AP Lit: To Be or Not to Be Design Challenge

I've copy and pasted the text from the design challenge brief that was shared with you in your Google Drive. I thought it would be helpful for you to have here as you revise and explore new iterations. Any components of the project or documentation of your process could also serve as excellent content for your blog and standards evidence there.

To Be or Not to Be: Design Challenge

Design Challenge.  How might we create dramatic presentations of “To Be or Not to Be” to demonstrate our analysis and understanding of the play as a whole?

Soliloquy Criteria.

• Must include original Shakespearean language, though it may be filtered through any sort of creative interpretation you so choose

• Must take the form of a product that can be watched and experienced, including video, animation, animatic (storyboard w voice over), radio drama/podcast, live performance

• Must be accompanied by a 1-page well-composed rationale that explains the intentions behind the production

• Must feel like an excerpt from a larger production and be aligned to those grander intentions

To achieve that final criterion, you must also create the following “story bible”

Story Bible Criteria.

• One paragraph descriptions for each of the central six characters: Hamlet, Ophelia, Claudius, Polonious, Gertrude, Laertes

• Detailed description of the setting in which the narrative takes place

• One paragraph summaries of each Act in your production, with particular attention to the relationship these events have to your staging of Hamlet’s soliloquy; your goal here is alignment

You may include any visuals here that you believe will help convey your concept.

Design Process Criteria.

Document each of the first three stages of the design process with meaningful evidence.  

Discovery.  (Research & Exploration)

Empathy.  (Audience and User Needs; Character Empathy)

Experiment. (Doodles and Storyboards, Maps and Maybes)

Eng 9: Freaks and Geeks and Speak with Ms Pulito

Hi folks,

These are the graphic organizers and blog prompts from when I was away and Ms. Pulito was running the show.

Speak

Empathy Map on “Freaks and Geeks” Character

Your task is to create an empathy map based on a character from “Freaks and Geeks” that we did not examine together during class. Use the things they say and do in Episode 1 to help you determine what they may be thinking or feeling. Make sure to include specific details and interpretations. Then, write a 2-3 paragraph blog post in which you send this character to Mt. Blue High School for a day. What happens? Where do they go? Who do they talk to? How do they get along with the students and teachers? Use your empathy map to help you decide!

Character’s Name: _____________________________________

Say	Think
Do	Feel

Speak

Feature Chart: Comparing Mt. Blue High School, Merryweather High School (from Speak), and McKinley High School (from “Freaks and Geeks”)

Give each school a “rating” of 1-5 for each criteria, with a score of 1 meaning “nonexistent” and a score of 5 meaning “very prominent.” Then, provide a 1-2 sentence justification for your rating. For the last category, come up with a criteria that you feel is somehow expressed in each of the three schools (examples might include skipping classes, positive--or negative--student/teacher interactions, parent involvement, athletics, art, etc).

	Cliques	School Spirit	Bullying	Your choice of criteria:
Mt. Blue
Merryweather
McKinley

For your blog post, you are going to create a “casting call.”  Your job is decide the cast for EITHER a rebooted, remade version of “Speak” the movie (AKA no Kristen Stewart) OR for a TV series of the Mt. Blue Campus. You must choose at least 4 characters from “Speak” to cast OR 4 friends/faculty from MBC. Be specific and explain your reasoning.

SHOW YOUR WORK.

Blog.

1. Freaks & Geeks at MBC.  Write a 2-3 paragraph blog post in which you send this character to Mt. Blue High School for a day. What happens? Where do they go? Who do they talk to? How do they get along with the students and teachers? Use your empathy map to help you decide!

2. For your blog post, you are going to create a “casting call.”  Your job is decide the cast for EITHER a rebooted, remade version of “Speak” the movie (AKA no Kristen Stewart) OR for a TV series of the Mt. Blue Campus. You must choose at least 4 characters from “Speak” to cast OR 4 friends/faculty from MBC. Be specific and explain your reasoning.

Submit your Best Evidence for Blogging Standards Evidence 2!

Read. Speak up to page 140.

Due. Monday. 3.21.2016.

Start Planning. Design a Sanctuary for Others. 

Due. Tuesday, 3.28.2016

Pop Culture: Podcasting Continues

We'll start with sharing our soundtracks in class.  We'll each share a song and a rationale.

UPDATE.  WE MADE A MIX TAPE!  We each shared one of our songs from our Soundtrack of Our Lives, provided the reason we included it in our soundtracks and then made this mix.


Then we have two missions today.

1.  To design, record and produce your soundtrack of your life podcast.



2.  Read one of these two articles on podcasting

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/podcasts-are-back--and-making-money/2014/09/25/54abc628-39c9-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html

or

http://mashable.com/2015/08/29/podcasting-mainstream/#9oqQZeaAcEqc

then search for three or more podcasts that you might enjoy.  Give them a partial listen.  See what you think . . .

and complete a Notice/Wish/Wonder reading graphic organizer to demonstrate your understanding of podcasting.

SHOW YOUR THINKING.

Produce.  Your Soundtrack of Your Life Podcast.

Due.  Thursday.  3.17.16

Blog.  My Potential Life as a Podcaster.

Armed with your knowledge of podcasting from your listenings last week, your readings today, and your investigation of podcasts you might enjoy,  describe in detail a podcast you would produce.  Some design elements to consider:  What would the topics and format be? How long would an episode be?  Would you have a co-host or go it solo?  What podcast might be similar?  What would you do to make it your own?  Would it cost money or would it be free?  How might you monetize it?

Due.  Thursday. 3.17.16

AP Lit: Frankenstein & Synthesis Week

The Game Plan as It Stands . . .

MONDAY/TUESDAY.

1. Verse 15: "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
2. Close Reading Frankenstein.
Empathy Maps.  Victor.  Walton. Create.
which become . . .  6 Word Memoirs
and those in turn must be justified with evidence from the text . .
3. Examine test prep work from last week, if time allows.

Between now and next class . . .

Consider how Mary Shelley designed the narrative of Frankenstein and how we might demonstrate the impact of that narrative design (point of view, plot structure, conflict) on the novel's themes through LittleBits.  Draw some diagrams.  Doodle some notions.  Work out some ideas.  Be prepared to have text evidence to support your construction.

WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY.

1. Synthesis Workshop.  Big focus of the day.  Bring working, feedback-worthy drafts of synthesis essay #3.
2.  Little Bits & Frankenstein design lab: HMW demonstrate impact of Shelley's narrative design on the novel's themes via Little Bits?

SHOW YOUR THINKING.
Blog.
DIFFUSION from Kouhei Nakama on Vimeo.
Using whatever tools or media you like, design the patterns that would decorate, camouflage or other wise cover the bodies of Victor, Walton and the Creature respectively.  You needn't confine yourself to two-dimensions.   Use text evidence to prove the intentional thinking behind your choices.
Due. Monday/Tuesday.  March 21.22.

Read, Analyze, Prepare. Literary 3X3s for Frankenstein,  Keat's "Ode to a Grecian Urn" and Byron's "Prometheus"
Due. Monday/Tuesday Mar 21.22.

Preview for Next Week.
Synthesis Essays Due Wednesday/Thursday.
Digging into Frankenstein each day.
Exploring creativity per the Romantics each day.
Reading Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" over the next weekend to gear up for Heart of Darkness.

Eng 9: Speak and Safety and Sanctuary Begin . . .

NO RED INK. We'll start with No Red Ink and our new unit there in complete sentences and fragments.  It's challenging stuff AND when people are doing the practice, they are getting stronger.

You can still retake Confusing Words 2 IF you complete some practice first and show me evidence.

DREAM TIME. Then we're going to do some dream time:  doodle a diagram of a castle, bank or house that is the safest place you can imagine.

DESIGN CHALLENGE. That takes us into a discussion of what makes us feel safe and our next design challenge:  How might we design a sanctuary for others?

You will design a sanctuary for another member of this class, someone you do not know well.  This will challenge your ability to empathize and to design for a real life user.

OR

You will design a sanctuary for a character in Speak that is not Melinda.  She already has a sanctuary.  This will challenge you to empathize AND to demonstrate understanding of the characters in the book.

We'll be going through the DEEP design process to do this starting today.

DISCOVERY.  What does it it mean to be safe? What are the experiences in our lives that make us feel secure? What does it mean to be unsafe? What are the experiences that make us experience fear? Where are the sanctuaries from which we can draw inspiration?

EMPATHY.  How might we understand another's worries and fears?  What unites us.  How might we see through another's eyes.

EXPERIMENT.  Drawings.  Models.  Minecraft.  Unity.  Tinkercad. Many options.

PRODUCE.  Present your findings.   Receive feedback.  Make plans for another iteration.

RAPID FIRE EMPATHY INTERVIEWS.  What makes us feel safe?

We'll start with a group brainstorm and then we'll run some empathy interviews and create empathy maps JUST like you did last week for Freaks and Geeks.

We'll also try to rock a whole mess of Post-It notes.

And then we'll keep reading Speak.  These next several chapters are going to be intense and I want to prepare you for them.

SHOW YOUR THINKING.

Blog.  Describe and/or draw  a place that makes you feel safe.  Then compare your space to the places in Speak that make Melinda feel safe.  Use evidence from the book to prove your points including the page numbers.

This could serve as reading evidence.

Due.  Wednesday.  3.16.16.

Read. Speak.

Pages 83 - 100.

Due. 3.16.16.

Study.  Roots Quiz 6-10.

Quiz. Friday. 3.25.16.

Pop Culture: Notes on Podcasting the Soundtracks of Our Lives

AP Lit: While Ryder Is Away: Test Prep and Other Things

Hey folks,

The format is a little rushed . . . apologies.

READ.
Read Frankenstein for Monday/Tuesday, March 14/15.

WRITE.
Working Draft/Workshoppable Draft of Synthesis #3 for Wednesday/Thursday, March 16/17

BLOG.
Poetic Vocabulary.
Choose 6 Words of Merit/Note from Frankenstein.
Identify their definitions, usage, and use in Frankenstein.
THEN . . .
Use those 6 words to craft a SESTINA some or all of which that could serve as an effective EPIGRAPH to Frankenstein.

Due.  Thursday, March 10.

ALSO.
2nd Round of Blogging Evidence for Standards Due Friday, Mar 11.

IN CLASS ON MONDAY/TUESDAY.

"I would like them to complete 2 multiple choice test prep items.  They are available here in the packet.  Please give them only 30 minutes to complete those items.  They may use the rest of the time to work on anything for class that they choose -- blog posts, synthesis essays,  readings, etc.  They know of all additional homework."


IN CLASS ON WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY.

What I told the sub. "Give the class 30 minutes to write to “The Crossing” writing prompt provided in the folder.   After they write, they should use the rest of the class to look at the scored samples and determine their own scores.  After reading the samples individually, I would like them to record their conversation about the challenges of writing to the prompt, what they discovered from looking at the samples, and how well they think they did.  They may record it as video or audio, whichever they prefer.  Please have them share their recording with me."