Foot: Graphic Novels

Text and Dialogue

Balloons
In Pinocchio all text balloons were round. In Naruto there were two different kinds of text balloons, the round ones were used for regular dialogue, for excited or emotional speech or for yelling the balloons were jagged.

Captions
In both graphic novels captions were in square boxes.  In Pinocchio they were used in the beginning to tell the back story and a little throughout the rest of the story for "flashbacks".  In Naruto there were not many.

Emanata
Naruto used a lot of lines to show motion, like when they were fighting. There was also swirly lines when there was magic. Pinocchio also used lines when Pinocchio was jumping through the air.  There was also fire when the vampires died.

Labels/signs
In Pinocchio Geppetos shop is labeled. In Naruto there are a lot of Japanese signs on buildings.  There wasn't a whole lot in either books but there were more in Naruto.

Lettering
In Pinocchio all of the lettering for dialogue is the same.  The lettering for sound effects is a different font and it isn't in balloons.  In Naruto the font and size of the letters differ depending on emotion and action.  Lettering for sound effects is large and often imitates the sound.

Sound Effects
In Pinocchio there are not many sound effects.  In Naruto there are a lot of sound effects.  There are sound effects for just about all actions and emotions.


Visual Features

Characters
In Pinocchio the characters are not very detailed.  All the eyes are blank.  In Naruto there are tons of details.  Everything is very intricate.

Objects
There are not many objects in Pinocchio.  There are only necessary objects such as buildings, trees, etc.  There are a lot of objects in Naruto and they are very detailed.  The objects in Naruto are more realistic than the objects in Pinocchio.

Icons
The main icon in Pinocchio is his nose.  It is what made him different from everyone else.  Now it is how he kills the vampires.  His nose is what makes him who he is.  The main icon in Naruto is his headband.  It represents his journey into adulthood.

Scenery
There isn't much scenery in Pinocchio. Most panels focus on the characters.  In Naruto there is a lot of scenery.  Everything is realistic.

Depicted action
There is a lot of action in both books.  Pinocchio has a lot of killing.  I don't think anyone dies in Naruto but there is a lot of fighting.  Naruto had a lot more closeups of fighting.


General Layout and Design

Borders
In Naruto the borders are for the most part clearly defined and pretty consistent.  In Pinocchio the borders vary a little bit but not much.
Gutters
The gutters in Naruto are clearly defined and always there.  In Pinocchio the gutters vary.  Sometimes there are not gutters between the panels at all.

Panels
In both novels the panels are all different sizes.  In Naruto the characters always stay in the panels except for extreme action.  In Pinocchio the characters don't always stay in the panel.

Open Panel
In Naruto open panels are used for extreme action.  In Pinocchio open panels are used for something very important.

Splash
In Naruto there is a two page splash at the climax of the novel.  In Pinocchio there are a few full page splashes and one double page splash with little panels around it at the climax.


Angles and Frames

Bleed
In Naruto balloons bleed into other panels with extreme emotion, but characters rarely bleed into other panels.  In Pinocchio characters sometimes bleed into another panel and his nose bleeds into other panels.

Close-up
Close ups are used in both novels when showing extreme emotion.

Heat shot
This is used in both novels to show emotion and dialogue.

Head-shoulder shot
Again this is used in both novels to show emotion and dialogue.

Full-figure shot
These shots are used in both novels when there is action or more than one character in the panel.

Longshot
These shots are used in both novels.  Usually characters are very far away.

Extreme longshot
These are used more in Naruto when characters are so far away you can barely see them.

Reverse
Used in both books for back and forth dialogue.


Rhetorical techniques applied in text, visuals, and design

Exaggeration
In Naruto emotion, fighting, and character faces are greatly exaggerated.  The action and fighting were exaggerated in Pinocchio.

Empathy/identification
I think readers can identify with Naruto because he is a young man and he just wants to be an adult.  He tries his hardest to pass his tests but he still chases girls and gets into trouble.  Readers can identify with Pinocchio because everyone knows the original story of Pinocchio and they want to see what else will happen to him.

Mood/tone
The mood of Pinocchio is very dark.  The panels are shaded very dark and it seems like everything happens at night.  The mood of Naruto is light and funny.  He is a teenager who plays jokes which helps lighten the mood.  Even when he is fighting he is making jokes.

Simplicity/complexity
Pinocchio is a very simple story.  He wants to avenge his fathers death.  The drawings are very simple too.  Naruto is more complex.  There are a lot of characters and a lot of different things going on, a lot of different side plots.  Even the drawings are complex.

Irony/satire
It is ironic in Pinocchio that his father became a vampire and he ends up killing him when he screams that he isn't his father and his nose grows.  It is ironic in Naruto that the "loser" kid ends up being the strongest one.

Realism/icons/symbolism
I think the drawings and the look of Naruto are very realistic.  The buildings and scenery are realistic. Pinocchio is not realistic.  But his nose is symbolic of his power.  Just like Naruto's headband is symbolic of his power.

Order/disorder
There is a lot of order in the way Pinocchio is set up.  The panels are easy to follow.  Naruto is not so easy to follow.  I have never read a book that is read backwards before and it was difficult for me.

Juxtaposition
Both books deal the juxtaposition of good vs. evil but I think it is more evident in Pinocchio.  He his good and he fights vampires who are obviously evil.  In Naruto the town thinks he is evil because of the nine tailed fox that is inside him.  But he thinks of himself as good.

Relationships
Both Pinocchio and Naruto both only have a very few close relationships.  Naruto has his group that he is training with and his teacher.  Pinocchio has his vampire fighting team.

Point of View
Pinocchio is in Pinocchio's point of view most of the time.  A couple times it is from a different point of view to show something important.  In Naruto there are many different points of view to show all the action throughout the whole story.

Pytash: Final Reflection

Wow what a semester!!! I can't believe this semester is almost over.  I really enjoyed this class this semester.  It was great knowing everyone from last semester.  I liked focusing on The Great Gatsby because we could really dig into the text and find some interesting teaching techniques. 

I also liked the blog.  It helped keep me focused and I knew when I needed to get readings done and I was able to see what the rest of the class thought about the readings too without having a loud group discussion in class.  I learned a lot from reading others blogs.

I enjoyed the Expert Group Presentations and the Facilitating Classroom Discussions projects.  I think they gave us great experience and it made me comfortable because I was teaching in front of people I knew and not a room of strangers.

I wish we had more time for the Firestone Project.  I think it is great that we got to go back to Firestone but there wasn't a lot of time after the going to Firestone to complete the project.  I wish we had time in class after going to Firestone to talk about the project before it was due.

The Pairing the Classics and Young Adult Literature is the most challenging assignment of the semester.  It was really hard to find the time to read the two books for that assignment because of everything else going on this semester.  But I do think it is a great project.  I would like to pair young adult literature with classics when I am a teacher.

I think I learned a lot in this class. Not only from the homework and assignments but from my fellow classmates too.  Thanks everyone for a great semester.

Foot: Pleasure Reading/Watching



I read all the Harry Potter books before I saw the corresponding movies and I'm glad I did.  I was able to form my own opinion of the characters and what I thought they would look like.  I was so surprised to find that when I saw the movies all of the characters were exactly how I pictured them in my head!  I was disappointed that the movies didn't include everything from the books.  I was happy when I found out the final book was going to be broken up into two movies.  I wish they had done that with all of the books.  They could have made each book into a 5 hour movie and I would have watched it.  I am such a Harry Potter nerd that my sister bought me a replica of Harry Potters wand for Christmas one year.

Even though everything from the books wasn't included in the movies I think these are some of the best movies made from books that I have ever seen.  I really hope J. K. Rowling writes more books.   I think she is such a fantastic author that she shouldn't stop at Harry Potter. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WRITE MORE!!!!!!!!!!

Pytash: Chapter 7

My favorite part of this chapter was the assignment for Julius Ceasar where the students pick from four characters: Antony, Caesar, Brutus, or Cassius and write a persuasive essay explaining their choice.  This kind of assignment will show exactly what the students know.  If the student didn't read the play carefully enough they won't be able to write a fully developed essay.

I also like her test questions for Julius Ceasar.  Multiple choice questions don't show what students know.  Jago's short essay questions will show what students know.  I also think it is a good idea to go over the answers in class the next day.  This way students can understand why they got something wrong.

I think creative projects, papers, and essay questions are important to be able to assess student understanding.  Students will learn more this way too.

Pytash: Canonical Text Wiki Reflection

Bo Rhinehardt

Canonical Text Wiki Reflection

           

            It was very hard to find twenty different multimedia hyperlinks for my Canonical Text.  Almost every website I went to was a site where you had to pay to get a lesson plan or something.  I think teachers should be more open with their teaching ideas so it isn’t so hard for new teachers to find information.  I think this is a great way for teachers to share what they know about teaching, or what they know about a particular book.  I think I will continue my blog from this class to share my teaching ideas with other teachers.  I wish more teachers would share their ideas.  It shouldn’t be this hard for new teachers to find lesson plans, essay questions, or projects for their students.  If more teachers shared their knowledge with each other teachers would become better at what they do and maybe students will learn more.

I found different project ideas, essay questions, test questions, fun trivia, and creative projects.  All of the questions will help students dig into the novel and develop their ideas for papers or projects.  I think all of the questions are higher thinking questions, not just content questions.

All of the projects are developmentally appropriate for high school students.  My favorite project that I found is the video project where students do a “news cast” with the events from the novel.  Another version of that could be a newspaper.

Students don’t all have to do the same thing.  Students could be given a choice of what project they want to do and that would be good for diverse students.  Not all students learn the same and a choice of project would be good for students so they can show their knowledge in the best way possible.

I learned that this text is centered on the French Revolution and students could do a project discussing the French Revolution.  This would be a great book to read while the students are learning about the French Revolution in their Social Studies class.

This text would be a great book for papers or creative projects.  This isn’t the kind of book that you just have to read and answer questions about.  This is a book students can really dig into and get a lot of information out of.   

Foot: Pleasure Reading/Watching

I have been noticing lately there are a lot of movies that are coming out that were adapted from books.  Every time I see a movie that was a book, I want to read the book first.  I read all the Harry Potter books before I saw the movies.  I also read the Twilight series before I saw the movies.  There are a lot of other books out there that I want to read before I see the movie.

I want to read Eat, Pray, Love before I see the movie.  I know Julia Roberts is in the movie so it will probably be good.  But I want to read it first.  I just feel like I get more out of the book and the movie if I read it first.  If I see a movie before I read the book then I can't help thinking about the characters on the screen.  I would rather form my own images in my head while reading.

Another book I want to read before I see the movie is Water for Elephants.  I saw the previews for the movie and it looks very interesting.  I won't be able to get Reese Witherspoon out of my head when I read it since I already saw the previews but she looks like she plays a good part anyway, so hopefully I won't be disappointed.

I read The Devil Wears Prada before I saw the movie.  I really liked the book.  The movie was good, I think they did a great job casting the characters, however the ending was different and I didn't like that.  There are several movie versions of books where they change a plot line or an ending and I don't like that at all.

One of my favorite TV series was a set of books first.  True Blood was adapted from a series of books written by Charlaine Harris.  The books are very good.  The main character Sookie is a little different than I pictured her.  There are also a lot of plot differences from the books.  There are a lot of little side plots in the show that were not in the books.  But I really like the show anyway.  I try to separate the show from the books in my mind because there are so many differences.  If I think too much about the differences then I can't enjoy watching the show. 

If they keep making movies from books, I am going to have a giant stack of books I need to read and there will be a lot of movies I won't get to see in the theater because there is no way I will get the books read before the movie is out of the theater.  Oh, well.  That is what DVD's are for.

Pytash: Chapter 6

The majority of this chapter is a lesson plan for The Odyssey.  I think this lesson plan will be very helpful if I ever teach The Odyssey.  I think it is great that she includes an entire lesson plan in this chapter.  Like she says at the beginning of the chapter teachers are expected to invent all of their lessons on their own and I agree that it would help all teachers if teachers collaborated more often.

I also agree that students need to read outside of class.  It would take too much time away from class discussion to let the students read anything entirely in class.  They need to read and think outside of class.

Pytash: Chapter 4

I really liked this chapter. I agree that if students learn to identify literary elements they will understand the text better.  I like how this chapter lists the most common  elements of fiction.  I also think Freytag's Pyramid is very important.  If students learn how to map out a story it will give them a way to think about the story.  They will have to think about what they are reading so they know how to map it.  I also think it is important to give students a list of the different literary terms so they can get to know that language.

Pytash: Chapter 2

"Why don't kids know more words? The obvious answer is that they don't read enough."  That was the quote that grabbed my attention when I read this chapter.  The second thing that grabbed my attention when I read this chapter is that when a student is handed a copy of Great Expectations in ninth grade they are familiar with fewer than 80% of the words in that book.  That is not OK with me.

I like the idea to give the students a bookmark to write down words they are not familiar with.  That way when there is a class discussion the students will have something to talk about.  I also like the Do/Don't list.  It has some good ideas.  Such as: Keep lists of new words posted around your classroom for constant reference. Try to use these words as you teach.

I think it is very important for students to keep track of words that they have problems with.  If they just skip over those words they will never know them.  If they keep track of them and take the time to talk about them and learn the meaning they are more likely to remember it.

Foot: Firestone

I think the Firestone experience was a good one because the students got one-on-one attention from the tutors.  I just wish I could have helped him more.  My students’ biggest problem was social studies and I don’t know much about social studies.  I think helping students with reading comprehension will help them in all aspects of testing.  I think if my students are having problems with social studies, besides talking to their social studies teacher to make sure they get extra help in that class, I can have my students read non-fiction books paired with fiction books to get them interested more in social studies.  I think test prep needs to be fun for students.  I like the idea of playing some kind of game with my students, like Jeopardy, to get them to remember information.

I think schools emphasize test prep too much.  I think it overwhelms students because all they are worried about is “cramming” for the test.  I don’t think they should feel like they are cramming for a test.  I think the material teachers teach should make students feel prepared for tests.  I think teachers need to make the content more interesting for the students.

While I was at Firestone High School I observed one English teacher while she taught the Crucible.  The class read the play out loud and they had to answer questions about the play on worksheets, they watched the movie, and then had a test at the end.  I think the students were bored.  While they were reading the play I couldn’t understand most of what they said.  I don’t think the students got a lot out of it.  I wish the teacher would have had student break into groups and act out scenes.  I think they would understand the play more if they had the time to study scenes and really get into the material.  They could have done a class project about the play and made a newspaper with articles about things that happened in the play.  Students need to be interested in the material and I could tell none of the students cared about the play until they started watching the movie.  I like when students see the movie version of a play or a book but they need to understand the text version first before they see the movie version.  They could have done a paper comparing the two versions too. 

I think standardized test preparation can be merged with multi-modal literacies.  I don’t know if it would be an easy merge because everyone is so used to the way they prepare for tests now.  I think using multi-modal literacies will make the information more accessible to students because students now have grown up with different types of texts.  They know how to use computers, and phones, and games.  Those things just need to be included in schools so students understand the information easier. 

When my student told me he was having problems in social studies I asked him if his teacher was helping him prepare for the OGT’s at all.  He said she gave him part of a OGT practice test.  I think teachers need to do more than just had a student a practice test and say have at it.  I think teachers need to sit down with their students to find out exactly what their problems are.  I gave him a larger practice test and went over every single question with him and whenever he had a question we looked it up on my smartphone and I explained everything I could.  I let him keep the test and the answer key so he could study.  He is lucky enough to have a computer at home and he said he would look up anything else he had questions about.

Social Studies must be a really hard subject to teach because the students need to memorize a lot of information.  I think reading non-fiction books in an English class will help students be more interested in social studies. 

I also go the opportunity to sit in on a math class while I was at Firestone last semester and that math teacher spent 50 minutes on two equations.  I don’t know much about math but I think they should be able to go over more information than that in 50 minutes.  I’m not sure what could be done for students to prepare better for the math part of standardized tests, but I had a math teacher that played math games.  I think math based video games might help students.  Learning reading comprehension will help students with word problems in math.

I think reading is very important and I don’t think students read enough.  Students need to be given the opportunity to read more books that interest them.  Reading will help in every subject and it will increase their vocabulary.  I think students should read everything they can get their hands on.  Not just fiction.  They need to read non-fiction, newspapers, magazines, blogs, anything else that interests them.  The more they read the more they will know.

I hope to get my students interested in reading.  I want them to read because they want to…. Not just because they have to.  Students also need the opportunity to write too.  Writing will help them find their own voice and to respect the things other people write.  The only class I saw any students write anything was in Mr. Parks English class.  I think students should write in most of their classes but especially English class.  They should be able to write more than just papers.  That is why I want my students to have some kind of newspaper project because writing an article is different than writing a paper.  Different kinds of writing are important because students will need to read different kinds of writing for standardized tests.  If they get to write different things it will be easier for them to read them and understand them for the test.

Foot: Contemporary Film Review

The film I saw was called (818) which is the area code of the place the movie takes place.  It is about a has-been TV actress who is married to the owner of air conditioning stores.  Her children are spoiled and she is having an affair with her husbands cousin.  Her husband has kind of a midlife crisis after his youngest daughter dies and everyone blames him.  He decides to change his will to give away all his money to charity because that is what his dead daughter would have wanted.  The has-been actress and her lover decide to kill her husband.

This movie is a comedy because almost nothing goes right.  Other people die in this movie too and people go to jail.  I don't want to give away the ending in case anyone has the chance to watch this movie.  It was a really funny movie. My favorite quote is, "We are talking about the LAPD, that's like being investigated by a crossin guard."

A. Personal Issues-  This movie is full of family delemas.  The wife is cheating on the husband.  One daughter has an eating disorder.  The father goes through a midlife crisis.  The son even makes a comment that he misses where they used to live because they were a real family then.  The whole family falls apart because of the actions of one person.  The kids do end up maturing by the end of the movie.  I think they are the only ones who learned anything.  I think this aspect of the movie struck a chord with me because I am divorced so I understand a family that falls apart.

B. Techniques- At the beginning of the movie they had a cartoon version of the main character.  She was a TV actress and used to be famous and they animated her early career, kind of like a montage.  The music was really interesting.  I have never heard music like that before.  Other camera work I liked what the few times they showed commercials for the air conditioning store.  They would showing them filming the commercial and then zoom out and the commercial would be on a TV and the camera would zoom out some more and someone would be watching the TV.  I think that is and interesting technique.

C. Acting- I think the acting was very good.  The funny thing was, the lead actress was a TV actress.  So Beth Broderick who played the TV actress in the movie was really a TV actress in real life.  I think she did a great job acting like a spoiled diva.  Ryan Hansen who played the spoiled rich son also played a spoiled rich kid in Veronica Mars.  I think he is typecast because I think he plays a really great spoiled rich kid.  I don't think anyone was miscast.  I think everyone who was cast did a great job in their roles.

D. Plot- I think the plot was very convincing.  Even though the audience knows everything that is going on through the whole movie I was still wondering who would get accused and who would go to jail and if anyone would get away with anything.  I wasn't bored at all.

E. Themes- I think this movie shows a very dysfunctional family.  People need to realise they need to keep their families strong.  During the Q and A session at the end someone commented that the movie portrayed how the people of  L.A., California really are.  Someone from the audience grew up in the (818) area code an they said that the people there are exactly like the movie portrayed.

F. Genre- The Director of the film spoke before the movie started and he said it was a comedy.  But I think it is much more than that.  It is very very funny but there is murder in it.  It isn't a murder mystery because the audience knows everything that is happening.  I think it is more like a murder comedy. 

G. Representation- All of the men in the film are represented like sex crazed morons.  All the men in the movie want to have sex with the has-been TV actress.  All the women at first seem different but they all like to shop.  I think the men are represented the way they are because the has-been actress still wants to be famous and wants everyone to want her and she accomplishes that by sleeping with everyone.  The women only care about having money and money is the reason everything in the movie happened.

H. Ideology-  I think this movie kind of challenges marriage because the main character is married twice through the movie and both relationships fall apart because of money and greed.  People need to realise that relationships need to be built on more than money.

Foot: Film Festival Experience

I am going to start with my Film Festival Experience.  I went to see (818) with my mom today at 2:30 pm.  We got there really early so we could eat first.  I haven't been to Tower City since I was a kid but it hasn't changed much.  It is still pretty much exactly as I remember it except there are different stores now.  The whole place was decorated for the Film Festival.  There were posters everywhere.  After we ate we walked around a little bit to kill some time.  We picked up our tickets at about 45 minutes before our film was supposed to start.  After we picked up our tickets we stood in the line for our movie and waited to be seated.  About 15 minutes before the film started a Film Festival Volunteer led us into the theater where we found our seats.  In my next post I will talk about the film.

After the film there were a couple people there to answer questions about the film.  One of the people was the producer.  The other one was Beth Broderick, the lead actress in the movie.  She was in Sabrina the Teenage Witch and she is one of my favorite TV actresses, and I got to meet her!!!!

This was the best experience ever.  I think I will go to the Cleveland International Film Festival every year. When my kids are older I want to take them too.  I think this is a great experience for anyone.  It isn't like just going to a regular movie.  Besides the movie being really good, my favorite part of the whole experience was the Q and A session after the movie.  The producer and Beth Broderick answered questions the audience had about the movie.  I will definitely be going next year.