at long last.
rather than reading one of jen's assigned books, i chose to follow my personal interest in chuck palahniuk, my favorite author [forget that i've only read two of his books so far, i'm working on it!]. the man is a genius. i actually go through and, if the book belongs to me, highlight quotes that i find to be particularly insightful and moving.
i've read "lullaby" before, but more recently, i've finished "haunted", which is a striking psychological tale about a group of writer's cooped up in a building for 3 months. they come there voluntarily, thinking it'll help with their writing, but soon enough they all realize that being there of their own free will doesn't make for a good story. the group of writers start to self-sabotage, and create heroes, villains, and victims, with the book plunging back and forth between the gruesome, bizarre personal backgrounds of the writers, and the main plot of all being locked up together. it seems tame enough by my description, but one section of the book has allegedly made a total of 73 people faint from listening to it at his public readings, this number calculated by palahniuk himself.
not only is "haunted" [and many of his other novels] a commentary on how desperate people can be for money, fame, entertainment, etc., but also shows the lengths that people will go for silly, meaningless things. it's an in-depth study of human nature, and that's probably why i love it so much.
“Reading a Palahniuk novel is like getting zipped inside a boxer’s heavy bag while the author goes to work on you, pounding you until there is nothing left but a big bag of bones and blood and pain.”
—The Miami Herald
“To Palahniuk’s credit, there is something here to appall almost every sensibility. The author has a singular knack for coming up with inventive new ways to shock and degrade.” —New York Post
Sunday, June 1, 2008
BLOG FINAL.
My concept for a technology-oriented, educational class is a video class. It would count as an english credit, and would emphasize presentation and speaking skills. It could probably count as a type of speech or debate class.
The technology used would be PCs or Macs with simple video editing programs, such as Windows Movie Maker for PCs or iMovie for Macs. Students would be taught the basics of how to use the video editing programs, and the course would be assignment/project based. Students may have to create videos of themselves/others in political commentaries, debates, interviews, short documentaries, etc. The class would be extremely versatile and have a lot of potential, as a student could make a video on just about any topic, really.
Helpful online texts would be these Guidelines For Producing A Short Documentary, or perhaps these notes on the Five Elements of Documentary. Since the class would probably place a lot of responsibility and independence on the students and emphasize their technological prowess, the students would probably be expected to come up with learning materials themselves, much like how we would have to find articles and write OC topics in this blogging class.
If there was a set text, the students probably would be expected to read it, and then either take a short quiz on the topics covered, or make a short video demonstrating the knowledge presented in the texts.
I would want my students to take a lot of different things out of this class. Hopefully, they would have a basic understanding of simple movie/video editing software, as well as elements that make up a successful documentary. They should also learn how to script their videos, and know what appeals/bores an audience, as well as learning how to present a project and speak in front of a camera. In addition, the steps/process in creating a good video should be covered as well.
The technology used would be PCs or Macs with simple video editing programs, such as Windows Movie Maker for PCs or iMovie for Macs. Students would be taught the basics of how to use the video editing programs, and the course would be assignment/project based. Students may have to create videos of themselves/others in political commentaries, debates, interviews, short documentaries, etc. The class would be extremely versatile and have a lot of potential, as a student could make a video on just about any topic, really.
Helpful online texts would be these Guidelines For Producing A Short Documentary, or perhaps these notes on the Five Elements of Documentary. Since the class would probably place a lot of responsibility and independence on the students and emphasize their technological prowess, the students would probably be expected to come up with learning materials themselves, much like how we would have to find articles and write OC topics in this blogging class.
If there was a set text, the students probably would be expected to read it, and then either take a short quiz on the topics covered, or make a short video demonstrating the knowledge presented in the texts.
I would want my students to take a lot of different things out of this class. Hopefully, they would have a basic understanding of simple movie/video editing software, as well as elements that make up a successful documentary. They should also learn how to script their videos, and know what appeals/bores an audience, as well as learning how to present a project and speak in front of a camera. In addition, the steps/process in creating a good video should be covered as well.
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