Synthesizing the Layers: January 31, 2017

Focus: How do the layers of this project work together?

Shortened Class: Tribe/PLC

1. Warming up with Grammar Quiz #4: Modifiers

2. Taking a close look at how the layers of our original commercial example works:

• What visual patterns can you find among the photos when we watch it without sound?

• What is the poem about? Where does it shift?

• How do the layers work together to create something greater than the parts? In other words, how do the photos enhance the poem, or how does the poem enhance the photos, and how does the music tie in?

3. Working on your Harlem Renaissance Little Projects with a focus on synthesizing the layers to create something greater than the parts

4. If needed, perusing the rubric once again on your own to make sure you understand the expectations

HW:
1. Continue working on any parts of your project that need to be done outside of school. Projects are due at the beginning of class this Friday; late projects will lose points in Academic Character Habits.

2. HARLEM RENAISSANCE LITTLE PROJECTS DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS THIS FRIDAY. THEY MUST BE PUBLISHED TO YOUR PERSONAL BLOGS BEFORE CLASS.

Refining Your Theme: January 30, 2017

Focus: How can I refine my theme to fortify my personal connection to the Harlem Renaissance?

1. Warming up with a quick refresher on Grammar You Must Know #4: Modifiers

2. Perusing the rubric together

3. Setting goals and refining your theme: What complex ideas do you want your classmates to understand better or differently from your project?

Rough theme: Hope is important.

Refined theme: Genuine hope arises from a place of desperation and is the only way to claw yourself out of that dark place.

• I want the tone of my project to be...

• I want the class to understand that this is my theme:

• The title of my project will be..

• By Friday, here are the tasks I need to accomplish to make sure my tone and theme are clear:

• By the end of class today, here's what I will accomplish: 

4. Working on your Harlem Renaissance Little Projects

HW:
1. Continue working on any parts of your project that need to be done outside of school. Projects are due at the beginning of class this Friday; late projects will lose points in Academic Character Habits.

2. This Wednesday we will have an open-note quiz on Grammar You Must Know #4: Modifiers.

HARLEM RENAISSANCE LITTLE PROJECTS DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS THIS FRIDAY.

Fleeing from Terror: January 29, 2018

Focus: What was the role of lynchings in the Harlem Renaissance?

*If you still need to turn in your blue reflection sheet on Making a Way Out of No Way, please do so today.*

1. Warming up with three good things and updating your virtue charts (almost done)

2. Understanding what many Harlem Renaissance artists were fleeing from: Racial lynchings

• Listening to Billie Holiday sing "Strange Fruit" (1939); using the MMM approach to discuss it

• Click on this lynching map to get a sense of scope.

• Click HERE to hear people's stories.

• What does this make you understand better or differently about the Harlem Renaissance?

3. Working on your Harlem Renaissance Little Project; please make sure your project plan is complete, as I will be walking around and conferencing with you on them today

HW:
1. Continue working on any parts of your project that need to be done outside of school. Projects are due at the beginning of class this Friday; late projects will lose points in Academic Character Habits.

2. This Wednesday we will have an open-note quiz on Grammar You Must Know #4: Modifiers.

HARLEM RENAISSANCE LITTLE PROJECTS DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS THIS FRIDAY.

Developing Your Theme: January 26, 2018

Focus: How can we develop our theme using different media?

Winter assembly: Shortened class

1. Warming up with your reflections on "Making a Way Out of No Way"

2. Using the checklist to figure out what aspects of your Harlem Renaissance Little Project you need to work on today

3. Working on your Harlem Renaissance Little Projects

HW: 
1. If you were unable to complete the reflection sheet, please watch the documentary over the weekend and complete your reflection sheet by Monday.

2. Complete what you need to get done for your Harlem Renaissance Little Project. They are due by the beginning of class on Friday, Feb 2; late projects will forfeit five points in your weekly "Academic Character Traits."

Discovering Your Theme: January 25, 2018

Focus: What's your theme?

1. Warming up with Grammar You Must Know #4: Modifiers

2. Understanding Langston Hughes' "Theme for English B"

3. Composing your own "Theme for English B" on your blogs; finishing yesterdays activity with gathering and reflecting upon at least three pieces of Harlem Renaissance art on your blog

4. Taking your theme and running with it: Working on your Renaissance Little Projects and developing a project plan

Click HERE for the project plan!


HW:
1. By Monday, finish your project plan. Renaissance Little Project due by February 2.

2. Next Wednesday: Short assessment on Grammar You Must Know #4: Modifiers

3. By TOMORROW, please watch the Harlem Renaissance documentary linked below. It will give you the background on the Harlem Renaissance that you need to succeed this week. You can start the documentary 15 minutes into it. 

*WARNING: If you choose to watch the first 15 minutes (not required), there are upsetting photographs of lynchings between minutes 5 and 7.*

Documentary link: Making a Way Out of No Way

On Friday, you will be asked to take about 15 minutes to fill out a reflection sheet on the documentary. It will be divided into Level 1, 2, and 3 thinking. As long as you watched the documentary, you will be just fine. No need to memorize anything.

Contemplating Your Theme: January 24, 2018

Focus: What's your theme, and how may art contribute to it?

1. Warming up with Vocabulary Quiz #1: Fences

2. Exploring the multidimensional message your poem might become!

Watching a commercial example.

• What's the first part of this poem/commercial about?
• What's the shift?
• What's the overall message, and how do the photos contribute to it?

Perusing the overview of this mini-project.

3. Investigating "Song of the Towers" by Aaron Douglas (my favorite) with an MMM approach and extra step: Which figure is you? Why?

Song of the Towers, by Aaron Douglas (1934)

4. Exploring other Harlem Renaissance artists you may wish to use in your Renaissance Little Project

Aaron Douglas
Jacob Lawrence
Palmer Hayden
Lois Mailou Jones

Your goal: Use your blog today to start collecting paintings that you might want to use in your Renaissance Little Project. Maybe they relate to the poem you wrote yesterday. Maybe they remind you of something we've watched/read/talked about this semester. Maybe you just like the look of it.

• Paste the paintings and their links into your blog. 

• Be sure to include their titles, artists, and if possible, dates.

• For at least THREE of the paintings, try an MMM approach (moments, movements, meanings). You can type this on your blog underneath the paintings.

• Click HERE for an example from last year.

5. Enjoying Grammar You Must Know, Lesson #4: Modifiers

HW:
1. By Friday, please watch the Harlem Renaissance documentary linked below. It will give you the background on the Harlem Renaissance that you need to succeed this week. You can start the documentary 15 minutes into it. 

*WARNING: If you choose to watch the first 15 minutes (not required), there are upsetting photographs of lynchings between minutes 5 and 7.*

Documentary link: Making a Way Out of No Way

On Friday, you will be asked to take about 15 minutes to fill out a reflection sheet on the documentary. It will be divided into Level 1, 2, and 3 thinking. As long as you watched the documentary, you will be just fine. No need to memorize anything.

2. We will have an open-note, open-friend "quiz" on modifiers next Wednesday, Jan 31.

3. Renaissance Little Projects due February 2.

What Will Your Verse Be? January 23, 2018

Focus: What will your verse be? 

1. Warming up by wrapping yesterday's Venn diagram and "What Will Your Verse Be"?

2. Contemplating other Whitman's Hughes' verses: "I Hear America Singing" and "I, Too" with the MMM approach

3. Composing your own response poem to "I, Too"

HW:
1. Please finish your response poem if you did not finish in class.

2. Keeping studying the Fences vocabulary on www.quizlet.com; assessment TOMORROW.

3. By Friday, please watch the Harlem Renaissance documentary linked below. It will give you the background on the Harlem Renaissance that you need to succeed this week. You can start the documentary 15 minutes into it. 

*WARNING: If you choose to watch the first 15 minutes (not required), there are upsetting photographs of lynchings between minutes 5 and 7.*

So you could watch about 15 minutes a night, you could watch it all in one gloriously informative off hour, or you could FLIP class--you can watch parts of the film in class and do the in-class stuff for homework. Do what works for you and your schedule.

Documentary link: Making a Way Out of No Way

On Friday, you will be asked to take about 15 minutes to fill out a reflection sheet on the documentary. It will be divided into Level 1, 2, and 3 thinking. As long as you watched the documentary, you will be just fine. No need to memorize anything.