Senior Survey

Please complete the short survey on the thesis process. Thank you for a great year and best wishes!

Day 8 Film Literacy

Public Enemy takes issue with Hollywood's perpetuation of prejudice. 

Do Now: What are some conventions you recognize in Romantic Comedies, Horror movies, Biopics, or other genres?

1. Pros and Cons of Conventions
2. OFOCN as unconventional Western
3. Viewing continued

HW: Add to the viewing concerns for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Oscars 2015: So Hollywood Is Still Racist (and Sexist), Now What?

Day 7 Film Literacy

Do Now: How is McMurphy's situation similar to/different from those that Rick and Ben face?

Today's Learning Target:
I will be able to actively view scenes from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and explain how the director's shot choices tell the story.
I will know that I have hit the learning target when...
-I can select particular shots from the early scenes that establish setting, character, or motifs.
-I can explain how these shots communicate information to the viewer.

Agenda: 

1. Film terms
2. Viewing concerns for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
3. Exit Ticket: Questions/clarifications...

Small Daily Task: Complete your reflection on today's viewing. Remember to address one of the three viewing concerns and include a specific example in your response.

Day 6 Film Literacy

Do Now: Please discuss with a neighbor the traps Ben is dealing with so far. How are they different from Rick's traps? How are they similar? Also, consider the ways that Mrs. Robinson is trapped (despite the apparent power she wields over Ben).

1. Finishing The Graduate
2. Discussion
3. Reviewing the final exam questions

HW: Please complete the questions on The Graduate for next class.

Day 5 Film Literacy

Do Now: What do you associate with graduation? 

Today's Learning Target:
I will be able to actively view scenes from The Graduate and explain how the director's shot choices tell the story.
I will know that I have hit the learning target when...
-I can select particular shots from the early scenes that establish setting, character, or motifs.
-I can explain how these shots communicate information to the viewer.

Agenda: 

1. French New Wave
2. Film terms
3. Viewing concerns for The Graduate
4. Exit Ticket: How does Ben deal with the traps or limitations in his life?

Small Daily Task: Complete your reflection on today's viewing. Remember to address one of the three viewing concerns and include a specific example in your response. 

If you enjoyed Casablanca, then try...

The Big Sleep Hawks, 1946

To Have and Have Not Hawks, 1944

The Maltese Falcon Huston, 1941

Notorious Hitchcock, 1946

Day 4 Film Literacy

Do Now: How do the minor characters comment on the narrative?

Today's Learning Target:
I will be able to actively view scenes from Casablanca and explain how the director's shot choices tell the story.
I will know that I have hit the learning target when...
-I can select particular shots or edits that develop setting, character, or motifs.
-I can explain how these shots/edits communicate information to the viewer.

Agenda: 

1. Light and shadow
2. Finishing Casablanca
3. Discussion on the film's (ir)relevance
4. Exit Ticket: A part of the film I don't understand is when...

Small Daily Task: Complete your responses to the three viewing concerns. I will collect them during Monday's class.

Day 3 Film Literacy

Do Now: Both Renault and Strasser allude to Rick's mysterious past. What are your first impressions of Rick?

Today's Learning Target:
I will be able to actively view scenes from Casablanca and explain how the director's shot choices tell the story.
I will know that I have hit the learning target when...
-I can select particular shots from the early scenes that establish setting, character, or motifs.
-I can explain how these shots communicate information to the viewer.

Agenda: 

1. Editing
2. Viewing concerns for Casablanca
3. Continuing the film
4. Exit Ticket: A part of the film I don't understand is when...

Small Daily Task: Respond to at least one of the viewing prompts. I'll collect your responses to all three when we finish the film.

Day 2 Film Literacy

Do Now: What was the studio system? 

Today's Learning Target:
I will be able to actively view scenes from Casablanca and explain how the director's shot choices tell the story.
I will know that I have hit the learning target when...
-I can select particular shots from the early scenes that establish setting, character, or motifs.
-I can explain how these shots communicate information to the viewer.

Agenda: 

1. Genre conventions
2. Viewing concerns for Casablanca
3. Beginning the film
4. Exit Ticket: What film concepts would you like to know more about?

Small Daily Task: Respond to at least one of the viewing prompts.

Day 1 Film Literacy

Do Now: Please complete the film questionnaire.

Today's Learning Target:
I will be able to actively view scenes from Casablanca and explain how the director's shot choices tell the story.
I will know that I have hit the learning target when...
-I can select particular shots from the early scenes that establish setting, character, or motifs.
-I can explain how these shots communicate information to the viewer.

Agenda: 

1. What is your favorite movie? What do you enjoy about it?
2. Introducing some film terms
3. Viewing concerns for Casablanca
4. Exit Ticket: What film concepts would you like to know more about?

Small Daily Task: What was the Studio System? What film is typical of this era?

Title Page and Proofreading

We're so close to crossing that finish line! Today, we'll cover proofreading ideas, how to format a title page, and what to have assembled for Friday's due date.

Follow this link for a works cited and transition resource.

Follow this link for revision suggestions.

Follow this link for sample titles and title page directions.

Follow this link for the senior thesis rubric.

One week to go!

While we wrap up conferences today, please use the lab time to work on one of the following items:

-introductory paragraph(s)

-concluding paragraph

-transition paragraphs

-revision for coherence (the big ideas and subtopics stick together)

-revision for cohesion (the sentences stick together) 

HW: Get outside for some fresh air and try to notice which trees are starting to bloom.

"The Lady in the Looking Glass" by Virginia Woolf

While we continue individual conferences about thesis drafts, please read "The Lady in the Looking Glass" and respond to the questions at the end.

How does Woolf's narration compare to the narrators of your primary sources?

HW: Continue revising. Be prepared to share your introductory and concluding paragraphs with a peer on Thursday.

More Modernism

Do Now: Modernist Mix tape - Connect the following songs to the author (Eliot, Woolf, Stein, Faulkner, Joyce) who influenced them:

"Shakespeare's Sister" by the Smiths

"Hollow Man" by R.E.M.

"Roseability" by Idlewild

"The Sensual World" by Kate Bush

"A Rose for Emily" by the Zombies

1. An excerpt from A Room of One's Own: Reread the explanation of the title's multiple meanings. Do your thesis authors create rich titles like this one?
2. Strong Argument: What is Woolf arguing in this excerpt? What rhetorical devices* (e.g., rhetorical questions, irony, sentence structure, alliteration, etc.) does Woolf use and to what effect?
3. Connection: Read Atwood's "Spelling" and make a connection to the excerpt.

HW: Identify the section of your draft that needs the most work.

*Some examples include:
 Rhetorical Question: “How, then, could it have been born among women … by all the power of law and custom?”
 Irony: “It is unthinkable that any woman in Shakespeare’s day should have had Shakespeare’s genius.”  Sentence structure, listing: “For genius like Shakespeare’s is not born among labouring, uneducated, servile people.”
 Alliteration: “Bronte or Burns blazes…proves its presence.”
http://woolf.bloomu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ela-11.1.3.pdf

Peer Editing

Please share your draft with a classmate.

Using the handout, read your classmate's draft and offer feedback on the four criteria for strong body paragraphs. While you need not cover every checkpoint (there are 22 of them, after all), please do use them to focus your feedback.

HW: Apply at least one suggestion to your draft.


Some inspiration from writer Anne Lamott...

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'" 
-Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Please heed the checkpoints on our thesis calendar. They're there so that you don't become "immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead." Follow Lamott's father's advice and "take it bird by bird." That might mean a paragraph a day or every other day. It might mean sentence by sentence. Find a routine that works best for you and stick to it. 

Drafting Continued

We're getting there!

Do Now: What are three words that best capture the topic of your thesis paper? How might you use this information to help generate a hook or title for the piece?

Please choose a focus for today's lab time: drafting body paragraphs; drafting an introduction; drafting transition paragraphs between big ideas; drafting a conclusion; revising body paragraphs.

HW: Rough draft due 3/31. Make sure you've shared it with me (mreynolds@belmontschools.net)!

Introductions and Conclusions

Do Now: Watch the opening shot from Robert Altman's The Player and notice how the screenwriters pitch their movie ideas. If you had to "pitch" your thesis to someone, what information would you include?

1. Introductions and Conclusions
2. Drafting Continued
3. Exit Ticket: Thinking back to my "pitch," I could introduce my essay with...

HW: Keep drafting! The full draft should be ready for peer review on 3/31.

Focused Revisions

Please use today's lab time to either pare down a lengthy paragraph or draft a transition between big idea sections (i.e., signposting). If you decide to work on the former, then look over the "Control Paragraph Length" handout and try at least one of the strategies there. If you choose to work on the latter, then consult the "Topic Sentences and Signposting" handout for a model transition paragraph.

HW: Continue drafting!