Hard to believe it is this late in the year, but 'tis true. Writer Oliver Herford wrote, “I heard a bird sing in the dark of December. A magical thing. And sweet to remember. We are nearer to Spring than we were in September.” And though it might not feel so, we must collectively remember that spring will come. We carry on, through the winter, to that springtime.
We carry on in class, too.
Freshmen are balancing their creative writing exercises with the reading of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the chilling account of a society where thinking is discouraged, where firemen start fires instead of extinguishing them, where books are banned. The story of how this story got written is a fascinating one. It's on the infographic I made for students on our classroom page. Ask your student about how and when and why Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451. The kids are really getting into it and I think they see some startling parallels to how we allow technology to brazenly rule our lives today (myself included!). We've read about a third of the book and have written lots of story bits to flex our creative 'science fiction' muscle. There's more to come and we'll finish the novel before winter break.
My Seniors in the Lyric class are fleshing out more of their original song lyrics. They've written verses, added a refrain, and are now adding a chorus instead of a refrain. Many are raring to go, having had years of writing lyrics; others are just dipping their big toe in the pond of songwriting. We've listened to Amy Winehouse, Eminem, Hall & Oates, and Beth Nielsen Chapman of late. We've examined different song structures (chorus first or verse first, for instance) and will be talking about pre-choruses and bridges next. If only we had a full music studio in room 144 at SWHS or in your basement, we could bring these songs to life, a full and vibrant one at that! Bummer.
My Juniors in Rhetoric are nearing the end of their Media Literacy Unit. We studied misinformation, disinformation, and logical fallacies. Our final project involves research to find 4 articles on a given topic (such as The #metoo Movement, The Black Lives Matter Movement or The Election 2020 Cycle). Students will create (fake) tweets that pervert the truth and try to misinform. Finally, students will write a rationale explaining what truths actually abound about their topic and what logical fallacies they used to create their tweets. They should be fallaciously delicious! We'll view part of The Social Dilemma for closer examination of the 'capitalism surveillance' that pervades today's society.
Then it's onto a winter break for all. (Shhh. I'm secretly hoping to get snowed in.) The only problem will be shoveling snow so the pupper can go out!
