Today's class began with reminders about intertextuality and how we can start to implement it into our evaluations. Leading to our IWBATs for the day which included one, Evaluate how artistic choices develop tone within text, and two, synthesize multiple text into a singular claim. Each IWBAT was broken down by the verbs among them, which we discussed within our groups. The first one included the verbs, evaluate and develop. For the second IWBAT, the verb was synthesize. Each verb was then defined among the class after discussing in our groups. Evaluate was broken down into its root word, value, to show something's importance and how it can be broken down. Develop had a more simple definition which came to somethings make up, where as synthesize was a lot longer. Synthesize means to combine a number of things into coherence (to make one of, and bring together).
The purpose for breaking down these verbs was to lead to asking each other the question, Do these sentences say the same thing? Mr. Rivers posted on the board three separate sentences. The three sentences are, This is my old lady, This is my grandmother, This is my granny. The reason for these questions being posted on the board were to tie in the breaking down of the verbs to breaking down sentences. We as a class can no depict the difference between the sentences be the clues within the text, and the tone that lies beneath it. Mr. Rivers explained how Old Lady can mean many different things even though a grandma is usually an old lady. On the other hand Grandma, and Granny have their similarities.
This discussion then lead to the idea of Connotation vs Denotation. Connotation, being negative, and denotation as the positive. Connotation focuses on the implication and the perception of the text that the reader or viewer understands. Denotation, would be the definition of something (its dictionary definition). Mr. Rivers brought up the idea of Tone as well, tying it into the the discussion with definition; the speakers attitude that determines the meaning.
We were then brought back into a group discussion and broke down complex words, and analyzed scenes from google classroom. Each coin toss scene that we watched, one from No Country for Old Men, and the other from the office had completely different tones, which were analyzed as both a group and as a class. No Country was perceived as suspenseful, and choleric while the scene from The Office was comedic, and absurd. Both scenes had the same theme, but completely different tones. Mr. Rivers ended class today with reminders about our essay due towards the end of the month and we will be picking this discussion back up again on Tuesday.
Great description of our class' activities today, Mason. You have lots of really great details about our discussions and examples from class. Your paragraphs show the natural movements of our learning and, because of that, it's a really helpful resources for students who were absent.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this blog post is missing the second half in which you extend your learning beyond the classroom. Are there topics that we discussed in class that you can extend BEYOND our classroom? What in the world can you connect our discussion to (whether through tone, connotation, denotation, verbs, The Office, No Country, etc.)?