Upon my entry of the Engl.128 course at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I had absolutely no idea what was in store for the semester. If you were to ask me at he beginning of class what kind of activities we were going to be participating in, I would have been far away from the truth. My assumption would have guessed that our work would have been typical of most college coursework at the university. I probably would have said read a few books, write a few papers, take a few tests, then call it a day. Contrary to that belief, this course has challenged the robotic normalcy that I was accustomed to in school. In this technologically advanced age, computers are an essential item to acquiring information. As time progresses, our dependency on the computer increases as it is now a vital part of our school and work environments. I have witnessed this firsthand as I re-entered college after a 6 year absence. When I left, school laptops were optional; the internet was recreational; and Napster was free. In my first semester back, I didn’t have one single class in which I didn’t have to use a computer. I walked into my classes with a pen and paper and felt primitive. It was like I was Fred Flintstone chipping words into a large stone tablet. Don’t get me wrong, I’m far from computer illiterate, I just wasn’t use to using computers interactively in the classroom. It was my learning experience in my Engl.128 course that prepared me for what is in store. Participating in a series of classroom assignments, we incorporated literature with modern day technological advances. No longer do we have to partake in the strenuous days of all-nighters trying to write a paper about something that we’ll forget about a week later. In this course, we creatively used different computer applications to reinforce our comprehension of literature. These were such applications like Windows Movie Maker, Photoshop, and etc that helped facilitate the process of learning. It was an intriguing course using these different mediums to learn, share, and discuss our knowledge. Empowered with the knowledge of literature past and present, we were asked to engage in these activities to present our own interpretations through a web based classroom.

Playlist

On our first assignment we were asked to create a playlist. This playlist was to represent a favorite character, person, or idea from a wide variety of mediums. The playlist is suppose to embody the life of that specific person, character or idea. We were asked to utilize certain media tools like YouTube, and ITunes for visual and audio representation.When we were first asked to participate in this assignment, my initial reaction was to panic. I was very unsure of the person I wanted to feature in my playlist, not to mention the type of songs I should feature. This is a matter that I felt would take a great deal of consideration. Should I go from a comedic aspect, and use Michael Vick? I thought it would be ingenius to have songs that represented his emotions or maybe even from the dog's perspective. I dismissed that idea with the issue being so recent, it was still a touchy subject for most. I brainstormed various individuals and characters, who I thought were worthy of making a playlist. These were such great American influneces on our society like Spongebob Squarepants, Flava Flav, He-Man, and the list goes on. My final decision I found while having a discussion with a very disillusioned family member. I think we have all met the young teenager that is rebelling against everything that requires authority and discipline. The one that tries so hard to be different and to stand out from everyone else, but joins a gang where they all wear one exclusive color. It was the ignorance of the gang's influence on his young mind that I began informing this teen about black pride. I began telling him about the knowledge I had gained from college and my own readings about our African American heritage. One of the stories that stuck with him was about the Black Panthers, because of their influence on hip-hop. It was the artist and gangmember, The Game, he heard mention Huey Newton, and began inquiring about the Black Panther leader. I knew limited information about Newton myself, so I researched more about him. It was in my own search to find out more about Newton that I chose him for my playlist. I knew that after I chose a person that the songs would eventually follow.

Huey P. Newton

Collages

The second assignment we were asked to complete during the semester were two photo collages. The photo collage was a visual interpretation of a particular poem and literary work.The collage assignment was alot easier to put together being that I had no deep insightful meaning behind the two. I thought that the assignment was interesting because your putting a visible image behind your interpretation of a reading. You can take everything that the story brings to mind and create a canvas of your imagination. I felt like a new age Michelangelo or Picasso, gathering various images to incorporate in my assignment. The first collage was of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", inwhich I wanted to show the mindstate of the young prince. I gathered alot of pictures that represented different emotions or mindstates that symbolised Hamlet's affliction. Hamlet was a complex character with varoius emotions throughout the play. His emotional inconsistencies made it easy for me to gather numerous pictures that illustrated how he felt. My poem Collage was "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. I really like the story behind the poem, so I tried to tell the story through the collage. I gathered pictures that were along the storyline inorder to grasp the poem's meaning.

Hamlet
We Real Cool

Annotations

The next assignment we participated in was the annotation of a few Emily Dickinson poems. If you have ever read Dickinson, then you know she was a poet that used alot of symbolism to illustrate her life. We were asked to use a webpage called Litwiki to create our own ideas about the symbolism she used in her poems. On this web site, we analyzed every possible word or phrase to gain a comprehensible meaning to what she was trying to portray. I found this assignment interesting because for once we were the critics. It was rather intriguing to see each of my classmates analysis of what the author is speaking about. There were no right or wrong answers, just our opinions in a site was organized like a internet round table discussion. Any question or insight that we had about a poem could be answered or debated by our peers.

Banish
Are you nobody too?
Somebody
Who Are you
House
And Immortality
Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Blog Postings

Throughout the duration of the semester, we were asked participate in a series of class readings. Instead of writing numerous reflection papers, we held online discussions through our blog postings. These postings were used to open a discussion about each of the readings in class. The blogs were similar to the annotation assignment because they allowed students to express their ideas. These ideas were contrived off the personal interpretations of member of the class. Each class member was given the opportunity to discuss their own opinions, as well as comment on the postings of our peers. This opened the classroom to various analysis of one particular reading. I enjoyed our blogs because I’m an introverted person. Usually in most classes, you are put on a soapbox to speak in front of several peers. The blogs decreased the pressure of having to speak in front of a classroom. I found it easier to speak my mind when I was able to think critically about the readings then post my answer. Any reservations I had about saying the wrong thing was thrown out the window as I was able to think more thoroughly about the material.

Readings
Hard Rock
Work and Identity
A Good Man Is Hard To Find
We Real Cool
Hardware

Podcast

Choice and Consequence

Video

Our final assignment for the semester was to create a video that symbolized a particular idea or movement. We used our knowledge of applications like Windows Movie Maker to create a movie clip to describe this idea. In order to express each of our ideas, we gathered various photo and audio clips that reinforced the theme of the movie. We embedded each item into our work to create a cohesive movie clip. I think this activity was probably the assignment that I enjoyed the most. It was an opportunity to use our own knowledge and incorporate that information into movie form. The activity was rather empowering, I felt like a poor man’s Ron Howard or Steven Spielberg. The end product was rewarding, being able to see a combination of ideas implemented effectively.

Harlem Renaissance

As the semester comes to an end and I continue to struggle with my final exams, this course offers, as it has throughout the semester, a creative outlet and a modern take on a course that could easily have been a tired rehash of American Literature. Beginning with the play list and culminating with our video project, this class allowed me to use numerous mediums to discuss and develop my own view of literature. The fact that all work was posted online and the website provided an interactive public forum of sorts only further engaged me and stimulated the communal learning environment. The course itself pulled me in and I found myself being more and more involved with each project, as opposed to the typical dwindling effort one might expect throughout the semester. In fact, this course has truly been the only class on my schedule that I have actually enjoyed and will miss participating in. The environment of mutual respect and understanding helped me enjoy attending class and gave the class an appeal which I wish I would see in more classes.

I feel as though I have learned a lot in this class that I would not be able to obtain from the average English Course. First off, our use of technology has benefited me greatly in my understanding of the many uses this powerful medium contains. Between the blog I maintained and the projects I created with computer programs, I was introduced to many modern tools that I had not yet discovered. Although this technology often seemed set on halting my progress, by being forced to struggle with it and expand my technological boundaries I was able to grasp many new programs and increase my computer literacy, something that is very important in a constantly evolving world. I also feel as though I have learned an immense amount through a newfound ability to interpret literature by unfamiliar means. What I mean by this is, whereas before I had only looked at literature through the scope of writing formulaic papers, the projects we did allowed me to do similar interpretation but also forced me to use more creative vehicles in order to demonstrate my point. This not only made me think about what I was trying to convey with each project and how I, personally, defined literature, but it also promoted a more creative thought process in the search for literary representation and analysis.

Overall, I think this course provided a refreshing glimpse into the possibilities that one might find when they incorporate technology into teaching more traditional subjects. As I put together my final portfolio, I have realized that my only real regret is the fact that I never took the time to enjoy the projects created by my classmates. In the case of many of these, I had not yet taken the time to enjoy their work, and I’m glad I’ve gotten to do so while working on this portfolio. It’s interesting to see the differences in my interpretations of certain pieces of literature as compared to that of my peers. While I am not sure what my peers may think of my work, I did enjoy posting my work, for better or worse. While I have an outgoing personality, for some reason I have always been shy about sharing my work with others. While posting my projects online did make doing this easier, I was happy none the less that as the semester continued I began to let go of the stage fright that many of us experience. The ability of this class to alleviate fear of “making mistakes” and promote creativity and open mindedness made it a one of kind class. I enjoyed my experience thoroughly and hope everyone enjoys my work.

A few Blog Posts and Comments
While I enjoyed the ability to post my thoughts on particular stories and works, I feel as though Blogging was the one area of the class of which I did not take full advantage. While I often added entries and commented on my peers’ entries or works in the beginning of the semester, as the class went on I become so engrossed with my own projects that I often forgot this aspect of the class. I feel as though all of my posts and comments were well thought out and added to the discussions but I just didn’t do it often enough. Beyond this, I think my favorite part of the blogging process was seeing what other people had to say about certain stories and replying to them with my own interpretation. This often helped us all flesh out the stories and poems we read and provided a friendly, yet serious, medium through which we could share ideas. It was nice to get the opinions of others and view issues from a peer’s perspective. This is a very effective tool and one I wish other teachers would adopt. If I get enough time in the near future I’d like to create my own sports blog. Hopefully I can take what I learned through this class and apply it to one of my personal interests. Only time will tell.

A Death in Texas
A Good Man is Hard to Find
Hills like White Elephants comment
Rites of Passage interpretation
Lord of The Flies collage comment
Comment on Vietnam Video
Sleep comment- social commentary
MLK Comment

Pablo Escobar (Original)
Pablo Escobar (Final)

Odysseus (Original)
Odysseus (Second)
London (Original)
London (Final)
Holden Caulfield

This World is not conclusion- Plucks at a Twig of Evidence
The World is Not Conclusion- Crucifixion
The Tint I Cannot take- is Best- Guinea
The Tint I Cannot take- is Best- Cannot take
He Fumbles at Your Soul-Thunderbolt
A Light Exists in Spring- It almost speaks to you
Stuck was I, Yet not by Lightning- Venture
Stuck was I, Yet not by Lightning- Who mine Enemy?
The Tint I Cannot take- is Best- Cleopatra’s Company
The Tint I Cannot take- is Best- Graspless
I Started Early- Took my Dog- Dandelions
I Started Early- Took My Dog
I heard a fly buzz when I died- Blue
I’m Nobody! Who are You?
I’m Nobody! Who are You?- Dreary
I heard a fly buzz when I died- Fly
A Light Exists in Spring-Loss
My Life had stood- a Loaded Gun

While I was originally not very excited when Dan explained the project to us, I really enjoyed interpreting the meaning of our songs and thought we did a good job relating them to literature and also each other. It was nice to get to know Taylor and work with her. We had little trouble talking about our songs and actually got to the point at which it actually felt like we were just having a conversation. I think the best part of the assignment was the fact that we had almost limitless possibilities for what to discuss and where to go with our podcast. This atmosphere contributed to the notion of a discussion and not an assignment. I had fun hosting our “show” and thought we really fulfilled the intentions of the assignment. Go ahead and listen for yourself
Podcast on music as a form of literature

The video project was far and away my favorite assignment. While the work was sometimes tedious and frustrating, I think the end result of my video is a pretty cool look at literature in the 1960’s. My basic premise was to take four historically significant novels from the 1960’s and loosely tell their story while also showing the aspect of American culture each referred to or had an influence on. For the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test I got photos of the van featured in the book and other miscellaneous snapshots from the hippie era which “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” came to represent. The second novel, “Catch-22”, was actually about World War II, but the notions of disillusionment and the evils of war were both extremely relevant during the Vietnam War. “The Feminine Mystique” was one of the most influential moments in the feminist movement; as such I attempted to demonstrate the change from past social norms to a new age of equality. The final book, “Silent Spring”, was about the harmful effects of DDT and other chemicals, so I showed the signs of imminent danger and then flashed to the new environmentalist movement “Silent Spring” sparked. I attempted to line up all the music as well as possible and also use music which demonstrated the mood of each book or novel. My favorite section is that of “Silent Spring”. While I was working on it I my iTunes just happened to turn to Aerodynamic by Daft Punk. As soon as I heard it I realized it would fit in perfectly. I used each bell ring to represent a new danger to the environment and when the movement turned to a rapid pace I began rapidly showing photos of the environmentalist movement. I really enjoyed the project in all aspects. I was able to examine four significant novels while also using my own personality to create a film that depicted one of the most important decades, both for literature and our society as a whole, in America’s history.
Literature of the 1960’s

This has been an extremely interesting class. Not only have I learned a lot in the practical sense, such as in terms of working with computers, but I have also gained a lot of experience in thinking outside the box. By providing us with the opportunity to explore new ways of examining literature, this class has effectively showed its students new ways to view the world and allowed them to discover viewpoints of their own, if they so desired. Instead of asking us to

Most English classes are all the same: "Read this, then we'll get into small groups and discuss it." What follows is usually a classroom of students dragging their desks together and slowly and tediously trying to understand what they've read. Conversation usually consists of "Did you understand the reading?" "No." "Yeah, me neither."

This class wasn't like that. We read a variety of texts that were written by a wider variety of authors over many different eras. We studied different themes, we read different styles, and we used different types of assignments to interpret literature. We the students were offered the opportunity every day in class to talk over what we had as a reading assignment, and not only hear our own interpretations but those of the professor as well. We were given thought-provoking questions to help us mull the material over, and when conversation ran out, we moved on to whatever project we are working on at the time.

The projects themselves were the most exciting part of the class. Instead of long papers that sap the energy out of a student, these projects were revitalizing and thrilling because of the opportunity for creativity that they offered to a student.

This format suited me. I liked the creativity that I was allowed to exercise in this class. I never felt that any of my interpretations of a reading were unwelcome or unnecessary. There were many different creative outlets, from collages to blogs to playlists, and I was never short on ways to express my opinion of the literature that we are reading or that is in my life. This class effectively infuses classical forms of learning (reading, discussion, writing) with newer gateways to expression (online blogging, digital imaging, online filesharing) without betraying the foundation of education. We are learning about literature and exploring the texts in our book while still maintaining a modernized outlook and taking strides in the right direction.

Overall, I feel that I accomplished the goals that I made, which mainly were to explore every opportunity offered by this class to the furthest extent that I possibly could. With an array of health problems this semester, I wasn’t sure if I was going to finish the semester, but I’m glad that I did. This class is a huge reason for that. I hope this portfolio aptly portrays how hard I have worked so far this year and the things that I have accomplished in this class.

CHARACTER PLAYLIST
The Character Playlist Assignment was an interesting one. At first I had no idea how I would appropriately portray a character of American literature using songs and their lyrics. My biggest fear was that I wouldn't be able to get across the depth of the character or their complexity, and that the playlist would come across as superficial and unrelated to the character itself. Whether or not I achieved my goal of finding songs that portray the depth of Chief Bromden from Kesey's "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" is not up to me to decide, but what I know is that I learned a lot from creating this playlist. I can think of only a few times in the past that I have turned to music in my writing in order to get across the point that I am trying to make, but in this instance it was one of my only tools, and I believe I learned a lot about how to use it to my advantage. In selecting songs for this playlist, I had to truly consider all of the facets and aspects of Chief's character, and all of the characteristics of the song itself. In doing so, I realized that there was more to Chief than I had previously imagined, and more to most of these songs than I had thought possible. In making my revisions, I tried to add elements of the songs that previously I had skipped over, such as the beat of the song or the feeling that it gives to the listener, and how these might relate to Chief.

Character Playlist Assignment (With Revisions)

COLLAGES

Making the collages was similar to creating the playlist in that it caused me to think in much greater depth about the aspects and elements of character or the poem that I had to illustrate. Whereas before I needed to find sounds that could portray my views and opinions on a character, now I needed images that could do the same. In my original collages I made an effort to aptly illustrate the character or poem in question, but I didn't go into as much detail as I did in my revised versions, especially in the case of the poem collage. In illustrating Ron Wallace's poem "Blessings," I tried to remain faithful to the nature of the poem while still lending my own interpretation to its words. I made every effort to illustrate as much of the imagery the author uses while still keeping the image simplistic. George Orwell's main character from "1984," Winston Smith, was difficult to wholly portray in the form of a collage because that book is very deep, and throughout the course of the plot most of the main elements of human nature are touched upon. To use mere images to accurately depict human nature is difficult, so I had to do my best to come as close as possible (which was not very close). In making revisions of this collage, I attempted to give it more of a surreal feeling, since the book itself almost inevitably lends that feeling to the reader.

ORIGINAL CHARACTER COLLAGE
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/88
REVISED CHARACTER COLLAGE
To revise this collage I tried to follow Professor Anderson's advice by adding some shadows and detailing to the picture.
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/119
ORIGINAL POEM COLLAGE
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/78
REVISED POEM COLLAGE
To revise this collage, I branched out more and illustrated more aspects of the poem in the collage. It was difficult, because it's easy to clutter up a collage and make the themes of the poem too difficult to distinguish.
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/111

ANNOTATION ASSIGNMENT
This assignment was a great refresher on what it truly means to interpret poetry. In annotating words and phrases of these ten Emily Dickinson poems, I had to both consider the poem as a whole and the words as individual elements that are part of the whole. It was an exercise in keeping my brain flexible enough to write insightfully. I enjoyed this assignment because it gave me the chance to learn about these poems in a historical, theoretical, and interpretive sense all at once. Both fortunately and unfortunately, I began to annotate the poems after most of the other students in the class had finished their annotation work on the poems. This allowed me to read all of what they had to say about the words of the poems before writing my own opinons, but also allowed them to take some of the words out of my mouth! It seems I have a few similar opinions to others in this class. Nonetheless, I greatly enjoyed the program we used to create links to discussion pages and the way that everything came together with this project.

Annotation regarding "He Kindly stopped for me" in the poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death"

Annotation regarding "Civility" in the poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death"

Annotation regarding "When I died" in the poem "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died"

Annotation regarding "windows" in the poem "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died"

Annotation regarding "loaded gun" in the poem "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun"

Annotation regarding "cordial" in the poem "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun"

Annotation regarding "For I have but the power to kill" in the poem "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun"

Annotation regarding "I'm nobody!" in the poem "I'm nobody! Who are You?"

Annotation regarding "Then there ’s a pair of us—don’t tell!" in the poem "I'm nobody! Who are You?"

Annotation regarding "Vane" in the poem "This World is not Conclusion"

Annotation regarding "That Nibbles at the soul" in the poem "This World is not Conclusion"

Annotation regarding "Simple Shoe" in the poem "I Started Early - Took My Dog"

Annotation regarding "withdrew" in the poem "I Started Early - Took My Dog"

Annotation regarding "I could show it" in the poem "The Tint I Cannot take - is Best -"

Annotation regarding "Cheated Eye" in the poem "The Tint I Cannot take - is Best -"

Annotation regarding "Struck, was I, not yet by Lightning" in the poem "Struck, was I, not yet by Lightning"

Annotation regarding "Often as I die" in the poem "Struck, was I, not yet by Lightning"

Annotation regarding "It waits" in the poem "A Light Exists in Spring"

Annotation regarding "Report" in the poem "A Light Exists in Spring"

Annotation regarding "Brittle Nature" in the poem "He Fumbles at Your Soul"

Annotation regarding "Prepares" in the poem "He Fumbles at Your Soul"

BLOG POSTINGS
I absolutely loved having my own blog in which to reflect on the readings for the week. Although sometimes the website was a bit problematic, most of the time it was easy to log on and see what others had to say about our reading assignment. Having my postings online and easy to look back on was helpful in allowing me to reflect on what I've read so far this semester and what I have learned.

Blog Post regarding "Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminally Insane"

Blog Post regarding "Cathedral"

Blog Post regarding "The Race"

Comment regarding "A Good Man Is Hard To Find"

Comment regarding "A Good Man Is Hard To Find"

Comment regarding "As I Stand Here Ironing" and "A&P"

Comment regarding "Girl" and "Sweat"

Comment regarding "A Death in Texas"

Comment regarding "Traveling Through the Dark"

Comment regarding "Rites of Passage," "Advice to My Son," "Betwixt and Bewildered," etc...

Comment regarding the Podcasts

PODCAST
This was a difficult project for me to do because I am terrible at public speaking. I’m actually terrible at anything that involves attention being focused on me alone, even if it’s just for a short period of time. I knew I’d have a hard time with the part of the podcast where I had to explain my section of information, and I wasn’t wrong; that part of the podcast was the most difficult part of all. I did enjoy researching the subject and drawing up a rough outline for what I would say, but I can’t say that I truly enjoyed speaking into the microphone and worrying about messing up during the actual recording of the podcast. Still, it is important to try new things and improve in areas of weakness, so I am glad that we had this assignment. It was also interesting to listen to the podcasts of other groups and learn a little from them on the subjects that they researched.
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/files/music.mp3

When reading over other student's portfolios I realized that I, like most was more than pleasantly surprised by this course. I, like others, thought that this course could possibly turn out to be dreadfully boring like many literature courses end up being. However, I love literature and so I wanted to give this course a try. This class has ended up being probably one of my favorite classes I have ever taken! I loved learning new ways of interpreting literature, as well as learning new media programs. Music and literature are two huge aspects of my life, and being able to use music as a means of interpreting literature was so much fun for me.

The play list assignment has been my favorite project we have completed so far in the semester. I chose Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk as my inspiration for the play list. This off the wall novel has so many twists and turns and outrageous characters that it was so much fun finding songs to represent aspects of the novel and characters. In my first play list I did not give a lot of explanation of what or why or how the songs I chose related to the novel or specific characters so for my revision I tried much harder to give more thorough explanations. I also used more lyrics, music videos and excerpts from the novel in an attempt to better explain my choices of songs.

Original play list
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/19/revisions/198/view

Revised play list
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/19

For my character collage I once again used the novel Invisible Monsters as my inspiration. I chose the main character and narrator Shannon McFarland as my main inspiration for the collage. I used Shannon's veiled face as the focal point of the collage. For the background I used a burning house to represent Evie Cottrell's mansion burning down on her wedding day; set fire by Shannon of course. And off to the sides of the collage a shotgun and camera, aspects of Shannon's former life; she shot her lower jaw off with a shotgun because she was tired of being beautiful, and a camera because she was a model before the shotgun incident.

For the revisions on my character collage I changed the floating camera to a camera on a tripod, and I made the shotgun more visible by editing the color.

Original Character Collage
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/73

Revised Character collage
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/132

I used a poem by Khalil Gibran for my poem collage.


You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore

You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.

Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.


For my collage I used the last three lines as inspiration. I love the philosophy on love and relationships this poem offers that two people should not completely depend on one another, and that they should have seperate interests. That is my interpretation anyway!


For my revisions I changed the photograph of pillars to one where the pillars stood farther a part and I also edited the masks of the sky and the trees. I also added lines of the poem as text on top of the sky.

Original Poem Collage
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/74

Revised Poem Collage
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/130

Posts-

Innocence- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/102#comment-158
Hills Like Whit Elephants- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/43#comment-166
A Good Man is Hard to Find- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/166
The Distant Moon- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/167
Girl- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/64#comment-167
Rites of Passage- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/168
Advice to My Son- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/169
Betwixt and Bewildered- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/170
Comment- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/21#comment-168
Comment- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/165#comment-169
Comment- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/111#comment-170

Here are the instructions for submitting the final portfolio of your
work:

Remember that you will need a cover or closing letter that reflects on the entire body of your work and on your progression as a thinker and writer for the class. Remember that portfolios work well at demonstrating learning, personal growth, effort, and excellence in the final products of your work. Your letter, then, can serve to educate readers of the portfolio about the materials you have collected in terms of these kinds of criteria. I'm also interested in your thoughts on this course if they seem relevant to the discussion of your work.

Also, remember that the final portfolio signals that you have completed any revisions you wish to make you your entire body of work. You will want to ensure that the materials that you link to are cleaned up and contain all the necessary elements for each assignment--lists of sources, short descriptions, links to all revisions, etc. Also proofread everything in the portfolio, polishing all of the work.

Here is a breakdown of what you need to submit:

The playlist--be sure to add any polish needed to the second revision. Make additional changes. Use the Create New Revision option to submit a final version.

The podcast--you can find your podcast linked to this posting

Make sure your work on the annotation project is complete and that it is linked in the portfolio.

Your collages--make any additional revisions and then create links in the portfolio to all of the versions.

Link to your video. To upload your video, create a blog posting and submit the video as an attachment. Make a link to the video in the portfolio.

Collect the blog postings and comments that you have made during the course. You should have at least 10 postings and comments. If you have more you can link to them, or you can select the best 10.

So, the portfolio will link to all of the versions you have of

• the playlist
• the podcast
• the annotation work
• the collages
• the video, and
• the blog postings.

Once you have linked to all of these materials, work on the composition of the portfolio. This is your best chance to do writing in the class. For all of the items write explanations that help readers make sense of the materials and that explore the key goals of the portfolio and other issues relevant to the course or writing. Be sure to discuss the revisions you have made--what have you changed and what did those changes do. As you write these explorations of all of the pieces, you can keep these touchstones in mind:

• effort
• learning
• growth
• excellence
• challenges
• what you've discovered about the topics you have covered in a given piece
• thoughts on the composing process for the pieces
• what you've learned about writing
• what you've learned about yourself

Each item will call for variations of these concerns to be addressed. You should also keep in mind the message you want to get across in the cover letter and the portfolio as a whole as you develop these reflections.

Be sure to write a reflection for your blog postings as well

Try to develop explanations that further the discussion of your work as a whole that you put forward in your cover letter.

When you have collected and reflected on everything and developed your cover letter, submit the posting--you may want to submit it as you work several times to save your thoughts.

This class has been unlike any class I’ve taken here at UNC. I find that I am much more engaged in our projects than I am in any major grades for other classes because of the creativity of the assignments. By having the freedom to do projects on characters of my choice I am actually having fun doing big projects, which is something that I never thought would happen in college. There is no constant reading of books, memorization of information or constant paper writing. I thought at first that my analytical skills might suffer because of this, but the mixture of homework assignments and projects have broadened them.

Something I like a lot about the class that I am not used to is the semester-long revision of our assignments. I had trouble with this at first because I am only used to turning in a final work, and I found myself trying to perfect every project I have done so far. This is why I have turned in most of the assignments late. Even though I have worked extremely hard on all of the assignments, it surprised me how much I could improve them after I looked them over just hours following when I completed them. Furthermore, with all the assignments of my classmates posted on the internet I can see some of the aspects of the assignments in which they excelled and I did not think of at all. This allowed me to not only get the instructor's comments on how to improve my work, but to see the different things that other people did that never crossed my mind. I enjoyed the entire semester and hope to find another class similar to this one's style before I graduate.

Playlist

When given the playlist assignment, I first thought it would be simple to choose eight songs to illustrate the traits of a character. The internet is so extensive and it seems like there is a never ending quantity of songs available on iTunes. However, I found it very difficult to even find the character that I wanted to use for the assignment. My reasoning behind Howard Hughes was that he had such an intense, fast-paced life of ups and downs. There were so many aspects of his personality that I wanted to cover while keeping the playlist smoothly flowing from characteristic to characteristic. Selecting the first five songs was easy, but the last three became increasingly more difficult to fit the ones already chosen. I wanted to keep the genre of the music fairly similar because I thought the sound of the songs would help the playlist flow well. Furthermore, I attempted to find a variety of paces to the songs to represent the wide range of emotions and feelings felt by Hughes throughout his life. A difficult part of this project was that preparation was needed before the search for songs began, but you also had to keep your mind open to new ideas if you came across something that felt right. I found that I had jotted down so many random songs and notes to myself after a while that it made the selection process a lot easier. What I liked about this project compared to a paper was that I found my imagination constantly being used. Also, instead of just using words to describe the character, you first have to find a song to base those words upon. I felt that I improved many important skills in general from this project, including everything from improving my analytical skills to advancing my internet skills.

Original Playlist
Revised Playlist

Collages

To me this was the most difficult assignment because I imagined the collage that I wanted but could never seem to find the exact pictures that I envisioned. I would find a good set of pictures, but then one wouldn’t fit the way I wanted and I would have to start all over. This is why I think that this project has helped me become less stubborn and become more open to ideas with what is given to me. Also, similar to the playlist assignment, I realized preparation was key before beginning to search for images in this case. The collages were also a lot of fun to me. I usually get bored with doing a lot of work on one assignment for extended periods of time, but with this assignment I found that I could work on it for hours and stay focused. Furthermore, it improved my skills with Photoshop, which I was barely familiar with beforehand. I chose John Nash for my character collage because I thought using the layers in Photoshop I could accurately illustrate his attempt to forget the past while also showing that it still haunted him. The fading and replicating features also helped with the people and objects he was trying to dismiss from his mind. I am still working on my poem collage.

Collage of John Nash
Revised Collage of John Nash

Annotation Assignment

What I enjoyed most about this assignment was that we interpreted the poems as a group, instead of individually analyzing specific poems. With the whole class making a couple contributions to each poem were many different interpretations of the specific parts of all the poems. Seeing different meanings within the poems increased my analytical skills of poetry dramatically, making me read poems less literally and more broad-mindedly. The talk tool took analysis even further because it allowed us to respond to different classmates’ thoughts and begin a discussion concerning a confusing part of a poem. Annotating poetry has never been a strongpoint of mine so this group interpretation greatly helped me in how to pick apart and explain the meaning of poems. By analyzing so many of Emily Dickinson’s poems at one time I learned a great deal about their recurring themes and unique features: immortality and death, capitalization of nouns and use of dashes, and others. I also think this particular assignment was perfect for her poetry because of her ability to leave the meanings of her poems uncertain and open for interpretation. Furthermore, within a few short lines she expresses such extensive ideas and thoughts. This is perfect for a group assignment with individual contributions because in each stanza of each poem there are many words and ideas to examine and discuss.

“The Tint I Cannot Take is Best” – Discontent
“The Tint I Cannot Take is Best” – Array
“Struck I Was Not Yet by Lightning” – Bandit
“Struck I Was Not Yet by Lightning” - Maimed
“He Fumbles at Your Soul” – Naked Soul
“He Fumbles at Your Soul” – Scalps
“ My Life had stood – a loaded Gun” – Discussion
“My Life had stood – a loaded Gun” – Discussion on Vesuvian
“I’m Nobody, Who Are You” – Banish
“I’m Nobody, Who Are You” – Frog
“A Light Exists in Spring” – Color
“A Light Exists in Spring” – Furthest
“I Started Early Took My Dog” – Mermaids
“I Started Early Took My Dog” – Basement
“This World is Not Conclusion” – Philosophy Don’t Know
“This World is Not Conclusion” – A Species stands beyond
“ My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun” – And every time I speak for Him
“My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun” – Loaded Gun
“I heard a Fly buzz when I died” – Windows
“I heard a Fly buzz when I died” – Keepsakes
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” – Strove
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” – Drove
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” – Discussion on Surmised
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” – Discussion on Quivering and Chill

My Blog

The Beat Generation

Playlist

When we were first asked to participate in this assignment, my initial reaction was to panic. I was very unsure of the person I wanted to feature in my playlist, not to mention the type of songs I should feature. This is a matter that I felt would take a great deal of consideration. Should I go from a comedic aspect, and use Michael Vick? I thought it would be ingenius to have songs that represented his emotions or maybe even from the dog's perspective. I dismissed that idea with the issue being so recent, it was still a touchy subject for most. I brainstormed various individuals and characters, who I thought were worthy of making a playlist. These were such great American influneces on our society like Spongebob Squarepants, Flava Flav, He-Man, and the list goes on. My final decision I found while having a discussion with a very disillusioned family member. I think we have all met the young teenager that is rebelling against everything that requires authority and discipline. The one that tries so hard to be different and to stand out from everyone else, but joins a gang where they all wear one exclusive color. It was the ignorance of the gang's influence on his young mind that I began informing this teen about black pride. I began telling him about the knowledge I had gained from college and my own readings about our African American heritage. One of the stories that stuck with him was about the Black Panthers, because of their influence on hip-hop. It was the artist and gangmember, The Game, he heard mention Huey Newton, and began inquiring about the Black Panther leader. I knew limited information about Newton myself, so I researched more about him. It was in my own search to find out more about Newton that I chose him for my playlist. I knew that after I chose a person that the songs would eventually follow.

Huey P. Newton

Collages

The collage assignment was alot easier to put together being that I had no deep insightful meaning behind the two. I thought that the assignment was interesting because your putting a visible image behind your interpretation of a reading. You can take everything that the story brings to mind and create a canvas of your imagination. I felt like a new age Michelangelo or Picasso, gathering various images to incorporate in my assignment. The first was my Hamlet collage, inwhich I wanted to show the mindstate of the young prince. I gathered alot of pictures that represented different emotions or mindstates. Hamlet was a complex character which made it easy for me to gather numerous pictures that illustrated how he felt. My Poem Collage was "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. I really like the story behind the poem, so I tried to tell the story through the collage. I gathered pictures that were along the storyline inorder to grasp the poem's meaning.

Hamlet
We Real Cool

Annotations
Banish
Are you nobody too?
Somebody
Who Are you
House
And Immortality
Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Blog Postings

Readings
Hard Rock
Work and Identity
A Good Man Is Hard To Find
We Real Cool
Hardware

When having to make the decision to take an English class here on campus, I was seriously dreading it. My schedule is so hectic already, let alone adding on several books to have to read and writing papers. When I walked into our class, I knew it was right for me. Being able to use many types of creative outlooks to express our interpretations and understanding of literature really made my semester a lot more interesting! I have always wanted to have the opportunity to learn more about the computer and all the things it can do, and this was the perfect place to do it. After I left the first class I even called my mom to tell her about it. When she heard the details she was so excited that she asked me all about it so that she can try to do something similar for some of her classes.

I think one of the key aspects to this class was being open-minded about new things and new interpretations, which I definitely strove to accomplish. I think that getting the chance to take works of literature and turn them into something as comprehensive as a collage or video was much more beneficial that just a class discussion and a paper. Projects like the playlist about a character, made me really stop and think about all the aspects of the person, and what they might think, say, or like, to be able to make an effective outlet with which to express them. It took interpretation to a new level and really challenged the mind to think outside the box. The collages that we were asked to make about a character in a book and about a poem were very intriguing. This caused me to have to look into a specific character and find things that would define them from the story as a whole. I also had to look into the character and think of things that would define their outlooks and thoughts with something as simple as a one-dimensional picture. I also had to interpret a poem as a whole and try to figure out what images would best represent the mood, tone, and theme. I had always remembered discussing these things in my English classes and never really taking them to heart. But by actually having to come up with my own interpretations as well as having to find a way to express them using images, was a whole new ballpark. The podcast brought together several students to create an interpretation and present ideas on the subject of the "family" from the early 1990's into the 2000's without any visual aids. We made a mock radio show, which we had to plan out, yet still remain spontaneous as we talked. And finally the video compiled all the ideas from the previous projects, such as photo arranging and music protraying an idea, into an interpretation of one of my favorite books, Fahrenheit 451, using a visual and musical form. I had to truly think about what the author wanted the audience to gain from reading his book and how he truly felt about the subject in his life. Both of the latter projects required me to think about the topics in-depth and present them with a unique new-age media representation.

One of the things I loved the most about our class is that it was a very open and welcoming environment. Everyone got the chance to voice their opinions and to discuss how they felt about each aspect of the readings. We had the chance to see and comment on each other's posting, which allowed us to get new and better ideas for our revisions. This class has also allowed me to realize how important revisions can be. I have gotten so used to college being a place where you turn in your work and things are taken and graded as is, and when you’ve finished it, you were done with it. After I get a grade on things in school I would rarely ever go back and look at them again. Here, I have gone back many times whenever I had a spare moment or wanted something to take my mind off other things, and been able to work on things like adding a new image to my collage, or re-reading the stories to make sure that I had represented all aspects of it. I have learned to not always be happy with your first project and through the help of those around me I continued to make my projects better and better.

There have been many useful skills that I have gained from just being in this class. I have been able to take one of my favorite books, Cold Mountain, and really get to the bottom of its meaning and be able to relate to one of the characters, Inman, on many different levels. By reading many new poems, such as Denver and the Emily Dickinson poems, and having to interpret them, whether for the collage or for the annotations, I really have gained some valuable skills on how to understand and appreciate what the author wanted to get across to the reader. The podcast was one of the best group projects I have ever been involved in. I was given the opportunity to work with other classmates to be able to create something that was unique and fun. It's really rare when a group of strangers can come together to make something and have everyone just as excited as I was to work on it. We all were challenged to find something we could all agree on, take each others ideas and opinions to heart, find something in literature that was on all of our levels, and produce something that was cohesive, yet spontaneous at the same time. The video about one of my favorite books, Fahrenheit 451, was the one project I was constantly talking about and re-excited every time I thought about working on it. By having to take the time to think about what the author wanted the audience to know and learn from his work, while find pictures and songs to represent his idea was an amazing challenge. I even got to incorporate one of my other loves, classical music, into this creation. All the while I was getting the chance to continue to learn and grow in my English skills and critical reading, as well as continually editing and playing with new programs that I had never even seen before in an attempt to learn better outlets of expression.

This is one of the only classes I could say I absolutely loved going to. I didn't miss a single class, not because I wanted to be able to have perfect attendance, but because I always had the work done and was excited to see what each day and class has to offer me. I was so worried that one day we would learn something new or get to work with a new device and I would sorely regret not being able to be a part of it. Not only was this class was one of my favorite classes I have come across at Carolina, but the environment which we worked in was helpful, cooperative, and instructional on a different level than any lecture hall could ever be. We had an amazing teacher who was truly helpful in all aspects of the class. He helped me to open my eyes to a new side of English and to appreciate it once again, and for this I am truly thankful. This class has brought English alive in ways that I never fathomed possible and put a new twist on how I feel about the suject as a whole. I came into the class timid and full of doubt and have left with an amazing new friend and a bond with people I never would have expected. I have even found myself using these programs and this knowledge in many other aspects of my life, (I used the photo editing program to make a Christmas card for my family.) It’s truly sad to see this class draw to a close and have to wrap up our projects we have been working so diligently on. I'm appreciative for such a wonderful experience and I hope that at some point everyone can say the same things about a class that they have been fortunate enough to come across.

Character Playlist
The playlist for a character in a book was very interesting to create, yet very challenging at the same time. It forced me to try and think in new ways, and truly get to the heart of what the character was thinking and feeling throughout the book. I chose Inman from Cold Mountain because I remember reading this book and seeing the many sides to all the characters and thinking about how versatile and emotional they all were portrayed to be. It was hard to take what was written on the page and find the deeper meaning, as well as to be able to translate it into a song that the character might have wanted to listen to. I think that the many sides and emotions to Inman were easy to think of songs for, but to find the right one for the progression of the playlist was challenging. This assignment really taught me to think deeper about what I was reading to be able to interpret it on more of a meaningful and representative level instead of a strictly literal interpretation. I really enjoyed being able to do something new with English that still shows you understood the point of the story and the identity of the character after reading the book. Being able to collect different forms of media and group them into something as unique and current as a playlist you might find on an IPod was a really interesting twist. I really felt like I could get into the project because it encompasses many things that I really like doing, such as reading and music. I liked being able to take many sources, such as ITunes and YouTube, and be able to compile something that you would think someone else would want to listen to based on their character analysis. I feel like I could truly represent Inman through songs that might mean more than just words could. Also, to see what other people had chosen and their song choices and preferences were interesting to compare to my own and see what they came up with versus what I might have chosen. I think that being able to use not only words and lyrics to define the character in the song, but tone and flow of the songs was an important aspect I developed with this project. When I was going through and doing my editing, the main thing I did was take out the personal comments and make it more of a formal presentation of ideas. I also made sure that the grammar I used was proper and cleaned up.
Original Playlist
Revised Playlist

Collages
The collages were very challenging, once again, because they require you to take things from a page and represent them in a different form. Trying analyze an entire book and focus on the main theme and story line, while trying to focus on one characters feelings and thoughts about it, then trying to turn all these things into one standstill image was a pretty big challenge. The first thing that I tried to do with both the character and poem college was read through them and get a general feel for the mood. I then tried to take that mood and set it as the overall background of the collages. I did this with the picture of Cold Mountain, which was both Ada and Inman’s sole representation for happiness, and the dimly lit bar image where the poem Denver might have taken place. For the character collage I took the two characters which I wanted to focus on and thought about a single image or idea that would define their character, for Inman I chose the picture of the tattered flag in battle, and for Ada the picture of the barn house to where she is confined and becomes a woman. Then I took the central them and idea of the story and represented that in the middle with things like the path and the images on the path. In Denver I broke down the poem into three interpretive stages and ideas and put them on shot glasses that you would find on a bar in a progressive manner. I think the hardest thing to do was to pick images that would define your ideas the best, and then figuring out how to edit them and fit them into your collage. The colors were hard to blend and work with when figuring out what should go on top of the other and how to make certain things stand out more than others. I tried to think about an image that the author might have put on the cover of their story or poem that incorporated the main ideas and capture them in my image. Each of the specific meanings of the objects in the collages can be found in the links.
Original Cold Mountian Collage
Revised Cold Mountian Collage
2nd Revised Cold Mountian Collage (Final)
Original Denver Collage
Revised Denver Collage
2nd Revised Denver Collage (Final)

Emily Dickinson Poem Annotations
The annotation project was really interesting because it was a good opportunity to really interpret some poems that are considered a big part of today's society. Emily Dickinson is a well-known poet, which makes our Wiki site something that can be very useful to others. It allowed the class to collect their thoughts and feelings about the poems in one place and then build and help each other around them. I really enjoyed this project because I really enjoy Emily Dickinson's poetry, and this even introduced me to a few poems that I hadn't had the opportunity to read yet. I think the fact that it was done as a class was really helpful because there were several situations where someone else's interpretations were helpful to me as far as understanding the poem and making my own conclusions. It was also interesting, once again, to see everyone’s different thoughts about the poems and to read the discussion section to see the different interpretations. I think that being able to look all over the internet at what other people had said about these poems, as well as seeing what my classemates thought, made this assignment very interesting. I also really enjoyed being able to put my computer skills to the test and learning about something as helpful as Wikipedia. This project really opened my eyes to what a great resource this site can be, and I really like knowing that we are helping to add to this extensive database of information.
Emily Dickinson Annotations

Podcast
The podcast was one of the more interactive projects we have done this semester as well as one of the more interesting ones. When we were paired up into our groups I was really excited because I knew that the people in my group would be just as dedicated and excited to get going as I was. We began by decided what we were going to focus on and getting out ideas in order. Everyone was very excited to put their thoughts and ideas into the mix and we all began rolling on the project pretty quickly. Everyone was willing to take some of the assignment home with them to be able to have the most productive class periods we could manage. We had our script done by the second day and were excited to get to practice it with all the advanced technology as the microphones and mixing equipment. After hearing ourselves on the practice run we all got together to decide what would make us sound better and have a better outcome, then worked that out by the time we recorded the final product. I think the best part was sitting at the table and recording in front of the class, but still having a good time with it. We were all able to laugh and flow together as a solid group, yet shine in our respective roles on the podcast.
This project allowed me to get to know some of my other classmates and for all of us to be more open to helping each other. It was, as always, really interesting to get to take everyone's input on the same subject and be able to make it flow into one cohesive project. It even surprised the people in my group when we started looking into the material for the project that there were such drastic changes in the media examples of “a perfect family” from the early 1990’s to the more current shows of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I also really liked how we all came together and enjoyed each other’s company when we all have come from different backgrounds due to the diversity in our ages and media experiences. We decided to do something that would be interesting and wasn’t stiff and rigid in the way it was delivered. By modeling ours after a radio program we were able to have more leeway in things like a caller and an MC who directed the show instead of just talking back and forth. We didn’t have any fights or disagreements; instead we just focused on making it the best we could and finding things that would contribute to the group and our project. I was really happy with the way it turned out, and through getting to know the ladies in my group we have been able to help each other in other aspects of the class.
I learned that group projects don't always have to be something where one person does the brunt of the work while the others simply look on. Most of my previous group projects have consisted of stangers who truly didn't care about the project doing as little as possible just to get by. I also learned a little more about the people I had been in class with for so many weeks and barely knew by name. I got to learn a little about their strengths and weaknesses, as well as information about how families have been presented in the media and everyones view of the subject.
Final Podcast

Movie
When we finally got to the movie aspect of the class I knew that the semester was beginning to draw to a close, but after hearing about the project I was just as excited to get started as I was all the other aspects of the class. It took me a while to try to come up with a good theme for the video because I wanted something that wouldn’t be too broad, yet not too narrow either. I also wanted to pick something that I felt not a lot of people would think about. I began by thinking about all the books I had read over the past few years and thinking about all the ones that had made a big impact on me. One of the first novels that came to mind was “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. I think that he is one of the more important American authors that I have studied so far because he really took aspects that most American don’t think about and shed light on them in the States. I decided that the most important aspect of the book he wanted to reveal was the idea of Censorship.
The first thing that I did for this project was start looking through pictures, and the more I researched, the more the flow of the video came to mind. I found some interviews that had been done with Ray Bradbury a few years ago and they really sparked my interest in him even more. I spent a lot of my time searching for pictures that would be appropriate for the movie and ones that would flow together to get the desired effect I was looking for. At first it was just a jumbled mass of photos, and the more I worked the interviews into the movie, the more it came together and I let this guide my video. The instrumental music was also a challenge for me because I love the sound of it and I feel like almost all emotions can be expressed through music, (I have played an instrument for 8 years). I spent a lot of time looking for bold, dramatic music that would convey how passionately I think Ray Bradbury felt about the horror involved in the burning of such important parts of society and history as books.
This project really helped me to think about the meaning and point of the story in a new light and be able to get it across in things like music and pictures, instead of in words. I spent a lot of time on this project and felt myself really getting into the idea of it. Everyone around me could tell when I had fit something interesting in, or been able to figure something new out because I generally expressed my excitement aloud or shared my most recent classical music finding. I also found small pleasures in things like coordinating the intensity of the photos to the intensity song or interview being played.
I learned how to use something as unique as a movie maker to express how I felt the author would want his ideas and meanings to be displayed, which brought the deeper meaning and spirit of the book alive to me. I also learned more about Censorship and banning, such as the Nazi book burnings in the early 1900's, which I had no clue had happened until researching for this project. This project also sparked a new interest in some of the other great American authors that I have simply overlooked up to this point, such as Ray Bradbury. I really enjoyed being able to take many aspects of my life, like reading and music, and put them together in something as enjoyable to the senses as a movie. Also, using something useful like a movie maker will be helpful in other aspects of my education to be able to break away from such formal presentations as papers and simple PowerPoint productions.
Censorship/Ray Bradbury Movie
Censorship Movie Links

Blog Postings
The different explanations about each blog are under the link to get there, but this has been one of my favorite parts of the class so far. I have enjoyed, while tedious sometimes, getting the opportunity to put my feelings about the things we read online. I think this is a helpful way for me to express my feelings and not worry about being judged, or going against the grain of the class. I also really like getting to read and hear the other student’s opinions on the same topics. I think it's an awesome opportunity for all of us to express our feelings and even have some debate on what we think each story means. By having them online we can go back and read the story, maybe a few days later, and have a different feel for it and still be able to see what classmates had said. This way gives you time to actually think about what you want to say and to write it all down instead of having to answer debate questions off the top of your head. I think this also encouraged everyone to read, watch, and listen to what the other students had done and make helpful comments.
Blog Collection

At the beginning of the semester, I would have considered myself reasonably “computer savvy”. Heck, I could do plenty of tricks on the computer practically by second nature that my parents cannot even fathom. However, when I began to work on the projects for this class, I came to the striking realization that I didn’t know as much about producing work on the computer as I thought I did. The blogging was simple enough, the worst part was finding the time and internet access spot to do it. I was really in for it when we got to the playlist project.
Of course I had used iTunes before, but I had never tried to “legally” link a sound file from iTunes to a personal web space. The directions that Dan gave were easy enough, but I found the process slightly meticulous and time consuming. I am of the type who likes to do things very quickly, and see an instant result. It is challenging for me to do tedious linking in order to produce a result. However, I got it done, slightly late, but done nonetheless. It was still in need of a few graphics, which I added later.
The next project was the collage project. This one was also in a realm of the computer world that I had never visited before. I had no clue how to use photoshop. However, once again I spent a long time, doing what proved to be even more tedious and time-consuming work than the playlist. I pasted, erased, re-erased, re-pasted, and finally came out with something that was decent, for me, anyway. Afterwards, I realized that the images could be tweaked a little more, so I touched them up a little bit, and added a couple of things, but then, I decided that I didn't like them that way, and I felt like they were beginning to look overdone. For example, I tried to blur the lines around the angels at the top left of the screne in my poem collage, but then I decided that I liked the more surreal straight lines. They kind of make them look like a little television box in the sky. It gives a kind of futuristic spin to an old poem. The first collage I did on The House on Mango Street is my least favorite. I became extra frustrated with this one because I wanted my idea to work, but it seemed like with the images that I could find, it kept having an extremely elementary air. I still do not in any way claim to be great with photoshop, but at least now I can say that I am somewhat familiar with the program and I could do certain simple alterations to images. I think that my second collage turned out a lot better than the first, because I incorporated more elements, but also I feel like it just turned out better because of the image that I decided to create. The original idea that I had for the first collage which was based on the book The House on Mango Street, seemed like a great idea when it was conceived in my head, but it just didn’t look quite as good on the computer screen as it had in my mind. This was my least favorite project, and the one of which I am least proud of the results. I find it much easier to express myself in words than in a visual way.
After the collage project came the annotations project. When I first read what the assignment was, I thought to myself that this was going to be the most difficult yet. However, once I made myself the wiki account, I got the hang of it, and actually finished this project faster than any of the others. I liked the idea that I was doing something that other people would be able to see. To think that Wikipedia, a source that I often site for works that I do for other classes, could be open to my own personal input was pretty cool. I also enjoy interpreting poetry, and it was very interesting and fun to read what other people thought of certain words, lines, or stanzas, and follow this up with my own commentary.
Since I found out at the beginning of the course that we were going to be doing a podcast, I was somewhat intimidated. I had heard that these could be especially difficult, so much that the fun of the actual material contained in the podcast would be lost. However, the way that we ended up doing them was great for me because Dan did all of the hard technical parts, and my group got to do all of the fun parts. I also liked how it was a group project and so I could count of the support of my group members, instead of feeling like everything was on my shoulders. Again, just like with the annotations project, I liked the idea that other people would be able to access and listen to what I had to say about pieces of literature. Although I was a little nervous about what I was going to say since the project was supposed to be mostly improvised, I know that my group did a great job. I was quite satisfied with the results.
Finally, we were assigned the video project. This was probably the hardest one of all for me, but one of the ones that turned out the best, because I decided to put the time into it and seek the help I needed to make it good. I think that the theme of my video project was one of the more profound out of all of the other projects, and it definitely was the assignment that most inspired me to contemplate life on a deeper level. I figured out how to do some pretty cool effects with the images, and in spite of a few technical difficulties in decreasing the file size, I think that the results were well worth the effort.
Unfortunately, I didn't participate in the class as a group as much as I should have. This is what I regret the most. I did most of the assignments remotely and independently. This is mostly due to the fact that I work full time and do class as night, and also because I do not have internet access at home. Therefore, it was dificult to find the time to get somewhere where I could access the internet and put the thought iinto the commentary. Needless to say, I did enjoy briefly looking at the thoughts and projects of other students, and I often used this as inspiration for my own assignments.
As you can tell, this class has certainly not been one of the easiest for me. It was unlike any other class that I had taken at UNC before. While it was more difficult in some ways, it was easier in others, because I could enjoy the freedom of writing about, or producing work about material that I was actually interested in. This made the somewhat difficult assignments much more fun, and being passionate about the material inspired me to endure the technical frustrations that accompanied the projects. I imagine that I won’t encounter many more classes like this one if any during the remainder of my academic career, but I certainly will not forget it, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to experiment with technology in a way that I never had before.

Video Assignment

Planet earth has become a place dominated by a species hell-bent on destruction...humans. For many life is intolerable, for others the joie de vive is a quest for power and mastery. Atomic bombs, improved weapons, computerized music, overeating, drinking, gambling, and latency run amok. Kurt Vonnegut addresses both the horrors and pleasures that human beings are confronted with on a day to day basis in his sardonic and witty "Timequake" by transporting everyone back 10 years. Having to relive all of our mistakes, successes, accidents, pleasures, mundane work, and being unable to stop ourselves or change course, means a harsh wake-up call once life drops us out of auto-pilot.
The slide-show I have created has many images, both disturbing and wonderful that are meant to illustrate the importance of exiting auto-pilot. Human beings as a species must wake up and realize the reality of our situation. We are equipped with wonderful imaginations, which have too often been used to move us closer to extinction. Life can be hard to endure, but rather than accelerating toward doom, why not stop take a look around at what is great about life. Vonnegut's last novel shows us that even through horrific acts of violence and depravity, humans must laugh and work to make things better. Kilgore Trout (Vonnegut's science fiction writing alter-ego) would have us be more like the good sisters of the planet Booboo and use our empathy and imagination to create rather than destroy. Yes Yes!!!

Music Used:
"Can't Get No Peace" by Al Campbell
"Lexicon Devil" by The Melvins
Soundbyte from "Napoleon Dynamite"
Soundbyte from "Friday Afternoon in the Universe" by Medeski, Martin, and Woods

Image Links:
http://www.earthharvest.org/Free-Clipart-Nostradamus-Astrology-Horoscope...

http://www.tmn.fio.ru/works/29x/308/images/Atom_bomb.jpg

http://www.night-movesclub.com/image/4381964.jpeg

http://www.vietnamwar.com/coverb_med1.jpg

http://vivirlatino.com/i/2007/03/anorexia_narrowweb__300x479,0.jpg

http://www.mag.hometanningbed.com/images/06-canopy-big.jpg

http://www.uoguelph.ca/research/news/articles/2006/November/smoking.shtm...

http://www.wisebread.com/files/fruganomics/wisebread_imce/burger4.jpg

http://www.jasonchow.net/images/couch_potato/couchpotato.jpg

http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/images/fat_1.jpg

http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/55/39/22183955.jpg

http://www.geetarz.org/reviews/direstraits/cocaine.jpg

http://psych.wisc.edu/henriques/resources/bulimia_ad.jpg

http://www.acedmagazine.com/websitepictures/bulimia.JPG

http://www.readersdigest.ca/mag/2002/08/images/debt.gif

http://www.biologyreference.com/images/biol_01_img0018.jpg

http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/Sections/Newsweek/Components/Photos/M...

http://cdn.davesdaily.com/pictures/453-funny-halloween-costume.jpg

http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/uploaded_images/Prescription%20Drugs.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/content/images/2007/06/22/drugs_460_460x350...

http://psych.fullerton.edu/mentors/computing_stress.jpg

http://djescalade.com/db1/00021/djescalade.com/_uimages/ClubScene2.JPG

http://www.ekundayo.com/gallery/self%20destructive.jpg

http://www.tendringdc.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/51200D74-A40B-4104-AE7E-BD2FED...

http://www.sflifeandjustice.org/images/pollution.jpg

Podcast Assignment
For the podcast assignment, we had to choose a somewhat broad literary theme, and discuss our intepretations of various selections of literature from a wide variety of media sources. Our group chose to do the project on the consequences that result from various actions. We first discussed the movie "Scarface", and began by playing a clip of Al Pacino claiming that he would kill for a green card. We related this to the current immigration situation in the United States. After that, we played a newsclip about a newborn baby being found in a dumpster, and proceeded to discuss the story "Love of My Life" from the textbook. We contemplated the current pressure that students face to excel in school, and that sometimes that pressure rises to an unhealthy level and young people are compelled to take irrational actions with dire consequences, such as the ones faced in the short story. Finally, to end up on a lighter note, we finished up with the reading of a poem entitled "The Fish" which was a little more inspiring. Each of us seemed to have a slightly different iinterpretation of the significance of the fish in the poem and the significance of the speaker deciding to let it go at the end. It was interesting to consider the opinions of my group members. I felt very mature and professional doing this project. It made me feel like what I think matters. This is something you rarely feel as an undergraduate, where you are drained to draw your arguments from opinions of people who have better credentials than you. You can listen to our podcast by clicking on this link:

http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/files/choicefinal.mp3

Annotation Assignment

Before this assignment, I had always been able to quote certain lines of Emily Dickison's poetry, those lines which are most well-known and easy to interpret. However, through doing this project I have certainly realized that there are so much more profound aspects to her poetry that are often overlooked, simply because of the abstract language that she uses. It can tend to frustrate the reader and cause him to lose attention. If you actually break up the poems phrase by phrase, and in some cases word by word, it is possible to extract meaning that is much more conceivable to modern-day readers. Using wiki to explore the poems was extremely helpful in my interpretations, because it allowed me to freely build upon the work of others. As the saying goes, two heads work better than one, well certainly 15 heads work better than one, and it is interesting to see other people's interpretations of certain parts that never would have occurred to me in the first place, yet inspires further interpretation on my part.

http://www.teachmix.com/litwiki/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&ta...

22:53, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"Because I Could Not Stop for Death" (top)
22:53, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"Because I Could Not Stop for Death"
22:49, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -" (top)
22:48, 15 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Talk:"My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -"
02:32, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "The Tint I Cannot take - is Best -"
02:31, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Solid Town (top)
02:31, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "I Started Early - Took My Dog"
02:29, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) And made as He would eat me up (top)
02:29, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "I Started Early - Took My Dog"
02:27, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Plucks at a twig of Evidence (top)
02:27, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "This World is not Conclusion"
02:25, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Beckons (top)
02:24, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "This World is not Conclusion"
02:22, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Doe (top)
02:22, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -"
02:20, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Corners (top)
02:19, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -"
02:17, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Portion of me (top)
02:15, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) When I died (top)

02:15, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Quivering and chill (top)
02:11, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) House (top)
02:10, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) He kindly stopped for me (top)
02:09, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Bog (top)
02:07, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) To tell your name (top)
02:05, 8 October 2007 (hist) (diff) Frog (top)

Poem Collage

I have included the text of the poem, which helps interpretation upon viewing the collage. The two lovers on the sea are representative of the narrator of the poem and Annabel Lee, and I thought that having them seem to "walk on water" would give a mystic effect that perhaps suggests the afterlife or dreams in which the narrator will be united with his lost love. The moon is supposed to add to this effect, since Poe mentions the moon in the poem as a catalyst for his reunion with his lost love through dreams. Perhaps the narrator can visit the spirit of Annabel Lee in her "sepulchre" by the sea. The castle in the distance represents a dark kingdom, dark, because that is certainly the vibe that one gets from reading the poem. The angels above, which seem to be sour and jealous represent the envy that the angels have of the love that the narrator shares with Annabel Lee.

Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee--
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
I and my Annabel Lee--
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me--
Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we--
Of many far wiser than we--
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:
And so, all the night-tide, I lay down by the side
Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea--
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/87

Character Collage

The House on Mango Street- Esperanza's internal conflict collage

This represents Esperanza's struggle with abandoning the typical role of Mexican women to seek out a more fulfilling, Americanized lifestyle. The little girl who is sitting with her back towards the house represents Esperanza's frustrations with her life, which seems to go nowhere, except into the kitchen, which is portrayed inside the window of the house, which represents the house on Mango Street. Also the Mexican Flag with La Virgin de Guadalupe, a typical symbol of Mexican pride and tradition, hangs over the part of the house that is farthest away from the outside, or "the outside world", in this case implying the cultural realm of the United States. Inside the house, Esperanza will be confined to carry out the traditional roles of Mexican women. If she is able to escape the house, she will have the chance at moving on to other career opportunities, hence the career woman who is standing on the street outside of the house.

http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/85

Playlist- The House on Mango Street

I chose to do my playlist on this novel by Sandra Cisneros, because I have a intense interest in Hispanic Culture, especially the study of the transitions that hispanic children born in the United States undergo upon trying to fit in with the new culture in which they are being raised, while at the same time trying to remain loyal to the culture of the mother country. The playlist should basically reflect the mood of the narrator, Esmerelda, through the moods of the songs. The mood begins as somber, depressive, and helpless at the beginning of the playlist, because this is the way Esperanza feels. She feels that she is stuck in a rut that she may never escape trapped in an ugly, cheap house with a family that does not understand her, or her desires to do more than just be a housewife. She undergoes several coming-of-age experiences throughout the novel, which I have tried to document via the songs, finally coming to the realization that she absolutely does not belong in the environment in which she is growing up. However, there is not much she can do, simply because of her age. Therefore, she undergoes an intense episode of anger and frustration, hence the Linkin Park song at the end which screams about the frustration of feeling that you do not belong anywhere. This is revolutionary for Esperanza, since she is rebelling against her family and friends in the neighborhood. I have not quite decided what type of song to put at the end of the playlist, but it needs to be much more tranquil and satisfied, reflective of one who finally realizes that things change, and bad situations are not forever. It should be the indicator of a newfound hope for the future.

Chapter One The House on Mango Street
Dido Life for Rent

I chose this song because it really seems to reflect the way Esperanza feels in the first chapter of the book when she talks about how many times her family has moved from house to house. She recalls earlier residences, and problems with them, such as robberies, leaky faucets, etc. The tone of the song corresponds to the mellow, somewhat melancholy attitude that Esperanza has about her housem yet the simplicity of the lyrics reflects the simplicity of the childish diction used by Esperanza to describe her situation.

"I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go." -Ezperanza, Chapter 1 Page 5

Chapter 12 Those Who Don't
Garth Brooks "We Shall Be Free"



At this point in the book, we can see the first instance of racial tension between the hispanic and white neighborhoods. I chose this song to go along with this section of the book, because it deals with racial issues and it is upbeat yet frustrated, kind of like Esperanza when she describes the situation. She doesn't seem particularly affected by the inability to mesh of the different ethnic neighborhoods, but at the same time, she realizes that it is somewhat ridiculous the way that the two groups behave when they come in contact with each other.

"All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes." -Esperanza Chapter 12, pg. 28

Chapter 13 There Was an Old Woman
Aventura "Amor de Madre"

At this point of the book, we can see the embodiment of an all-too-typical situation in the urban hispanic barrios. The classic disfunctional family where the father abandons the mother with the children, and then she ends up losing control over them and eventually gives up trying to raise them at all. "Amor de Madre" by Aventura describes a perfect example of the same situation, of a mother whose husband abandons her while she is pregnant, and although she tries to be a good influence on her son, the pressure of being mother and father proves to be too much, and she is unable to maintain him out of trouble, and he eventually ends up in jail for murder. Although the situation described in The House on Mango Street is not quite so extreme, it is the same general idea, except it is about a woman who lives in Esperanza's neighborhood. However, one of her sons did jump out of a window to his death.

Chapter 15 Darius and the Clouds
Louis Armstrong "What a Wonderful World"

Darius is a classmate of Esperanza's who although is a pain towards everyone else in the class all of the time, teasing and taunting the girls, when he looks up