Saturday, April 30, 2011

Welcome back!

Update on Wednesday May 4

Besides the more obvious goals of this project, including improving research, presentation, and getting more personal with the content, I hope you understand there are other goals. It is my hope that you will have had a chance to connect with the community, either local or global, though doing this project. One way of accomplishing this is by posting some of your information on one of our blogs. A blog allows you to have an authentic audience, which means readers beyond your usual teacher. This could include other students at our school, people in your family or community, our country, or other countries.

It’s my intention to ask you to put your writing and/or Power Point information on to one of the blogs. I feel others should see the results of your hard work. Please let me know if there is any reason not to do this. With that in mind, things in the individual papers would be more likely to be things not posted online, I’d expect. Let’s assume for now that the papers will not be posted unless I specifically ask, and the information in the Power Points will be unless you say not to.

Here is cool website called "Bibme" http://www.bibme.org/ It is awesome, because you just set it to MLA format and type in the title of the book, and it does the rest. It will spit out a bibliography for you!

What you create is yours. It is your choice if it is put on a public forum such as a blog or not. I am encouraging you to do it, though, because I feel your work is praiseworthy, from what I can see of it. However, I do want to see the Power Points, for example, before they are posted. I hope you will get a good feel for the "authenticity" of it after more experience using the medium.

If you have worries about the schedule, or trouble accessing the school's e-learning platform, please let me know. Enjoy your upcoming days!

Posted on Sunday 1 May
I hope your last two weeks was interesting! Perhaps you can write about it, and put the key points on your blogs (just a little, maybe with a photograph). Save most of the writing for later, as we will be doing autobiographical writing in the third marking period of this semester (6th term of this year) and the last two weeks can be used as practice. This week, I hope you can share some impressions or information with me and your classmates in class.

We have material to cover in our readers this week, and quizzes and homework to go over from before the two week you were gone. And this week you must hand in your writing for the projects. For that I said I want one or two pages of writing with at least one reference. Now, to be more specific, I want MLA format. Use default margins, Calibri 12 point, and single spaced papers. You need at least 600 words.

The presentations themselves will take place next week. Follow the guidelines given before or email me with any questions, or ask in class this week. I am looking forward to seeing the results of your work!

Also, after you have prepared videos or Power Points for your projects, I would like to have access to them, meaning I would like the files transferred to the computer in our classroom. This part is for viewing and assessment purposes. Please discuss it among your group if it is OK to share it with future students, teachers, or on the Kang Chiao Creates blog, if worthy. I encourage you to post group efforts such as movies and Power Points to your personal blogs. When making such productions, keep in mind your global audience, and ask yourself what you have to say to them about what you have learned and can now do

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Project ideas

9G Fahrenheit 451:

Creative aspects of Ray Bradbury
Alvin, Jon, Evan, Andy
(1) Author's basic/background information: Alvin Liu (told to focus on an event in the author’s life that led him to write of the disappearance of Clarisse in Fahrenheit 451 – found in the afterward)
(2) A comparison between Fahrenheit 451 and another one of Ray Bradbury's books, probably the one you sent us: Jon Chen (using Golden Kite, Silver Wind plus maybe the Pedestrian)
(3) An analysis of the Bradbury's writing style in the book Fahrenheit 451: Andy Chen (looking at the last 11 pages of the book)
(4) Evolution of Bradbury's writing style throughout his writing career: Evan Hsu
and then the Dramatization will be the same

Cast/Crew
Guy Montag: Andy
Beatty: Alvin
The Hound: Evan
Faber and Cameraman: Jon

The Scene: Where Beatty takes Guy to Guy's house and tells him to burn down the house. Guy is facing an emotional conflict but in the end still burns down his house but also burns Beatty and the Hound and runs away.

The topic will be the world of firemen
Woei-sheu, Daniel, William, Irving
Woei-sheu will be responsible for the history of fireman. Daniel will be doing the rules of firemen; he will compare the rules in the book and the rules in real life. William will be researching for the ways of firemen, and Irving for the lives of firemen.

My group has yet to decide the creative component, but we could be acting, writing poems, or creating games.


Allusions in Fahrenheit 451
Win, Charlie, Alexander, Jason, James

We are going to describe the allusions in the book Fahrenheit 451. Each of us are assigned different authors mentioned in this book. We will describe the authors and one of their books. We will also determine the themes in the books.

After that we are going to make a power point based on the allusions in Fahrenheit 451. At the end we will hand out a quiz that will challenge our audience.


Win:
Dante, "The Divine Comedy/Inferno"
Swift, "Gulliver's Travels"
Helen Bannerman, "Little Black Sambo"
Shakespeare’s plays (e.g., Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, King Lear)
Pirandello
Machiavelli, "The Prince"


Alexander:
Shaw, "Pygmalion"
Milton, "Paradise Lost"
Sir Phillip Sidney
Alexander Pope
Dr. Johnson


Jason:
Jonathan Swift, "Gulliver's Travels"
Darwin, "Origin of the Species"
Albert Schweitzer, a doctor
Thomas Love Peacock,
Byron, a poet


Charlie:
O’Neil, "A Long Day's Journey into the Night"
Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address"
Jefferson, "Declaration of Independence"
Tom Paine, "Common Sense"
Thoreau, "Walden"


James:
Harriet Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
Schopenhauer, A German Philosopher
Einstein, his theories (e.g. e=mc squared)
Gandhi, His Autobiography
Bertrand Russell, a philosopher



History of Book Burning
Annette, Linda, Monica, Sabrina, Elizabeth
Annette:
Book burning: Nazi, Germany
Books:
Aeschylus; Oresteia
Aristophanes; Birds, Lysistrata
Sophocles; Oedipus, Antigone

Linda:
Book burning: USA; Koran
Books:
Marcus Aurelius; the Meditation
Plato; the Republic

Monica:
Book burning: USA; Harry Potter
Books:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
Bible: Revelation

Sabrina:
Book burning: China
Books:
Confucius; The Analects
Buddha; his ideas, theories

Elizabeth:
Book burning: Italy; Da Vinci Code
Books:
Job; the Book of Job
Solomon; the Book of Ecclesiastes






Our class will focus on Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 book. Within this umbrella topic, there are a lot of possibilities for each group, so please read on and see what you would like. Your ideas may not be limited to what I have here! I expect the groups to have a proposal for me, and for now I will put the person with his or her name closest to the group letter at the bottom of this post in charge of this group. So, for example, Annette is in charge of group A. Please collect ideas and get me your group's proposal!



For your class, I want the groups to have their projects finalized by Thursday, April 7th. Each group should know what it is doing, and by the end of Thursday's class, each group member should have a clear idea of what he or she is doing within the group. Please be in touch with each other after reading this post and before Thursday's class.

Connection to Ancient History – Chinese book burning and Western philosophers; Writers referred to and book allusions throughout Fahrenheit 451 (not including ancient ones), Fireman’s history and rules, another story by Ray Bradbury (Golden Kite Silver Wind), write in the style of the author (I can identify pages near the end of the book for which this would work), or write a creative addition (extra chapter) about what happened to Clarisse, who disappeared from the story.

Remember, the project must have creative, presentation, and writing components. I expect that each student will produce a short written part and that the group will make a power point or a video and then have a presentation together. It is my strong wish that each group also have either a dramatization or a game for the class to enjoy as part of their presentation. You must at least do reflective posts on your individual blogs about your projects (perhaps multiple times), but if there is a Power Point or video, I hope you will link it to your blogs as well. Grading will be discussed clarified later, but expect an individual grade for your writing and a group grade for group effort. There may be some self and/or peer evaluation involved.

A Annette, Monica, Linda, Elizabeth, Sabrina (5)
B Alvin, Jonathan, Evan, Andy (4)
C Win, Charlie, James, Jason, Alexander (5)
D Woei-sheu, Irving, Daniel, William (4)