Tuesday, February 3, 2015

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



Thursday, January 29, 2015

Humanities: Teen Culture, Teen Music (Days 1 & 2)

Welcome to insane weather event 2015 . . . 

On Monday -- remember Monday?  What a day  . . . .

LNG.

On Monday, we started with an LNG from Mr. Brackett.  We spent time examining student samples and talking about what works and doesn't work in an LNG.  

Then you could choose any article from the Bangor Daily News that isn't about Snowmeggedon or sports to complete your LNG.

AYUHYALL: Teen Culture, Teen Music.



Our design challenge we are sharing with our friends in South Carolina:  HMW design lyrics that show others what it means to be a teenager today?

First Step: Analyzing Songs for Cultural Content

We took a look at "Summertime Blues" by Eddie Cochran and extracted the cultural components that surface in there as they relate to teenage culture.   We used a Notice/Wish/Wonder strategy to kick it off.

We uncovered economic systems in the paychecks, language in the slang, and girls and friendships in the social groups.  We also talked about how challenging it can be to label and categorize culture because some things seem to cross over several components.

This is the graphic organizer we used to keep track of this all.

Homework:  Select another song from the playlist OR a song of your choice by a young artist about teen culture and analyze it for cultural components.  Complete another copy of the graphic organizer.  Use the sample to help guide your thinking.

TODAY!

ROOTS 7.  We start there.  Grab 'em.  Quizlet.  Explore.  Dive in.  Get our heads in the game.


Second Step:  Analyzing Songs for Poetic/Lyrical Devices

In order to better create our own, we have to figure out how others crafted their music.  We'll look at the tools a lyricist can use to shape a story, thoughts and feelings.  

We'll look at "Summertime Blues" and "Leader of the Pack" to see how song writers of early rock and pop did it -- and see if the tools they used show anything about their culture as well.

Let's put our ideas here today.


HOMEWORK.

Blogging: No blogs this week.  We start with Q3 Week 1 next week.

Teen Music/Teen Culture Analysis:  Complete an analysis of both the cultural components AND the poetic devices of another song from the playlist OR of your own choice so long as it is by a young artist and about TEEN culture.  Use the graphic organizer provided.

You Should Have a Collection of Three Graphic Organizers Completed.

1. "Summertime Blues"
2. "Leader of the Pack"
3.  Song of Your Choice
We will be assessing these for understanding of culture as ability to analyze lyrics

DUE: Monday, Feb 2nd






Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Humanities: LNG & Sketchnotes

Today in class we will complete an LNG.  Your article choices are available over on Google Classroom and here as well.

After completing the LNG in the way you are accustomed, you'll be creating a sketchnote of this article.

Here are a few resources to help:

First Time Sketchnotes on Sketchnote Army

And...
Homework:  
Roots 6 Quiz & Product Thursday!Quarter closes Friday!Revisions!
Projects!
Get 'Em In!

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Pop Culture: Preparing for The End.

Today we took the day to work on final projects and revising/reiterating prior projects.

On Thursday, we will be presenting.  While you will not be assessed on your presentation, you will be expected to share your project, explain your intentions and share your process.  We will be on a bit of a time crunch and we should be able to share them all in the time we have.

Also, make certain you are submitting documentation of all previous projects: film culture, social media culture, and gamification culture on Google Classroom.  4 Corners self assessments must be completed.  Project itself must be completed.

When you come to class on Thursday, grades will be current as of Wednesday night.

AP Lit: To Design or Not to Design . . . (There Is No Question)

This week and beginning of next we are going to complete a mini-design challenge in AP Lit.  

How might we stage "To Be or Not to Be  . . ." in a way congruent with the rest of the play?

We will be doing some fierce analysis through a variety of lenses:

Rose/Bud/Thorn

Notice/Wish/Wonder

SCOUT

We will use our thinking from these lenses to inform a paragraph of written analysis and then catapult us into watching four different iterations of this soliloquy in cinematic form.

They are available in the Google Drive here.  (I recommend watching them on Google Drive.)

And here too.



We'll use analysis of these versions to inform our designing of our own.  And if we are extra awesome, we'll actually produce that version to the best of our abilities & resources.

Homework:
Read two scenes of Hamlet per night.
No req'd blogging this week.  You might want to keep in the habit for your sakes.
Revisions all due by Friday at the latest.


Humanities: Culture & Words & FRANKENWORD!

Today we'll do a quick review of the various dimensions of culture and review our Roots 6 words for a quiz on Thursday.  And we'll accomplish this through the following awesomeness . . .

We'll quickly brainstorm words in our language the reflect our modern culture as well as our modern teen culture.

FRANKENWORD!!!!!!!!! (It's ALIVE!)

Then you will do the following, built upon on the Shakespearean language station from a couple of weeks ago:

1. Choose an aspect/dimension of culture of interest to you.

2. Take any root from 6 and combine it with any other root to make a new word that is relevant to that dimension of culture. 

3. Define the new word including part of speech.

4.  Use the new word in a sentence that shows what the word means and how it would be used.

5.  Create a visual to illustrate the word (sketchnote, LEGO, digital, etc.).

Then you have time to work on your Romeo & Juliet project, revisions of essay paragraphs, and catching up on blogging.

We'll be looking at music and culture for the rest of the week.  Woot.

H/W:
Missing Req'd Blog Posts?
Revisions of Discovery, Empathy and Experiment paragraphs?
Romeo & Juliet projects?
Missing LNGs?
Get your evidence of understanding and skills submitted el pronto fasto.

Roots 6 Quiz & Product:  Due Thursday.   Remember, you can demo your vocab knowledge in two ways.


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Pop Culture: Resources for Social Media Design Project

In class:




Additional Sources to Look At:

This Youtube video is from the Case Foundation, which is a foundation that focuses on using social media for good for nonprofit organizations.
The website for the Case Foundation, while focused on nonprofit organizations, has information about how to effectively use Facebook and Twitter, as well as blogging, to make a positive impact.


Examples of how social media has been used for good in the past


Using a hashtag to raise awareness


Using social media to raise money for charity
http://mashable.com/2009/04/02/social-media-charity-events/

Negative impacts of social media:


One high school student thinks social media has negative impact, makes a tumblr blog to help


Examples of negative impact of social media on society and individuals