As part of my belief that a topic can be taught to students of various ages at varrying levels, I plan on devising a number of lesson plans that will allow middle school students to interact and learn about avant-garde modernist magazines.  While the experience the students have will not be at a graduate level, it need not be in order for them to have a meaningful study of this particular genre.

 Part of my plan will be to allow ths study to cover a number of different skills important in a middle school language arts curriculum, including critical thinking, making predictions, cooperative learning and a thorough writing assignment.  In addition, by scaffolding the stages at which each student will interact with the texts, it will allow them to produce their own 'class magazine' at the end of the unit.  The key will be in enabling the students to identify the workings of a magazine and having them relate it to themselves - which is the goal of this unit.

In brief, the unit will begin with a brief introduction of modernism and a cursory study of a copy of a number of issues of magazines found on the MJP.  Students will be asked to identify details of the magazine, including topics that are covered and discussed and the page format/layout.  A list should be compiled of topics that are covered as it will be needed later in the unit.  They will also compare Le Petit Journal to one of the more mainstream styled magazines in an effort to show what that journal did that others did not and for studetns to recognize the unique format of theat publication.  Students will then compare and contrast magazines of today with which they are familiar with their findings from the study of the avant-garde magazine, including changes in tone, intended audiences and purpose of publication. 

 Next, students will be broken up into groups of two and be assigned one of the topics that is covered in the avant-garde magazine.  As a class, they will be putting together their own magazine, keeping in mind what they have already learned about modernism and what they have noticed about those magazines, i.e., tone, purpose, etc.  Each pair will need to write its own article on that topic, making sure to produce multiple drafts of the article, engage in peer editting and employ the use of editor's marks.  The pair will publish the final draft of its article on a page to be included in the class's magazine.  The page must include the article, an advertisement, and an illustrated border, thus integrating what they have studied and noticed about the varrying modernist magazines. 

Adolescents need to engage in a topic of study rather than cimply study it in the abstract.  This unit will allow for that while also providing students with the opportunity to be creative, work together and have fun.  That is often the added bonus of teaching middle schoolers: watching them smiling, having fun and learning at the same time - without them knowing it.

MLW