PACE: Pitches & Trailers Decided

Today we had our pitch revisions and chose to move forward with Pitches into Products.

After folks delivered Macbeth-inspired pitches, we decided that several were worthy of development into trailers.

We will be making trailers of Lindzee's, Mitch's and Kristen's.  We divided into production teams. More about this teams to be posted on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, you will receive a production schedule that must be maintained.  These trailers will go live to the public on April 11.  

HOMEWORK
Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Req'd Post: How might we make the last quarter of PACE the most exceptional, amazing powerful and important and mind blowing learning experience you could possibly have AND make the school say, "Wow.  AND they learned the stuff they were supposed to learn?"

QUACK Vocab
Unit 1 Part 2 
Quiz: Friday

Unit 1 Parts 1 & 2
Quiz: Thur, April 3

Macbeth:
3 Graphic Organizers: Past Teacher PACE
Show Bible: Past Teacher PACE

PACE: Macbeth Pitches

The weather held us back, but no longer.  Today's the day we pitch our ideas for TV series, films, book series and video games inspired by Macbeth.

If we like what we hear, we just may create trailers for these ideas.

Show bibles are due today as well.  Put them in your PACE IN box on your Google Drive.

Next class?  We vote on whether to move forward with trailers or start something new.

We also get back on track with a more regular schedule and our routines, now that Mr. Ryder will be here more regularly, the weather is improving and we have Ms. Haskell and Ms. Campbell to help us.

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post:  What are you passionate about?  Write as much, draw as much, audio record as much, video as much as you can and post your passions.  The subjects, the ideas, the interests that get you fired up -- that make you want to know as much as you can as fast as you can.
Teacher PACE: Friday, Mar 21

Macbeth Pitching Power: Pitches & ShowBibles
Teacher PACE: TODAY
Student PACE: Update the Due Date Form

Macbeth Graphic Organizers: Analysis of 3 Scenes from Macbeth (see your Google Drive for graphic organizer)
Teacher PACE: Past Due
Student PACE: Update the Due Date Form

PACE: Design Thinking Challenge in a Day: Pitches & Macbeth

Hey folks,

I've been away presenting at SXSWEdu.com this week and learning tons and meeting folks I want to connect with you all.  One thing I learned was a fantastic mashup/remix strategy from Kami Thordarson, an innovation coach and teacher in the Los Altos School District in California, based on the DEEP design thinking from Mary Cantwell we've been using all year.

Here's what we did this morning so you can reference back to it as you create your Macbeth Pitching Power pitches over the next week.

We started with three groups and quick mapping/vizthinking about we know about Macbeth.

Then we listed movies and films and games and books we enjoy.

Then we listed reasons why we enjoy them.

Then we highlighted key ideas/insights that stood out to us.

Then we took post-its and put some of those ideas from each category on to a post it.

Then we put those post its on tables.

We sent runners to grab a post it from each table.

The group generated a pitch from the three post its.

We tried to make as many pitches as we could with new sets as we could in the time given.

Then we shared and practiced delivering the pitches.

It was awesome. And surprisingly easy and not scary.


Pitches and show bibles are due next Thursday.  Be certain to check out one another's blogs and share ideas. 
Design. Build. Create.
Accept. Communicate. Trust.

HOMEWORK 

Blogs: 3+
Req'd Post: Put up your pitch thinking from today AND/OR link to someone else's and share your thoughts.
Due: Friday, Mar 7 (Teacher PACE)

Macbeth Graphic Organizers: Must Complete 3

Teacher Pace Due Dates:

Wed: Feb 12

Tue: Feb 25

Wed: Mar 5

MUGS: Commonly Confused Words #2
Quiz: Friday, Feb 14 (NEW MAKE UP DATE - FRIDAY, Mar 7)

QUACK: Unit 1 Part 1
Quiz & Product Due: Thursday Feb 27

Think & Design: Movie/Video Game/TV Show Pitches & Bibles
Due: March 13

PACE: Macbeth & Quack & Pitches

We started Tuesday with an activity using the Quack vocab and refreshing our Macbeth brains.

We broke into groups of two or three, each group was given a couple of Quack words from Unit 1 Part 1 of Quack.  Then the groups were told to create a two to three sentence pitch for movie/TV show/video game based on Macbeth using those words effectively.  The pitches were then posted to the class blogs.

Quiz on QUACK Unit 1 Part 1 on Thursday.

From there, folks had three choices.

One, work with Ms. Campbell on a close reading of Macbeth Act 2.1 and completing the Macbeth organizers.

Two, work with Mr. Ryder on developing ideas for pitches.

Three, work independently on graphic organizers, pitches, studying for QUACK, blogging and more.

We had some productive work in each area including the ideas below.

HOMEWORK 

Blogs: 3+ 

Req'd Post: Where's the Macbeth in that?  What have you watched, seen, read, heard that prove Macbeth's themes and characters are still relevant to today? Explain your thinking.
Due: Friday, Feb 28

Macbeth Graphic Organizers: Must Complete 3

Teacher Pace Due Dates:

Wed: Feb 12

Tue: Feb 25

Wed: Mar 5

MUGS: Commonly Confused Words #2
Quiz: Friday, Feb 14 (NEW MAKE UP DATE - FRIDAY, Mar 7)

QUACK: Unit 1 Part 1
Quiz & Product Due: Thursday Feb 27

Start Thinking & Planning: Movie/Video Game/TV Show Pitches & Bibles
Due: March 13

PACE: Macbeth & Pitches & More

Today was an early release day, so we didn't have time to dig too deep.  What we did today, however, can be repeated on Friday with a little bit more teacher PACE time at each area.  Also, I'm hoping to create some flipped classroom videos for you folks.

One station: Independence.  Work at your own pace on the Macbeth organizers, MUGS studying, QUACK studying and/or the Pitching Power project.

Another station: Pitching power.  We looked at the show bibles in the Google Drive and the rubric for the project.  We used a "I wish, I wonder, I noticed" protocol to capture our thinking.

And yet another station: Guided reading of scene 1.7 from Macbeth as Lady Macbeth and Macbeth discuss the possibility of Duncan's murder.


HOMEWORK

Blogs: 3+ 
Req'd Post: Pre-Thinking Your Pitch.  Take some time to brainstorm, to mess around with ideas, to talk out loud, to sketch and design, to use whatever tools you like -- digital or not -- to come up with some ideas for your project.  Questions you could answer that might help:
Would you make a movie, TV show, video game or book series?
Where might you set your story? Think about settings that feature a lot of people, a lot of relationships, and a lot of power dynamics.
Who might be an interesting main character? What does this character want? What is keeping this character from getting it?
Due: Friday, Feb 14

Macbeth Graphic Organizers: Must Complete 3

Teacher Pace Due Dates:

Wed: Feb 12

Tue: Feb 25

Wed: Mar 5

MUGS: Commonly Confused Words #2
Quiz: Friday, Feb 14

QUACK: Unit 1 Part 1
Quiz & Product Due: Thursday Feb 27

Start Thinking & Planning: Movie/Video Game/TV Show Pitches & Bibles
Due: Early March

PACE: Macbeth & Quack & Work & Due Dates & Working Smarter Not Harder

I'll be spending class saving the world from itself at a meeting in the The Chef's Table.

While I'm gone, you folks will be doing all sorts of awesome.

For one, we start vocabulary this week, using the QUACK words that are part of the sophomore year.  There will be a quiz every Thursday as well as a QUACK product due.  (The first will be on the Thursday following break, Feb 27.) That QUACK product could be the word map (found in the PACE OUT folder on Google Drive) OR may be any product you wish to make that demonstrates your understanding of the QUACK words.

• Poems
• Songs
• Comics
• Stories

Unit 1 Part 1 can be found here.

You might want to take a few minutes to complete the Commonly Confused Words #2 assignment on www.NoRedInk.com.  It's optional AND there's a quiz on Friday.

By 8 a.m., I recommend watching a large chunk of the Macbeth documentary in your Google Drive - perhaps 30 minutes? If someone would like to hook up to the dongle and audio plug at the front of the room, that's totally fine with me.

Here are some time coded notes to help you out.  These are in your Google Drive.


If you pay attention, you will see that this documentary tells the entire story of Macbeth, shows it performed in different ways, and let's you know about the major ideas and themes in the play.

It's pretty darn well done.

As you watch, you may want to take notes using your first graphic organizer.  Of course, you need to base MOST of this graphic organizer on one of the ten scenes I identified last class.   I recommend using one of the scenes from Act I or II, because we've been talking a great deal about the action early on in the play.
Link to All of the Scenes and Summary is here

1.3 

1.5 

1.7 

2.1 

3.4 

4.1 

4.3 

5.1 (out damn spot)

5.5 (out out brief candle)

5.8 (death and new king)

Finally,  open up the Due Dates form.  If you don't believe you can keep up with Teacher PACE, establish your own PACE.  

Next class will be all about the project.  It's a short class because of early release and we will focus entirely on story bibles and pitches and brainstorming ideas.  

HOMEWORK

Blogs: 3+ 
Req'd Post: Pre-Thinking Your Pitch.  Take some time to brainstorm, to mess around with ideas, to talk out loud, to sketch and design, to use whatever tools you like -- digital or not -- to come up with some ideas for your project.  Questions you could answer that might help:
Would you make a movie, TV show, video game or book series?
Where might you set your story? Think about settings that feature a lot of people, a lot of relationships, and a lot of power dynamics.
Who might be an interesting main character? What does this character want? What is keeping this character from getting it?
Due: Friday, Feb 14

Macbeth Graphic Organizers: Must Complete 3

Teacher Pace Due Dates:

Wed: Feb 12

Tue: Feb 25

Wed: Mar 5

MUGS: Commonly Confused Words #2
Quiz: Friday, Feb 14

QUACK: Unit 1 Part 1
Quiz & Product Due: Thursday Feb 27

Start Thinking & Planning: Movie/Video Game/TV Show Pitches & Bibles
Due: Early March

PACE: Macbeth & Conflict

Today we'll be looking at internal and external conflict, as well as digging deeper into the resources you have for understanding Macbeth.

We will also continue to unpack our standards, focusing on listening & speaking, writing and reading.

We finished unpacking the listening standard today.  This should help us move through the others more quickly next week.

As you work on your three graphic organizers for Macbeth, choose from these ten scenes.

1. 1.3 (3 lines) KEY
2. 1.5 (important - Lady mcbeth)
3. 1.7 (important)
4. 2.1 (important)
5. 3.4 (important)
6. 4.1 (important)
7. 4.3 (2) (important)
8. 5.1 (out damn spot) Imporatn)
9. 5.5 (out out brief candle)
10. 5.8 (death and new king)

You may want to use the Shakespeare Navigators site to help you understand.

We'll get some help from Ms. Campbell today to help us better understand internal & external conflict.

Conflict

Conflict

Internal- Conflict going on inside of a character; a character versus him or herself.

1. Man vs. Self

• "The" internal conflict
• Character versus him/herself
• A choice between two paths
• Classic: Requiem For A Dream

• Example: HIMYM: Robin comes to Ted, Lilly leaves Marshall

External- Conflict between a character and an outside entity.

1. Man vs. Man (to be PC, "Person vs. Person")

• Conflict between two people
• Classic: Dorothy vs. Wicked Witch in Wizard of Oz, Any Hero vs Any Villain (ever)

• Example: HIMYM Slap Montage

2. Man vs. God/Supernatural/Fate

• Fighting fate/destiny/one's path
• Classic: The Shining, Macbeth (the witches!), Dracula

• Example: HIMYM: Dopplegangers Dictate Baby

3. Man vs. Nature

• Character versus the elements
• Classic: Old Man and the Sea, Robinson Crusoe... Castaway...

• Example: HIMYM: Ted Makes It Rain

4. Man vs. Society

• Character is "against the world" (or at least a group of people)
• Classic: Charlotte's Web

• Example: HIMYM: Canada vs. Shrimp Fried Rice

HOMEWORK
Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: You work for a major multimedia corporation that has just decided to make a series of films, TV shows, video games and books based on Shakespeare's plays because they are royalty-free.  The board of directors hired you to generate some ideas around Macbeth.  Unfortunately, you've never read the whole play or even seen the whole film. Using any line or phrase from Macbeth as your inspiration and the title, and what little you know about the play, pitch one idea to the board of directors for a film, TV series, video game, or book.
Due: Friday, Feb 8

Macbeth Graphic Organizers: Must Complete 3

Teacher Pace Due Dates:

Wed: Feb 12

Tue: Feb 25

Wed: Mar 5

Want different dates? Go to the Due Dates Form. 

MUGS: Commonly Confused Words #2
Quiz: Friday, Feb 14

Start Thinking & Planning: Movie/Video Game/TV Show Pitches & Bibles
Due: Early March

PACE: Macbeth Graphic Organizer Tutorial

PACE: Macbeth & MUGS & More

We'll start by taking a look at MUGS and how NoRedInk.com can help you with practice sessions, in addition to your assignments and quizzes.

From there, we dig out the work we did on famous lines from Macbeth.  We'll make a wall of predictions based on the analysis and connotation work we did.  The big question?

Now that you've read a number of lines from the play, what do you think this play will be about? What will happen? What might be some of the themes?  What might be some of messages Shakespeare wanted to get across?

We'll take some time to unpack the following standard by creating "I Can" statements.
Reading
Writing 
Listening & Speaking

We'll put the results up on the board.  We've got to do this to make sure we stay focused in the Macbeth unit and not let our projects take over -- creativity is awesome and we have to make sure we balance freedom with meeting the standards.

And if we have time after all of that, we can watch some more Macbeth.  Important groundwork laid today.  We're going to be doing intense work and we need to know where we are headed before we take off.

HOMEWORK
Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: You work for a major multimedia corporation that has just decided to make a series of films, TV shows, video games and books based on Shakespeare's plays because they are royalty-free.  The board of directors hired you to generate some ideas around Macbeth.  Unfortunately, you've never read the whole play or even seen the whole film. Using any line or phrase from Macbeth as your inspiration and the title, and what little you know about the play, pitch one idea to the board of directors for a film, TV series, video game, or book.
Due: Friday, Feb 8

MUGS: Commonly Confused Words #2
Quiz: Friday, Feb 14

PACE: Introducing the Pitching Power Project & More Introducing of Macbeth

We'll start with a NoRedInk.com MUGS quiz over Commonly Confused Words #1.

Remember, if you are not satisfied with the degree of your understanding, study, come to me for extra help and explanation, look for examples online, show me evidence of practice and I will let you retake the quiz to show your growth.

From there, we will explore Macbeth by looking at some famous lines from the play in one of the tools in the Google Drive.  We'll try to determine what the line might be saying without having seen or read the rest of the play.  The idea is to make a prediction based on an interpretation of the words and then see if it bears out.   These are fairly famous lines -- let's see if we can figure out why.

You will then have time to work on your teaser posters.  Think about how using a line of dialogue could transform those posters.

Finally, we can talk more about the projects.  There are some more parts and pieces in the Google Drive to look at - show bible examples and such. And you can see the rubric that will be updated next week here.

HOMEWORK
Blog: 3+ Posts

Req'd Blog Post: Create a teaser poster for a new film version of Macbeth.  Look at these examples of teaser posters, posters intended to generate interest well in advance of a movie coming out.  They tend to be very minimal and only hint and suggest as what is to come in the film.  They also tend to rely and on people already being somewhat familiar with the characters and/or story.

Examples of teaser posters here.

PACE: A Fresh Start for Some, A Continuing Journey for Others

Today, we start our grammar work with MUGS.

Here's how it works:

MUGS (Mechanics, Usage, Grammar & Spelling) Learning and Assessing

Every Monday, you will receive a new assignment and grammar focus on NoRedInk.com. You can choose to complete that assignment or not.  It is formative.  It does not count toward your standards grades.

Every Friday, you will have a quiz over that grammar focus.  This will count toward your standards grades.

You may retake any quiz as many times as you like, as long as you first demonstrate evidence that you have practiced and increased your knowledge by using NoRedInk.com or other resources.

For Example

I take the quiz.  I am unsure of my thinking and skills.  I do not meet standard, scoring a 55 on the quiz. 

So, I use NoRedInk and complete some of the practice exercises.  I take screenshots and send them to Mr. Ryder, who can also monitor student activity on NoRedInk.com.   

Mr. Ryder makes another version of the quiz for me take.  I take and exceed the standard by getting them all correct. 

At the end of the 3rd quarter, the MODE (most frequent) of the scores will be recorded as your MUGS grade.  You will also have MUGS scores from other products (writings, projects) included in the quarter.

After getting set up on MUGS, we will watch a very short film.  Actually, it's a music video from the band, Woodkid.


Woodkid "Run Boy Run" from WOODKID on Vimeo.

We'll do a little activity to see if we can the whole story of this video in as few words as possible.

(Here's what we came up with.)

Which leads us to .  . .

Macbeth.

Macbeth is a long play by William Shakespeare.

Here's the whole thing.

We will read a version that is only 32-seconds long.

The film version we will watch leaves a great deal out.  It was made in 28 days and by one of the greatest filmmakers that ever lived. (Legit.  Orson Welles.  Look him up.)

Here's the whole thing.

Macbeth - Orson Welles from Elariooo on Vimeo.

We will watch a little at a time, discuss, and follow along with the text to see where things change and why.

Now, you have everything you need to go at your own PACE on this work.  There is a folder in the PACE OUT folder with the script, a Spark Notes study guide, and the film.  We'll be working with the play for the next several weeks, so if you want to follow teacher PACE, great! If you want to work through the play on your own terms, AWESOME!  We'll be talking about the teacher PACE project this week and you can choose from there if that's what you'd like to make or if you have other ideas in mind.

HOMEWORK
Blog: 3+ Posts

Req'd Blog Post: Create a teaser poster for a new film version of Macbeth.  Look at these examples of teaser posters, posters intended to generate interest well in advance of a movie coming out.  They tend to be very minimal and only hint and suggest as what is to come in the film.  They also tend to rely and on people already being somewhat familiar with the characters and/or story.

Examples of teaser posters here.

MUGS: Commonly Confused Words 1

Quiz: Friday, Jan 31