Revisiting First Blog Post

Analysis: I still think the purpose of the video was to create a celebrity filled fantasy that many Americans want to connect with. I do note now that the people in this video were very carefully selected. From the mix of race to the style of clothing, it is trying to capture a broad range of viewers. Also, how the carry themselves and who emerges in leadership roles within the commercial are also something carefully planned, something I did not consider at the start of the video. Audience: I still think the primary intended audience for this video is middle aged men of middle and upper class who engage in drinking recreationally. However, I do not think it was just about reaching the middle age middle class folks who drink. Rather, I think this is appealing to everyone who buys a lottery ticket or fantasizes about wealth. Even if you are from a poor socioeconomic class, perhaps purchasing this vodka will give you an “escape” into this reality. I realize now this commercial does reach a much broader audience even if one audience remains its primary focus. Representation: I still believe the people in this video are portrayed as elegant and sophisticated. I think it is trying to capture how we think we would act or what we think we would do if had wealth and fame. Design: Earlier I talked about the idea of capturing fantasy. The images and progression of images in this commercial are carefully selected how the move across the screen and what the focus is of each frame of the commercial. It is clear that they not only wanted to appeal to men but perhaps certain women as well. Its design is targeted in its attempt draw the viewer in to specific images of wealth.

Blog about CITEd Toolkit

Wow, what a cool site! A lot of my projects this semester have been about trying to centralize all of the wonderful resources on the internet. My MMP project, for example, was about trying to centralize one place for all of the powerful tools to support writing and the teaching of writing. This site takes that concept and blows it up. I decided that I would focus my site for administrators this time rather than teachers like I usually do. Quite frankly, teachers tend to be way ahead of the game when using technology compared to administrators today. My site is really for the administrators who are instructional leaders more than policy makers but really they should be doing both (more instruction ideally). My kit includes resources for technology and policy, fostering leaders of technology, cyber bullying, sites that were a collection of sites that support technology in education, math technology supports, using blogs in leadership, technology and reading, technology and assessment, technology and curriculum and instruction, and so much more. I pulled the bulk of my articles out of the administrators tab but some came out of the professional development tab as well. While it was created because I certainly found it interesting, I also hope this site will be helpful to my two vice principals and director of technology with whom I shared the toolkit with. They were definitely who I had in mind as the toolkit developed. If I were to send this to a teacher, I would remove some of the policy stuff and stay centered on resources that connected directly to teaching and learning. Overall, this was one of the better resources I have seen in a while. Thanks!

Blog 7: Teacher and Student Completed

Ok, so I tried using teh website and did teh teacher side last week and pasted the link into my blog. I realized that you probably coudl not access it and was going to fix that this week. However, when I was trying to update teh studnet side using teh Cglearner site this week it just wasn't working right for me. So I have re-done everything to be pasted into the blog directly (both teacher adn student) If you would liek to see what Icreated on teh Cglearner site and you can't get to it, email and I will give you my user name and password. Sorry for the confusion. Here's my lesson...


Age Range: 11-13

Teacher Description

Title: Writing with Persuasive Tools

Discipline: Language Arts

Topic: Writing and literary tools

Description: The goal of this assignment is to empower students to effectively use three types of persuasive tools; emotional arguments, statistical arguments, and bandwagon arguments. Students will be able to identify these types of persuasive tools in media and be able to apply these tools to their own persuasive writing, specifically in the creation of strong body paragraphs in a persuasive essay.
Focus: using the persuasive tools of statistical, emotional, and bandwagon arguments with a focus on structured and rich language
Standards url: http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards
Standard:

Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
• Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.
• Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.
• Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
• Establish and maintain a formal style.
• Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.
Objective short: Using persuasive tools effectively
Objective (long): Students will work together to identify and create meaningful persuasive arguments using statistical, emotional, and bandwagon persuasive strategies.
Activities:
1. Opening: Students will work with a partner at the start of the lesson to match examples given to them of the three types of the arguments (emotional, statistical, and bandwagon). They will have the match the example with the term they think it resents.
2. Students will come up with what they think the definition is for the three terms relative to persuasive writing – they will create this definition together
3. Students will watch three commercials, with each commercial representing a different type of persuasion, they will go back to their partner to analyze the definition they created
4. A class discussion will be held about the three types of persuasion and how to effectively implement them into a strong body paragraph in a persuasive essay
5. Students will go back with their partner where they will be assigned a controversial topic and will have to choose which side of the topic they will choose to defend and persuade others to come to seeing the topic the way they do
6. Students will collaboratively write a strong body paragraph relative to their topic using ONE of the three types of persuasion
7. One of the two students will read their paragraph to the class and the class will analyze the paragraphs strengths and weaknesses in a whole group discussion
8. Closing: Students will write a paragraph on their own on the same topic but using one of the two types of persuasion that they did not use with their partner

Assessment:

1. Students will be assessed in whole group discussion on their understanding of the definition of the three types of persuasion – emotional, statistics, and bandwagon

2. Student partner groups’ definitions will be collected and assessed

3. Students’ partner created body paragraphs using one of the three types of persuasion will be collected and assessed for argument effectiveness as well as grammar and structure

4. Individual students’ paragraphs (closing activity) will be collected and assessed for argument effectiveness as well as grammar and structure

Pathways: This is a good lead into writing an overall persuasive essay in a timed writing situation (this is asked of students on many state assessments). If students can create three strong arguments that turn into strong body paragraphs they can then go back and write the introductory and concluding paragraphs last in quick and thorough manner. This can assist in writing an essay that is neatly tied together and done in a more timely fashion.

Modes of meaning:
1. Written: This assignment is heavy in writing and writing development through the persuasive paragraph development both in partners and on their own
2. Spoken: This lesson has lots of partner work where they analyze writing and co-create writing through critical dialogue about different ideas
3. Visual: Students have to visually examine the commercials and look for images that help them determine the style of persuasion being used
4. Audio: Students have to listen to the writing of their peers as they read it and to the commercials to critically analyze types and quality of persuasive tool use
5. Spatial: none
6. Gestural: none
7. Tactile: none



Student Description
Title: Writing with Persuasive Tools

Discipline: Language Arts

Topic: Grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, and language

Description: Students will build their ability to use persuasive arguments in their writing by focusing on three types of persuasion; emotional, statistical, and bandwagon. Students will learn to select the best arguments and how to stay focused on one argumentative style per paragraph. Basic paragraph structure and grammar will also be a focus for students in this lesson.
Focus: to create one, well written body paragraph that would be in a persuasive essay that is well structured, focused on one persuasive style of the three introduced, and has good transitions and rich language
Objective short: Writing focused persuasive paragraph
Objective long: Student will create one body paragraph for a persuasive essay on a selected topic. The paragraph will use one of the three persuasive tools effectively include smooth transitions, rich language, and logical arguments. Students will select arguments that they can best articulate not that they feel most emotionally connected to.
Activities:
1. With a partner I have to select given examples to one of the three persuasive terms (emotional, bandwagon, statistical) that I feel the example can connect with. I will have to talk with my partner to get a rough understanding of what I think these terms mean. After I have matched examples with the terms, my partner and I will write a formal definition for the three terms and be ready to share our version of the definition with the class.

2. Next, we will watch three commercial that represent the three different persuasive styles. After this, I will go back with my partner and see if we want to add to or adjust the definitions we created.

3. I will participate in a class discussion where we will find a common understanding of the definitions and talk about the examples and what persuasive style they reflect and why. Next, with my partner, we will be given a topic where we will have to pick a side and write a persuasive argument. We will co-create a body paragraph that utilizes one of the three persuasive tools focusing on structure, argument quality, transitions, and grammar. All paragraph, including ours, will be shared with the class and critiqued by the teacher and my peers.

4. Finally, I will be given another topic where I will have to write a body paragraph of my own using a different persuasive tool but focused on the same goals relative to the paragraph.
Pathways: This leads to students being better prepared to think critically about their own writing and about analyzing arguments, including messages the see in the media. It leads to more critical thinking about their writing and that of their peers. It also leads to better 21st Century Skills including collaboration and creativity.

Lesson created using Cglearner

http://cglearner.com/learning_element

*only the teacher component is created at this time

reflection wiht multimedia

This was a tough one. I used music, written messages, and varied videos to create this refelction on Asbury Park. The house you see in the last shot is my house on Central Avenue is Asbury Park. My video was exactly 60 seconds but when I put it on youtube it added a second for some reason. I may lose some points on this but I tried! (I used a Flipcame and that program to make it - this is where it indicated it was 60 seconds).

Storyboarding

In the six storyboard images you see many rules were considered. For example, Krause discusses the quality of the images. While it was difficult to storyboard my multimedia plan because I felt it was so computer based, it presented the challenge of creating images that viewed working on a computer differently so that they were images that were “informative and relevant” and “aesthetically and emotionally pleasing” (Krause, p. 189). I’m not sure if the use of dialogue or thought “bubbles” are a typical part of story boards but I needed the viewer to get better insight what was going on in the image. This also essential became an exercise in cropping. Krause notes that good cropping “eliminates the unnecessary,” (p. 192) something that I was trying to do in images 2 and 4 and do well, I think, in story board image number 4. Golombisky and Hagen discuss the POV or point of view. This also came into consideration with my storyboarding. At times a capture a camera angle that is from the side, the back, or the front, and, in one instance (image #5), it appears that the camera angle is from above. Golombisky and Hagen note that shooting form above can create “symbolic insignificance and powerless” and that shooting from below creates and “opposite effect” (p. 173). However, I wasn’t sure how to capture a groups working a round a table by shooting form a floor angle. Not being an artist, I struggled with drawing some of the angles that I wanted. In image one I wanted to do a 45 degree angle which I did with the computer screen but could not do with the person, hence the awkwardness of that first image. I also realized when I scanned the images I drew they were empty of any shading, except for the plant. This resulted in a lack of “dramatic effect” and an absence of the principles of “contrast” (p. 176). I certainly learned how storyboarding can bring together many of the key principles of graphic design and the use of multimedia.

Book Cover Design p. 303

This was a fun assignment to do as a (previous) English teacher. I liked how the assignment asked you to basically pull in everything you learned from the text. I thought a lot about my images, the use of color and black and white and how they contrast one another (thinking that the desire for the bully contrasts her typcial choice in men [or teenagers if it is an adolescent novel]). I also thought a lot about the font. I like contrasting the first letter of the font and I feel the black and white font provides some "darkness" that may acoompany the story line. In the end I feel it looks too "simple" but I like this. I do not like book covers that are too busy and end up saying nothing. I am hoping this cover refelcts a darkness that I feel would be in a story with a title like this one.