11/21 HW/Review

No HW tonight :)
Today in class we had work time all day.
Tomorrow is the last day you have to complete your rough drafts.
Also you should bring your annotations if you did not have them today for me to check.
See you then!

11/20 HW/Review

No Homework tonight.
Today we had independent worktime for both class periods, and a review of the Challenge Extension option for artists.

Keep up the good focus in class!
-Matt

11/19 HW/Review

HW: Read to page 207 and annotate.
Review:
-- Today we set four 30 minute goals for us to complete in class.
--We had a mini-lesson on basic cartooning techniques and on using "artist tools" correctly for the artists in this project.
--Had independent worktime for the rest of class.  The expectation was to complete a first page of your graphic novel, and the first paragraph of your theme explanation.

11/18 HW/Review

HW tonight is to read to page 197 of BNW and annotate.  Your annotations will be collected at some point so stay on top of them :)

Today in class we:
Reviewed any concerns or questions about the project
Writers had mini-lessons on how to do a theme explanation
Finished our Project Process Packet
Began rough drafts/theme explanations

11/15 HW/Review

HW: Read to page 185 this weekend and annotate.
 Review:  Today we worked all day in class to finish our Project Planning Sheets.  Step 4 is due at the end of class on Monday.  By Monday you should have:
1.  A summary of the scene that you chose
2.  A page-blocking outline of the actions to take place on each page.
3.  A script describing the narration, dialogue, frame, etc for each scene.
4.  Character studies of each character present in the scene.
5.  A rough outline of the panels on each page with the actions that will take place.

11/14 HW/Review

HW:  Read to page 171 tonight

Review:  Today we made posters of the key terms and concepts being used in this project.
Content-- (Five Choices of Graphic Novels):  Choice of Flow, Frame, Word, Image, and Moment
Evaluated on:  Teamwork, Evidence, Clarity, Perspective

These posters will guide us as we work to use the tools of the "Five Choices" to exhibit proper use of teamwork, evidence, clarity, and perspective.

We also found out our pairs for working on this project and spent the rest of the class planning out our graphic novel with our partners.

Also feel free to check out this interesting website with interviews from recent immigrants to the US, speaking about the ways in which life in the US surprised them:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/michael-koh/2013/11/16-people-on-things-they-couldnt-believe-about-america-until-they-moved-here/#2CG3xCJzxfErxSfE.01

11/13 HW/Review

HW:  Read to page 152 and annotate

Today we were introduced to the '5 choices' of Graphic Novels and analyzed two comic strips to understand these choices more, focusing especially on what makes an effective "choice of moment".
We also read in-class, filled out a partner survey, and tried our hand at making our own comics!

10/8 HW/Review

HW Tonight:
Read to page 139.
 Have an awesome long weekend!
CHECK OUT THE NEW PROJECT CALENDAR, POSTED UNDER "CALENDAR" TAB...

PS:  If you want a preview of some of the awesome poetry work that I'm planning to do at some point next semester, check out this website, a place for youth to hone their poetic skills :)
http://www.powerpoetry.org/about

Review:
Today we:
1.  Had Socratic Seminars in two separate groups
2.  Revised our posted Mask Essays to make sure that everything that goes up on the wall is truly Beautiful Work

10/7 HW/Review

HW:
Read and annotate to page 122

Driving question: "What is Brave New World REALLY trying to say?"

Today in class we:
Did a dialectical journal
Discussed Huxley's critique OR defense of religion through Brave New World
Created a "character list" of all major characters in Brave New World
Read aloud and annotated as we went.

10/6 HW/Review

HW:  Read to page 106
Today in class we focused on the question, "How is Meaning different than Happiness?"
--Did a dialectical journal from Brave New World
--Shared journals and underlined what was interesting in each other's journals
--Read and annotated an article about Victor Frankl, "Meaning is not Happiness"
--Had a fishbowl seminar on the article and gave each other feedback on how we did

10/5 HW/Review

HW:  Read and annotate to page 94 of Brave New World
Your TEA paragraph on technology that will make us more similar to Brave New World is due as a printed copy on Friday at the start of class.
Driving question:  "How will technology change our society?"

Review:
Today we wrote a starter for 15 minutes: "Has the internet overall made humans more or less happy?  Explain using evidence"
-Shared the starter with a partner and discussed the most interesting idea that the other person had written
-Reviewed the slideshow notes from yesterday in small groups
-Worked for 35 minutes on writing a TEA paragraph (handout was given out today in class, see "Class Handouts" tab if you lost it)
-Read and annotated briefly at the end of class.

10/4 HW/Review

HW tonight:  Read to page 86

Tomorrow we will be
a. Reviewing Huxley's critique of society
b.  Learning for ourselves in an independent research project how technological progress can be a double-edged sword
c.  Exploring the question, "How will technology change society?"
d.  Reading and annotating!

See you then!
-matt

11/1/ HW/Review

Wow, we are into November!  Great week getting into this new project.  Next week we will be doing more analysis of the text, discussion, and thinking about themes such as Happiness, Technology, the Individual, and Society.  Then we'll get more concrete after that and begin actually using these themes as we begin to adapt scenes from Brave New World into graphic-novel format.

HW:  Read to page 71 and annotate.
--Bring your mask back to school on Monday so we can display them, AND bring your mask essays if you needed to print them off at home.

Happy Weekend!