Grading criteria

Jessie and I are not creating a unit for our final project, so these are sort of "imaginary" criteria.

Our final project revolves around the cinematic interpretation of Beowulf. Specifically, we are looking at:

• the filmmakers choice of casting
• character development
• choice to make the film in 3D
• directors choice to animate real actors (vs. strict animation)

If I were to incorporate this type of activity into a classroom, it would most likely be woven into a unit on the literary text Beowulf. The movie would serve as a supplement to the reading of the poem. We would talk about the movie both during whole-class and small-group discussions. Ultimately, students would work in small groups to create a 5 minute presentation focusing on one of the aspects of the cinematic interpretation mentioned earlier. I would here are some of the criteria I would use to evaluate students:

• Depth of analysis (Do the students offer a thesis/hypothesis about the topic and support it with more than one example?)
• Accuracy (Does their interpretation make sense?)
• Relationship to today's culture (Do the students relate their interpretation to modern sensibilities, technology, etc.?)
• Individual participation (all students would have to turn-in a one-page essay about their contributions and ideas on the topic)

Yep, I'm on the bandwagon

I've been trying to think of something more original but nothing is coming to me. It feels so canned to say I'd use film versions of Shakespeare to augment the literature, but I do think it is a very wise way to incorporate media in an English classroom. Shakespeare's plays were meant to be seen and heard; reading them is just not the same.

Sample activity: Students read a passage of a Shakespeare play (it doesn't really matter which one) either in class or on their own. Then, students would work in small groups and create a short performance of a section in that scene. Thirdly, we would watch a film version of the same scene. Students would take notes commenting on how their views of the story changed after each successive activity and comparing the dramatic scenes staged in class with the cinematic interpretation. We would then have a class discussion about this.

I don't do favorites

This week we are supposed to "pick one song" that illustrates our preferences. I can't do that. In general, I am terrible at picking favorites. It stresses me out. So, I narrowed it down to two artists that I really like. Although there is a pretty wide range of music that I like to listen to, there are certain types of music that really touch me. Like some of my classmates, I am drawn to lyrics. However, every now and then a fun, zippy song is pretty sweet.

Sara Groves
I received my first Sara Groves CD from a friend of mine who was painting her house (she lives in the Twin Cities). Sara Groves is a Christian singer/songwriter, so I think it's pretty neat that my Atheist friend introduced me to her music. One thing that I really like about Sara is that she writes all of her own music. Like I said before, I am drawn to lyrics more than anything else. If the singer is singing someone else's words, it just doesn't feel as genuine. Sara doesn't always sing about her own life though, which sometimes bugs me. I like to feel that I am connecting with the person who is saying/singing the words. Again, not as genuine if they're speaking someone else's words. It's like when the presenter at the Oscars reads the acceptance speech for some Joe Schmoe too cool to come to the award show. My friend gave me the "All Right Here" CD during a pretty rough time in my life. I was just beginning to wonder about God and on the downward slope of a pretty deep depression (coincidence? probably not). That CD could have been mine. Well, if I could sing and had any knack for writing songs, and had a record label, and...The point is that it SPOKE TO ME. In a huge way. I can remember driving home while listening to "Maybe there's a loving God," bawling my eyes out because I was in the exact same place. Here are some of the lyrics that really touched me:

I'm trying to work things out

I'm trying to compare

Am I the chance result of some great accident?

I spend each night in the backyard staring out at the stars in the sky.

[...] I have another meeting today with my new counselor

my mom will cry and say, "I don't know what to do with her"

she's so unresponsive, I just cannot break through

Another song on that CD is called "Less like scars" and is about the transformation that takes place when you put your trust in God. This song still touches my heart like no other. I feel so comfortable and confident about where I've come and where I'm going in my life. This is her music video of that song. It's not the best video ever, but the song is great.


I actually wrote a 3-page, handwritten letter to Sara about how much her music meant to me. I gave it to her guitar player at one of their concerts; I'm pretty sure she thought I was nuts when she read it. Maybe I am... The next CD I got of hers is called "The other side of something." It's really weird, but once again her music spoke to where I was in my life. It was a little less sad (like me) and more about being "compelled" to live her life to the fullest. I could go on and on about that one, too, but I'll spare you. If you really want to know, I'd be glad to talk/email with you about it. Recently, I was given "Add to the Beauty," which is her most recent CD. This CD doesn't speak to me quite as much as the others have, but it's still pretty fantastic. Here is a song that I really like from that CD called "Something changed." She talks a little bit about it in the beginning, and she has the cutest voice ever! Plus, the quality is significantly better than the last one.


And, if you're curious, this is the song I played at my wedding...It's called "Fly"



Wow, this is already a long post. Okay, I'll speed it up.

Newsboys
The Newsboys are a Christian rock band from Australia, and I have to say, I wasn't terribly thrilled with them when I first heard them. And then. I saw them in concert. Wow. Awesome performers. I've seen them twice--once each at the Xcel and Target Centers--and both shows were sold out. Their concert last spring at the Target Center was hands-down the best concert I've ever been too. Here are two videos of them playing my current favorite song (that's how good it is, I have a favorite) called "Something Beautiful." The first is a recording (from a cell phone? cameras were not allowed...) that someone made of them during the concert at the Target Center. It's not the best quality video ever, but I like it because it brings back memories from that AWESOME night. The second video is the same song, but a better recording of it with still images. Feel free to pick one.




This is the final song they played at the Xcel Center in 2004. That was the most unbelievable concert moment I've ever experienced. The band actually left the stage while still playing the music, but I don't think anybody even noticed. We were so caught up in the beauty of the music. It's called "He Reigns."



Okay, okay, I'm done.

My idea for a documentary

I think it would be fantastic to document the insider story of working at a major manufacturing plant, such as 3M in Hutchinson, MN. This is the world’s only maker of Scotch tape (betcha didn’t know that!). There are lots of T.V. shows about how food is mass-produced, but does anyone know how they make those neat little sticky-tabs for marking pages in books?
Intended message & key point: manufacturing plants are very cool places
Interviews & questions
· Plant supervisor: What is made here? What are the different manufacturing stages?
· Random consumer using Scotch tape: How often do you use tape? How many factories do you think make Scotch tape around the world? How many varieties of Scotch tape do you think there are?
· Several machine operators: What does this machine do? Where does this fit into the entire process of making the product?
· Tool & dye maker: How do you repair/replace machine parts when they wear down?
· Shipper: How many products are shipped daily? What is the process for packing and shipping?
Activities to include
· Close up on “Watch for robots” sign with footage of robots moving around the factory, delivering things from one place to the next.
· Employees moving around the factory on old fashioned bikes, complete with horns and baskets
· Footage of the machines producing, slicing, handling, and packaging the product.
· A shot of the sound-proofed room for unrolling 5 ft-wide rolls of tape.
Difficulties
· Obtaining permission to bring cameras into the manufacturing plant
· Showing the scale of machines and products since some are very large and others are very small

Local evening news analysis

Analysis of the 10 o'clock news on KARE 11 from Monday, November 12:
Only a few things surprised me after watching this news broadcast. There were about 5 minutes devoted to "news," 7 minutes for a feature story, and 4 minutes each for weather and sports. I expected that the "news," weather, and sports would get similar amounts of time, but I underestimated how much airtime would be devoted to the feature story.
There seemed to be a rhetorical appeal to adults that they need to limit/control their teenagers' driving. Interestingly, the next night's KARE 11 Extra story is also about driving, but this time it focuses on the inadequacy of the state to handle our road system. I liked that tonight's Extra did not blame the roads, weather, or alcohol. Often these are scapegoats when individuals simply make stupid choices. A couple of the teenagers' parents commented on how their kids should have been wearing their seatbelt. The editors also included interviews of mothers, fathers, single parents, joint parents, and classmates; this was a well-balanced approach to the story. However, the editors clearly supported a law to limit passengers for teenage drivers. They showed a brief interview with a senator who proposed the idea. He was standing outside and was able to at least say several sentences. The “balance” was an interview with an opposing senator. He was interviewed in a stuffy office and cut off after a couple statements. Even just the setting of the interviews made a difference: real-world/outdoor interview vs. artificial/indoor interview. This made him seem more out-of-touch with reality than the supporting senator. They immediately cut to one of the teary-eyed victim’s parents defending the law.
Another interesting piece was about the Athletes of the Week. The female athlete was described mostly in terms of her ability and motivation while mostly statistics were used to describe the male. This may simply be because volleyball does not lend itself to stat keeping in the same way that football does.
I think that KARE 11 did a good job of selecting the stories to present. I am okay with the fact that only 5 minutes were spent on “hard news” about crime, politics, and miscellaneous events. These are important, but I prefer that they choose one or two stories on which to focus. The Extra and Athlete of the Week spots covered the topics much more in depth and left me feeling as though I had learned something. If the entire show devoted equal time to all of the stories, I don’t think that I would feel the same way. Tonight’s features focused on teenagers, but I know that this varies from night to night.

TIMELINE

Lead in to the show - 15 sec. about injured football player Adrianne Peterson

News stories (5 min.)

· 2 min, 10 sec. - a local group’s protest that “your” right to free speech is in jeopardy. They sent a postcard that contained over 12 errors to citizens about Robbinsdale school levy & now face legal trouble

· 20 sec. - motorcycle/car crash

· 40 sec. - Wisconsin man gets max. sentence for killing girlfriend

· 12 sec. - Mankato’s proposed “Social Host” ordinance to limit underage drinking

· 10 sec. – semi-truck carrying turkeys tips over in Mounds View

· 10 sec. - 35W bridge construction to begin

· 25 sec. - “Consistency” in housing market

· 6 sec. - DOW Jones drops

· 22 sec. - Gov. Pawlenty’s Veterans’Proposal (new state cemetery, $51 million, study mental health needs, housing assistance when returning from duty)

· 8 sec. - Eagan Vietnam Veteran receives award

· 30 sec. - Red Cross gives out coupons for free coffee & doughnuts to WWII vets, who were overcharged by the government during the war

Preview - Mild weather ahead, Viking Adrianne Peterson is in pain, Kare 11 Extra about teen driving deaths

COMMERCIAL (3 min.)

KARE 11 Extra 7 minutes, 15 sec. - story about 6 teens from Princeton High School who all died in car accidents within 18 months

· statistics about the high rate of fatal car accidents among teenagers,

· interview with female victim’s mother

· interview with male victim’s mother & father (mom talks)

· feature on the male victim’s girlfriend, who died in a car accident 1 year later

· interview with more parents and students

· major cause: too many kids in the car at once (driver is distracted)

· legislative proposal for limiting passengers for drivers with provisional licenses

· 4 sec. with senator who opposes the proposal, followed by three more interviews with victims’ parents

· Suggestion for parents to put their own restriction on passengers for their teen drivers

30 sec. - Preview of the next nights KARE 11 Extra, which is about the 394/94 bottleneck in Minneapolis

50 sec. - anchors discuss tragedy of the Princeton teen driving deaths, looking forward to tomorrow’s Extra

COMMERCIAL

Weather – 4 minutes

· 50 sec. - Weather from news desk (good driving conditions for next couple of days, records of warm November days)

· 3 minutes, 10 sec. – moves outside to do the rest of the weather (summary of today’s high/lowàchanges on the way, cold front moving inàtomorrow’s weatheràtonight’s weatheràtomorrow’s weatherà5 day outlookàweekend “sneak peek”)

10 sec. - Preview of football highlights

COMMERCIAL BREAK (3 minutes, 20 sec.)

SPORTS (4 min.)

· 15 sec. - recap of today’s professional sports scores (with rap music in background)

· 45 sec. - Peterson won’t play in game on Sunday because of knee injury, 5 second statement by coach Childress

· 20 sec. – Announcement of MBL’s rookies of the year

· 50 sec. – Where are they now? Update on a 1987 high school Athlete of the Week

· 45 sec. - Shakopee volleyball player (this week’s female Athlete of the Week)

· 45 sec. - Minneapolis football player (this week’s male Athlete of the Week)

· 15 sec. – go online to vote for this week’s “Hot Highlight” of the week

Preview: ‘bladers take over the dome

COMMERCIAL BREAK (2 min, 50 sec.)

30 sec. - Rollerdome opens

10 sec. - anchors banter about Rollerdome & weather

Podcast reviews

Podcast: Youth Radio: Connecting Youth Voices to the World
Description: a website where students and teachers can post podcasts relating to their school curriculum; most of the podcasts are student voices, but teachers often introduce the content of the podcast.
Pros: able to hear students talk about their projects; an authentic "window" into classrooms around the world.
Cons: varying degrees of quality; some podcasts are very difficult to understand, either because of poor student voice projection or quality of equipment or environment.

Podcast: Ourmedia: The Roaring 20s
Description: a production by 10th grade English students in Georgia about the Lost Generation and the Roaring 20s, as wells as authors and literature that came from this era.
Pros: very well produced. Students project their voices well and the quality of the recording is good. These students produced several podcasts about this topic, so it is easy to listen to it in chunks. You can link to the other podcasts via The Education Podcast Network.
Cons: not many. I suppose that a transcript or index of what each podcast includes would be helpful.

Podcast: Hopkinton (NH) High School Library Podcasts
Description: podcasts created by school librarians about books nominated for awards.
Pros: opportunity to get a literature expert's review about new books
Cons: wordy; librarians seem to talk alot about themselves and their review gets dull

Advertising

Advertising is a fun medium to manipulate and often utilizes literary styles, such as persuasion and parody. Ads also sometimes use literary devices (i.e. alliteration, homophones, homonyms, etc.). One can have a lot of fun playing around with this type of media. I havecreated a couple spoofs of advertisements:

Save the landfills!

Visual: The top half of the page is an image of four water bottles with blue and pink labels saying "It's a boy!" and "It's a girl!" is below the text "Welcome the next generation..." The bottom half of the page shows the photo of a worker dwarfed by bundles of used plastic bottles and the text "by trashing their world." Small font in the lower right-hand corner indicates that the ad is paid for by the local chapter of Ditch the Bottles.
Intended message: to discourage people from buying and using bottled water because they are taking over our landfills
Audience: primarily middle- to upper-middle class people, as they are the most likely consumers of bottled water to change their habits
Concept: use an innocent, appealing image and contrast it with a stark, disturbing image. Use words to emphasize message.

Scary silhouettes!

Visual: An image of a woman with a frightened facial expression as she overlooks the silhouette of a person. A dialogue bubble indicates the woman saying, "I fear the evil shadows! Are they holding a detonator?"
Intended message: The silhouette is one of the famous advertisements for ipods. This advertisement is meant to poke fun at them and point out that they can look a little creepy sometimes.
Audience: The people most likely to "get" this ad are those who have some knowledge of the ipod and its advertisements. Furthermore, it pokes fun at people who don't understand this well-known campaign as well as the ipod product. The targeted age group is around 14-29.
Concept: The concept of the advertisement is to use humor to mock a well-known advertising campaign. What the woman says is meant to be funny and slightly absurd, exposing her naiveté about the product.

Good morning, everybody!

The television news genre is interesting enough, but narrowing it down into a more specific type of television news affords us to deepen our understanding of the particular genre. Morning news programs are a particularly entertaining and predictable subset of this genre. The major network morning shows include: Good Morning, America (ABC); The Today Show (NBC); The Early Show--(CBS); American Morning--(CNN). Below you can watch a video describing this genre. Individual slides are shown as well as you scroll down the page.

Some common features of morning television news programs include:

Funny weatherman
•Shown outside with a crowd
•Talks with audience members
•Often has a slogan

Trustworthy male host
•Handsome
•Older than the females
•Funny, but serious
•Wears a suit & tie everyday

Likeable female host
•Younger than male host
•Attractive but not sexy
•Clothing is bright, fashionable, yet professional
•Always happy

News update person
•Usually female
•Gives snippits of current news events
•Appears in other segments but is not a main anchor
•Chronicles feature stories
•Often a minority (race or ethnicity)
•Serious

Celebrity guests
•On-set interviews with celebrities in current headlines
•Tries to make the celebs look credible but this can backfire
–Britney Spears looked like “white trash”
–Tom Cruise seemed whacky & cult-ish
•Celebs promote current film, album, TV show
•Celebs defend themselves against tabloids

Morning concerts (why?)

Health/self-improvement features
•Colonoscopies (thanks, Katie)
•Breast cancer
•Overweight children
•Food allergies
•Autism
•Healthy cooking

Family values features
•Parenting tips for toddlers
•Coping with divorce
•Hosting a holiday party
•Planning a wedding

Middle-class audience

What is love?

This collage of images presents the classic media representation of love. It is my first attempt at making a video of any sort, so...yeah...enjoy!

Looking at Traffic through multiple lenses

One can analyze the movie Traffic through the postmodern and postcolonial lenses to gain a better idea of what the film is about. Here is a brief plot summary of the movie from imbd.com:

Intertwining vignettes frame this tale of America's escalating War on Drugs. Ohio Supreme Court judge Robert Wakefield has been appointed the nation's Drug Czar, his new position made more daunting by the discovery that his teenage daughter Caroline is a cocaine addict. Meanwhile, DEA agents Montel Gordon and Ray Castro are pursuing Helena Ayala, wife of jailed kingpin Carlos Ayala, as she seeks to the control the business that her husband had kept hidden from her. South of the Border, duplicious local constable Javier Rodriguez is fighting the battle with his own
jaded, questionable ethical code.

Multiple storyline montage (warning: graffic footage)

POSTMODERN LENS
The use of parallel storylines is clever for keeping the viewer interested as well as showing how seemingly unrelated events can be incredibly intertwined. Sometimes the short vignettes for each story can be confusing, but more often than not they left me wanting more. It is sort of like reading a book with very short chapters that end with scenes or lines that are so interesting you just HAVE to read the next chapter. In addition, the narrative is presented from multiple perspectives, which adds depth and intrigue. Based on prior viewing experiences, one can easily guess that the storylines will all come together by the end of the movie, so I was constantly trying to figure out the connection. So, even if a person is very disinterested in the topic of the movie (i.e. drug trafficking), it is possible to love the movie because of the mystery involved in solving the puzzle. Director Steven Soderberg may have been thinking about how parallel stories would draw the reader in, but I think that he chose to tell the story this way for a different reason. His use of an alternative narrative version calls attention to how the same events have a different reality depending on a person’s relationship to it. For example, the arrest of drug lord Carlos Ayala is a victory for Drug Czar Robert Wakefield but a tragedy for his wife and son. The film allows us into the lives of people on multiple sides of the War on Drugs to see how complicated it really is.

Corruption in Mexico

POSTCOLONIAL LENS
In Traffic, the Mexican government is portrayed as corrupt and unable to function on its own. One of the top generals in the War on Drugs is profiting from the same drug trafficking that he is supposedly trying to curb. The entire Mexican anti-drug campaign is a fraud, as Salazar is wiping out one cartel, not out of duty, but rather because he has aligned himself with another cartel for profit (Wikipedia). One of only trustworthy, honest characters in the film is Mexican cop Javier gets fed-up with the sick politics and corruption and eventually turns to the U.S. government, because that is evidently the only organization that can make any good out of the situation. However, Soderberg’s use of multiple perspectives reveals that even the U.S. government—which might look like the hero to Javier—has its own problems, such as that the Drug Czar can’t even control the drug use in his own family.

Ant Farming

I am not very fond of ants, but I really enjoy this documentary about ant farming. The Texan high school students who produced this film do a fantastic job drawing the viewer in to this unique and unusual world of ant farming.

I also like the use of light in this film. The single side lamp on Casey during the interview creates almost a dramatic atmosphere. The viewer does not have a clear picture of either Casey or the ant farms but we sees enough to know what's there. This is very effective because the viewer is not distracted by looking at the person interviewed, staring into the aquarium, or looking at some picture on the wall; we are focused only on the interview. The shots of the faucet during the "how-to" section of the video was also very interesting. It is one of the only times that an inanimate object is shown onscreen. It juxtaposes nicely with the busier shots of ants bustling around. In the final scene of Casey explaining his obsession with ants, Brandon gives the viewer evidence by focusing on an ant poster above Casey's bed. It makes me itch just thinking about it!

The music is fantastic as it draws you into the film with the drum beats, keeps you going with a tambourine, and gradually builds up with percussion. Throughout the film, various percussion instruments and guitars play in the background. This propels the viewer onward and adds interest and continuity throughout the film.

Some of my favorite quotes from the film:
• "Fire ants are...your best bet because THEY'RE FREAKIN' EVERYWHERE!"
• "Yahtzee!"
• "We struck nerd gold--and I mean queens, baby!"
• "They're so cool! YEAH!"
• Credit: "Special thanks to God for making ants so freakin' awesome"