(Pytash) End of Semester Reflection

 

I found this class interesting and helpful. I wish that we would have done more teaching, but I’ll get to that later.

The assignments:

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Firestone

I’ve already talked about the Firestone experience on my blog for Kist, so I will focus on the actual assignment here. I found that the theories on English were sort of difficult to keep separated. That perhaps bled into my lesson plan and ideas for my student.

I liked this assignment because it asked me to focus on the needs of a student and create a lesson plan which would address those needs. I wish we would have done more of this. Say, perhaps, that we are given three students and asked to create three lesson plans which address the needs of those students in their particular situations. Then, have us share our lesson plans, see how they matched those of our classmates and what may work better.

Don’t think that I’m going lesson-plan crazy. I just think that we haven’t been doing any teaching, even if that is relegated to planning how to teach something to a particular type of student.

I think that’s all I’ll say about this for now. Refer to my last post for more on Firestone.

 

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Facilitating Classroom Discussion

Yvonne Divans Hutchinson's Website

I honestly believe that this was a very solid assignment. We should have done more exercises like this one.

What did this assignment ask us to do? Think like teachers and then prove it.

Something that I very much liked was the feedback about this.

I want to know what others think of my lessons. Are they suitable for the grade level? Are they engaging? Do they incorporate a variety of learning styles? What standards to they meet? What am I lacking? Most importantly—how can I make it better?

 

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Expert Group Presentations

Again, this is what we should have been doing. These small lessons to our peers helped me so much. I was seeing how individuals who know a text respond to my lesson and that helped me understand how those who aren’t as familiar may respond as well.

In particular, when our class started evaluating the lesson Teri and I used, saying in what situations it could be used for and what aspects they liked/ disliked, that helped! I can then take those ideas and apply them to all of my future lesson planning.

Beyond that, it allowed me to get into “teacher mode.” I am a completely different person when I am sitting in a classroom as a student than when I am teaching. Developing my teaching skills, including my management skills, is important. This exercise helped with that.

I would like to see more class periods where pre-service teachers are teaching the material and getting feedback on their lessons. If I’m blatantly honest, I think that majority of this class could have been taught this way. It’s just an idea.

 

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Canonical Wiki

Well… I pretty much answered everything about this assignment on my blog for Kist, so I highly recommend a look-see there.

 

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Pairing the Classics

I enjoyed this assignment very, very much.

To begin with, I read two books that I’d never read before.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Adoration of Jenna Fox  by Mary E. Pearson

 

This is a good final assignment for a variety of reasons. Firstly, we have to read books as a teacher. Secondly, we have to figure out how these books are linked. It would be boring to think of mundane ways in which to do so, so an overarching question was needed. Third, we had to do a lesson plan based on our overarching question and through a chosen lens.

The two multimodal sources for this assignment were helpful, but not necessary. I understand linking it to our other class and I enjoy using sources of that nature, but I felt that it was almost forced. In particular, students still seemed confused about what a multimodal source or idea was at the end of the semester. That had me scratching my noggin a bit. We had already completed an assignment (the wiki) to collect twenty multimodal sources for a text, yet students did not understand what “multimodal” means.

From there, the questions were applicable and helped me to work through teaching ideas and/or concerns. Assignments like this which help me to establish the basis for my own teaching practice are fantastic.

In particular, I loved the books I read. That helped me a lot. Also, not waiting until the last minute to complete the assignment was helpful.

 

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Blog

I enjoyed the blogs. I enjoyed the text. Using Jago was a great idea for this class.

I really commend the fact that we primarily read and used Jago on our own. That integration of ideas and knowledge from an outside source helped me to think my assignments and ideas over more thoroughly.

I agree with a lot of the things Jago says in her book. Therefore, that was a very valuable resource for me.

In my last blog, I wrote a lot more about… blogging. I’d suggest a quick read there.

 

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So… what do I think of this class, this semester? I liked the information we worked with, but I would have liked to see more teaching on behalf of the students. If the expert group assignment was to be used first (with whatever material you like), then students would have the format down for the rest of the semester.

From there, I’d like to see the students teach the material in small groups and individually, even if it means a five minute lesson. A five minute lesson still takes preparation, knowledge and a plan. I would like to see feedback, information exchange and students helping one another to improve their ideas and lesson plans.

Perhaps my biggest complaint is that I feel we have been looking more at how students function and not enough at how a teacher should function with their students. The practicum and student teaching courses will give us worlds of experience in dealing with particular student issues.

I would have liked to see a focus more on developing our teaching skills not just through learning as students, but by doing as pre-service teachers.

(Kist) End of Semester Reflection

 

Well... this semester was definitely not what I expected it to be.

So many things changed during my year delay from Block I to Block II. To be honest, I am extremely glad that I was able to have the experience I did.

I heard a lot of complaints about Block I after it was changed so that all INLA majors went to Firestone. Their major complaints were that it was unorganized, many of the students did not want/ need tutoring, and that they weren’t actually in the classroom.

My experience at McKinley was a very good one. They didn’t have a program set up, but I got to run with it. When I walked in, I got a list of students and some prep materials. I had over seventy students and loved every minute of it. In that sense, I felt that I was much more prepared for Block II because I had experience with quite a range of students.

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Let’s talk about the assignments from this semester:

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Multimodal Literacy Autobiography

I love working with technology. My familiarity with many audio and video editing programs came in handy for this assignment.

While I enjoyed going down memory lane with everyone, I have substantial reservations about using this in my classroom. Firstly, not every student has access to programs such as Audacity. Secondly, something like this would take a very long time to prepare and students often have compatibility issues with their own project.

I am pretty savvy when it comes to trouble-shooting things like that, but it would take a lot of time out of class. Think about it: even if students could only show two minutes, that makes about 60 minutes if you have thirty students. An entire class period spent on this at the least, and that is if everything runs smoothly.

Let’s be honest--nowadays, teachers just don’t have the time to spend more than one class period on “getting to know each other.”

 

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Firestone Tutoring

This is something that I had very, very mixed feelings about. On one hand, the student I tutored REALLY needed the help. On the other hand, I had already done a ton of tutoring.

With the very limited amount of time that we are in the schools, I want to be experiencing as many different scenarios as possible.

Beside that, Firestone was two weeks of class that we missed. I felt that we could have learned so much more this semester. In all honesty, if we are taking two weeks out of a short semester to be in a school, we should be in a classroom working with teachers, at the very least observing. It would be ideal to see lesson plans, how the lesson works, then talk with the teacher for a couple of minutes after the class to see what they thought happened. Teaching would be a fantastic bonus, but even observing and evaluating is beneficial.

Considering that INLA students seem to be concerned with lesson plans, seeing how lesson plans are created for and used in a real classroom would be ultimately helpful.

 

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Film Study Guide

While I understand the concept behind this assignment, I would find it difficult to use in a high school classroom. Doing a shot-by-shot analysis for an entire scene (mine encompassed over twenty shots) was excessive. Students in high school likely wouldn’t have access to those movies at home and doing that analysis was very, very time consuming.

When students are viewing films or even small clips in class, I think that they should work more on relating that to other texts than assessing the filmic qualities present in its composition. I took a film studies class in high school and I think that’s the proper place for that. On one hand, I can see giving students a basic understanding of the ideas and elements used in filmmaking, but there is not enough time to thoroughly work through films.

 

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Canonical Text Wiki

CLICK this link to visit the Wiki

This assignment was a good one—for teachers. It is obvious that we would not ask students to find teaching ideas for a canonical text. With that in mind, I think that a wiki page could be somewhat useful in the classroom.

If students wanted to do a multimodal project which allowed them to use links to websites with an interactive component, then creating a wiki page is one way to do that. I can see students creating wikis for texts regarding different aspects of a text, even if the pages are simply an explication of:

• Theme
• Symbols
• Plot
• Protagonist/ Antagonist
• Simile/ Metaphor
• etc.

 

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Facebook Project

De Pere's School Website

EHHS Website

I am definitely finding this project interesting. In our group, there is one student in particular who has strong ideas about the text and who thinks further than a “Level 1” question. The others seem to be posting merely because they have to.

Interacting with students from across the nation is a very important aspect of this project and I could see it working well with two classrooms of high school students.

However, I HATE that it’s on Facebook. Having a second account (as many already have a primary account) is against Facebook’s Terms of Service Agreement.

Directly from Facebook’s website:

“Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use....

Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If you already have a personal account, then we cannot allow you to create business accounts for any reason. You can manage all the Pages and Facebook Ads that you create on your personal account.”

Now, beyond that, I feel that this assignment would be better served on a forum. Everything would be in one place, with sub-forums for each group. There are a lot more privacy and censorship settings with forums. Also, you can format the entries much better, including photos, links, etc.

 

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Final Representation of Learning Video

The primary issue that I have with this assignment is this:

everyone takes something different from the assignments and tasks we did.

Having said that, picking one concept to focus on for five minutes (which is extremely short) is difficult. Beyond that, with a topic such as gaming and how it affects the classroom, it truly requires some gaming experience.

Beyond that, I would like to think that our videos are not just for teachers. That sort of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? Therefore, I wanted my video to:

• Capture the viewer’s attention
• Give them something to think about
• Show, not necessarily tell everything
• Then come back and wrap it up
• Make it interesting to everyone, including gamers

I’ve shown my video to two gamers who have no interest in education. Both of them thought that it was interesting yet gave them something to think about.

What did they say?

It made me think about how it affects my life.

After all, that’s the idea, right? Kist wanted us to create a video which speaks to an idea we discussed in the classroom. Taking it further and showing how it affects students in real-life situations is an almost-necessary expansion.

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Blogging

I have found that blogging is difficult for me if I am not given a particular topic to write about. This blog, used as an assignment, with specific blog topics, was very easy for me to complete.

I will be honest: I was disappointed how little some of my colleagues wrote. I wanted to hear their ideas, comments and concerns regarding the blog topics. For the most part, I read summaries and a couple of side notes. I wanted to see them engage the texts.

My own blog has helped me hash out some of my personal ideas in regard to teaching. I have solidified some opinions that were formerly unsure. I have created new conundrums for myself, but that’s all right.

Hmm. I think the primary purpose this blog served me this semester was to have a conversation with the texts and myself. Yes, I admit to talking with myself. I had to really get inside my own head in order to figure out my reactions to the text and why I had that particular reaction.

In all, I think that blog was a great way for pre-service teachers to think about their future as teachers, in a classroom. We need to know who we are in order to help others find themselves.

 

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You know what I would like to see? I think that Educational Technology and Multi-Modal Literacies should be combined into one class.

I think that we, as pre-service teachers, need to be teaching more, even if it’s to our colleagues. I think we need to be reading and writing lesson plans, evaluating teaching strategies and doing more intense education-oriented coursework.

I’m a blunt person, so I’ll be blunt here. I don’t feel as prepared as I should be. I’ve harped on it before, but I’ll say it again: the middle childhood majors have much more in-school experience than we do. They have been writing lesson plans from the beginning. They read them to each other, evaluate and rewrite. We need to do more than this.

All three times that we wrote lesson plans this semester in Pytash’s class, students were freaking out because they didn’t know what a lesson plan looks like or how it works.

That is not a good thing.

We have a program that produces good teachers, but I’d like to see them be better prepared. I’ve been very proactive in my educational career and I’ve tried my hardest to absorb information.

When I was at McKinley, my teacher sat down with me, emptied her bookcase and said, “These are the books I use every week. Get them.” That helped me A LOT.

I really think that we need to have more interaction with teachers. Working with students would be great too, but we need to know how teachers work in their own classrooms, how they figure out what lesson worked and what activity didn’t.

 

Okay, I think I’ll step down now.

 

I have enjoyed this semester, but I feel like I need… more.

(Kist) Group Work

 

“I avoid group projects for assessment because almost invariably they allow some students to slack off while others—the ones who care most about the grade—do all the work. No matter how cunningly I craft a scoring guide it is still hard to hold individuals as accountable as I would like when students work as a team. In, for example, an M.B.A. course there is a functional need for group effort, but at this stage of a child’s education, I want to know how well each student has understood the text. I need to hear from each one separately” (Jago, 158-9).

 

Let me be the first to say that I HATE group work.

I was always the student who wanted to work on the project and get it done rather than wait until the last minute. I was always the one who wanted to do more than just the minimum. I was always the one who cared, and in turn, did the work.

I completely agree with Jago on this point. I would rather give students individual work and take the extra time to grade it, then have students sliding by on another's effort.

While I do see the point in an occasional group assignment, I would prefer to keep them to pairs rather than groups of three or more. This would allow for a much easier way of seeing who did their work and who did not.

Also, any “group” work that is graded should be individual grades. It is not two students’ faults that their third member didn’t care about the project. That, to me, is pure laziness on the part of the teacher. They would rather assign one grade then figure it out.

 

Now, I definitely see the point in group activities, brainstorming and classroom discussion. However, for assignments worth a significant amount of points, I would try to avoid group work as much as possible.

I agree with Jago that I want to see what each student has to offer.

In that sense, many will advocate for group projects because it allows students not particularly skilled at writing to perform other duties in the group. To counteract this, I would probably give a choice of assignments.

For example:

Students have completed a novel and will be doing a project in summation of what they learned.

Students can choose between:

• An essay
• A visual representation (requires research and more effort than throwing pictures on a page)
• A video
• A sculpture or other work, accompanied by a short explanation
• Any other similar “project” idea used endlessly

 

Although this video is long, it has some interesting ideas about group work—when it works and when it doesn’t.

“School board defends tattooed teacher deemed 'too cool' for school”

 

This is an article that can be found Here

 

The school board in Skövde in western Sweden has backed local teacher Sam Aalto after he was criticised by a local politician, who argued that his surfeit tattoos and spiky hair set a bad example to students.

• Principal spied on pupils with hidden camera (4 Apr 11)
• Elderly Swedes 'not interested' in using the internet: study (30 Mar 11)
• 'Renationalise Sweden's schools': minister (15 Mar 11)

"The media circus round this has surpassed my wildest expectations," Aalto told The Local.

Father of five, Sam Aalto, is in his forties and has been teaching at Vasaskolan in Skövde for eight years.

He is described by the school as highly competent and is liked by colleagues and students alike.

The problems started when pensioner and local politician Sture Grönwall, 70, visited the school and spied Aalto’s tattoos, piercings and spiky hair across the school canteen.

“Can a teacher really look like that,” a startled Grönwall asked, according to the Aftonbladet daily.

After speaking to one of the headmasters and not getting the response he was after, Grönwall decided to write to the local school board (Skolnämnden).

In his letter he questioned the example a teacher like Aalto would set for students as well as the values of the school letting someone like Aalto teach there.

The school board however did not share Grönwall’s view, coming out in defence of Aalto and Vasaskolan.

“To let our students solely see adults with no tattoos or piercings and wearing suits would not show them an accurate view of today’s society,” they wrote in their response to Grönwall's complaint.

Sam Aalto meanwhile expressed surprise at Grönwall’s reaction as well as the 'media circus' cropping up around him.

“I have been working here since 2003 and the subject has never been brought up before - no one has ever reacted. I never knew that Grönwall had complained before I found out about the whole thing through the local press," he said.

According to Aalto it isn't the fact that Grönwall questioned his look but the way he went about it that is questionable.

"In a democracy everyone has the right to ask the question, it is the moralising aspect of Grönwall's opinion which I object to," he said.
Aalto said to Aftonbladet at the time that when his finances allow he will add to his existing body art.

The locals in the rural town of Skövde were meanwhile split on the issue.
When asked by a local TV channel, young people said there should be no restrictions whereas pensioners of a similar age to Sture Grönwall did not like the idea of a tattooed schoolteacher.

Sture Grönwall is meanwhile unrepentant, expressing consternation at the flak thrown in his direction in the press.

“They say that politicians shouldn’t meddle in what teachers wear – but then who should?“ Grönwall asked during an interview with SR.

When asked if this was merely a question of different values for different age groups, Grönwall conceded that it might have something to do with it.

“But brought up in the old style of schooling, I believe that school should be both morally and academically educated and properly prepare children for society and labour market,” he said.

If the response from the school board is anything to go by however, that is exactly what they feel they are doing by defending Aalto.

"I am happy about the support that I have received since the incident and I bear no personal grudges against Sture Grönwall," Aalto told The Local.

(Pytash) Literature, Knowledge, and the High School Graduate

 

“A high school diploma should represent not just time spent at a desk but a body of knowledge and set of skills that students have mastered” (Jago 148).

What does a diploma mean in the world? It is one way to get into college or acquire a job. It tells others that you had the patience and at least minimal effort to get through (at least) twelve years of education thus far.

But what does it really mean? For those who took their education seriously, it can mean a vast wealth of knowledge that can be used in future circumstances in which that knowledge could be the key element. For others, it means that barely passing was the name of the game. Those students likely ignored everything except for drama surrounding their friends and what the Friday night plans are going to be this week.

A diploma can say a lot about a student, but most of the time it gets a blanket view.

You have completed high school. Now what are you going to do?

 

“The American Diploma Project benchmark for writing about literature reads: ‘A high school graduate should be able to analyze the complexity of moral dilemmas in historically significant works of literature, as revealed by characters’ motivation and behavior’” (Jago 149).

What are the key words here? Moral, historically significant, motivation and behavior. According to that Project group, writing about literature only involves moral dilemmas. What else could it possibly involve? Can this encompass all aspects of writing about literature? In my opinion, yes and no. Specifying moral dilemmas as the primary goal for writing about literature changes how students and/or educators would view writing assignments.

If that standard was nationally recognized, then I would worry about the morals of every aspect of a text. How can I ask about this situation’s morals? What about the morals of character x? Is this a moral dilemma or just common courtesy? How do you deal with moral dilemmas beyond the scope of high school when students are facing moral dilemmas every day?

Texts should help students work to develop their moral compass. Through every situation a character encounters, they make a decision: would I or wouldn’t I? In saying that, I am effectually admitting that most work about literature can be about morals. What types of writing won’t involve morals at all? A new critical reading of a text may be able to pull it off, but we do utilize our morals quite a bit.

 

“Some argue that only students bent on pursuing careers in university English departments—a small subset indeed—need to develop the ability to analyze literature. But, surely this is important training for every mind” (Jago 150).

What does literature analysis do for students? It cultivates critical thinking processes which in turn allow students to evaluate and make decisions about text. Everything we encounter is a text. While we do not physically stop to analyze every text we see, hear, touch, taste, or smell, we do make smaller decisions.

Think about it. You see this image:

What decisions did you make?

• This is a mammal
• This is a horse
• The horse is sort of white
• The horse is facing right
• It is a pretty horse
• The horse is tall

If you had the background knowledge to evaluate the horse more closely, you may decide that:

• The horse is a draft cross of some sort
• The horse is a red roan tobiano, greying out
• The horse has strong, short pasterns
• The horse has a neck that is attached low but set acceptably
• The horse has a typey head but is not super feminine
• The horse’s shoulder is slightly larger than the horse’s engine
• The horse has a long, somewhat weak back
• The horse is in good weight

Look at the difference between the depth of observation you can make if you have the knowledge of how to evaluate the horse. The same goes for literature.

 

“Clearly the ability to write well allows some students to articulate their understanding more effectively, but such an assessment allows students with emerging writing skills, for example English language learners, to earn a high grade for comprehension without sophisticated writing skills” (Jago 158).

What is this referring to? Simple tests which ask comprehension-based questions rather than those which may ask for a well-written, superfluous answer. What is the point of assessing students? We want to know what they know. As a teacher, I want my students to develop their writing skills and bring forth their ideas onto paper in a sophisticated manner, but I realize that this isn’t always possible. Sometimes, we need to step back and allow students to “show what they know.”

(Kist) Anxieties of a Pre-Service Teacher

 

At this point in my educational career, I’m going to admit it—I’m nervous. Coming close to student teaching and graduation has be excited, but wary. I want to be a good teacher. I want to make a difference in the lives of others.

But… how do I do that?

There is no magic answer to this question. I can’t tap my shoes together three times and wish myself into the future where I am the best teacher in the nation. It just doesn’t happen like that.

If there is one thing that I’m sure about, it is the idea that this will be a lot of work. I’m ready for that. I’m actually excited for that. Each time that I think up an idea or come across something I would use in a classroom, I want to immediately put it to use. Unfortunately, I’ve been relegating most of them to an idea binder.

Through all of my education courses and many of my higher level English courses, I’ve kept everything. I have assignments, my own work, textbooks, novels and tons of notes. What am I going to do with them? I plan to learn from them.

There are a lot of ideas that my teachers and professors have used that I really didn’t like, but that’s okay. I can take those assignments and find ways to teach the same thing in a different way. I’ve seen ways I don’t like and that helps me narrow things down to something I may like.

Back to the anxiety issues.

• What if my students don’t like the lesson plans?
  What if my classroom rebels against a grading system I’ve put in place?
• Will I be overwhelmed by students who need more help than I can give?
• What happens if I cannot fit every content standard into my yearly plans?
• What if I have to teach a grade level that I truly don’t desire to teach?

About a hundred more questions like those have been parading themselves through my brain. The WhatIfs have struck again.

At this point, all I can do is work hard and wonder…

What if I find that teaching is my destiny, that teaching is where I’m meant to make a difference in the world?

That WhatIf is perfectly acceptable.

(Kist) Graphic Novels

 

This blog entry will be comparing the two graphic novels:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer

and

Naruto Volume 1

 

Text and Dialogue

Narration

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Pinocchio is our narrator, allowing for first person. It only feel like true narration in the beginning, before he moves into action with other characters.	This novel does not have narration, as it relies on character dialogue to promote understanding.

Balloons

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
All dialogue is contained in a word balloon, with an indicator toward the speaker. The shape or size only depends on the speech length.	While some of the text is contained in balloons, there is a lot that is not. It usually is in white (negative) space, but it is typically inserted where space allows.

Captions

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
It would seem that the first page could be considered a caption, but it feels more that Pinocchio is saying that rather than the author. It feels like an introduction to his later lines.	The “Once upon a time” opening would be a caption by the author, but I don’t believe there are others. As previously stated, text here is between characters.

Emanata

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Emanata are present in this text, but they are more to demonstrate motion than shock or surprise.	Emanata are almost overwhelming in this text, as they are all over the place. They demonstrate a range of emotions and motion.

Labels/ Signs

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
The only real labels we get here are those on the grave markers and for the fallen toymaker sign.	Labels or signs are not used in this text.

Lettering

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
In this text, the letters are all in capitals and in precise, easy to read text. Some letters/ words are bold for emphasis. It is not a block font, but it is a clear, handwritten font.	All of the letters in dialogue are capitalized. The font ranges from a structured, easy to read handwriting, to more exaggerated efforts. Some fonts are tall and squished laterally while others are tall and bold.

Sound Effects

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
There are some sound effects used in this text, but they are easy to overlook. The reader sees them, but they don’t jump out at you.	This text uses big and bold uses of sound effects. They, at times, overpower the dialogue and/or action. In some cases, the sound effects are the action being focused upon.

 

Visual Features

Characters

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer

Naruto Volume 1

The characters here are very distinct. Pinocchio has the curled hair with strong lateral cheeks and short stature, not to mention the nose. The vampires are tall with wiry hair and black cloaks. The fairy is shown with wrinkled skin, short stature and a cowl on her shoulders. Master cherry has a distinct beard and glasses.

While some would argue that manga characters are very similar in appearance, the small details set them apart. Naruto has blonde hair, the goggles or hitai-ate, three small lines on each cheek and the vest with black stripes. Sakura has long hair with strands out front, the hitai-ate is used to hold her hair back, and she wears a black dress. Sasuke has black spiked hair with a black jacket up around his neck and the hitai-ate slightly obscured by his hair.

Objects

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
The main object used in this novel is Pinocchio’s nose, which he rips off to slay the vampires with. Objects without importance were left out for a more simplistic design.	This text focuses on a variety of objects, ranging from the hitai-ate to paint and erasers, to ninja tools and weapons. This text, like Pinocchio, uses its objects in important scenes.

Icons

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
I would say that the only icons in this text were the signs that had been transferred into wood.	I don’t believe that there are any icons which stand out in this text, except for the symbol on the hitai-ate.

Scenery

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Except for strong action scenes, I would say that this text uses minimal scenery. In most cases, there are hints (such as cobblestone) which allude to a location. It allows for the reader to fill in most of the information without cluttering the page.	This text uses a much more complicated idea of scenery. Especially in the wooded scenes, there is a lot of “background noise” going on behind the characters. It usually isn’t clear except for long shots.

Depicted Action

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
The actions in this text are very, very clear. It is obvious who is doing what, where and when. The emanata help to show motion more than anything else does.	This text can get slightly confusing at times with all of the action. Granted, it’s about ninjas (in training, at least), so motion was perhaps intended to be deceiving. In some scenes, it is impossible to tell who is doing what, where, or why.

 

General Layout and Design

Borders

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Panels that are on white gutters have thin black borders. Those on black gutters have no particular outline, although it is perceived through negative space to be there. There are some without borders, although those are perceived through other visual effects.	Most panels have black rectangular borders. Those that don’t are splashed across and/or take up more room on the page.

Gutters

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Most pages have white gutters, but pages with a lot of dark panels seem to have black gutters. In rare instances, the gutters are taken up entirely by panels.	For the most part, the gutters are white. However, a lot of the gutters in this text are polluted with splashing, be it characters or text.

Panels

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Most of the panels here are rectangular, but they don’t really have a “uniform size.” It truly varies—even on the same page.	This text relies more on a uniform size of panel. Some panels are combinations of one or more small units, but it rarely goes to an odd size.

Open Panel

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Open panels are more common in this text than in Naruto. They occur on a regular basis, as both a point for emphasis and a visual POP from the page.	These only seem to happen in this text when the panel takes up one-third or more of the page.

Splash

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Splash panels are very common in this text, but double splashes happen rarely.	This text has more double-splashes than Pinocchio, and they are typically high-motion, large-text scenes.

 

Angles and Frames

Bleed

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Bleed panels are common in this text when the splash panels are larger.	Bleed panels here are usually used to indicate a lot of motion.

Close-Up

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
I would say that there are very, very few close-up shots in this text. Those that made it in are of glaring eyes, showing strong emotion.	There is an occasional close-up in this text when trying to emphasize emotion on a character’s face.

Head Shot

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Head shots are very popular in this text, especially in groups.	Head shots are common in this text as well, but they are more spread out among the other shots.

Head-Shoulder Shot

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
This is a common shot, but I would not say that this is the most popular shot used in this novel.	In this text, the head-shoulder shot seems supreme over many others. This is perhaps because of its ability to showcase emotion while still including background.

Full-Figure Shot

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
The majority of scenes with other characters are full-figure shots, which show interaction and relationships between characters.	While this shot pops up here and there, it is not very popular for this text.

Longshot

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
In Pinocchio, this seems to be present when a strong focus on one character is needed.	This shot is not very common in this book except instances where distance or prominence (importance, perhaps) is paramount.

Extreme Longshot

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
This doesn’t happen in this novel. The action is more immediate—closer, to the reader.	There are a couple of forest scenes in which a lot of motion is occurring and it could only be seen by an extreme longshot.

Reverse

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Reverse shots are not really seen in this text. For the most part, Pinocchio is either facing other characters or walking toward the reader.	The reverse shot is much more common in this text. I would assume that, as a ninja in training, one should always be looking behind one’s back for unseen enemies.

 

Rhetorical Techniques

Exaggeration

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
There aren’t a whole lot of overly exaggerated shots in this novel. It’s pretty straightforward.	Exaggeration is the name of the game with this novel. Unlike Pinocchio, it exaggerates everything, including sound effects (to obnoxious ends, I have to say).

 

Empathy/ Identification

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
This character was more easily identifiable to me. We all battle our demons with our own special skills. At some point in our lives, revenge and bloodlust can overcome anything else, but it is the seeming “humanity” in a non-human form which truly brings me closer to Pinocchio.	This book is much harder to relate to. In one sense, the characters seem like teens and that is all right. However, when you consider all of the circumstances, ninja training and fighting for your life aren’t things one does often. Take into consideration the very heavy cultural influence, and it makes it even more difficult to relate—for me, at least.

 

Mood/ Tone

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
This text has a very solemn tone to it. It seems like Pinocchio feels that he has to hunt the vampires and strike them down, or he will lose everything they didn’t take in the first place. I don’t really feel many instances here where moods other than solemn, grief, rage, or self-loathing come into play.	This text takes on a much lighter tone, with characters who joke and dialogue that isn’t quite so serious. While I felt that there were serious moments, I was never fully pulled into those. Humor always brought me out and into the next scene.

 

Simplicity/ Complexity

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
This novel is more simple compared to Naruto, in all aspects. The dialogue was more clean and in easy to understand diction.	Naruto presents a challenge in both its complexity of storyline and the sheer amount of “stuff” contained on the pages.

 

Irony/ Satire

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
While I found it ironic that an animated piece of wood is using his magical talent to extinguish reanimated life, this book just didn’t strike me as satirical.	Naruto was definitely satirical in many ways to me. Not only was the author commenting on the believed invincibility of adolescents/ teens, but there was a major spin on the ninja culture. Some sacred tenets were seen as sacred, but most were satirical references at best.

 

Realism

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Strangely enough, this book seemed more real to me. Perhaps it was the emphasis on humanity and its loss that brings me to this conclusion, but I believed it more.	Naruto didn’t strike me as a real text. It was something that I could see as a cartoon, but nothing to be taken seriously. For me, it was entertainment only.

 

Order/ Disorder

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Pinocchio had a very clear order of action and consequence throughout the text, and this allowed for a smooth understanding.	Naruto, at times, became difficult to follow. Some panels didn’t give explanation to actions occurring while others seemed put there merely to create chaos.

Relationships

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
The relationships here are strong, especially between Pinocchio, the fairy and Master Cherry. There is a familial sense that promotes grief when Master Cherry is murdered.	This text desires to play with relationships and what is real versus illusion. Naruto “loves” Sakura, who “loves” Sasuke. All of these are illusionary relationships as they only exist in the minds of the love-originators. Naruto is without family and we don’t get into the family lives of the others much.

Point of View

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
Pinocchio begins out very distinctly in first person. It seems that it transitions over to third, but it could still be considered first. The speaker/ narrator is Pinocchio, who the story follows.	Naruto is in third person as the action happens around him and does not explicitly follow him. At times, whole scenes do not involve him.

Juxtaposition

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer	Naruto Volume 1
I was very interested in this graphic novel and very much enjoyed it. The storyline was simple, yet it wasn’t boring. I felt a connection to the main characters and even a little grief at the loss of Master Cherry. There is something about a sad wood puppet that draws me in, I guess.	I honestly didn’t get interested in this text until the very end. By that point, I wanted to know a little more about the characters. Unlike Pinocchio, I had no issues putting this down and walking away from it. For me, it just wasn’t exciting, despite the frantic fight scenes.
I did find something interesting in this text. There is a name spelled two different ways. Canpanella (when Master Cherry first tells Pinocchio that they took her) and Canpenella (when Master Cherry feeds Pinocchio, saying that they will need their strength to find her)

 

(Kist) Black Death

 

Hmm. Perhaps it was because I didn’t go until midnight, but the “Film Festival Experience” was pretty uninteresting. It was a movie theatre in a mall. For me, that’s not very unique or noteworthy. On the other hand, I felt like I could have watched this movie in any theatre and it would have been just the same. Overall, I felt like it was just annoying to drive up to Cleveland at midnight to see the movie I wanted to watch.

 

To turn to the movie itself: I loved it. I was first drawn in by the title: Black Death. How can anyone not want to see it? Okay, I take that back; I’m sure there are some who have no interest in the plague and its effects on the people. For me, it was interesting to put myself back in that mindset and understand a bit more about the panic and chaos that ensues with something this devastating and widespread.  

Film Review for Black Death (2010)

Genre:

IMDB classifies this movie as an adventure, mystery and drama film, which I agree with.

Plot (BIG spoiler alert):

This movie starts out in England at a church.

We meet Osmund, a young monk who happens to illicitly love the woman Averill. When the plague breaks out and many are fleeing the town, Osmund sends Averill back to her home town. She leaves, but tells him that she will wait for a week at a crossroads for him to join her. He prays fervently for a way to be reunited with her, asking God to serve him in any way possible outside of the monastery.

Osmund’s opportunity arrives when Ulric, a warrior on a mission from God, needs a guide through the marshes.

Osmund offers and is sent along with the group, excited because he will pass the crossroads where his lover waits for him.

Osmund learns the true reason for the group’s expedition; there is a town said to reincarnate its dead, which is also entirely free from the plague.

When the group reaches the crossroads, Osmund sets out alone in the early morning, only to find blood and scattered belongings, but no Averill.

He encounters a band of savages who attack the entire party and force them to flee immediately to the village they seek.

All seems well in the village, but something just doesn’t feel right. The town’s “healer” Langiva shows Osmund the body of Averill and tells him that they found her in the marsh. Later that night, Langiva trails him through the forest to a secluded area where she and her maidens bring Averill back to life.

Afraid and confused, Osmund runs back to the village where his companions are already seized by tainted drink. They are all imprisoned by morning.

Langiva gives a speech, proclaiming the woes and negatives of God and his word, because he sent these men to destroy the village’s beliefs and kill the nonbelievers. She says that the plague has not touched them, because they do not believe in the God who now punishes his people.

One by one, the men are taken out and tortured unless they will denounce their god. One man decides to denounce and is led away from the group, only to be hanged in the forest. By the time that Langiva comes to Osmund, she tells him that Averill is in a nearby building, waiting for him to denounce God and be with her once again.

He runs toward the building, only to find a crazed woman who could be said to be a demonic incarnation, with a fascination for knives. He grabs one of them and “kills” Averill, showing her mercy that the witch refused to show. He carries her back, only to be beaten and tortured.

The rest of the men except one fall in battle with the villagers, but Osmund manages to get away in the marsh. He chases Langiva, but does not catch her.

Osmund is returned to the monastery by the remaining man, who has taken the village’s leader (not the intended witch) as proof that the village has been cleansed.

Osmund turned from the church and became a warrior, constantly seeking out Langiva in towns suspected of witchcraft. He executes many women who he “sees” as Langiva, even though they are innocent. He seeks vengeance for Averill’s death, though he cannot find the true cause: Langiva.

 

Themes:

The prominent theme here is the involvement of the church and the effects that that brings on the people. Religion brings such fervor to people that they will do anything to obey the “word of God.” As Ulric did, bringing in a group of mercenaries to execute a witch, it only takes one man to change the fate of an entire village. Someone else’s beliefs are different than an established church and they want to change them.

Sacrifice is another very strong theme in this film. We firstly have Osmund’s sacrifice in sending Averill away, so that she may be safe. Then, Osmund gives up his protection of the monastery to seek his love. The men end up giving their lives for their faith, brining the pestilence to the village to rout out a group of nonbelievers. At the end, Osmund has given up everything—his faith, lifestyle, and nearly his sanity to seek vengeance for one so wronged by others.

 

Technique:

There were a few scenes in this movie in which the camera work was very shaky. It seemed as if they didn’t have a camera dolly and were literally running with the camera. While it gave the movie a first-person effect during these scenes, it was a bit jarring to the viewer, as in it popped me out of the experience a bit.

I think that the technical strengths lie in the actors and their part. The filming was a little weak, but it was all believable and that matters to me.

Acting:

I thought that the acting for this film was very good. Although I only know one of the actors (Ulric, played by Sean Bean, was in the Lord of the Rings films as Boromir), I felt that it was believable and and I wasn’t “popped out” of the movie by bad acting.

The actors chosen for each role fit them perfectly, from the shy but rebellious Osmund

to the bold and unrelenting Langiva.

Representation:

Men and women were represented based off of the time period and they did a good job with this. This film does not represent “the church” in a positive light. For that matter, no religion is played positively here. They all bring death and destruction to their follows in the end. I believe that they did this on purpose to follow with their ideology.

Ideology:

The ideology of this film would be hard to classify, as I have no background knowledge of the producer’s intent. If I had to say what it was based solely on my viewing and analysis of it, I would have to say that the ideology would be that religion (perhaps with a focus on Christianity) is a negative force in the world. My main conclusions here are based on the following instances from the film:

• A group of individuals rounded up a woman from their village who they thought was a witch. They sought to burn her because their village had been hit with the pestilence after she blessed the water. She was a believer in God, but in their search for the cause, they ignored that.
   
• A man who had a “vision from God,” gathered a group of mercenaries to kill a suspected witch because their village had not been hit with the pestilence, whereas everywhere else had.
• Langiva had taken a village of people and gathered them to slaughter the messengers of another people because they did not share her faith.
• A man turns from religion because he could not find solace in the death of his loved one. No one stopped him from murdering innocent women in his drive to persecute Langiva.

Personal Issues:

Hmm. I’m not sure what personal issues come here for me except for having a nontraditional religion/ faith. Even today, anything that is different is perceived as evil or wrong. I would hate to be someone believing in another religion if a disaster hit my area.

The main reason that I wanted to watch this film was due to the time period. I am very interested in the events surrounding the plague and those times. For me, it was educational, even if it was fictional.

 

So what can I say to the filmmakers?

Great job!

(Kist) Great Films and How to Teach Them

 

This post will reference William V. Costanzos Great Films and How to Teach Them

“what is peculiarly filmic and what is peculiarly novelistic cannot be converted without destroying an integral part of each” (Costanzo 10).

Yet another great debate: which is better; the film or the book? While teachers struggle to find ways to incorporate multi-modalities into the classroom, they are also asking questions such as that. Look at just a few of the book to film adaptations:

(click on any image to find out more)

Then you can look more at young adult literature and their movie counterparts:

And those are really just a few…

So how do we use films in the classroom?

• · Do you read the book then watch the entire film?
• · Do you watch the film first?
• · Do you read the book and just watch select clips?
• · Do you forego the film entirely?
• · Do you use the film with every novel that has one?
• · Do you use a modern or older version?
• · Do you use films without a novel?
• · If so, which films do you choose?

There are at least a couple dozen questions teachers could ask about using movies in the classroom. For me, the questions would all be narrowed down to one: What do you plan to accomplish by using a film? From there, it will be much easier to choose which film and how it will be used (i.e. the whole thing, clips, which version, for which texts, etc.).

How can films be beneficial to students?

Critical Analysis of text is a key component of education. Allowing students to become familiar with analyzing several types of text can create a more informed and observant perspective for students.

Variety in the classroom can lead to students whose attention is retained rather than lost. How many times do you look at a class of students and see the majority of them not focused on the lesson, doodling in a notebook or even nodding off? I’d have to say that this is a regular situation in some classrooms. Keeping students interested in the material by giving them something visual to analyze may help those students who struggle with lectures.

Cross-Training is another way of saying that students use the skills they have applied in one situation to a different situation. Giving students assignments that go along with watching a movie is a good way to see how your students are able to apply the knowledge they have acquired to many situations.

Compare- Contrast skills can be developed with assignments which ask students to compare and/or contrast the movie with the book. Along with this, the use and analysis of plot elements and literary devices can be solidified. The most common task with this idea is the simple compare- contrast paper, but it could be expanded to apply to other texts that students have read.

Reinforce ideas from a text by showing parts of a film. If students are confused by a particular scene in Macbeth, for example, perhaps showing them a short clip of that scene would be beneficial to their understanding.

“ films allow the teaching of longer works that might otherwise be omitted or of controversial works that might be excluded from the curriculum. The example she gives is of Tennessee Williams's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Although it is definitely an adult film, its screenplay contains none of the potentially objectionable material or language that appears in the original play” (Aiex).

Awarensess of film production terms and concepts allows students to better understand how their entertainment is created and why some of the decisions concerning the movie were made.

Interaction with the mass media is something that students encounter every day. When students are asked to analyze messages they are receiving, they begin to develop an understanding of how they are influenced by the media. This could work well with a unit on safety, in particular internet safety, which also asks students to analyze hidden messages they are being sent.

In the end, what function do films serve in the classroom?

 

They are a text, to be used as we would use any other text. Careful planning and orchestration of films, novels, poems and various other forms of text are necessary to developing a varied curriculum which enriches and interests students.