New zine survey

Okay, so the choices have been narrowed down a bit, and we need to agree upon a title.

Based on popular vote, we will have a very colorful zine, probably with an all-over design. We are lucky enough to have a local artist helping us out on this project - Paul Morgan, an artist/printmaker from Oakland, has volunteered to help us print (and design, if we want) the covers.

Please check out his work here and decide if you would like him to design a cover using our ideas, or tell me if you are interested in designing the cover.

After that, you can take the new survey!

Also, to address the other comments you made:
1. Yes, of course we will sell it at Lowell High School! We will also give copies to the school library along with the San Francisco Public Library's zine collection.
2. Matt, we can certainly send a copy to Obama! I'm also going to send one to Sherman Alexie since his writing inspired us.
3. Our audience is the general public - not just Lowell High School! That's why I suggested you may want to give your reader a brief intro to your community using the info you collected in your group research project. Adults may read it, teenagers such as yourselves may read it. I am also putting a few out for sale at the stores I showed you in the powerpoint - if you remember, one is in Chicago and one is in Portland, so our readers won't just be from California.

Today in the computer lab

Before you get started with your group, please take this survey about how you think our zine should look.

After you finish the survey, you can continue working on your group's section.

Essay topics

Choose one of the following topics to write about in an essay of 3-5 pages. In your essay, you should develop an argument in response to one of the following questions, and support it using citations from the text.

1. What do you see as being an important motif in The Bluest Eye? How and why is this motif important to the novel's major themes?

2. Which theme from The Bluest Eye do you see most reflected in your own life today? Please support your argument with specific examples from both the book and your own experience.

3. What kind of theme about whiteness exists in The Bluest Eye? What kind of point is Morrison trying to make? You may also support your ideas with other texts we have examined.

4. How does our society transmit certain standards of beauty, which most of us are unable to live up to? How do we see beauty ideals impacting the lives of the characters in The Bluest Eye?

5. See Ms. Aaland if there is a topic you are interested in writing about which is not listed above.

Essays should be 10-12 point font, double-spaced, and have margins no larger than 1”. You will need to submit a paper copy in class for each of the two due dates, and you will also need to submit your essay to Turnitin.com by 11:59pm on the same day (both times).

1^st draft due for peer review Tuesday, May 5^th (2 copies)

2^nd draft due Friday, May 8^th (1 copy plus copy of 1^st draft)

Videos, vocab, homework

Links to the clips we watched last week:
Mean Girls clip 1
Mean Girls clip 2
"Girl Like Me"

And here are your vocab words for the next week:
forsythia (97)
macabre (65)
coon (149)
dingy
threnody (137)
hallucination (149)
rheumatism (138)
insolent (38)
misanthrope (164)
dissipation (38)

We will begin vocab journals tomorrow and your sentences will be due Friday - I will collect your sentences then so I can evaluate them over the weekend (so you knew whether you are using the words correctly) and return them to you on Monday. If you put them on a separate sheet of paper I will just stamp your journal so you can hang on to it over the weekend (if you want to study).

By Monday you need to have finished the book!
Also, on Friday we will be in the library computer lab to work on our zines, so make sure you bring your files.

Tonight's Homework

Write one paragraph where you reflect upon the discussions we've had about beauty, and how the characters in The Bluest Eye are treated differently based upon the color of their skin. How does this make you feel?

Also, don't forget to read pages 110-131.

Spring Break HW

Reading the first section of The Bluest Eye, entitled "Autumn."

Have a great break and don't forget to explore your city and do something fun!

Tomorrow is free day at the museums; check it out! The YBCA has an exhibition which looks especially cool.
Yerba Buena
SF Moma
Museum of Craft Art and Folk - installations of artists re-creating their working spaces
Legion of Honor
de Young
Cartoon Art Museum