HW 27 - Informal Research - Interviews and Surveys

Please compile some responses from various sources about what it means to be cool, the significance of cool, etc. This will include family members (see below) and eventually friends, street interviews, etc.

For the holiday, celebrating a possibly imaginary moment that Native Americans saved Pilgrims from famine (we know how that turned out), please identify one family member (not by name or photo) who you find really-cool and pay attention and talk to that family member about his or her insights about living.

Due Friday, Dec. 4 at 8:30am.

HW 26 - Photos & Questions

Please post photos and brief interviews (2-4 questions) of 3-5 people with cool "looks" on your blog.

Use this as the model.

Due Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 8:30am.

HW 25 - Story Comments and Analysis

Part 1: Please read 5+ stories and leave nice comments on them - something specific you enjoyed or thought was interesting. For instance, "Chris - really liked how starkly your story demonstrated the distinction between real-cool and appear-cool. I also like the revelation of the narrator as a twist at the end." Please comment your triangle partners (if available) and others (from other sections if you desire) and copy & paste the comments as Part 1 of your blog post HW 25.

Part 2: Please write 2-4 paragraphs about patterns you noticed in the stories - what are some of the elements of cool? What are some of the archetypes of cool? For instance, "In Chris' story (link) the elements of real-cool were dependability, self-sacrifice, and especially love. Appear-cool's elements were motorcycles and big houses and entertaining talents. The father fulfilled the role of the Saint - a dependable and loving person who puts the needs of other people before his own."

Due Wednesday the 25th at 8:30am.

Andy's Short Story - HW 24 - Cool Unit - Me in 3 years

Bob looked at the young woman trying to talk to him. He looked at the computer's display of 6 students he still hadn't finished grades for. Grades were due at 3pm. He looked down at his running shoes. He told her - "I only have two minutes for you right now, Doris." She sucked her teeth, and rolled her eyes, but mildly, since he was her teacher.

"See, what ha' happen' was, I was, like trying to upload that video all night! For real, I even aks my mother to help me. She even write you a note! See!"

He waved off the note and she wasn't sure if that meant he already believed her or if he was intentionally refusing to admit the evidence that would vindicate her.

He asked, "Do you remember the 10 ways we came up with to deal with digital frustration? Did you try any of those techniques?"

She said, "I told you! I aksed my mom!"

He said, "I believe that you tried and that you asked your mom. But you waited until the last night on this project, and I told you that could lead to situations like this. I'm going to put in your grade as a C, and if you manage to upload the video by tomorrow at noon, and its strong, I will change this quarter's grade to a B- at the end of the semester. Now, I need to end this meeting."

She said, "But it won't upload! I told you! Can't you just watch it on my camera?"

He said, "You need to upload it - please try the strategies we came up with. Thank you for coming by."

With a more emphatic sucking of her teeth she walked away, head bobbling. He spent the half hour necessary to get the last grades in. He took two minutes to watch a video that one of the most creative students had made. Smiling, he jogged down the stairs, walked out the door, and headed towards the park - the pavement splashed with bronze and crimson and lemon yellow leaves. It looked like he'd have a half hour of running in the cool air before he had to be back for the department meeting.

HW 24 - Short Story 1

Please write and post a short story about a really cool student in the 11th or 12th grade at a small public high school in NYC. Portray the protagonist as whatever you think of as "cool" - could be a lover or a fighter - a poet or a philosopher or just a regular kid.

The exceptionally cool protagonist should be a model of coolness that you actually admire. If you, instead, write a story showing a poor sucker trying to be cool, that's fine too, draw from your own experience.

Remember the writing tips I emphasized:

1. Show don't tell (action and dialog instead of narration and description) aka "Starve the narrator."

2. Compress the coal into a diamond by using pressure of time, space, and characters. Like in the A&P story, keep the location and time and characters compressed.

3. Make a muffintop story where the past and future spill out (like in A&P, which now that I've re-read it, seems much better than I told it).

4. Remember the Buddha's flower - enlightenment happens wordlessly.

5. Consider resisting the culture of ridicule - try writing a story with a really admirable person.

Please post by Friday 8:30am.

HW 23 - 1st Constructivist Exploration of Cool

For this first post of the Cool unit please explore the definition, feeling, concept, experience, pursuit of cool.

What questions do you have about being cool? About being uncool?

What insights have flashed into your mind about cool? Who is cool? What defines cool? What are different types of cool? Are you cool?

Please write an EXPLORATORY 3-6 paragraphs. Use your concept maps from Friday for ideas. Don't write down every possible idea - write down the interesting ones, and then explore them. Please use anecdotes and metaphors and stories and examples to enliven your writing.

Due Tuesday, Nov 17, 8:30am.

More resources for HW 21

"The Machine Stops" - Melodramatic and moving sci-fi story from 1909! that predicts much of our current situation. You could rip this off, condense it, twist it, retell it, and your new version might also be worthwhile. (My favorite part is the "I get no ideas" line, this restless pursuit of new entertaining concepts that animates so much websurfing from blogs to wikipedia. It would be worth deconstructing this binary opposition (ideas vs. sensual experience) which seems to permeate as far back as Plato's Cave, at least.)

There's another story a lot like this from around the 1920s that I read when I was 11ish - with wheelchairs and the hero is scorned because he has the genetic deformity of functioning legs, but guess who laughs last? But I can't find it online.

I'll add more resources to this Friday and on the weekend. For now, let me repeat my advice from today - the time to say, "Hmmmm, what shall I do?" has passed. Its time to make an art project that expresses or challenges or celebrates or reveals some aspect of how digital representations of reality have affected our lives and our situations. If you don't know what to do, then make a poem or a drawing.

Remember you have to post your art project (or a digital representation of it, which is just as good, right?) online by Monday 8:30am.

Three More Pieces Via the NYT Relevant To Your Arguments

A pretty fun game that shows the dangers of texting while driving -
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html?ref=technology

This study was linked to and complicates the hypothesis that more screens=less friends.
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/18--Social-Isolation-and-New-Technology.aspx

The idea of videogames and meaningful artistry -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/magazine/15videogames-t.html?hpw=&pagewanted=all

HW 22 - Final Draft & Writing Tips

Your final draft for the Digitalization Big Paper is due Monday at 8:30am.

(Outline, rough, revised, final).

Below are some suggestions to help you improve the paper. Don't forget to use the insights gained from using the rubric in class Friday.

1. Please make paragraphs of 3-8 sentences. And if the sentences are long, then less sentences per paragraph.
2. On the same idea (breaking up overwhelming text chunks) I highly recommend using subheadings in your papers. Journalists do it. Below includes this stuff for what I think your paper should look like:
3. Use the spell-checker.
4. Make bold metaphors. Be creative. Make a joke or two. Include an image. It doesn't have to be boring!
5. Don't forget a "works cited".
6. If you are one of the students who still has a blog that is light text and dark background please reverse it now.
7. Don't make the paper a travelogue ("First we talked and then we interviewed and then ...")
8. Quote people! Me, the interviewees, your favorite student-writer. Just make sure to cite the quote and integrate it into your own argument.
9. Use the rubric - or it will have its revenge.
10. Tell other students about this list before Monday. No really, you can just work it casually into your texting and Facebooking.

TITLE IN BOLD

INTRODUCTION: (really! it should say Introduction before the introduction)
Da da da da dfdf. kjdfkdf . klsdfjklsdfjdklsf . dkfkldjfjklsfjsfkljsklfj jfkljs fkljsf klj klj. klfjklsdfjsd. kjfkldfjs kd fjk dfk sf. fkfjkldjsfd. (did you notice I bolded the thesis? that helps a lot).

Argument I:
dfjdklsfj f.df .f asf.s .fkasfds.fdsfs. f..f.sfsdfsadfsfdsfs. kjlsfksdjf. klfjjsfkl (Snyder 9/15/09).

Argument II:
dkfjdklfjs . dfadsfadsf .f asdfas f.

Connections:

etc.

NYT Column on Cell-Phones and Dating

"This does not mean that young people today are worse or shallower than young people in the past. It does mean they get less help. People once lived within a pattern of being, which educated the emotions, guided the temporary toward the permanent and linked everyday urges to higher things. The accumulated wisdom of the community steered couples as they tried to earn each other’s commitment."

David Brooks NYT - see it here

HW 21 - Art Project 1

Your final assignment for the Digital Unit is an Art Project that expressively and insightfully sparks theeling about an aspect of the digital representation of reality.

Pretty much any art form can be used. Painting, photography, film, poetry, dance, fiction, comix, video game, etc. I hate collages but you could even do one of those.

The art project must be represented digitally on your blog.

Even though Art has traditionally been a chance to "act out" please avoid showcasing any work which has the potential to drag me into multiple unnecessary meetings about the need for me to censor my students more.

Examples:
1. A satirical text
2. An animated film
3. A film with actors

Together with your art please append a text that addresses the following questions:
1. Is your art a hammer or a mirror? Why?
2. Does your art make you fink and theel? What are some of your own reactions to your art?
3. What was the most interesting aspect of your making of the art?

Due Friday November 13 at 8:30am.