ISSUES TO KNOW:
“Gender Equity”, “Illegitimate Children and Athletes”, “Paying student Athletes in the NCAA”, “TV Money in College Sports”, “Steroid Testing at the High School Level”, “Racism in Sports”, “Greatest Athlete Ever”, “Best Team Ever”, “Cutting Funding for High School Athletics”
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It is time to prepare for your final exam.
Your final exam will consist of a round table discussion between you and other members of the class. Your round table will be approximately 30 minutes long, with three 8 minute segments and each member of the panel giving a two minute speech.
You will not know the topics your panel will discuss until the day of the final. Therefore, we will spend the next few weeks researching various topics and then using class time to practice for the final.
Each class will focus one one particular sports-related topic.
We will begin class with a writeboard discussion that will allow you to share ideas about the topic before you even begin.
You will then be given the opportunity to find an article from a reputable newspaper or news magazine on-line. You will have approximately 15 minutes to research, read, print and save the article to your blog. Time will be tight so you need to have an idea of what web sites you should look and how you should find them.
You will then have ten minutes to write a reflection on the article. This will give you an opportunity to process your thoughts and get them down.
You will then have five minutes to write an opening as if you were hosting the round table discussion. This opening needs to provide the necessary background and end with one thought provoking question at the end of your opening. This question you will toss out to the panel to begin conversation.
We will then return to the classroom and conduct a mock round table based upon that one question. This will take about 10 minutes as well.
The remainder of class will be dedicated to offering suggestions to the panel in terms of both content and presentation.
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On Thursday, you need to be prepared to present your multi-genre research paper. You presentation will be done inc lass and it should take the following format:
1. TOPIC AND WHY SELECTED
2. WHAT I LEARNED FROM MY RESEARCH
3. PRESENTATION OF MULTI-GENRE PAPERS (NOT ACTUAL RESEARCH)
-This part of your presentation should have a sort of “narrative” feel to it all. You should be talking us through it and showing the logical connection between the genres. The best way to do this is to present that documents as if they were real.
- (For example, if you are doing a paper on steroids, assume the persona of a weight-lifter who decide to do steroids and then show what happened to you through your multi-genre papers.)
4. WHEN DONE, PROVIDE A RATIONALE FOR EACH GENRE.
5. ASK FOR QUESTIONS.
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Your three page research paper is due in class on Friday. You have had an additional three days to work on it outside of class after spending a week working on it in class.
On Friday, you will begin working on your second genre for the research paper. Know what you want to work on during that time.
Mr. Kenney
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Please read “The Boy Who Cried Cal” on-line.
When done, please post five questions that came to you while/ after you read the piece.
Write a short reflection on the piece as well. Please post this to your blog as well.
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One of the big final grades for 1st quarter will be your blog. By now, your blog should have a distinct appearance and it should have links to all the work that we have done this quarter.
But your blog also needs to show your research and reading of various articles, various video clips, and various web sites that all deal with sports.
Today, you will be given time to do a little reading and a little writing. What I want you to do is spend some time research and adding various links to your blog. By the time I evaluate your blog, you should have:
1. Links to the sports pages of at least five different newspapers from around the United States. Don’t be content to find some of the large newspapers–take a look at the sports they cover in Alaska, Idaho or Nevada.
2. After you read an article from these newspapers–a sports article–type a quick reflection (about a paragraph per newspaper) about the content of that particular article. Remember–you need one paragraph per article. (5 total)
3. Add links to at least three sports videos. These can be clips to full length videos.
4. When done, type a paragraph reflection on why you selected that video and/or the content of the video. (3 total)
5. Add one link to a radio broadcast–a podcast– from a sports radio station. It must be one outside the east coast (that means no Boston, NY, Baltimore, etc.)
6. Listen to the podcast and type one paragraph explaining the content of the podcast. (1 total)
This is the addition content that I will be looking for when I evaluate your blogs.
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Bias is defined as “A preference or an inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment.” Essentially, bias occurs when the writer/director/ speaker has strong opinions on one side of an issue/event/ topic established before he/she even begins to write/direct/ talk.
Begin by watching the video UNDERSTANDING BIAS IN THE MEDIA
Now in its most blatant form, bias is propaganda–an obvious slant which tries to convince people to think a particular way. Such bias–for an educated populace–is easy to see. Take a look at the link to the right titled PROPAGANDA that shows a blatant use of propaganda.
Yet real bias occurs much more subtly than we would think. This is true especially today. Take a look at the second clip entitled MEDIA BIAS and read the pop-ups that occur on the screen. Think about what you watched and what that shows.
Obviously, bias occurs in sports as well. Sports Writers have a particular slant on what they write because they–as a result of their position–have a desire to see their particular teams do well. When their teams, they are happy; when their teams lose, they let their frustrations be known as well.
In writing, bias can be found in the word choice by an author, by the use of poetic language–such as hyperbole, metaphor, simile, exaggeration, understatement, and by the tone established through the use of mood words.
ASSIGNMENT ONE:
Read the handouts about yesterdays Patriots game. On the left-hand side is an article about the game in the Boston Globe. On the right-hand side is an article written about the game from the Tennessean. Read each article. Make notes in the middle column identifying words, lines, phrases, expressions from either side that help establish each writer’s particular bias.
ASSIGNMENT TWO:
Find two newspaper articles written about the same sporting event. Link these web sites to your blog. Read each article. Then, post to your blog a paragraph explaining the bias found in each one.
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We have spent some time looking at Friday Night Lights in class. But the idea behind has never been to “watch” the movie–that you can do on your own time. The idea has always been to “read” the movie–to notice the shots used and how those shots play out.
Sports videos–an ever growing industry–use those same techniques found in Friday Night Lights as well. Sports directors understand that high angle shots elicit a particular response in us, as do extreme close up shots, or slow motion shots. These things are all deliberate because the director is trying to reach you as a viewer–to create some sort of emotional response in you. Used “wisely”, these shots simply make us captive audiences. Used “poorly”, these shots make us easily manipulated pawns.
PART ONE
For this assignment, I want you to think back over the movie and think of two dramatically different scenes from the movie.
1. Identify the scene. Just give a brief explanation of what is going on so I can understand which scene you mean.
2. Identify the primary shot used—use the link to the right to see the variety of camera shots used.
3. Explain what effect you think the director was trying to create with that shot.
4. Think about the lighting—how much? Where was it? On whom? Was the scene grey or bright? Faint or clear?
5. Explain the effect the lighting played on the scene.
6. Notice how the scene moved: were there lots of cuts?
7. What about the sound—what could you hear? Was the crowd visible? The breathing of the character? Was the sound “normal” ? Too loud? Too soft? What effect did sound create with the scene.
8. Now explain the effect that you feel the director was trying to convey and how those effects add to your overall understanding of the movie/ theme/ character.
YOU ARE GOING TO DO THESE 8 QUESTIONS FOR TWO SCENES AND POST YOUR ANSWERS ON YOUR BLOG.
PART TWO:
Now apply those skills in the real world. For this section, you are going to find a video clip of a commercial whose sole purpose is to persuade you to think a certain way. (Yes, I know that is the intention of all commercials, but I want ones that are obviously meant to stir your patriotism or to make you quit smoking or to keep you off drugs. You know the ones I mean.)
1. Watch the video clip, keeping those above questions in mind.
2. Write an analysis of that commercial, no less than two paragraphs long. POST THAT ANALYSIS ON YOUR BLOG.
PART THREE:
Bring a video camera to class on Monday—if at all possible.
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Now that you have played with characterization and RAATS a bit, it is time to apply it to FNL.
You can either pair up or work alone. However, in the end, you will each write your own paper.
Using FNL, you are going to begin to analyze a character by going through the text of FNL. Keep RAATS in mind and look at how Bizzinger allows you to See what type of person/character each one of them is.
Begin by going back throught the text and find aspects of RAATS in the text that make the character come alive. Remember–as you find them, they should not be random. Instead, RAATS should help you learn something about the character. For example, (going back to the example of my father) I would only tell you those traits that show you how he is driven to be the best teacher he can be. That is the question to ask yourself:
WHAT DRIVES THIS CHARACTER? RAATS should help you figure it out.
PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT: To write an article analyzing a character. This is an article, much like the Mariano article, that is aksing you to sink deeply into your understanding of a character. DO NOT WRITE ME AN ESSAY! Write an article for me.
AUDIENCE: A tenth grade level reader. (Much like SI).
VOICE AND STYLE: Narrative style with your voice.
WORD COUNT: 1000 minimum–1200 maximum
TO BE ABLE TO GET AN A ON THIS WRITING ASSIGNMENT: You can analyze Odessa (Yes, the town is a character), Chavez, Coach Gaines, women in Odessa (think of them collectively as a character) or Ivory.
TO BE ABLE TO GET A B ON THIS WRITING ASSIGNMENT: You can analyze Mike Winchell or Billingsworth.
TO BE ABLE TO GET A C ON THIS WRITING ASSIGNMENT: You can analyze Boobie
Use the RAATS handout to get your ideas organized. Look to the link under HANDOUTS.
Put your work into a Google.doc as your work upon it. Make sure to invite be to help you collaborate on that document.
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