Also, you will receive a mastery learning grade on your final product.