Thursday, March 5, 2020

Blog #13 - George Jejelava - Period 9 - 3/5/2020

Thursday, March 5, 2020

George Jejelava
Sophomores 2020
Period 9
Blog #13


Aim: How does knowledge of the attributes of the novel lead to the creation of an original fable project with visual and oral presentation?


Do Now: Why do you believe students often become fearful when projects/presentations are assigned? 

My answer- In general, projects and presentations require more work to be done in preparation. The fact that you have to actually present something in front of a large group of people is nerve wracking, even for someone who enjoys public speaking. People tend to judge your work and when you present in front of people directly it feels as though you are being judged more directly yourself.

After discussing this question as a class, we determined that most students become worried when projects/presentations are assigned due to the increased pressure placed on students to do well in front of their peers. However, with proper time management and preparation, overcoming these pressures. Most students in the class said they didn’t enjoy giving presentations however those who said they do enjoy presentations feel this way because they have more liberty with the project than most other assignments and feel they can be creative due to this.


Allegories in Animal Farm 

To continue the previous day’s lesson, we discussed allegorical connections in the novel. An allegory is a form of extended metaphor, a story with two meanings (A literal and symbolic meaning). The underlying meaning of an allegory has moral, social, religious, or political significance. Allegories continue throughout the entire test.


Animal Farm as an allegory: 

Animal farm represents the History of Russia from 1917-1943. Animalism is communism and the characters are historical Russian figures. Almost everything in the story symbolizes something from Russia in that period, even the buildings.
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Activity

We were given 4 short fables to read with 4 unique themes. The fables were a paragraph long each and we had to analyze each one as a group. We then had to come up with a unified response on what the theme/moral of each fable was.

The theme of each fable was as follows:

  1. When people cannot get what they want, they often often pretend they do not want it at all
  2. People often refuse to take a chance for a big gain 
  3. Foolish people often fall for flatter 
  4. People sometimes exaggerate their own importance 

Project Discussion

We each went up to the front desk to select a number randomly from a hat. These numbers are for the order of which we will present our projects.
I.e number one goes first, number 2 presents second and so on.


Project Guidelines and Information 

Our task for the project is to write an original fable with a relevant moral. We have been provided with a list of over one hundred of Aesops most prominent morals. We are to chose a moral and create an original fable in which it is illustrated. The fable must have at least one talking animal.

We are also required to create a visual representation of the fable (some sort of creative idea that adds to the message of the fable: a picture, portrait, painting, etc…). There must also be a written explanation of how our moral is evident in our fable.

Class time devoted to the project:

  • We are allowed 2 days to work on the visual aspect of the project either in class or in the makerspace under supervision. 
  • If we feel as though there is some supply we need which we do not have access to. There will be a list collected by Dr. Jax regarding this. If you do ask Dr. Jax to bring in additional supplies, do not wait until the last minute! The supply list is due Tuesday. 


Fable Project Outline 

Ms. Peterson has provided us with a worksheet that we are to use to plan out our fable. On the sheet, we are to list the main and supporting characters in our fable, describe the setting, and list the major plot points of our story. We then take the actual story outline and use that to describe the moral(s) of the story.


Reflection

Today, we continued to learn about what allegories are and how to recognize them in a story. Allegories are extended metaphors within stories that have a link or allusion to some bigger idea. Common traits of an allegory include moral, social, political, or religious themes, which are portrayed in characters/ideas of characters. An example of an allegory is the novel Lord of the Flies: The Island the boys land on represents the whole world, the conch stands for law and order, and the fire represents hope and destruction. Meanwhile Animal Farm is an allegory of Russia from its pre-revolution communist ideas till 1943. In the future, this knowledge will allow us to better identify and interpret allegories in stories such as Animal Farm. Personally, I will use this knowledge to better understand any work of literature which I am reading and will be able to see how people use allusions in everyday life to either support their own argument or detriment someone else’s.

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