Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Pop Culture: Design-a-Band

Blogging Rubric 2015.


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.

3x3 Interviews.  Three questions.  Three subjects.

1. What sorts of fonts appeal to you?  Handwriting? Block? Serif? San Serif?
Serif vs Sans: The Final Battle
by mostash.


2. What colors appeal to you?
The Psychology of Color
by Dehahs.


3. Do you prefer realistic or abstract images?


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


Show Your Learning.
Blog. 3+ Posts.
Creative Blog Post. Create a 5 Card Flickr where each image you choose becomes either a) an alternative album cover for an album that already exists or b) a new album by an artist/band that already exists.  Explain your thinking in a few sentences for each new cover.
Due. Friday, Sept 18. 

Other Posts?  
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.

Curate. 1 item.
Pin on Your Pop Culture Pinboard & Use #Flight307pc.
Due.  Friday, Sept 18.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Humanities 2BG: Oreo Challenge & Blogs

Today, you we set up our blogs on Blogger.

Blogging.

Blogging Rubric 2015.
You will be keeping a blog throughout the year on Blogger using your school Gmail account. I've embedded and linked the rubric for blogging here.
What content should you include?  Each week you can expect a creative challenge related to our current focus.  The other two-plus entries may come from day to day work you are doing for class, from creative expression, from general reflections.  Show your thinking.  Provide evidence of your knowing.  That's the goal.

After the first week, you should be looking to connect to at least one other thinker in the Humanities ranks, linking to an idea that inspires you to respond. There are several intentions to the blog:
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the readings, viewings, and listenings from class.
  • Connect and reflect upon one another's ideas.
  • Reach beyond the walls of our classroom to share our thinking and benefit from other perspectives.
  • Create a record of learning, illustrating your growth over the space of your year.
    Design Challenge: HMW Oreo?
    You had twenty to minutes to work with a partner, two partners, or solo, use any space on campus, any materials in the room, as you tackled the following design challenge: How might we advertise Humanities with an Oreo?
    Post your results on your blog and I will post links and share out the greatness.  
    Show the Learning.
      Blog. 3+ Posts.
        Due. Friday, 9.18.15
      Study.  Roots List #1
      Quiz. Thursday, 9.24.15

AP Lit 3G: True Grit, Blogging & Synthesis Thinking Introduced

True Grit.
Today, we discussed Mattie Ross and how Portis develops her voice in the opening chapters of True Grit.  We identified key lines and discussed them at length.  As a result, we got a little bit behind on our in-class work with Literary 3x3s.  (I will likely leave instructions on what to do while I'm gone as I think you can a) handle it and b) can easily share with me record of your experimenting on Wednesday.) 
Blogging.

Blogging Rubric 2015.
You will be keeping a blog throughout the year on Blogger using your school Gmail account. I've embedded and linked the rubric for blogging here.
What content should you include?  Each week you can expect a creative challenge related to our current focus.  The other two-plus entries may come from day to day work you are doing for class, from creative expression, from general reflections.  After the first week, you should be looking to connect to at least one other thinker in the AP Lit ranks, linking to an idea that inspires you to respond. There are several intentions to the blog:
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the readings, viewings, and listenings from class
  • Connect and reflect upon one another's ideas
  • Reach beyond the walls of our classroom to share our thinking and benefit from other perspectives
  • Create a record of learning, illustrating your growth over the space of your senior year



Synthesis Essay.
Writing a synthesis is unlike writing an analytical essay.  Rather than trying to break apart a piece of literature and explain how it works, you instead are trying to connect the dots between multiple works to use as evidence of your thinking -- proving that the big idea assertion you make in your thesis, your greater understanding/observation/truth about the world is held up and evident beyond your opinion.


When working on  your synthesis essays, keep these structural and contextual ideas in mind.





Also Mr. Ryder's feedback shorthand...



Show the Learning.
Read & Annotate.  True Grit to Page 113
Due. Tues. 9.22.15
Blog. 3+ Posts.
Creative Blog Post of the Week. Create a 5 Card Flickr in the Voice of Mattie Ross. How might you employ the same techniques as Portis to develop her voice in your work?
Due. Friday. 9.18.15
Design.  Working Draft.  Synthesis Essay #1
Due for Workshopping.  Tuesday, 9.22.15

If you have time . . . 
Turn your Literary 3x3s into Index Card Decks. 

Eng 9: Inspiration Shelves, Personal Symbols, Blogs and Vocab

Inspiration Shelf & Personal Symbols.

We'll start the day by looking at the Inspiration Shelf.  Your goal?  To figure me out.  You'll complete a Notice/Wish/Wonder tool for three different items, in an effort to answer these two questions:

Why might these items be on this shelf and what might they tell us about Mr. Ryder?

Then you'll repeat the same with the artifacts you brought from home.  We will look at each others' collections and try to determine what they tell us about that person and why those items were
included.

Then we'll take pictures of items that interested us most and post them to our blogs as our first blog posts.
Vocab: Roots 1.
We will start our very first work with vocabulary.  We'll be learning Greek and Latin roots this year; this will help you learn so many more words than just learning a list of vocab words from a story we read.

Blogger.
We will set up our blogs and I will explain your first creative blog prompt: 5 Card Flickr.

Show the Learning.
Blog. 3+ Posts.
Creative Blog Prompt.  5 Card Flickr & Problem Story.
Create a 5 Card Flickr that tells the story of a problem being solved.
Post your images and write out the story on your blog.
Due. Friday. Sept. 18.

Study.  Roots Quiz 1.
Due. Thursday, Sept 24.


Sunday, September 13, 2015

AP Lit 4B: Literary 3x3s

We committed our Friday to becoming comfortable with Literary 3x3, exploring the power of distillation and remix.

Our work centered on Tracy K. Smith's "I Don't Miss It."






Showing the Learning.
Read. True Grit (1 to 44).
Due. Tuesday. 9.15.
Create.  Literary 3x3s.
Summer books.
True Grit
How to Read Lit Like a Professor Intro.
Set Up. Blog.



Pop Culture: Taking Care of Business.

Today we took care of the business side of things.
Guidelines & Expectations.

We looked at the Guidelines & Expectations for the class.
Blogger.
Then we set up our blogs on Blogger.
Pinterest.

And finally we got started on Pinterest.  We'll be using the #flight307pc hashtag when we curate content on Pinterest for the class.
Follow Flight307's board Flight307 Pop Culture on Pinterest.

Essential Questions.
Finally, I shared the four essential questions for this course.

  • To what extent does pop culture influence society?
  • To what extent does pop culture influence you?
  • To what extent do you influence pop culture?
  • To what extent does society influence pop culture?


Show the Learning.

Find an article, listening, or viewing that speaks to one of the four essential questions for this class.
Check out Flight307's Pop Culture Board on Pinterest for inspriation.

Humanities 2BG: 9/11 and Caine's Arcade

9.11.2001.

On Friday, we started class by listening to this StoryCorps story of a husband and father talking about losing his wife on 9/11.

Isaac Feliciano via StoryCorps

Mr. Brackett and I both shared our experiences on 9/11 and answered some clarifying questions, cleared up a couple of misconceptions.  It was quite a serious discussion and I was impressed with the seriousness and respect with which the class handled it.
Global Cardboard Challenge.

Then we allowed ourselves to breathe a little joy into the room again as we introduced the Imagination Foundation's Global Cardboard Challenge by watching Caine's Arcade from Nirvan Mullick.



We will hold our cardboard challenge on either October 8th or October 13th.  (We are still trying to figure that out.)  In either case, you will have two weeks in class to design a cardboard product that either . . .

a) Solves a Problem
b) Brings Others Joy
c) Demonstrates a Passion

The other Humanities class is doing this project and perhaps other classes as well.

Show the Learning.

Get ready for next week.
Blogging starts.
Vocab starts.
LNG starts.
Lots of opportunities to show the learning.