These are just some of the ideas that emerged . . .
We brought these ideas around to Mrs. Dalloway and made a number of connections between the poem and the novel, as well as to Cunningham's The Hours. Most importantly we uncovered some of Woolf's intentions -- her use of allusions, her use of stream of consciousness -- as well as Cunningham's.
We also decided to hold a Dallowinian Party. You can see the planning notes from an earlier AP Lit class here. We will hold this roleplay listening/speaking/reading assessment event next Thursday, October 27th, just in time for Halloween.
OUT OF CLASS WORK.
Read. Mrs. Dalloway. Finish the Book.
Due. Friday 10.21.16
Blog. Two Posts.
Critical Creativity Post. A Mrs. Dalloway employs color in meaningful, powerful ways. Perhaps you have noticed this, perhaps you have not. (Pay particular attention to flowers, foods, skies, clothing and faces.)
Use Colourlovers.com to create a custom palette of at least three colors relating to meaning in Mrs. Dalloway. You will need to name the palette and each color within it. Be certain to choose purposeful names and push your self to go beyond the concrete. (Concrete: "blue sky" because the sky was blue.)
Share your palette on your blog w/ explanations of your choices.
Analytical Post. The Hours & Mrs. Dalloway. Discuss the evidence of Woolf's influence on Cunningham. Consider not only plot points and characters, but perhaps also structure, language, theme and more.
Today we will continue designing for the characters of The Hours and run a design sprint featuring 8 Box, storyboarding, and feedback.
What does a design sprint look like? I didn't invent it. It's a fantastic technique used by designers of all sorts. We're adopting our own version but you can see more of it in the book Sprint by Jake Knapp and the Google Ventures crew.
We ran an 8 Box on Monday. We're going to do another. (The more you 8 Box, the better you get at it.) Then we'll storyboard (3 post its that show your idea in action). We may or may not have time for feedback on our storyboards. We may do the feedback on 8 Boxes.
From here, you'll actually build your prototype solutions to the challenges and needs facing one of the characters from The Hours.
You'll have about 20 minutes to build.
SKETCHNOTING & POWER QUOTING: DALLOWAY 3-29.
We use the last third of class to explore sketchnotes and visualizing as a means of notetaking and annotating a text. We'll look at Clarissa, Rezia and Septimus, as well as discuss the value of meeting other Londoners in Woolf's narrative.
OUT OF CLASS WORK.
SUBMIT.
Synthesis Essay #1
Put a Google Doc in your AP LIT IN folder.
DUE. Today.
BLOG.
Critical Creativity Challenge: Scoring Dalloway. Create an original score for pages 3 - 29 of Mrs. Dalloway using either live instrumentation, Garage Band, SoundTrap Wolfram Tones, Beat Lab, or another online/digital music generator/creator.
Analytical Post: Make a case for or against the presence of Foster's vampires in The Hours. Use text evidence to support your assertions.
DUE. Friday. 10.7.2016
READ.
Mrs. Dalloway. 30-58.
Sketchnote. 3-58.
How might you organize these sketchnotes? How might you make visual meaning of this first quarter of the book? All one? A series? Organized by character? Setting? Idea?
We'll read in class to get a feel for Woolf's stream of consciousness style. It is unique to most anything you will have been assigned in high school, though as contemporary of Fitzgerald you may find some similarities in language. And since Woolf has been so tremendously influential, you may also find the roots of Laurie Halse Anderson and Markus Zusak in these pages.
It is also the novel that inspired Cunningham to write The Hours.
Tonight read up to page 29. Wednesday we will discuss and make sure folks are following the characters, plot, etc.
Speaking of The Hours, take a look at this trailer for the 2002 film.
And take a listen to the score by composer Phillip Glass, particularly "Morning Passages" and "Escape"
Think about how Glass' sounds reflect the ideas we've been been exploring class. Why might he choose the sounds? This instrumentation? These musical arcs? Might a little research uncover more?
Also, I recommend the fantastic documentary, Glassworks, which I believe is available on Netflix still.
This ties into your Critical Creativity blog post for the week.
PEER WORKSHOP the SYNTHESIS ESSAY 1
You'll have twenty minutes to work with a partner and get feedback on your current draft. You'll submit your essay on Wednesday.
DESIGN CHALLENGE: SOLVE THE HOURS.
After this, we will continue designing for the characters of The Hours and run a design sprint featuring 8 Box, storyboarding, and feedback.
On Wednesday, we build. Construct.
OUT OF CLASS WORK FOR THE WEEK. Complete. 1st Submission Draft of Synthesis 1. READ. Mrs. Dalloway. pg 3 - 29 How to Read Lit Chapter 3: Vampirism
BLOG. Critical Creativity Challenge: Scoring Dalloway. Create an original score for pages 3 - 29 of Mrs. Dalloway using either live instrumentation, Garage Band, SoundTrap Wolfram Tones, Beat Lab, or another online/digital music generator/creator.
Analytical Post: Make a case for or against the presence of Foster's vampires in The Hours. Use text evidence to support your assertions.
How to Post your Blog Posts on the Blog Tracker. The blog tracker is in the AP Lit 2016 OUT folder. You don't make a copy of this one. You just edit it right there on the screen.
Here's a video to help you with posting the links. You only need to worry about the first 3 minutes of the video.
Friday was a good day to take a breath, look at where we have been, how relatively little time we've spent together, and what is coming next on our horizon.
I also shared a story of how my dad and I destroyed a canoe in the middle of Kenduskeag Stream getting ready for a race.
(This isn't us. This is just to give you a sense of what I avoided when we dumped above these falls. Also, it happened several years before this. At this point, I'm wondering why I've included this video at all. Context. I'm going with context.)
We did a brief review of the readings in AP Lit thus far.
Cunningham's The Hours
Foster's How to Read Lit Like a Professor Intro & Chapter 1.
Smith's "I Don't Miss It"
St. Vincent Millay's "First Fig"
as well as your own summer reading novels
We spent a little time with the PowerQuotes from Foster and connecting them to our summer reads.
I noted how Foster's first chapter functions much like a synthesis essay in his tone and approach. It is worth revisiting as you shape your first synthesis. Ask yourself the degree to which your essay feels like his.
We spent some time discussing the indie book project, an assignment that is due at the end of the quarter -- I've noticed a trend that so many teachers try to avoid due dates at the end of the quarter, we may actually be better served having this project due right near the end of the quarter. Fancy that.
This led to a discussion of the protagonists in The Hours and I previewed this coming week's work which will include both a design challenge and a writer's workshop.
Here's What Was Due Friday
Read. How to Read Lit Like a Professor Chapter 1.
Find. a POWER QUOTE. One line from the text that you think captures the essence of the chapter.
Read. The Hours. 173 - 195
Blog.
Start. A Blog on Blogger for AP Lit.
(You may repurpose an old blog on Blogger for this purpose, too. I'd love to see your past work.)
Critical Creativity Post. Discuss your Oreo challenge. Explain your intentions.
Analytical Post. Discuss how the power quote you uncovered in How to Read Lit Chapter 1 relates to your summer reading texts.
Due. Friday. 9.23.2016.
Here's the Out of School Work for Monday 9.26.2016 to Friday 9.30.2016
Finish. The Hours. Due. Tuesday, 9.27.2016
Be prepared to do some intense work with the text in-class.
Read.How to Read Lit Like a Professor Chapter 2. Acts of Communion. Creative Blog Challenge. 5 Course Meal. Design a metaphorical dinner menu for a dinner party at which Laura, Virginia, and Clarissa are the guests. Part a. Use the names, flavors and ingredients of the various courses to demonstrate and understanding of the characters' journeys over the distance of the novel.
Some things to consider:
What might be served as appetizers? The main course? Dessert? Part b. Put your design and media skills to work and create the menu itself in Google Docs, Google Drawings, hand craft it with your artistic abilities or otherwise. Part c. Name the restaurant in which you will be serving this meal with part of a PowerQuote
from Foster Chapter 2.
For extra super bonus impress the pants off Mr. Ryder credit, actually create the meal in part or in full. Take pictures or video. Put it on your blog. Due. Friday. 9.30.2016
Write. Working Draft of Complete Synthesis Essay. Due. Tuesday. 9.27.2016.
We will be workshopping these in class because . . .
Write. 2nd Working Draft of Complete Synthesis Essay
Due. Thursday. 9.29.2016.
We will be doing another workshop on Thursday because . . .
Anticipate a short story or selection of poetry to read for Monday as well.
I will assign these on Thursday, 9.29.2016. I haven't yet decided exactly what. Next week, (10.3.2016 - 10.7.2016) we'll start off October with Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.
I want to start it in class though.
We started with designer Bob McKim's 30 Circles exercise. Two minutes. Transform thirty circles as many ways as you can. We'll be revisiting this exercise a number of times over the next several weeks. Oreo Challenge. From there we explored our maker carts in the classroom (Discovery Phase) and used our empathy maps from our readings of the The Hours thus far, to tackle the following design challenge: How might we represent the three protagonists of The Hours via an Oreo cookie in 15 minutes? These are photos from the process.
You'll be posting discussions of your designs and the intentions behind them as your first creative blog post of the year.
We discussed the intentions of each design, shared and collaborated, we "yes and-ed" the heck outta each other, and ultimately decided we had three fantastic prototypes.
Monday and Tuesday, we'll start with a DEEPdt FlashLab on characterization.
Our goal? To use the design process to design a thesis statement and a single body paragraph on characterization in The Hours.
DISCOVERY Phase.
Spidea & Sketchnotes: Everything we know about characterization: character types, methods of developing characters. 5 min.
Spidea & Sketchnotes: Everything we know about the characters in The Hours. Key quotes. 5 min.
EMPATHY Phase.
Interview Your User/Reader. (Who could that be?) Determine style. Determine what works well for your user/reader. Take copious notes. 5 min.
EXPERIMENT Phase.
Generate piles of potential thesis statements.
Experiment with sentence structures.
Experiment with paragraph design.
Experiment with embedded text evidence. 20 min
PRODUCE Phase.
Get feedback from me using Four Corners protocol. 10 min.
We start playing with Diigo, the tool we will use to do our DISCOVERY Phase research for our long term design challenge: How might we design on-demand analytical writing for the AP Lit test?
We'll use December for DISCOVERY research. There will be a rubric this week on the expectations for this research around the criteria of variety, reliability and relevance. The research will be due 12.22.15.
Critical Creativity Challenge: An Art Gallery for The Hours.
Visit MOMA.org, Portland Museum of Art, MFA.org or another online art gallery from a gallery that exists in the brick and mortar world (a place people could physically visit) and select three or more pieces of art that you would include in a gallery to represent the ideas in The Hours.
Design.
Synthesis #2. Thesis & Sketchnote/Map/Outline
Due. Next Class.
Source Material & Constraint. Anything We Have Read This Year as a Class.
We'll open with setting up our Google Drive IN folders. This is something we should have done months ago. Turn in your Frankliners.
From there, we look at Anne Bradstreet's "To My Dear and Loving Husband." We will SCOUT this poem, a technique we have not used for a while.
We'll use that work with Bradstreet as an in-roads to the three protagonists of The Hours and the key paragraph for each.
Show Your Thinking
Blog. Due Friday 11.20.15
Critical Creativity Challenge: Score the Lit. Choose any of our most recent readings and create an original score using either live instrumentation, Garage Band, Wolfram Tones, Beat Lab, or another online/digital music generator/creator.
Read. The Hours. Gold Day: Up to Page 121 for Friday .
Identify a Key Paragraph for Each Protagonist.
Ask yourself, "If Cunningham had only one paragraph per section, which would it be?"
Today we ran a design challenge flashlab: How might we demonstrate our understanding of the protagonists in The Hours through physical representations?
I blogged about the day's events on my Medium blog so the Blue Day crew can see what's coming their way.
Critical Creativity Challenge: Score the Lit. Choose any of our most recent readings and create an original score using either live instrumentation, Garage Band, Wolfram Tones, Beat Lab, or another online/digital music generator/creator.
Read. The Hours. Up to Page 80.
Identify a Key Paragraph for Each Protagonist.
Ask yourself, "If Cunningham had only one paragraph per section, which would it be?"
We have a couple of housekeeping items & then we've got plenty of work to do. Revisions. As you complete revisions, remember to also complete a "Revision Submission Form." This helps me track your work as well as better ensure I take note of all the work you've done. This form is in the "AP Lit 2013 OUT" folder. (I might end up putting a link to it over in the right sidebar as well. We'll see. I don't want to clutter that space up. Though to emphasize revision. . . ) Blogging. This week's required post isn't creative. Instead it's analytical. (I'll make it up to you next week with a doozy.) "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" We'll start with Ellie Goulding. Naturally. And follow that with a little DJ Earworm.
Which takes us to a discussion of remix/mashup culture and the argument that T.S. Eliot, brilliant literary mind, has really crafted himself quite a magnificent remix/mashup of many styles, voices, points of view and created a thing quite worthy of its own accord -- but impossible to have crafted without its predecessors.
We'll take large print outs of the poem and slice that thing apart, taking trophies of poignant language and harvesting keepsakes of gorgeous thoughts. We want to find those elements of the poem that best signify its essence -- without them, the poem would cease to be -- as well as the recognizable moments, the access points, the hooks. (Anyone else remember Akon? All that dude did was sing the hook. We need to find Eliot's Akon moments. And file that under "Things never said by an AP Lit teacher -- ever.")
And then we will pause and return. This is but day one. We will come back to Eliot & J. Alfred next week with fresh readings and fresh perspective.
Dallowinian Party
The Party is upon us. We must make certain everyone knows his/her roles, relationships between each character, the schedule for that day, and familiarity with the stream of consciousness writing form being employed, as well as the character preparation form. You'll be handwriting to capture the primacy of the moment -- and then transcribing to your computer for documentation & discussion purposes.
We also need to come up with a list of interruptions that will add context & plot to the party.
Revise:
Synthesis & College Essays Revision Submission Form Due: Last day to submit revisions 10/25
Blogging:
3+ Posts Due: Friday, 10/18
Analytical Post: Since we have such a creative endeavor ahead of this week in class, the assigned blog post will be analytical in nature. However, one may want to use creative means of uncovering meaning between these two texts. (Taking pics can be a great way to share non-tech work on your blogs.)
Choose one of the several items of criticism at the link provided. Choose one that captures an interesting angle, reflects or refutes your thinking, opens your eyes or otherwise engages your thinking. These are not easy reads, some more challenging than others. Be unafraid to dig further, to research allusions. Document your process (this may be more than a single blogpost's worth of work) and then post your thoughts in relation to the critic's. Q: To what extent to you concur with the critic's assertions?
EQ: To what extent can amateurs demonstrate the quality of thought presented by experts?
We have a couple of housekeeping items & then we've got plenty of work to do. Revisions. As you complete revisions, remember to also complete a "Revision Submission Form." This helps me track your work as well as better ensure I take note of all the work you've done. This form is in the "AP Lit 2013 OUT" folder. (I might end up putting a link to it over in the right sidebar as well. We'll see. I don't want to clutter that space up. Though to emphasize revision. . . ) Blogging. This week's required post isn't creative. Instead it's analytical. (I'll make it up to you next week with a doozy.) "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" We'll start with Ellie Goulding. Naturally. And follow that with a little DJ Earworm.
Which takes us to a discussion of remix/mashup culture and the argument that T.S. Eliot, brilliant literary mind, has really crafted himself quite a magnificent remix/mashup of many styles, voices, points of view and created a thing quite worthy of its own accord -- but impossible to have crafted without its predecessors.
We'll take large print outs of the poem and slice that thing apart, taking trophies of poignant language and harvesting keepsakes of gorgeous thoughts. We want to find those elements of the poem that best signify its essence -- without them, the poem would cease to be -- as well as the recognizable moments, the access points, the hooks. (Anyone else remember Akon? All that dude did was sing the hook. We need to find Eliot's Akon moments. And file that under "Things never said by an AP Lit teacher -- ever.")
And then we will pause and return. This is but day one. We will come back to Eliot & J. Alfred next week with fresh readings and fresh perspective.
Dallowinian Party
The Party is upon us. We must make certain everyone knows his/her roles, relationships between each character, the schedule for that day, and familiarity with the stream of consciousness writing form being employed, as well as the character preparation form. You'll be handwriting to capture the primacy of the moment -- and then transcribing to your computer for documentation & discussion purposes.
We also need to come up with a list of interruptions that will add context & plot to the party.
Revise:
Synthesis & College Essays Revision Submission Form Due: Last day to submit revisions 10/25
Blogging:
3+ Posts Due: Friday, 10/18
Analytical Post: Since we have such a creative endeavor ahead of this week in class, the assigned blog post will be analytical in nature. However, one may want to use creative means of uncovering meaning between these two texts. (Taking pics can be a great way to share non-tech work on your blogs.)
Choose one of the several items of criticism at the link provided. Choose one that captures an interesting angle, reflects or refutes your thinking, opens your eyes or otherwise engages your thinking. These are not easy reads, some more challenging than others. Be unafraid to dig further, to research allusions. Document your process (this may be more than a single blogpost's worth of work) and then post your thoughts in relation to the critic's. Q: To what extent to you concur with the critic's assertions?
EQ: To what extent can amateurs demonstrate the quality of thought presented by experts?
Using design thinking strategies of brainstorming, researching, sorting, prioritizing, empathizing, recursive thinking, outcome-based, human-centered decision making to shape up our Dallowinian Party event next week.
To identify how Cunningham's techniques and style reflect(s) Woolf's
To establish our setting and archetypes for the Dallowinian Party
And laugh. It would be helpful today to laugh. We'll see if that happens though . . . We'll start with some photocopies -- shudder -- of passages from Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours, passages I think particularly well suited to finding connections between Woolf & Cunningham. We'll do some small group close readings w/ a particular focus on: * stream of consciousness * symbolism/motif * diction * imagery
(Yup. They are all from Wikipedia. Except for imagery -- which isn't particularly descriptive -- these are pretty solid entries. More examples for "motif" would be nice. Hoping to find other resources for us.) You'll be using your design kits and annotation skills to make these connections. From there, we have to get very serious about our Dallowinian party. We'll work together to choose a setting -- time period, physical location -- and then establish the archetypes we've seen emerge from these two texts. If possible we'll cast today. We'll go over the character preparation forms that need to be completed for next Tuesday. If we don't cast today, we'll cast on Thursday and that will inform what you need to include in your preparations. Homework Blogs: 3+ Posts for the Week Creative Blog Entry: Choose a supporting character from Mrs. Dalloway or The Hours, one who may not get much time or attention. Write a paragraph of story that Woof or Cunningham left out. It need only be a paragraph. Do your best to emulate the style of the writer. Then write a single paragraph of analysis explaining your approach. Read & Listen: Tracy K. Smith's "Duende" Annotate & consider how she employs repeated imagery, structure and diction to inform themes similar, or perhaps dissimilar, to Woolf & Cunningham. Dallowinian Party Gathering & Planning: Make use of Google+ and Drive to plan for the party. Keep me within your loops. Revisions: Start the process in earnest. You have until Oct 25th to submit revisions, get feedback, and resubmit again if you so choose.
Homework: Write: College Essay Submission draft Due Friday 10/4
Read: The Hours (optional b/c not enough copies to req.; Mr. Ryder cannot count.)
Will be extremely valuable in understanding Mrs. Dalloway and in creating a great Dallowinian Party event. Due Tuesday 10/8
Start Planning & Thinking: Dallowinian Party - Character
See Materials & Rubric in Google Drive OUT folder.
Updated rubric coming soon Due Friday 10/18
Blog
3+ Entries Including the Creative Entry of the Week
Creative Blog: For some writers, a character's attire is little more than an afterthought. Not so, with our most recent creators. Both Woolf and Cunningham use clothing and physical appearance to convey meaning in their respective works.
Use Polyvore, or another tool or physical materials, to create a wardrobe collage suitable for a character in either Mrs. Dalloway or The Hours. You may try to create a historically and textually accurate collection or you may choose instead to select contemporary equivalents. Explain your selections with regards to conveying meaning, not merely literal interpretations.
Added Challenge: Use physical wardrobe pieces and photography to do the same.
