Students are given a chance to create items for each unit that are to be portions of a larger ongoing project.
Independent Study Projects
North Korea Projects
A Long Way Gone Projects
The Thought Process Behind Shriya Reddy's Newspaper
I formatted my newspaper to be the New York Times because I believe by doing this I can show what I would believe to be America's views and the world's views on the events that happen in our books. On the first article I included the article about Michael Jackson on the first page and the story about Sierra Leone on mainly the second page to show how articles about the war and Sierra Leone was pushed away from being the center of attention. It explains why many people do not know about the war, including me before we started the unit. It also shows how people care more and want to hear more about famous people rather than war and death in lesser-known countries. Also in the first article, I included a quote from the rebel in order to include the rebels point of view. I also included a quote from Ishmael, though he is unnamed to show how he is not important yet, to include a villager's perspective on the war. The second article was a main article this time because this time it includes the United States and thus is deemed important. In the second article, I included quotes from Laura and Ishmael to show my understanding of the book. Independent Study Reader Response
By Harini Subramanian 2 States: The Story of My Life The book cover itself caught my eye. And I feel like it symbolizes a lot. The Punjabi family is wearing a black outfit, and look very formal and modern. The South Indian family is wearing traditional clothes and look angry. They are portrayed as an orthodox family. Ananya says in the book that she has a younger brother but he is not shown in the book cover. Ananya is wearing a beautiful sari (Indian cloth that’s wrapped around your body). And she’s laying her head on Irish’s shoulder. Her face expression shows that she can’t deal with those two families. Krish also wearing cute Sharvani (men’s traditional wear). He is laying head on top of Ananya’s head. His face expression The book starts of with the beginning of a college that is placed in North India. The book is written in Krish Malhotra perspective. He begins the book by explaining that beautiful girls in this college are very rare, and then comes a girl, Ananya, from Tamilnadu- a state of India (where I am from :)), she’s very pretty with perfect features. Interesting things: In the beginning of the book, Ananya gets lunch from the school and they serve sambar and Rasam (South Indian dish). She explains how terrible the dish tastes. I can see that because when you go to north India and expect good South Indian dish, that is not going to happen. And I felt really connected with her at this point. Another funny thing is how they characterized Ananya’s family. It’s so stereotypical. He wears a dhoti (traditional men’s clothes), and characterized as strict father. |
Graphic Novel Projects for Maus or Persepolis.
Original Art with Explanations By Angie Ajayi
Independent Study Reader Response
By Will Rude The main reason I wanted to read Generation Kill was because I was interested in getting a more in-depth look at war and the United States military. All I hear whenever I try to get a deeper look into these topics is stock answers like, “War is hell.” However, Generation Kill delivered what I was looking for. In the beginning the marines thirst for blood and yell, “Get some!” They are ready and willing to kill, and many of them have been through war before. However, the conflict in the middle east is not a typical war. Any civilian that the marines see could be preparing to shoot them, so that leads to many more civilian casualties. Again, in the beginning the marines are more scarred for their own lives and were prepared to kill anyone they felt was a threat, but, after more and more civilian casualties build up, the marines become more inclined to try non-lethal methods. For example, the first roadblock the marines maintain is set up with the idea of shoot to kill, but, after an innocent little girl has her head blown apart by accident, the next roadblock the marines set up they want to try shooting smoke grenades at the oncoming cars to get them to turn around instead of shooting at them. It was a really interesting juxtaposition, and it made me think back about a lot of things that the men said before they got into combat. Also, I wanted to quickly address the similarities and differences between the book and the HBO mini-series. They are very similar, to the point where I can actually recall exact lines from the book that were used in the mini-series. The only thing that was significantly changed, and that I disliked, was that they make Evan Wright, the original author, out to be so much more incompetent in the mini-series. In the book he admits his own flaws, and the mistakes that he makes. However, he also talks about the practice and studying he had done to help fit in better. In the mini-series he’s just played up as the incompetent and bumbling reporter. Anyway, I digress, I simply felt I should address that in this reading response because, having watched the mini-series and reading the book, it seems like something that I should comment on. Independent Study Reader Response By Ashton Hutchens Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche is a collection of interviews from people involved in the Tokyo Gas Attack in March of 1995. The author, Haruki Murakami, interviewed 60 people over the course of 1 year. Murakami learned about the attack while reading a send in letter in a magazine she picked up. The letter was from a wife describing her husband’s difficulty in recuperating from the attack. Although he was able to return to work, he couldn’t get himself back into the working routine. Murakami could not keep the victim out of her mind and set out on a new idea to learn more. She says, “But sometime later I found myself thinking about the letter. That ‘How on earth…?’ stuck in my head like a big question mark.” It is this quote that I believe puts Haruki Murakami at a different level than most authors. It is this drive, this passion that inspires her work. What I also like about Murakami is she mentions that the Japanese media depicts everyone as victims. She says, “The Japanese media had bombarded us with so many in-depth profiles...that the average citizen-- the ‘victim’-- was almost an afterthought.” Murakami’s mission was to get away from this “formula” the media had created and recognize each person as an individual, to recognize that these were real people with families, hopes and dreams, and lives. She doesn’t overlook anyone interviewed even if their symptoms were labeled as “minor.” I like how the author leads into the story by vaguely describing the day from a neutral point of view in discussing the weather and a typical Japanese lifestyle routine. Then she finishes with a plot twist: a man in disguise uses the tip of his umbrella to poke into plastic bags, and unknowingly to anyone on the train, releases sarin gas. From the interviews I have read, I have found that most people were confused as to what was going on and ignored their symptoms. The Japanese are very polite people and therefore, most were more concerned about helping others than themselves. 2 station men, very committed to their jobs, actually wiped up leaked sarin gas from the platform. From my own experience living in Japan, this doesn’t surprise me at all. I can picture the men being extremely dutiful and wanting to maintain their platform and keep it at its prime, and ensure all passengers were safe. I’m very excited to read more interviews and see if any of the stories change. I’m also interested to see if there are any accounts of the leaders of the operation. |