HoD Mandala Assignment (AP and IB)

Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning center and circle. It conveys the notion that any center is tied to its circumference and any circumference is always determined by its center. Together they represent wholeness. The characte mandala represents the student's analysis of the whole character in the selection.

After choosing your character, consider what traits that character displays and what happens to him/her in the story. Using your color symbolism notes, color the mandala according to the characteristics you have determined about your character. Whichever traits are the most important or most evident should be represented by colors and be dominant on the mandala. Any character you choose should have at leaste three or more charactistics and/or traits and those colors should be evident on your mandala. Above the mandala write the name of your character. On a separate piece of paper, type one paragraph about your character in which you:

• introduce your character
• explain what each color represents
• explain the significance of the placement
• provide textual evidence and personal commentary for each characteristic
• conclude the paragraph with a thematic statement

The completed project should meet these criteria:

• a choice of characteristics appropriate to the character demonstrating careful close reading
• a pattern of colors that are representative of the character
• effective organization, sentence fluency, word choice, and attention to conventions
• appropriate evidence correctly cited

Due Friday, February 22, at the beginning of class.

IB Film Project Assignments

Here are the novel and film assignments as I have them.

I will assign and post due dates for your specific project presentation (your Internal Assessment for this spring semester) in class during the first week of the new semester. I will be perfectly honest here: because some of you chose books by volume (or their lack of volume), I fully intend to assign project due dates based on novel length and/or difficulty. In other words, if you chose something with the length and intellectual depth of, say, an Ayn Rand novella, you're going first; whereas if you chose War and Peace, you're going last if only to give you time to read the whole thing. In any case, I hope you have already secured copies of the novel and the film, and have already begun to read them.

First Period

First	Novel	Author	Film
O	Shutter Island	Lehane	Shutter Island
J	Pride and Prejudice	Austen	Pride and Prejudice
B	East of Eden	Steinbeck	East of Eden
W	Breakfast at Tiffany's	Capote	Breakfast at Tiffany's
M	Shawshank Redemption	Stephen King	Shawshank Redemption
J	The Help	Kathryn Stockett	"The Help"
J	The Godfather	Mario Puzo	The Godfather
J	The Bourne Identity	Robert Ludlum	The Bourne Identity
A	To Kill a Mockingbird	Harper Lee	To Kill a Mockingbird
W	Jarhead	Anthony Swofford	Jarhead
E
F	The Kite Runner		The Kite Runner
A
E	Portait of Dorian Gray	Oscar Wilde	Portrait of Dorian Gray
S	Twenty Thousand Leagues Beneath the Sea	Jules Verne	Twenty Thousand Leagues…
L	Sherlock Holmes: The Final Problem	Doyle	SH: Game of Shadows
Z	The Hobbit	Tolkien	The Hobbit (animated)
M	The Princess Bride	Goldman	The Princess Bride

Seventh Period

First	Novel	Author	Film
X	The Green Mile	Stephen King	The Green Mile
N	Jarhead	Swofford	Jarhead
P	A Scanner Darkly	PK Dick	A Scanner Darkly
W	The Grapes of Wrath	John Steinbeck	"The Grapes of Wrath"
L	Alice in Wonderland	Carroll	Alice in Wonderland
M	Starship Troopers	Heinlein	Starship Troopers
G	True Grit	Charles Portis	True Grit
E	The Last of the Mohicans	James Fennimore Cooper	The Last of the Mohicans
H	Dracula	Bram Stoker	"Dracula" (Universal)
A	Jane Eyre	Charlotte Bronte	Jane Eyre
B	Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee	Dee Brown	Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
K	The Scarlet Letter	Hawthorn	The Scarlet Letter
K	Huckleberry Finn	Twain	Huckleberry Finn
M	Pride and Prejudice	Jane Austen	"Pride and Prejudice" (2005)
M	Forrest Gump	Winston Groom	"Forest Gump"
B	Emma	Jane Austen	"Clueless"

Eighth Period

First	Novel	Author	Film
S	Life of Pi	Yann Martel	Life of Pi
S	Of Mice and Men	Steinbeck	Of Mice and Men
R	Jarhead	Swofford	Jarhead
N	Pride and Prejudice	Jane Austin	Pride and Prejudice
M	Mystic River	Dennis Lehane	Mystic River
J	No Country for Old Men	McCarthy	No Country for Old Men
J	The Taming of the Shrew	Shakespeare	10 Things I Hate About You
C	Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy	LeCarre	Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
J	A Clockwork Orange	Burgess	A Clockwork Orange
E	Alice in Wonderland	Carroll	Alice in Wonderland
I	Emma	Jane Austin	Clueless
P	2001: A Space Odyssey	Arthur C. Clark	2001: A Space Odyssey
D	Cider House Rules	John Irving	Cider House Rules
A	Sophie's Choice	William Styron	Sophie's Choice
H	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	Ken Kesey	One Flew Over…
M	Great Expectations	Dickens	Great Expectations
I	Hunchback of Notre Dame	Victor Hugo	Hunchback of Notre Dame
K	Romeo and Juliet	Shakespeare	Romeo + Juliet
V	LotR: The Return of the King	Tolkien	LotR: The Return of the King
K	Slaughterhouse 5	Vonnegut	Slaughterhouse 5
G	In Cold Blood	Capote	In Cold Blood
A	The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes	Arthur Conan Doyle	Sherlock Holmes
K	Phantom of the Opera	Gaston Leroux	Phantom of the Opera
M	The Scarlet Letter	Hawthorn	The Scarlet Letter
J	To Kill a Mockingbird	Harper Lee	To Kill a Mockingbird
C	Anna Karenina	Tolstoy	Anna Karenina
L	The Color Purple	Alice Walker	The Color Purple
K	Wuthering Heights	Emily Bronte	Wuthering Heights
S	Tess of the D'Urbervilles	Thomas Hardy	Tess of the D'Urbervilles
C	Sense and Sensibility	Jane Austin	Sense and Sensibility
H	Lord of the Flies	Golding	Lord of the Flies
M	And Then There Were None	Agatha Christie	And Then There Were None
M	Dracula	Bram Stoker	Dracula
M	Black Ships Before Troy	Rosemary Sutcliff	Troy

Good luck!

Extra-Credit Opportunity

From a friend of mine:

"My ten-year-old niece, Rosalind, has started a petition at Change.org to ask [The Big Bang Theory], who routinely has cameos from smart guys--scientists, astronomers, etc.--to bring on some smart women. To date, the lady cameos have all been mostly models (she tells me. I don't watch the show).

"Here's the link: The Big Bang Theory--Bring Women Scientists on the Show.

"Would you be kind enough to take about 30 seconds and sign the petition?  I know it's far from your agenda today, but it would make a  budding community organizer's holiday season. And maybe make TV a little more aspirational for our daughters/sisters/cousins...

"She needs 25 more signatures to get it to the next level on their site....

"I really appreciate it."


So, there you have it, true believers. Let's put it this way: it took a 10-year-old girl to point out what I should have recognized; I will be signing, and I hope you do, too.

IB Novels Into Film Project Redux

Remember that post a little while back, "IB: Classic Novels Made Into Films"?

Yes? Cool. It's been updated to reflect the novels that can be found in Woodrow's Library.

Reminder: I need to know what your novel and film will be by 4:30pm, December 21, 2012.

Yes, I know the world ends that day, but humor an old man and tell me which novel and film you would do if the world continued to whirl away into the cold, dark void that we call the Universe.

Thank you. Carry on with your end of the world preparations.

AP/IB: PSAT Scores

From Ms. Odeski:

 

PSAT scores from the October testing will be handed out at the Parent Meeting, Tuesday evening, 6:00-7:00pm in the Auditorium. This affects 9-11 grades.

At the meeting, the counselors will present information on how to use these scores for college match and selection. Financial aid for college will also be on the agenda.

For those who cannot attend the meeting, PSAT score reports will be handed out in the cafeteria during lunch on Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 19 and 20.

There is a PSAT score report explanation on the www.woodrowwildcats.org website under Guidance and college tabs.

IB Crime and Punishment Topics

1. Which character(s) serve(s) as Raskolnikov's foil?
2. What impact do the descriptions of the various apartments--including those of Raskolnikov, Alyona, Sonya, Luzhin, and Dunya and Pulcheria--have on the reader's understanding of the characters who inhabit them and the events that take place within them?
3. What effect does having the murder occur at the very beginning have on the structure of the novel?
4. What is the relation between transgression and redemption in Crime and Punishment?
5. Discuss the role of suffering in the lives of Dostoevsky's characters. What, if anything, do tormented souls like Katerina Ivanovna and Sonya gain by enduring their pain?
6. How should the reader reconcile Svidrigailov's charitable gestures at the end of the novel with his violent confrontation of Dunya during the same time frame, and does his eventual suicide affect the response?

IB Satire Project 2012

Due November 30, 2012

 

Now that you've finished reading Candide and are familiar with satire and the techniques used to create it, you now have the chance to be a modern satirist, like Voltaire, using humor to criticize human vice and folly in order to effect change. You have an open opportunity to make fun of society in order to change it!

The world is yours to mock!

Any and all of the taboo subjects are available for your mocking. I challenge you to create a Satirical Comic Book that clearly and effectively mocks some aspect of your world.

Your Satirical Comic Book must include clear and properly executed examples of:

• Allusion
• Situational and/or dramatic irony
• Verbal Irony in the form of sarcasm
• Understatement and/or exaggeration (Litotes and/or Hyperbole)
• Pun or oxymoron
• Humorous metaphor or simile
• Parody
• Caricature and/or Burlesque

Remember, the point of satire is to call the readers attention to some problem in order to change it; therefore, it should also do the following:

• It should clearly mock something—society in general, school, government, teachers, parents, etc.
• It should be long enough to effectively mock the thing in question.
• It should use original photos, drawings, or other art to demonstrate creativity and originality.
• It can use a program such as Comic Life, ToonDo, Xtranormal, or any other computer program you like. Or you can do an "old school" comic if you prefer (strip or book).

It must be submitted by November 30, 2012 at 4:30pm CST in one of the following manners:

• A link to the work online via email sent to pmcghee@dallasisd.org (be certain to verify that I have received it by the assigned date and time)
• A thumb-drive/memory stick/DVD/portable data-saving device containing a copy of the project
• A full-color, frame by frame printout of the comic in hard-copy format
• An old-school “funny book”