Photographer Orphan Tsolak took this picture of a global salad. Its ingredients come from three continents! Lettuce from France, Tomatoes from Holland, Cucumber from Spain, Chilies (peppers) from Zambia, Spring onions from Mexico, Cheese (feta) from Greece, and carrots from Britain.

For this project, we will answer the essential question:

How does food tell stories about the world?

Project Description: In this project, we will explore the history of the world through the foods of the world. You will work on a team of three to take a close examination of one country and its culture – particularly when it comes to food! Your team will guide the class in a discussion and exploration of the culture of your country, and will create one food dish to share with the class. We will also look at the political science of food, and how and why some people have it and some people don’t.

Literature: Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond (select chapters), country-specific literature (Library books are a requirement!!)

Skills Taught & Emphasized
- Lesson planning
- Speaking and presentation
- Cooperation
- Geography knowledge and map-making
- Research
- Cooking

Things You Can Expect:
- Map quizzes
- Country quizzes
- Group work
- Refinement
- Food
- Short reading assignments
- Opinion blogs and commenting

Final Products:
- Teacher Days
- Exhibition at Festival del Sol (April 22) (Food + Visual about Your Country)
- Team Alpha Passport (Your team will create one page)



CALENDAR of EVENTS

Week 1: Food & the World
Intro to Project & What is the significance of food?

Week 2-3: Research Countries (Spring Break)
Write 2 Annotated Bibliographies* on books about your country

Week 4: Awareness & Preparation
Global inequalities awareness and understanding, lesson planning

Week 5: Lesson Plans & Story Telling
Lesson plans & passport pages

Week 6: Food & the World
Teaching Days continue

Week 7: Present & Reflect
Festival Del Sol – April 22
Test (April 24) & Project Reflections

Team Alpha story time was incredibly enjoyable for me yesterday. Your creative ideas and stories are fabulous, entertaining and awesome. I hope you all keep on working through your ideas this weekend.

As preparation for our presentation and display of our photographs and stories on Thursday, this weekend please:

1. Refine your first draft of your story (type this please!!)

2. Write your artist's statement -- this is your opportunity to talk about the photograph that you chose. Write about one paragraph. We will display this by your photograph.

Additionally, please finish the reading in Tom Swift -- there will be a quiz on chapters 16-25 on Monday.

Contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Best,

Kay

Someone in d30fresh suggested that we try to take a picture of the interaction between humans and nature, and when I was walking along the streets of North Park this weekend, I saw this plainly:





I like these photographs because of the angle that I took them. I got down on the ground and shot the pictures close up, so that the flowers become the only subject of the photograph. I think that's how flowers were meant to be seen.

Did anyone else take pictures of the Human/Nature interaction?

Hello students!

You have an exciting array of activities to keep you entertained over the long weekend ahead of us!

First of all, it is time to begin reading our book for this project. It is called Tom Swift & His Amazing Wizard Camera and it is available online. If you want more information about the book, check out this helpful website.

Secondly, please complete your fourth media analysis journal on a photograph of your choice.

Finally, be sure to come prepared with at least 5-10 photographs from our photo shoot at Balboa Park. Please email them to yourself, and definitely get them off of your camera if you have not already done this at school! I look forward to seeing your masterpieces.

all the best!
kay

Your Outside Thinking has two parts -- First, read this article about the movie that we discussed in class:
Mulan through the Looking Glass.

Second, write a movie review about Mulan. Try answering the following questions:

1) What did you see?
Talk about the values that you saw in Mulan (or that we talked about in class).

2) Who sent this message?
Try to imagine who created Mulan – where did those values come from?

3) Is the movie true or false? (Or maybe a little bit of both.)
Talk about Mulan as it reflects the Real China. Do you think that it tells the truth? Why or why not? (Challenge: Try to connect to the Analects of Confucius that we read in class!)

Please post your review to your blog by Wednesday afternoon.

Best,

Kay

Your first official Media Analysis journal is due on Monday! For this assignment, you must select an advertisement in a magazine, and answer the seven analysis questions about it. Remember, first, describe (what do you see?) and then interpret (what does it mean?).

If you lost the handout, these are the seven questions:

1. What do I see?

Record your observations – Write down everything you about the visuals of the media -- lighting, camera angles, how the pictures are edited together. Describe any people-- what do they look like? what are they doing? wearing? Focus only on what is actually in the media, not your interpretation of what you see.

2. Who created this message?

You may not know exactly who created the message, but take your best guess. See if you can identify the author of the message from a close look at the media. Remember that everything you see in the media was created by someone.

3. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

The way that the media is put together is very intentional. Try to see if you can identify the mood or the story that the media is trying to create. What is the emotional appeal? What is the persuasive appeal?

4. How might different people understand this message differently than me?

No two people see an image the same way. Each audience member brings to each media encounter a unique set of life experiences (age, gender, education, cultural upbringing, etc.) which, when applied to the text – or combined with the text – create unique interpretations. Imagine you were someone else – how would that change the way you understand the message?

5. What values, lifestyles or points of view are represented, or omitted, in this message?

In looking at the content of a media message, it is important to understand that there are no value-free media and never will be. All media carry subtle messages about who and what is important. Try to analyze your media for values and points of view.

6. Why is this message being sent?

Try to look at the motive or purpose of a media message – and whether or how a message may have been influenced by money, ego or ideology. To respond to a message appropriately, we need to be able to see beyond the basic content motives of informing, persuading or entertaining.

7. Finally, how can I review my insights and summarize my ideas about the message?

Summarize how the media is constructed and how various elements of the construction trigger your own unique response-- which may be very different than how others interpret the text.


If you feel like you could not answer all of the questions, do not worry, just do your best! We will have plenty of opportunities to refine our ideas during this project.

Contact me with questions or concerns.

Best,

Kay

How does media change the way we see and understand the world?


This photograph is just one moment in time, caught on a camera. But what happened before? And what happened after? And who took the picture? And why?!

These are all questions that we will explore as we learn about the media and how it communicates to us through TV, radio, newspapers and photographs.

The literature that we will read for this project is called Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera: or Thrilling Adventures While Taking Moving Pictures by Victor Appleton and it is an e-book (electronic book). If you think you might have trouble accessing it at home, please email me and we can think together about how to solve your trouble!

In this project, we will create two main products:

1) Media Analysis Journal

You will be responsible to do five close analyses of different kinds of media during this project. For each journal entry, you must both describe and interpret the media. Try your best to answer all seven questions, and remember that we will have time to refine these journal entries before you turn in your journal at the end of the project.

2) Photograph Exhibition

In the second half of this project, you and a partner will work together to create photographic distortions. You will create photographs that do not tell the true story! As part of this component, you will also write an expository essay that exposes the real truth.

Over the next 6 weeks, we will learn about the Media Makers, and we will also learn how to become them.