Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Brit Lit CPI: Setting Up Blogs, Sketchnoting Expectations & Best Writing

Today we'll set up our blogs.  This is will be the primary place where you write and share your thinking in class this semester.

For your first blog entry, write the best paragraph you can -- an example of your best quality writing -- in five minutes.  Describe how you spent these past several snow days. Where were you? What did you do?  How did you wrangle with the snow?

After this, we'll be creating sketchnotes of the Guidelines & Expectations in groups of 1, 2 or 3.  The sketchnote should be based on the information in the packet you were given an answer these questions:

What do we need for class?
What will class be like?
How much work will there be?

Next class we dig into our first text: Beowulf and take a look at boasting and bragging and vanity plates.


AP Lit: Hamlet: Designing To Be or Not To Be Continues: Storyboards

Today we take our best, most intriguing ideas for staging "To Be or Not to Be" into the next round of Experiment phase: storyboarding.  You will create at least 4 storyboard panels for the sequence you stage, accompanied by annotations to explain the visuals.

This will lead to determining criteria for our project.  HMW demonstrate our depth of understanding of Hamlet by designing the staging of a single soliloquy?  (I intended to dictate these terms to you folks and then realized this is a great opportunity to talk about what really matters in terms of analysis, synthesis, creativity and showcasing knowledge.)

Then we will On-Demand: Discuss Shakespeare's use of a literary device such as allusion, symbolism and characterization to develop a theme of power and control.  15 min.  One powerful paragraph.

Also, we will share two of our indie book projects.

HOMEWORK.

Blog.  3+ Posts.
Req'd Post.  How to Read Lit Like a Professor. "When In Doubt . . . Shakespeare . . ."
How might Foster's position on Shakespeare inform our reading of Hamlet and/or our design of "To Be or Not to Be?"

Watch/Read. Rest of Hamlet by Friday/Monday. See Google Drive and e-mail for clips.

To Be or Not to Be.  Due Tuesday/Wednesday after break.




Humanities: FrankenWord, LNG & Teen Culture/Music Culture

Hey!  We have school today!

Remember improv?  Let's do a little of that this morning.  I've got an idea.

VOCAB.

We'll start with FrankenWord.  Take any root from Roots 7 and combine it with a Root from any other list to create a brand new word that relates to . . . wait for it . . . music and/or culture.

Remember the FrankenWord expectations.
Word.
Definition & Part of Speech.
Used in a Sentence that Shows What the Word Means.
Visual.

LNG.

From there, we will LNG because we missed out on it yesterday and we are trying to get game on with it.

MUSIC CULTURE/TEEN CULTURE.

Finally, there will be time to complete/refine our music culture/teen culture work.  Three graphic organizers are due.  One on Leader of the Pack, one on Summertime Blues, and one on a song about teen culture of your choice.  (It might be one from the playlist.)

HOMEWORK.

Blog.  3+ Posts.
Req'd Post: My Heart Like a Kick Drum.  If your life  -- your self -- was a drum kit, what would it look like?  Double bass?  Bongos?  Set of toms?  Take a look at clips below for inspiration.

Neil Peart from Rush.


Art Blakey.


The famous "Amen Break" from G.C. Coleman (this has been sampled a TON.)


Buddy Rich & Gene Krupa



and Joe Morello who is crazy rad and I only heard about because of this rad teacher




Then doodle your life as a drum kit.  Actually draw it out.  Check out Mr. Ryder's here as an example.


And explain your thinking.  You might want to look at the anatomy of a drum kit.  Learn a bit about the parts and pieces and most certainly the names.

Mr. Ryder's would be super simple.  One kick drum.  One snare.  One hi hat.


  • Snare. Sharp. Quick.  Super flexible & can make a lot of different sounds.  It's a lot like how he's involved in a lot of different things.  Goes anywhere.
  • Hi hat.  Punctuation and that snap that goes underneath everything else.  It's my brain.  Never quite stops.  Sometimes it's constantly going because of a pedal.  
  • Kick drum.  Boom.  Thud.  Right in the chest.  I love that feeling.  I love when I get hit by an idea or an experience and lands right in the center of my being.  And I hope I can create experiences for others that do that as well, whether it is in the classroom or on stage or on social media.


Teen Music/Teen Culture.  Complete the three graphic organizers.  Look on Google Classroom.

Vocab.  Roots 7 Quiz & Product (FrankenWord counts!)
Due. Thursday 2/5