Today, we spent most of our time giving feedback on Heintzelman drafts. At the end, we did a little work
concerning cultural critique when it comes to movies.
If you haven't yet, you need to have that draft in TurnItIn ASAP.
For Wednesday, you need to figure out which of the following groups you are in by 11am Wednesday so
that you can send me the email(s) I mention below -
Group A: Will be working on a final draft for the Heintzelman. If that's you, you need to
- send me an email indicating that you will be improving what you submitted today and submitting
a final draft before class on Thursday;
- use this time of not having other English homework to then do that. Write another scene, add
another character, introduce a fifth stanza, write a companion poem about the same theme but
from another perspective, etc.
Group B: Moving on from the Heintzelman. You don't want to do any more of it, and you turned in a
draft on time that is up to the specifications I gave you, you can have an 85% and put it in the
rearview mirror. If that's you, you need to
- send me an email indicating that you are done;
- locate a critique of a movie or a group of movies that attempts to say something about the state
of movies/Hollywood/America/theOscars/etc.
- email me a link to that piece so that I can make copies of it;
- prepare to teach this critique to a few of your classmates, which is what you will do for part of
class Wednesday. This means you know the piece well, have looked up answers to questions you
have and the other students might have, can show your classmates the different elements of the
critique, and give your opinion about whether you agree and why or why not. Other interesting
tidbits are also welcome. You'll have about 20 minutes to conduct this lesson, and I will be preparing
an exit ticket for those peers you teach to give you feedback on what they've learned.
- If you're looking for an example of the kind of critique that goes beyond just saying whether or not the write liked a movie, look to the one from today's class.
- You might be tempted to find something concerning #OscarsSoWhite, since that was in the news this year. That's fine, but simply something that mentions the lack of people of color in the nominees or containing one or two prominent people saying Hollywood is racist isn't enough for a cultural critique. Find something that really breaks it down so that we can all see the various complexities and contrasting interpretations.
- If you're thinking about a grouping of movies, doing so by year or by list of nominees for various awards might be one way, but it isn't the only one. You could also find a take on how characters change over the course of a series of films, multiple movies by a particular actress or director, recent depictions of the same person from history or characters in classical drama, etc.
- Those of you who were in class on Monday should bring a printout of the collaborations you did in class so you can share what you found with the whole class.