Tuesday, March 29

Today we practiced creating "significance" answers for the quote test on Block Day. See the link from yesterday for an example. Afterwards, we created a study card for the test which included characters, their manner of speaking, keywords, and their influence on IM. If you missed today, you will have the first few minutes of class to do this.

Monday, March 28

Here is the link to the IM quote practice.

Friday, March 25

Test Day!

Today we took the test over Invisible Man. If you missed the test, you can make it up either Wednesday after school or Thursday morning in test makeup.

Block Day, March 23,24

We spent the first part of class piecing together the Invisible Man "quilt" of themes, symbols and motifs.

After that was finished, we had a graded discussion over the IM essay posted on studywiz. If you were absent, you have to make this up. In order to do so, you must still read the essay, create 5 discussion questions, and answer them fully using textual evidence from the essay AND the book. This is due Tuesday.

Tuesday, March 22

Today you had a choice of three things to do:

1. Work on your packets (which will be used as a study guide and are due after the test Friday).

2. Work on your assigned theme or motif (see me for the list if you were absent).

3. Read the IM, Washington, DuBois essay on studywiz (come to class with 5 prepared discussion questions for a graded class discussion).

Monday, March 21

We took the last (phew) IM reading quiz over Ch. 22 - Epilogue. If you missed it, you can come to test makeup Wendesday afternoon or Thursday morning.

After the quiz, we spent time in our groups working on the packet.

Friday, March 18

Today we went to the media center, found a comfy spot, and read. Your DPP reviews are due on block day (since we've had some technical issues). Please see me if you are still unable to access your assigned project.

This weekend, finish reading IM and prepare for a quiz over chapters 22-the epilogue.

Thursday, March 17

Today we continued our Digital Poetry Review. The instructions are on studywiz (same file name) and the form to fill out once you are finished is right below this post.

For homework, you were to bring your IM book to class on Friday for a DEAR day.

DPP Review Form

Block Day, March 9-10

Today was the BIG DAY!!!

We spent all block day exploring poems. You guys presented your work and we followed along through the website Poets.org.

Tuesday, March 8

DPP peer review and workshop. I'm seeing some great stuff and I can't wait until Block Day when we all get to see your hard work.

Final products are due block day - I'll show you how to upload your movie and you'll present it to the class.

Monday, March 7

Today we took an Invisible Man quiz over chapters 17-21. If you missed it, you need to make it up this week in test makeup. The quiz is made up of four questions (two quotes to discuss and two content questions) and four bonus opportunities. I'm looking to see that you actually read the book...you know, that paper thing you hold in your hand and move your eyes from left to right over?

We discussed the novel up to this point and then worked on a few discussion questions to add to your packets (see studywiz). You have one more discussion board activity over these chapters and it is due by this Sunday.

Your last IM reading assignment is to finish the book (including the prologue) by Monday, March 21.

Friday, March 4

We held a workshop for our Digital Poetry Project today. We've found that the order of creating your movie actually matters! Things seem to go best when we input the information in the following order:

Pictures
Transitions
Text
Music/sound effects
Narration

Go figure.

Block Day, March 2

So today began with a discussion about what would make for a quality project. We'll work our way into creating a class rubric that we can all agree upon in order to evaluate our final products.

Next, we walked through the process of starting a new project in iMovie and importing our collected photos. We are using this step by step tutorial as the basis for our project.

Then we practiced importing a video by following this student-produced tutorial:

From there, we worked at our own pace to develop narration and add music to our slides. The final project is due on Monday. I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Tuesday, March 1

After studying our poems in-depth, we began brainstorming for our Digital Poetry Project. This step involves looking beyond the words of the poem and starting to figure out the meaning, as we see it. We started to ask ourselves questions like:

What tone do I want my DPP to have?
What is my poem saying to ME?
What images might be able to convey this?
What kind of music might make sense with these images?

Next, we created a folder on our desktop (or in iphoto) to collect images from different sources. These photos will only be used internally for educational purposes, so we are not limited to MorgueFile or our own photos.

Next up, putting the pieces together.

Digital Poetry Project

Tutorial for DPP