Final Blog Portfolio

Your blog "portfolio" is due on Friday, May 9th at 10am.

As we discussed in class, this will be your final grade for the semester.

To complete the assignment you will have to include the following:

1) At least two analyses of photographs.

2) At least two creative pieces. This might include poems, short stories, or other innovative forms.

3) At least two letters.

4) At least one group effort post.

5) At least one post that relates, refers to or deals with a medium other than writing or photography (i.e. film, sculpture, etc.). Push the medium to its limit here. How does the form of a blog allow you to do something you couldn't have done on paper?

6) At least one post completely of your own design and execution.

Note that five of the posts must be new, not from work that was done as assignments for our class.

You must have a minimum of 10 posts in your final blog portfolio, and a maximum of 12. You should create a post that links to all of the pieces in your portfolio so that a reader can easily navigate through all the pieces.

The following are Ideas for the Last Five Posts:

Google “war” and use any words [can make a limited amount] from the first five web page results to write a composition

Write 5 haikus about war

Write a letter to a soldier, past, present, future, alive, dead, fictional, real …

What will WWIII be like? Causes? Who is involved? How will life be after? Take from any angle.

Write 3 limericks about war

Pretend you are a soldier and write a letter home or a journal entry of a personal account of your experiences and how war has effected you

Find letter from a kid to a soldier and analyze how a war is seen through a kid’s eyes and how it affects their lives and how they think about war and those who fight in one

Post a link to a song from playlist.com and write analysis (Rise Against…)

Find a Facebook group pertaining to war [opposing, supporting, charity, etc…]and interpret

Go to PostSecret.com and find a secret and interpret and respond, both or either

Create comic strip on paint and post OR take someone else’s comic and write an analysis or story

Find a song relating to war and find lyrics online. Change 75% of words [don’t have to change: the, an, and, of…] in the song, but your new words MUST begin with the same letter as the original. The final product does not have to deal with war.

Find interview with a soldier online. Analyze. Write 3 questions you WOULD have liked to ask.

Use the Onion and post the article and respond to it to analyze what it is satirizing.

Use youtube.com to find a video made by an amateur and figure out what they are trying to say, the message they are trying to convey

Assignment for Thursday, May 1

Choose either of the following:

1. Put a link on your blog to a song, video, advertisement, or some aspect of
pop culture. Then write a short creative piece with a 250 word maximum that
connects to you in some thematic or personal way.

OR

2. Write a creative piece with a 250 word maximum that deals with war as a
metaphor. So, for example, you might write a piece about something you yourself
feel at war with, or you might write about conceptual wars such as the war
between right and wrong, or good and evil.

Due: Thursday morning, May 1

Do Your Own Thing!

For class Tuesday, April 22nd, I'd like you to post something to your blog of your own choosing. It should be relevant to our class and it should include both your own writing and a picture or a link to a video. If you are wondering if your specific idea is too crazy or strange...don't. Go ahead with it. Proceed with confidence.

Due: Tuesday morning, April 22nd.

Vietnam Photo Archives

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/vietnam-photos/

http://www.vwam.com/vets/photos.html

Assignment for Thursday, April 17th

The Civil War, or “The War Between the States,” occurred on American soil. The western-most battle of the war occurred about 40 miles from Tucson, at Picacho Peak. Go to www.civilwarphotos.net and select and post a photo to your blog from the many hundreds of choices. Then, find and post a link to an article related to the photo you chose. Then, combine your newly-gained historical knowledge and your extensive film-analysis vocabulary to analyze the photo you chose.

Due Thursday morning, April 17th.

Tuesday, April 15th In-Class Assignment

In your in-class group, after you have been assigned a year, go to the New York Times Interactive Website that synopsizes the last five years of the current war in Iraq. Then, using your newly-developed photo-vocabulary, choose one of the photos and discuss it with your group. What are the major elements and aspects of the photo? What, thematically is it trying to convey? What is the major source of its power? Be prepared to then "present" the photo to the class as a group.

Include, in your presentation to the class, a short recounting of what each group member was doing during the time that the photo was taken. Were you unaware, slightly aware, or very aware of the events that are depicted in the photo? Why?

Assignment: Reading a Photograph

For Tuesday, April 15th, first go to nuovo.com/southern-images/analyses.html, and read the article, "Basic Strategies in Reading Photographs" posted there, becoming familiar with important terms and ideas associated with analyzing a photograph.

Then, go to www.schicklerart.com/auto_exh/RPCWar?page=1 and choose one photograph from the list to do a 250 word analysis. Use at least two of the terms you learned in the article posted above.

Due Tuesday morning, April 15th.