The Godfather is the quintessential example of the gangster genre, which includes “films that deal with organized crime, often with mob families,” (Chapter 4). In fact, The Godfather also fits squarely within the gangster genre because it is nostalgic and romanticized, offering “recreations of past eras” in which Italian-American mafia families like the Corleones did dominate both licit and illicit business activities and politics in American cities. A sub-genre of the crime film, gangster movies like The Godfather are unique because the audience is rooting for the bad guys, not the cops. Even when the protagonists of the film kill people, they are still tragic heroes. “Many gangster characters then had a certain mystique that made them appealing, almost heroic, in their ability to overcome youthful poverty and oppression to rise in power and wealth,” (Chapter 4). In The Godfather, Michael Corleone did not necessarily overcome poverty, because he was born….

Genre theory offers a useful means of classifying films according to their tropes and conventions. Although films constructed purposely to fit into a specific genre can be criticized for being overly commercial, genre theory does reveal how American audiences do react favorably towards familiar themes, actors, directorial styles, plots, and imagery (“Movie Genres”). Moreover, genres reveal the power of archetypes in storytelling. Even when a film does not fit neatly within one and only one genre, or when a film straddles many genres at once, the plot and characterization may still reveal familiar themes. Fantasy can be considered a universal genre in that all cultures have a collective body of myths and storytelling about superhuman or otherworldly creatures. Therefore, fantasy films are about much more than escapism. Fantasy is a genre that offers filmmakers and audiences alike a great degree of flexibility in terms of symbols and motifs. Audiences are….

Blade Runner: Genre, Conflict and Ambiguities
The conflict at the heart of Blade Runner is like that in most noir, neo-noir and detective films -- a fight between good and evil. In Blade Runner, this conflict is particularly compelling because the distinction between these two forces is ambiguous at best. The film uses the man vs. monster motif put forward in Shelley's gothic masterpiece Frankenstein (in Blade Runner it is updated to man vs. machine to fit the futuristic setting), and this motif allows the film to explore the question of what makes us human, intelligent, sentient, and mortal. The film's underlying philosophical tone is not used in a pedantic manner but rather to elicit sympathy for the film's most interesting characters -- the replicants themselves -- as well as the individuals responsible for creating them and destroying them. The hero of the film, Deckard, is one of the latter --….

Hippie evolution
Over the course of the 1960s, the United States saw great social and political upheaval, as countless young people revolted against a system that was fundamentally incapable of effectively representing them or their desires. Though the decade saw the development of a number of important social and political efforts, such as the civil rights movement, the hippie movement has come to define the era, and for good reason. Hippies not only opposed the Vietnam War, but they also formed a counter-culture, opposing repressive standards of dress, behavior, and even thought, and, ultimately, they ended up forcing the entire country to undergo a dramatic ideological shift. The films Head, Skidoo, and Psych-Out represent three different reactions to the social conflict that gave rise to the hippie movement, and each films' implicit or explicit treatment of psychedelic drugs, as well as its representation of preexisting entertainment genres, reveals its particular ideological….

However, in spite of the fact that the film was promoted as a motion picture displaying real-life events, it appears that the director did not hesitate to modify a series of aspects about the environment that he shot in and the story itself. The protagonist's wife and children were not actually his and Flaherty correctly believed that audiences would be more deeply impressed if he presented the story from a more spectacular point-of-view. Even with this, one can still claim that the film is a documentary because it presents viewers with its own creation.
Many individuals took advantage of the fact that documentary films were very influential and devised propaganda strategies using motion pictures. Many individuals involved in this affair considered that fiction films no longer had a strong appeal and that society was more concerned about seeing 'cinema verite'. Many filmmakers got actively engaged in creating films discussing political….

Balzac and Kafka: From Realism to Magical Realism
French author Honore de Balzac defined the genre of realism in the early 19th century with his novel Old Man Goriot, which served as a cornerstone for his more ambitious project, The Human Comedy. Old Man Goriot also served as a prototype for realistic novels, with its setting of narrative parameters which included plot, structure, characterization, and point-of-view. The 20th century, however, digressed considerably from the genre of realism. Franz Kafka, for example, has been considered as one of the forerunners of the genre known as Magical Realism. endy B. Faris defines the genre of Magical Realism as the combination of "realism and the fantastic so that the marvelous seems to grow organically within the ordinary, blurring the distinction between them… [including] different cultural traditions" (1). Faris finds magical realism to exist at the crossroads of modernism and post-modernism, as a kind of….

ity Slickers (1991) depicts a group of middle-aged pals going on a two-week western cattle drive run by the cowpoke urly .Besides such obvious Western themes, such as the horses, Western scenery and uplifting music, are the male characters. Although in their modern city life the do not reveal their inner strengths, in the West, the men find the important values in life and within themselves. urly represents the sole cowboy that once was and mostly likely will never be again.

Lastly, the 1976 Outlaw Josey Wales is closest to what we today consider the Western. Once again, this movie has the rugged and individualist protagonist and the comic friend. The difference here is that Josey Wales starts out as an unassuming farmer and transforms into a violent shooter. Although he has reason to seek revenge, one questions whether two wrongs make a right and has Wales lost sight of the….

Psycho
Alfred Hitchcok's Psycho was released in 1960, and encapsulates the social, psychological, and political tensions of the Cold ar era. As Raubicheck and Serebnick point out, Psycho could have been a bridge to the 1960s but the film is "less linked to and reflective of the so-called radical sixties than they are of the more controlled fifties and possess more cultural texture of this earlier era," (17). The issues related to gender, sexuality, and sexual repression in the film are likewise reflective of the interest in Freudian psychoanalysis that prevailed during the 1950s. Rebello points out that the popularity of Freudian psychology and theories like the Oedipus complex are played out on the screen in Psycho. Anthony Perkins's character Norman Bates is "connected with a much larger discussion, in the early Cold ar, of political and sexual deviance," (Genter 134). In Psycho, Bates becomes the archetype of the psychopath, which….

There is a chapter entitled "Getting Even" which talks about many films that have rape as a story line and the victim gets even. This chapter was the most obscure to me, because many of the films the author mentioned did not seem to fit into the horror genre, or were pretty much unknown films (at least to me). I understand the problem with rape-related horror films, and how they often make the victim appear as if she subconsciously wanted to be raped, but I do not think the examples the author uses are the most effective. I did not relate to this chapter as much because I did not know the films, and I think that weakened the book for me. It would have helped if the films were more well-known, or there were other examples that proved the point. The other point of this chapter, that women have….

2ndGrade/Weather Lesson Plan
Weather: A Second Grade Thematic Unit

The proposed thematic unit is designed for a general education classroom at the second grade level. The suggested time frame is three weeks, but the unit could be either shortened slightly or extended by adjusting the number of activities. eading activities include shared reading and self-selected reading from a variety of books provided by the teacher. The book selection should include multiple genres and multiple reading levels. A suggested list is included. Writing activities engage students in the five stages of the writing process. Students will create a weather journal that includes their writing and a reading log. Students may also include notes about weather observations.

Instructional Focus: Grade 2

Subject: Science

Weather

Literacy and Writing Standards for Pennsylvania

Met in this unit:

eading Informational Text: Students read, understand, and respond to informational text -- with emphasis on comprehension, making connections among ideas and between texts with focus on….

He was attuned to her; he understood such things. He said he understood." Her helplessness and general withdrawal from the family are emphasized when she realizes that she cannot find a role that suits her: "she tried these personalities on like costumes, then discarded them." Again, as in the case of hopin's story, the conflict is internal as the character is revolting against itself. At first, the woman thinks she cannot handle the roles of mother and wife, but gradually she realizes that she cannot find any role she feels comfortable with. The emotional lack of attachment to her husband and son are soon extended; she no longer feels comfortable with anything in her life.
The main theme, that of dissatisfaction with one's life, is greatly emphasized by the mood of the story. The mood is created especially by the choice of setting; the plot takes place only inside the….

ob einer's 1987 film The Princess Bride enjoyed only moderate box office revenues, but developed popular underground appeal and has become a cult classic. The enduring respect for einer's quirky romantic comedy is immediately apparent: it is far from formulaic, and does not truly fit in either to the "rom com" designation or that of a fantasy. The Princess Bride also includes a cast filled with luminaries like Peter Falk, Andre the Giant, and Christopher Guest. Its cast and celebrity director therefore enhances the credibility of The Princess Bride. Ultimately, though, the script and the overall tone of the film make The Princess Bride classically compelling. William Goldman's eponymous novel, upon which the film is based, transforms seamlessly into a film that capitalizes on the clever story-within-a-story concept. Peter Falk reads The Princess Bride to his grandson, who is staying home sick from school. At first, the grandson balks at….

Either way the reality is that the two works demonstrate that ultimately motherhood is work and doing it effectively while concurrently chasing career goals and challenges is even more work. Though this issue is played down to some extent as the mother (while her daughter is in her body) is allowed to ignore and remake some of the obligations of her frantic career and social world, the works are congruent in that the conflict for working mothers is an essential one, often creating lighthearted conflicts and genre-based statements about the stress that the conflict can create in a women's life. In other words, having it all takes a significant toll on self, and each mother is depicted as seeking resolution that is found then through the reintroduction of childlike needs and freedoms, that help her realize what is really important and what needs to be paid attention to, i.e. family.….

Evolution of the Zombie

An element which was not examined in great detail by Bishop was the evolution of the "undead" creatures of which zombies are one of many. It would appear that Hollywood is always evolving new concepts in terms of these creatures, so much so that the idea of the zombie begins to become blurred. For example some films, most notably 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later have toyed with a concept which is very similar to that of the zombie, but is induced by a virus. The creatures in these movies are not technically zombies as they have never died, they have simply changed into flesh-eating monsters. In addition, Shaun of the Dead takes the traditional conventions of the zombie film, but adds an element of comedy, creating what is arguably a new style of film. It would therefore appear likely that given the popularity of the….

Though formulaic language expressions have been in regular use, in popular media forms, for at least the majority of the twentieth century if not indeed for centuries longer, their recognition and study is recent development (Van Lancker-Sidtis & allon 2004). Some texts have even been found to be comprised of a quarter or of formulaic expressions, demonstrating at once a reliance on collective cultural interpretations and a marked lack of originality in popular media language use (Van Lancker-Sidtis & allon 2004). These phrases make for interpretations that are both more colloquially colored and less symbolically imbued for their necessarily repetitive nature (thus their emergence as formulaic expressions) and their needed consistency in order to remain meaningful (Van Lancker-Sidtis & allon 2004).

Music and Language

The relationship between music and language is the subject of a great deal of debate, and ever researchers that support comparisons between the two uniquely human cognitive phenomena….

Genre theory refers to the use of familiar themes and ideas as a way of signaling to the audience what to expect from a work of fiction. Genre theory can be used in various types of fiction and is often discussed when talking about both literature and movies. Genre theory can provide a good springboard for analysis of a particular work, because works can exemplify genres, deviate from genres, or even flip genres completely upside down.  As fictional works have developed, genres have become more specific.  Genres were initially very broad, both....

**Literary Analysis and Criticism**

* **Compare and contrast the literary techniques and themes employed by two or more authors in their works.**
* **Analyze the structure, language, and symbolism in a literary work to uncover its deeper meanings.**
* **Examine the historical and cultural context that influenced the creation and reception of a literary text.**
* **Explore the psychoanalytic or feminist perspectives on a literary work and discuss their implications.**
* **Evaluate the significance and lasting impact of a particular literary movement or genre.**

**Rhetorical Analysis and Argument**

* **Analyze the persuasive techniques used in a speech, essay, or other persuasive text.**
* **Evaluate the logical reasoning and....

1. Analyzing the use of figurative language in WIDA language assessments
2. Exploring the role of syntax and sentence structure in WIDA writing prompts
3. Investigating the inclusion of literary devices in WIDA reading passages
4. Discussing the importance of vocabulary acquisition in WIDA language development
5. Examining the integration of cultural elements in WIDA language arts tasks
6. Evaluating the effectiveness of incorporating multimedia resources in WIDA language assessments
7. Comparing the language skills developed through WIDA assessments with traditional language arts instruction
8. Exploring the connection between WIDA language proficiency levels and academic achievement in language arts
9. Investigating the impact of language arts instruction on....

I. Introduction
A. Explanation of poetry and music collaborations
B. Importance of these collaborations in Ireland
C. Overview of the essay

II. Historical background of poetry and music collaborations in Ireland
A. The tradition of combining poetry and music
B. Famous Irish poets and musicians who have collaborated in the past

III. Characteristics of Irish poetry and music collaborations
A. Common themes explored in collaborations
B. Styles and genres of music often used in collaborations
C. Impact of collaborations on the artistic scene in Ireland

IV. Notable examples of successful poetry and music collaborations in Ireland
A. Seamus Heaney and The Chieftains
B.....