Writing Across Cultures

Today, please print out and gather your portfolio materials during the first 10 minutes of class. We will be downstairs in the regular room watching X-Men after this time. HOMEWORK: Please complete Maus (there will be a quiz, yes a quiz) and a discussion on the book next week.

According to Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics, 1993) a comic book is a "series of words and pictures that are presented in a sequential manner to form a narrative that may or may not be humorous." For a very long time in our culture, comics have been read, loved, hated, and controversial. They both celebrate that which is popular and also creep along the edge of a generation's fears, political views, and ultimately shape who we are as a culture. Love them or hate them, comics are part of US. Given its complex cultural and commercial role, a definition of “comic book” raises issues and "debates about sequence, narrative, image, text, genre, and art as well as its relation to other genres, such as children’s literature" (Meskin 2007). More than just a form of entertainment for children (particularly boys), comics can be a serious art form. Since the 1960s the comic book industry has been dominated by the two major publishers—Marvel and Detective Comics (DC...

Today, to prepare for your portfolio being due (portfolio is due on Friday, Nov. 30) please spend at least the first period today working on your portfolio. Check previous posts for ideas for new projects/drafts. Remember that you should write about your progress so far as a writer. Any serious writing/reading issues or important information about your portfolio (such as websites/films, special projects, etc.) should be mentioned in your reflection. A draft of your non-fiction essay should be included in your portfolio this marking period. For other assignments, see below. If we are not using our time in the lab to write, we will return to the classroom during 2nd period and continue our graphic novel unit. HOMEWORK: Please complete your reading of Maus . If we haven't completed it yet, please read the article: "A History of the Comic Book"

After our quiz on the graphic novel "V for Vendetta" we will spend some time in class discussing the novel. As you wait for peers to finish their tests, please use the time to brainstorm some new ideas for stories, poems, sketches, graphic novels, or other writing projects for your portfolio (deadline approaching: November 30!) We will be spending a bit of time with graphic novels, how to write them, and so forth. Today, at the end of class, we will be journeying to the library to pick up Maus . Please read this graphic novel over break. It's a quick read. See homework section below. Graphic Novel Vocabulary: Splash page : usually the first page of a manuscript, with one or two images, includes the title, logo, credits, etc. for the comic. Full-page shot : One box or frame. One picture, also known as a shot. Speech balloon or word balloon : the box that contains words to let a reader know what a character is saying. Thought balloon : Usually a scalloped ball...

Forum debrief: Thank you for participating in the problem based learning event. Soon, I will be giving you a questionnaire about the entire process. But for today, please respond to our last required forum post in Mr. Craddock's Class . When you have completed your response, please work on your portfolio. Some more ideas (see previous post for other ideas): --Write a non-fiction essay based on something that happened or something someone said yesterday (either the MCC forum or the coffee house, for example) --Work with a partner to write either a poem or short story. Take turns writing a stanza (poem) or paragraph (story). If you'd like try writing a short chapter or poem each, then allow your partner to carry on with the theme, characters, or narrative in a poem cycle or longer short story broken by section or chapters. You may also collaborate on a script in this way, with each writer writing a scene. --Find a newspaper or journalism article from a website or maga...

Due to the invalidation of the previous test, this is now just a basic homework assignment. Please turn in your work by end of class today. Today, please post to the question I posted on Cross-Talk Week 3 . If you have done this already, or have completed this post during class, please continue the following tasks: 1. Some of you have not posted your two posts to Cross-Talk, Week 2 or the three posts you needed to respond to in Cross-Talk, Week 1 . Each post is worth points for this project. If you are missing posts, please complete those today. Last day to post on Weeks 1 or 2 is end of class Wednesday, Nov. 14. Get it done, folks! 2. If you have not yet posted to the evaluation question in Mr. Craddock's Class (there are 6 of you who haven't done this yet), you must complete this by tonight by 11:59 for credit. 3. Work on your portfolio. Some ideas (16 off the top of my head) may include: a). a poem, play, scene, sketch, short story about your group's educa...

After completing the quiz, please log onto the MCC forum and select Cross Talk Week 3 . Post a reply to the question found there for my class. This post is due (along with the test) by the end of class today. HOMEWORK: Please continue to work on your non-fiction project and read V for Vendetta , examining the political and social issues found within the book.

Please get into your reading groups. In the next 10 minutes, evaluate the book you read. What section did you find most interesting? What section could you relate to most? What section can you relate your educational problems assignment(s) to most? What have you learned about writing non-fiction from reading this book? Share your answers with your group. Around 8:30-8:35, please go to the lab to do the following assignments: 1. Log on to the CCTE Forum . Read the new responses to your group's questions (if any). Take 5 minutes to read and think about what other voices have contributed to your question/discussion. 2. Meet with your educational problems group. Discuss what you notice about the responses. Decide on 1-2 further or focusing questions that your "leader" can post as a reply or follow-up question to further the discussion. 3. Examine the list of educational problems in Cross Talk Week 2. Are there trends forming about certain topics? Are some iss...

Educational Problems project: Several of you have not yet posted your required reply with research to the MCC forum. Please do that. Various new topics have been added. Research & Writing: Using the advice and skills of research (see below), I would like you to brainstorm a pop cultural topic to write a "chapter" for what could be a longer "book". The topic may be a memoir, like The Undertaking , a journalistic autobiography/biography like The Other Wes Moore , or a documentary-style expose like Chew on This . Other basic types of non-fiction may include: autobiography, a guide or manual, history, new journalism, memoir, natural history, travelogue, philosophy, or a combination of any of these. Here's a few other samples: The Student Resistance Handbook Bartleby.com: Nonfiction (search list for public domain samples of nonfiction work) The Dangerous Book for Boys To get started, brainstorm an idea: 1. Doodle in your notebook/journal until you h...