MLA Activity

We're going to make some MLA entries in class today and see how you do. Make a Google doc (work together if you like), and create a Works Cited for these:

1. Off The Beatles' website, a better source for the photo that names the photographer.
2. An article I found through our library's databases.
3. This piece from BBC News.

Quickly set up your Works Cited for these. Then we'll compare and see what questions you have. This, by the way, is how mine turned out!

Thinking about Sources

One of the larger objectives this time around is developing our abilities when it comes to vetting sources for our projects. The other part is working with MLA: with documenting what we're finding according to the standards researchers in this field use.

I picked a photo for us to work with today: it's the one taken for The Beatles' Abbey Road album.

1. Would this source be okay for my photograph, or for an article about the image for that matter?
2. How about this one, as a good source for the photograph, or for other material, too?
3. What about this source, as one to help understand the image's significance?
4. Here's another source that discusses the photo shoot more. This one is similar. 
5. This one, too—also about the shoot.
6. One more!

Remember, from the assignment, what we're trying to discover here (and what you'll need to speak to in your brief talk):

• What can you find out about the photo and how it was taken?
• Regarding what makes this photo so famous or significant, what can you say about the composition of the photo or about its context (historically, socially, or whatever)? There's got to be a combination here, of the way the thing is composed as well as the time period within which it was created, that led to it becoming so recognizable, you know? 

On Writing Captions from a Perspective, and Citing Sources

We'll use this slideshow today in class, and I've written notes into it that explain the slides.

Editing Helpers for the Photo Essay as Well as the ePortfolio

As we get moving with polishing our writing, here are some editing helpers for you to work with on your own . . .

But in class we'll work with the following slides to think about editing issues.

Also, here are some tips on what to capitalize in the titles of your photo essay as well as of individual photos.

Slideshow on Perspective

Here's something we'll use in class today to help you see ways to write the captions . . .

Student Examples: Photo Essays

In class today we'll look at some examples of what students have actually done with the project. I want you to think about how clearly these present a PLACE as well as a VANTAGE POINT/PERSPECTIVE. What do you notice about them? Which are stronger? Weaker?

• Example 1: Sam
• Example 2: Natasha
• Example 3: Yara
• Example 4: Malaak
• Example 5: Graciela

Sample Photo Essays

So our new unit is about places . . . A "photo essay" is one way of writing about places, and I need you to read/look your way through the following examples:

1. A Time photo essay by photographer James Natchwey, "Sept. 11, 2001"
2. Another by photographer Herman Krieger, "Mall-Aise: A Look at Shopping Malls in America"
3. Another Time photo essay, unattributed, "The End of Cabrini-Green"
4. An iPhone photo essay by Tui Snider, "Chandor Gardens, the Secret Gardens of Weatherford, Texas"
5. Another one on "The Making of Ethan's Viola" (I know it's not a place, but it's still interesting).

As you read/look, think about what their PURPOSE seems to be. Try to think about the variety and type of IMAGES we get and their ORDER. Think about the WRITING that's done to accompany the photos. And importantly, use what you learned from Horowitz's book: what vantage point or perspective seems to be driving each of these?

Planning Your Profile Draft, and a Reminder about Tuesday

Group, this document can help you think about the material you got from your interview in a way that can potentially keep you from merely narrating your interview experience (which you really want to avoid!).

For those of you who want a little more help, here is a handout I've often used--one that is an analysis of an entire class's drafts. So it captures the common problems people tend to have with the piece, and uses student examples to illustrate the struggles and what to do about them. You'll save yourself a lot of time, probably, by working with this document. I will likely do another one once I see your drafts, to show how our class is dealing with the drafting process.

Finally, remember that the draft will be DUE on Tuesday (3/8), 11:59 P.M. We'll be in the lab on Tuesday, and we will likely do some draft shares as well as work on some revision techniques. So: HAVE A DRAFT, obviously, so we can be productive.

Interview Question Workshop

Here's the slideshow from today's class.

Commenting on Drafts, Inserting Photos

Two things from class today. One, here is the slideshow we used in class re: leaving comments for others in Drive.

Also, here are steps for getting a photo into your draft for tonight's 11:59 PM deadline. The easiest way is to use the Google Drive app on your phone (there's a link off the blog to the app, under Tech Tools). If you have the app, you can simply touch the add button within it, then choose your photo. It will copy the image to your drive. Alternatively, you could email the file to yourself, then add it easily to your Drive.

Once the image is in Drive, you can go into your draft file, then go to INSERT--IMAGE. There are the usual options for selecting the picture.

Once the image is dropped in, you'll want to probably make it smaller (just drag the corner handle on the image), and place it on either the left or right margin. To wrap the text, click the image, then choose Wrap Image (that command will appear below the image). Don't place the image in the middle of the page, as we can't read the text easily if you do so.

That's it! Be sure to share your file with me by 11:59 PM. :)

Class in the Lab 1/28

Just posting some of the things we will use in the lab today (Thursday).

• The POLL we'll use during class (the link won't work until I use the site live).
• A link to Google Drive (drive.google.com), which we will set up in class. 
• A link to Coggle, but we'll learn how to connect this to Google Drive. 

In class we will work with the assignment and the readings. The readings are two examples of the kind of piece we're attempting to write. We will set up Google Drive and a file, and learn to use Coggle as a mind-mapping and brainstorming tool.