Joining the Dialogue about Digital Distraction

Greetings!

My apologies for not being with you again today.  As you might already know, my father passed away earlier this week and I've been in New Jersey with my family.  I'll return next week and look forward to seeing you all.

For today, you are going to go to this website from the New York Times.
Read what the page is asking you to do - read the two short articles they link you to, then join in the digital dialogue about it.  You can see the specific directions where it says, "So if you're 13 to 25 years old...."

Also, please write a short post on your own blog about your reactions to the articles and / or thoughts to the other questions they ask here.

Have a great weekend.

Synthesis - Ray Bradbury story #2

Good Morning!

We'll start today by reading one more story from Ray Bradbury: "A Sound of Thunder." 
After you read the story, please go to your blog and create a new post with answers to these questions:

• Who is the protagonist?  Who is the antagonist? 
• How does the point of view from which the story is told affect your understanding of it?
• Why are the time travelers told to "stay on the Path?" What is "the path"? What could happen if a traveler goes off the path or steps on a mouse, for example?
• The narrator uses the phrase "A sound of thunder," several times in this story. What is the sound of thunder being referenced?
• What point might the author be making with this story?  What other potential themes are there?

Synthesis - Ray Bradbury short story

Before you read the story for today, go to your blog and start a new post to keep track of your thoughts and responses to the questions below.

(Please respond to these before you read the story - a few sentences for each)

1. What would you do if you knew this was the last night of the world?
2. What do you think other people would do if they knew this was the last night of the world?

(Read the story - click here)

(Respond to these questions after you read the story - a few sentences for each)

1. Who are the protagonists in this story?  In what ways are they similar / different?
2. What are the main points behind the husband's reasoning and actions in the story?
3. Choose two details from the story (specific objects, locations, people) and explain their role / purpose / significance.
4. How would you describe the tone in this story?  How is it similar to / different from what you wrote about in the pre-reading questions?
5. What overall point is the story making?  Name it in one sentence.

Sequence and Meaning - Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl"

Today we'll read "Girl," a short piece by Jamaica Kincaid.  Here is a link to a copy of it.

After we heard it out loud a few times, I asked you to select one of the phrases and do a little writing to explore what it means, either looking deeper into the actual meaning or thinking about what it is implying.

We made a list of the "voices" in the piece.  On one wall we listed all of the "things" present in the piece - people, food, objects, etc.  On the other wall we listed all of the "topics" the piece discusses - instructions it gives or issues it raises either implicitly or explicitly.

Then, you selected one of the "things" and wrote in the first person of that "thing" to explain one of the "topics."  So for example, the "flies" might explain "how to act in church" or "wharf rat boys" may explain "being independent."

Sequence - How the order of events shapes our understanding of them

Last week we did a few different activities to help us explore the idea of sequence and story.  We wrote our own stories and cut them into pieces to re-arrange.  We looked at the Justin Bieber - Anne Frank story that slowly revealed more information with each step and talked about how it shifted the focus of the story.  We read "An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge" and explored the way Ambrose Bierce changed the sequence of events to give his story power and mystery, and help us connect with the protagonist in deeper ways.

Today we will return to current events and look at the ways in which the media coverage of last week's bombing of the Boston Marathon played out.  In many ways it was rather controversial, from falsely reporting information to blaming innicent people to stirring up fears about people and parts of the population.

Here are links to a series of articles:

• MediaITE - "10 Absolute Worst Media Reactions"
• Huffington Post - "Media Criticize..."
• The New Yorker - "The Saudi Marathon Man"
• Salon.com - "Let's Hope..."
• Huffington Post - "Reddit Apologizes..."
• and here's a link to the Jon Stewart clip we watched

Using Setting to Understand Poetry

When we talk about setting, we can think in terms of some basic questions:
- where is the poem taking place?
- who are the people in the poem?
- when is the poem taking place?
- what is happening in the poem - event, occasion, etc.?

We can use these to help us answer two other questions we can ask about the poem:
- How is it creating meaning(s)?
- Why are the ideas and events in the poem there?
- What are the meaning(s) / message(s)?

We'll continue to use these four poems for our work.

Browsing Magazines

We'll look at these magazine sites today:

The Atlantic Monthly

New Yorker

Harper's Magazine

Writing a Thesis about a Visual Text

We're going to continue discussing art this week by sharing what we wrote about the different pieces we selected last week.

Then we will switch to individual writing about this work by the painter Peter Blume.  It also might help to look at this handout from the Art Institute - the quality of the image is better.

We'll do a series of creative writing exercises together before writing the essay below.  You can do these in your notebook or on your blog - it's up to you.

Essay:  Write a blog post in which you analyze what the message of "The Rock" is and how it is communicated.  Your response needs to be an extended paragraph, using at least 6 pieces of evidence from the painting.  You may include details about:

• color
• light
• people
• symbols
• actions
• movement
• foreground / background / use of space
• relationship between different parts of the painting
• time
• place / setting
• mood / tone

Responding to Art

Today we'll turn our attention to non-verbal texts as we continue to explore questions about thesis and theme.

You'll stat by going to the website of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Here, you'll start on the page with links to their different collections.  Spend some time surfing around here, browing through art you are familiar with and other works of art you've never seen before.

• To do this most effectively, click on "view all online works" on the title page of each collection.
• While you are looking at a work of art, you'll sometimes see the ability to "view enlargement" which will obviously give you a closer and more detailed look

Next, when I tell you to move to this step, you'll choose a piece of art to work with today.  When you have one, (go to the enlargement if it is available) copy the URL and paste it into a new post on your blog.  Then, you'll spend about 10 minutes with this artwork, answering as many of the following questions as you can.  Feel free to have your responses be in the form of bullet points or sentences.

Representational art

• What is happening in the picture? What is it about?
• What do you see? What else do you see?
• What kind of place is it?
• What kind of light is there? How do you know? Where is it coming from? How do you know?
• What time of day or year is it? Why do you think so?
• What part did you notice first?
• What colours stand out most? Why? What are the surrounding colours like? What colours are used more than once?
• Is the paint thick or thin, rough or smooth, creamy or runny?
• Does the surface look shiny and polished, or heavily textured?
• Can you see the brush marks the artist made?
• Are the edges of things clear and sharp, or soft and fuzzy?
• What is the mood or atmosphere of the picture? How is it created?

Non-representational art

• What part catches your eye most?
• What part is brightest, darkest, busiest, quietest?
• Do some parts seem closer and others further away?
• Which colours seem closer to you and which seem to move away?
• Do some shapes overlap?
• How does the artist suggest movement?
• Can you think of words to describe the edges of things?
• Does the whole painting look flat or does the artist suggest space?
• Is a mood created? What mood? How is it created?

Finally, you will write a Diamante poem about your artwork.  Click here for a description of the process and see below for my example:

 

 

Lonely

Quiet evening

Sitting waiting wondering

I’ve been here before

Slowly patiently stirring

Cold coffee

Again

Willa Cather short stories

In class on Wednesday we read Willa Cather's "A Wagner Matinee."  We discussed the main character, Georgiana, and the differences between life in Nebraska and her experiences listening to the Wagner opera in Boston.

Today you will each read a different story from Willa Cather, from the collection you will find here.

When you are finished with the story, please answer the following questions on your blog (just a few bullet points and sentences for each one - nothing too extensive).  Give your post a title that includes Cather's name, so we'll be able to find it.

1. List some of the details that describe the setting(s) of the story.  Explain why Cather uses these - what are they telling us about this place?
2. List some of the language Cather uses to describe the main character (or one of them if your story has more than one) - both things s/he says and does as well as descriptions of him/her from other people or the narrator.  What is this language telling us about this person?
3. What conclusions come to mind at the end of the story - what are some of the ideas it might be conveying to the reader?
4. Think back to "A Wagner Matinee" - in what ways is Cather using language in similar ways with the story you read?  Are there similar ideas / themes?  How does Cather convey them?

Grades?

To follow up on our discussion about grades we will read an article today:

Alfie Kohn - "The Case Against Grades"

Afterwards, write a response to it on your blog, including the following points:

1- What is the author's main point / position / thesis?
2- How does s/he support that point?
3- What, if anything, does s/he say about opposing views?

Follow this with a response of your own in which you agree / disagree with the author's point and make your own about this issue.

Position and Thesis

We started class today, after talking about our winter breaks, by answering these questions:

• Should there be grades in school?
• How do grades affect learning?

From these we talked about crafting a position statement and a thesis, as well as how we supported / defended our argument.

Factors:

• school would be too easy without them
• affect on placement in future classes
• student motivation
• performance on tests
• tangible / documentable
• track progress / effort
• outsider understanding of your work
• cause stress
• more / less important to different students
• attention / focus
• affects understanding
• future performance
• too much emphasis on grade as greater than learning
• helps teachers reflect on the effectiveness of their teaching / testing
• student awareness of how they are doing
• too easy if just pass / fail
• cause a person to give up if not successful
• confidence
• impact on future college choices
• affects engagement with learning
• how much you like the class linked to grades