Young Filmmakers Contest- Brainstorm

This years theme for the Young Filmmakers Contest is CHANGE.

Gearing up:   What is change? What does change look like?

Explore this theme and create a thinglink of your ideas. Collect pictures, videos, poems, songs, ect! We will use your ideas to create stories. The stories will then be turned into films and entry submissions for the Young Filmmakers Contest. 


Thinking points:

“All things must change, to something new, to something strange.”- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“True life is lived when tiny changes occur.” – Leo Tolstoy

“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”-Ovid

“When the music changes, so does the dance.”- African Proverb

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

*Check edmodo for more info

**The secret word is cupid (shhh!)

Holy Catch Up!

This week we are catching up on late work, reworking the timelines, and editing the banned book arguments. Check edmodo for rubrics and hand outs. 

On the horizon:  What we will be doing (but I have not explained) soon and what to look forward to. 

Portland Film Festival - We will be drafting stop motion movie ideas next week and plan for filming and editing after vacation. Submissions are due in March. 

Poetry writing contest: send me your best and we will send it away. Maybe you will be chosen and be published!

Prince of Egypt writing response. Looking at how fear played a role in how the Egyptian's reacted to Moses. 

Monotheism? So what? looking at the impact of monotheism and why it is such a HUGE deal!

STUDENT WORK!

Want to see what we are doing? Check out our student gallery blog! 

Celebrating Black History Month - Create a thinglink

Stay Gold

Important dates this week

Wednesday Jan. 29

Banned book argument due

Thursday Jan. 30

Middle East map test

3 CVS levels mastered

Friday Jan. 31

Judaism menu due

Judaism Menu/Middle East map test

On the horizon:

Menu projects will be introduced today and tomorrow. You have next week to work on this in class. Due date is JANUARY 31st

Middle East map test will be Thursday JANUARY 30th. You are responsible for all the countries. If you do poorly, you may submit a retake form and try again. Use lizardpoint.com to study. 

Menu:

EXPLORING JUDAISM

Directions:  Using the learning targets and provided list of assessment choices, demonstrate an understanding of:

1. The story of how the first monotheistic religion, Judaism, began and grew  
2. The religious text, holy city, places of worship, symbols, founders, followers and rules to live by
3. The role that David, Moses and Abraham played

Menu Choice	Description
Comic Strip	Create a comic strip that includes each of the Judaism Learning Targets.
Front page of newspaper	Create a newspaper page that teaches readers about Judaism. Include the following: 1.  Title of your Newspaper 2.  A Leading headline and story concerning Judaism. 3.  A second story about a different key concept of Judaism. 4.   Create an Advertisement about Judaism and sell it! 5.  Include a captivating or unique fact about Judaism. Be sure to include brief summaries that demonstrate your knowledge of the Learning Targets.
Song or Rap	Write and perform a song or rap that explains the Judaism Learning Targets.
Interview	Interview David, Moses, or Abraham about the creation of Judaism and explain the learning targets through your questions and answers. Type your interview up in Question/Answer format.
Video (film, documentary, music video, movie trailer)	Create some form of a Video that demonstrates the Judaism Learning Targets.

Rubric

Name: Period:

Task
Describes Judaism: Origins Significance	__________/5 __________/5
Explains the significance of:                 Abraham Moses David ...in the development of the Jewish religion.	__________/5 __________/5 __________/5
Presentation follows MENU Choice description details.	__________/40
Includes the following: Religious Text Holy City Places of Worship Symbols Founders Followers Rules To Live By	____________/5 ____________/5 ____________/5 ____________/5 ____________/5 ____________/5 ____________/5	Out of 100 Total Points _________/100

Banned Books

Did you know The Giver has been challenged and even banned in some school districts? Why? Read the posts below to get a better idea of why some people say this book is not appropriate to read in school.

Assignment: Write an argument on whether this book should be banned. Use evidence

from the text to support your response.

INTERESTING DETAILS:

Natalie Babbitt of the Washington Post was more forgiving, calling Lowry's work "a warning in narrative form", saying:

The story has been told before in a variety of forms—Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 comes to mind—but not, to my knowledge, for children. It's well worth telling, especially by a writer of Lowry's great skill. If it is exceedingly fragile—if, in other words, some situations do not survive that well-known suspension of disbelief—well, so be it. The Giver has things to say that cannot be said too often, and I hope there will be many, many young people who will be willing to listen

Lois Lowry’s response: “I think banning books is a very, very dangerous thing. It takes away an important freedom. Any time there is an attempt to ban a book, you should fight it as hard as you can. It’s okay for a parent to say, ‘I don’t want my child to read this book.’ But it is not okay for anyone to try to make that decision for other people. The world portrayed in The Giver is a world where choice has been taken away. It is a frightening world. Let’s work hard to keep it from truly happening.” (Source: Lois Lowry’s Web site)

• 2001- Banned for violence, “occult themes”, and sexually explicit material.
• 2005- Challenged in Blue Springs, Missouri, when parents called the book “lewd” and “twisted.” They demanded the work be removed from 8th-grade reading lists across the district.
• 2006- Challenged, and later retained, at the Unified School District Elementary School in Seaman, Kansas.
• 2007- Parents in the Mt. Diablo School District in Concord, California, were offended by descriptions of pill-popping, suicide, and lethal injections given to babies and the elderly.
• 2008-Appalled by the descriptions of adolescent pill-popping, suicide, and lethal injections given to babies and the elderly, two parents demanded that the Mt. Diablo School District headquartered in Concord (CA) eliminate the controversial but award-winning book from the school reading lists and libraries.

The topics in Lois Lowry's The Giver have created controversy in libraries and classrooms across the country since it was first published in 1993. Parent opposition to the book's treatment of suicide and euthanasia helped it reach No. 11 on the American Library Association's list of most challenged books of the 1990s. The Newbery Medal winner was No. 10 on the last year's list, which was headed by Harry Potter. Lowry's book has been challenged in schools in at least five states since 1999, sometimes more than once. Supporters say the story of a 12-year-old boy named Jonas, who decides to escape after being allowed to see the price people pay for living in a world without war or pain, spurs students to think about important social issues and form their own opinions.

Should The Giver be banned?

WHY? Think about theme here. What message is the author trying to convey? Why would this information hurt society? Why would people want to stop the message?

PROVE IT Show me the evidence! Support your claim with examples from the book. If you are for banning the book, give reasons why and what effect they would have on society. If you think this book needs to be read, do the same thing. Give evidence of important messages found in the text.

THE POINT? Why are books banned? What are people hiding from? What is achieved if a book is forbidden? How does censorship even help? Or does it make things worse?