"What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good." ~Andy Warhol
Welcome to American Humanities
Grades can be found on PowerSchool.
Most assignments, readings, and daily lesson plans can be found on Canvas.
If you would like to contact me please email me at [email protected]
Most assignments, readings, and daily lesson plans can be found on Canvas.
If you would like to contact me please email me at [email protected]
American Humanities Links for Students:
Student Work
|
|
|
Abstract Expressionism: Student Prezi Hip Hop Rap: "Ima Succeed", "Unless You Mean It", "Bill is Da Man", "Everyone Famous"
“The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer. They think they have, so they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.” ― Ken Kesey
Why teach film?
“If Shakespeare were working right now, he wouldn't be working with a quill pen. He would be working with whatever the cutting edge of theatrical drama would be. And this is where literature is headed.” ~Ken Kesey 1964
In American Humanities we do not watch movies, we analyze films. Watching movies is what lazy teachers do when they have nothing planned, analyzing films is what good teachers do to prepare students for a future that is saturated by media. So why do we use films and media in American Humanities?
For more information about media literacy go to: Medialit.org, watck this TED Talk, or check out the basics of what kids learn in my class: Peeling Back the Layers of Film
- Media is influencing students.
- A Ball State University study in 2009 found that the average student spends 8 hours per day in front of a screen.
- Media has the potential to alter our belief systems and values. The study of media provides students with a way to become aware of and then analyze those messages as a means to better understand the world and to begin to make decisions for themselves.
- Analyzing films is academically rigorous.
- Nearly every college in America teaches film.
- Everything we teach with film is directly tied to the Common Core.
- Analyzing films is similar to analyzing novels.
- The exact same literary techniques can be taught with film and students retain more after studying film (Featheringill 2000).
- There is little difference between film and novels. At first it was oral communication, then written, now visual (Vertrie 2004).
- Film doesn’t stop reading, it often encourages more reading (Miller 1999).
For more information about media literacy go to: Medialit.org, watck this TED Talk, or check out the basics of what kids learn in my class: Peeling Back the Layers of Film
Links for Parents:
American Humanities Links by Trimester
Finding Common Ground & DAVs
To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering. ~Friedrich Nietzsche