Powerful Visual Products

We will be transforming our analysis of individual ballads into a powerful visual product.  Our goal is to engage our audience by creating a vivid dominant impression.

Students are making careful choices about:

• images 
• fonts
• colour
• diction
• layout (planning through thumbnails to create balance)

When making these choices students are considering:

1. Where do I want my audience to look first?
2. What will keep them looking?
3. Are there enough story clues to really keep them thinking?
4. What items on the poster work together to give a strong feeling?

Posters will be due: Monday December 15.  

Ballad Quiz on Thursday December 18 for 9EFG.  

Study Guide in Google Classroom.

Flip Book Schedule

All Grade 9's are currently working through a careful, detailed analysis of a folk ballad of their choosing.  If students have lost their flip books they can go to Google Classroom to see images and details for Ballad Analysis Poster Project.

Flip Books will be due on Monday or Tuesday next week.  Students who do not complete the activity assigned in class will be expected to finish it for homework.

See the rubric below for assessment:

Despite the Snow

All grade 9's worked on their ballad analysis projects today. 

9E&G worked on selecting a ballad that meets the criteria given in class.

9A&C created their own flip books and analyzed  plot / conflict / theme.

Students are reminded that the purpose of these flip books is to: 

1.  showcase an insightful analysis of the ballad.

2.  experiment and plan ideas for a strong dominant impression. (each page must have a section dedicated to items which may appear on the poster)

How We Can Create a Strong D.I. in Posters

Remake Or Original: The Ultimate Movie Poster Face-Off

Today students presented their ideas about creating strong dominant impression in posters.  Some of our observations were:

Then we examined the dominant impression in "Folk Bloodbath" by completing our flip book:

We used the example below to finalize our ideas of what a Ballad Analysis Poster with a strong dominant impression might look like:

9E Researcher permission forms signed by tomorrow please!

Dominant Impression: Working in Pairs

As a class we are working toward answering the essential questions above.

Today Students worked with movie posters to identify tools and strategies that work together to create a strong dominant impression.

Movie posters come from:

Remake Or Original: The Ultimate Movie Poster Face-Off

Some of our observations for FREAKY FRIDAY are:

Tomorrow students will present their ideas about tools and strategies their poster used powerfully to create a strong dominant impression.

Choosing a Folk Ballad

We are getting close to selecting a folk ballad of our own to analyze and produce a powerful poster for. 

Two of Mrs. Anderson's favourties are:

“You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive,” Patty Loveless

“You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive,” Ruby Friedman Justified

Animals, "The House of the Rising Sun"

House of the Rising Sun- Sons of Anarchy

If you are stuck, take a look at some of these:

• Love Vigilantes
• A Boy Named Sue- Johnny Cash
• Bad, Bad Leroy Brown- Jim Croce
• Cat in the Cradle- Cat Stevens
• Eleanor Rigby- The Beatles
• The Man Who Couldn't Cry- Loudon Wainwright III
• The Devil Came Down to Georgia- The Charles Daniels Band

• Copperhead Road- Steve Earl
• Pappa Was a Rolling Stone- Sly and the Family Stone  skip about 1 and a half minutes.
• Harper Valley PTA- Lorrie Morgan
• In the Ghetto-Elvis Presley
• Alice's Restaurant- Arlo Guthrie  13 minutes long!
• Red Dirt Girl, Emmylou Harris
• 18 and Life- Skid Row
• The Man Who Couldn't Cry- Loudon Wainwright III
• “Mr. Bow Jangles” Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
• Come Dancing - The Kinks
• Lucille- Kenny Rogers
• Coward of the County- Kenny Rogers
• 1952 Vincent Black Lightning Richard Thompson
• Eagles - Hotel California
• Billy Joel - Piano Man
• The Thunder Rolls: Garth Brooks
• Don’t Stand So Close to Me - Police
• Carrie Underwood - Just A Dream
• Richard Marx - Hazard
• David Cook-Mr. Sensitive
• Karen Elson - The Ghost Who Walks
• Waylon Jennings - Rose In Paradise w Lyrics
• Panic! At The Disco: The Ballad Of Mona Lisa [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
• Paramore: Brick By Boring Brick

Or use:

Inventory: 26 Songs that are just as good as short stories

Top 10 Spooky Country Songs

NOTE: be sure to read the description of the story before deciding to use the song.  It MUST be appropriate for school.

Dominant Impression

What is Dominant Impression in writing and visuals?

How do we identify dominant impression in writing and visuals?

How can we capture the dominant impression of a text and powerfully represent it primarily with visuals?

Today all grade 9's examined dominant impression in text.  We identified powerful language authors use to create an overall feeling from the paragraph below:

Students located powerful 1. adjectives, nouns, and verbs 2. figurative language appealing to five senses.

Next, we looked back at "The Highwayman" text and video and identified it's dominant impression:

Then, we watched two trailers "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and examined it's dominant impression noting how the feeling changed from the first to the second with the powerful use of colour, music and pace of camera shots.

Finally, students completed a graphic organizer to analyze how artists create a powerful dominant impression in movie posters.  See the poster and analysis below:

Students chose the poster on the right as having the stronger feeling.

Tomorrow students will work with a partner to complete a movie poster analysis of their own.

"Folk Bloodbath" Context Presentations

Today students presented their ideas about the ballads used to compose Josh Ritter's, "Folk Bloodbath".

Some of our findings are below:

We recorded these in our flip books:

We also finished examining diction in "Folk Bloodbath" see yesterday's post for details.

9F wrote their figurative language and plot diagram quiz today.  They finished examining diction as well.  See yesterday's post for details.

Diction

Diction is word choice.

We are currently studying diction in "The Highwayman" and "Folk Bloodbath".  Students are selecting powerful words that give a clue to the time period and the culture of the characters in the story.

We recorded 5 - 10 words then we chose one and played with font styles that we felt captured the time period or culture of the ballad.

Rapier became:

1800's Old England

Finally, students identified 2 creative backdrops to display these words to add to the viewers understanding of the story.

Students worked in pairs to identify diction in "Folk Bloodbath".

Students now know:

Context Presentations

Understanding the background makes a huge difference!  Do you have a better understanding of which pizza to choose once you know more about it's history?

Students have been researching information to better understand the background for "The Highwayman" and "Folk Bloodbath".

The main ideas they have been examining for "The Highwayman" are:

We have been practising how to structure a presentation using the form below:

Grade 9's will be analysing several different songs to understand "Folk Bloodbath" better.  They are:

1. Mississippi By John Hurt
2. Delia By Bob Dylan
3. Barbara Allen By Art Garfunkel
4. Stag O Lee By John Hurt

Rubric for Presentation:

Creating Context or Background

9ACEG worked in groups today to create a deeper understanding of "The Highwayman".

• Students were given some information to examine and apply to the ballad.  
• Then working in groups they presented their ideas about how the information can help others understand "The Highwayman" better.

Groups used a Speech organizer from The Critical Thinking Consortium to aid in presenting the information:

This activity was for practice and next presentation will be based on providing context for "Folk Bloodbath".

This rubric will be used to evaluate students content.

Show What You Know

9ACE Wrote their SHAMPOO and Plot Diagram Quiz today. It was modeled after the practice assignment students completed on Thursday.  (Found in Google Classroom)

Marks should be up on Power School Monday.

9G Quiz on Monday!

Be the unicorn 9G!!

Choose the best SHAMPOO

Today student practiced identifying SHAMPOO in sentences,

and explaining SHAMPOO in song lyrics.  This document found in Google Classroom.

9ACE Figurative Language and Plot Diagram Quiz Tomorrow!  9G Quiz Monday, Nov. 17.

Be like the owl and STUDY!!