Eng 9: Struggles, Empathy & Self-Advocacy

We started a empathy & self-advocacy two-day experience in English on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Our goal is to build up our capacity for understanding the struggles of others, helping them find solutions, and better understanding our struggles and strategies for asking for help.

That's a lot of commas.

Here's what we've done so far . . .

We started with an anonymous Google Form and gathered up examples of struggles we know folks -- and ourselves -- experience.  Here are screenshots of the results.

We conducted a Notice (Observations)/Wish (Reactions)/Wonder (Questions) with this data.  Here are a couple of the results from this work.

Mrs. Grohoski then distributed index cards with a struggle on one side and a blank on the other.  We made three columns on the blank side: Difficult, Easy, and Help Needed.   We tried to get into the POV of someone with that struggle and list tasks that might be difficult, those that might be easy, and help that person might need.

After a minute or two to process on your own, you circulated around the room and gathered input from several folks, adding to the columns.

You then had five minutes to write/record from the point of view of a person with this struggle.  Imagine what a typical school day morning is like for this person.   Use 1st person point of view ('I got up this morning . . . ) to create a journal/video/audio.

We synthesized that point of view into trying to fill out a scholarship application from the point of view this same character.  We did not give you much guidance in filling it out because we want you thinking about what it's like to struggle when you are unsure of an answer -- what do you do? What would this person do?  How might they respond to this challenge?

Period 4B managed get into a little jenga block roots 2 activity.

Next class, we will have four new stations, we will be practicing self-advocacy and we will be getting caught up on blogging and putting evidence of learning in our Eng 9 IN folders.

Due Today.

8 Box.  Who Am I (At This Moment)

Notice/Wish/Wonder  over "So What Are You, Anyway?"

Pop Culture: Design Challenge: Design a Band

Pop Culture: Design a Band

We start today with this "How Might We . . . ?"

How might we create an intentional band out of random elements?  

This will be run similar to a DEEPdt  flash lab.

DISCOVER.

Make a list of bands and artists that you believe have really great names. Even if you don't love the music or consider them a favorite, you hear the name and think, "that's a great name."  Throw in good names of movies, good names of books, TV series, while you are at it.  

Put three of your favorite names -- music or not -- and put each on a sticky note and up the marker board.

I notice.  I wish.  I wonder.  We'll look at those band names up on the board and discuss using only those stems to start our thinking.

EMPATHY.

Partner with someone you don't know particularly well.

PART 1. 

4 Questions

1. How big of a role does music play in your life?

2. When do you listen to music?

3. What sorts of music do you listen to in those times? Bands or artists

4. Tell me about a time  you remember listening to band, going to a concert, or having another experience with music that you really enjoyed.

PART 2.

3x3 Interviews.  Three questions.  Three subjects.

1. What sorts of fonts appeal to you?  Handwriting? Block? Serif? San Serif?

by mostash.

2. What colors appeal to you?

by Dehahs.

3. Do you prefer realistic or abstract images?

Realistic To Abstract from kyoung

Collect your responses and include them on your blog post when you discuss the album art you create.  Use what you know appeals to others visually to inform your choices.

EXPERIMENT.

Create-A-Band Process 

I'd Give Credit to the Creator of this Process  But It's From a While Back & I Can't Recall the Link! #arghface.

1. Go to the Random Article link on the Wikipedia front page. (You can find it in the top left navigation menu.) The title of the random article is your new band/artist's name.

2. Go to the Random Quote link on the Quotations Page front page. (You can find it in the left side navigation menu.) You will get a list of random quotes. Pull either a full or partial quote from that page. That is the album title for your band's latest release. (You might also find some song titles this way as well.)

3. Go to Flickr and click on the 'Interesting Uploads from the Last 7 Days' link. (You can find it by scrolling down and looking beside the 'Take the Tour' link.)

4. Pull that information together and then use an app like Pages, Google Draw or Google Docs, a photo editor like iPhoto or Gimp, or any other application that lets you manipulate words and images, and create your album cover.  Export your finished work as a .JPG and post it or  PDF and screenshot it and post it on your blog.

PRODUCE.

5.  On your blog, create a context for your band.  Who are the members?  How did they form and when?  What genre(s) do they play?  What was the gig that led to them making this album?  Where do they play? In other words, what is the story behind the band?  

Here's the big huge giant challenge of this creative endeavor: take those random elements from above and make them all seem intentional.  How might you create sense out of what might be nonsense by applying the filter of music to it?  What does this say about the power of music?

6. In a separate blog post, choose an artist or band you enjoy.  Select an album by that performer. Explore the relationship between the artist's name, the album's name, and the cover art for that album.  To what extent do they align?  Where do you see a clear relationship between the visuals and the music?  Where do you see it not working out?  What about the band's logo or the font used on the album cover?

One to two descriptive paragraphs with visuals to illustrate.

Extra helpful?  Embed some Vimeo links or Spotify links or other ways of proving your point through the music.

You might get some inspiration for your album covers here

10 Iconic Album Covers (Yahoo) Here

99 Well Designed Album Covers (Inspiredology) Here

21 Great Albums with Not So Great Art (AV Club) Here

Lego'd Album Covers Here

Next class we'll get into some feedback rounds for our bands.