Happy Valentine’s Day and last day before break! Today, we will take a break from The Other Wes Moore to complete an OPTIC analysis on two pieces of visual text. Analyzing a visual text means that whatever you’re analyzing is a visual medium – think photographs, political cartoons, book covers, paintings, sculptures, posters, and even TV, movies, and documentaries! To those of you hanging back from the field trip, don’t worry – your classmates are doing this same assignment at the High Museum 🙂

For the purposes of your assignment, please choose TWO of the visual texts below. Use the guiding questions within your graphic organizer to answer each question in the corresponding boxes of the OPTIC.

Overview: When you look at the cartoon, what is the first impression you receive? What do you think is happening in this cartoon?

Parts: ​What are the different parts or pieces of this cartoon? Break the cartoon into small pieces using artistic terms to explain what you see.

Theme: What is the theme of this cartoon? What is the message that is being conveyed through the visual?  What is the artist trying to “tell” you about their piece?  Be very specific with your explanation.

Interrelationships: How do all of the pieces in the cartoon relate to each other? What is the relationship between the central figures and the foreground/ background? What symbolism is present? What is the overall mood of the cartoon?

Conclusions: When searching for the conclusion of this cartoon, look for the artist’s purpose.  Why was this cartoon designed in this way?  Be specific.

 

Political Cartoon Options (please number on your paper):

This week, we will continue our reading of The Other Wes Moore. As always, please don’t forget about our warm-ups, namely M.U.G. Monday and Lit Term Tuesday. If you’re absent, be sure to get the notes from a friend!

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Below is our tentative reading schedule for this week:

• Monday: read through chapter 4 and discuss
• Tuesday: read through chapter 5 and discuss
• Wednesday: read through chapter 6 and discuss (end of section 2)
• Thursday: read through chapter 7/8 and discuss (some classes may finish)
• Friday: Friday is field trip day! We will take a break from TOWM to analyze visual text.
• Please complete your reading of the novel over the break. Click here for an online PDF of the novel.

Make sure you’re keeping up with your timelines and tracing themes throughout the novel. As we read through the novel, you will trace TWO themes throughout both characters’ stories. Choose a focus SUBJECT (NOT theme!) below to follow throughout the novel. As you read, consider the overarching theme and their development throughout the stories of each Wes Moore.

Possible subjects: 

• Identity
• Personal Values
• Decision Making
• Loss, Faith, and Redemption
• Peer, Parent, and Community Support
• Goals
• Discipline and Violence

Today, we will start with Writing Wednesday! Please read the poem and answer the prompt below:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;
I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

Write about a time that you encountered a fork in the road. You had two options; you chose one. Please explain, in detail, what your choices were, what your decision was, and how you made it. Most importantly, please imagine what might be different in your life had you chosen the other path.

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We will finish chapter 3 and take our reading quiz today. If you were absent, please be sure to arrange a time with Ms. Antonacci after school to make it up.

This week, we will continue our reading of The Other Wes Moore. As always, please don’t forget about our warm-ups, namely M.U.G. Monday and Lit Term Tuesday. If you’re absent, be sure to get the notes from a friend!

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Below is our tentative reading schedule for this week:

• Monday: read through chapter 2 and discuss
• Tuesday: read through chapter 3 and discuss (end of section 1)
• Wednesday: quiz over section 1 of the novel; start chapter 4
• Thursday: read through chapter 4 and discuss
• Friday: due to the Black History Month program, first period will have to do some reading over the weekend. Fourth period will read through chapter 5 and discuss.

Make sure you’re keeping up with your timelines and tracing themes throughout the novel. As we read through the novel, you will trace TWO themes throughout both characters’ stories. Choose a focus SUBJECT (NOT theme!) below to follow throughout the novel. As you read, consider the overarching theme and their development throughout the stories of each Wes Moore. 

Possible subjects: 

• Identity
• Personal Values
• Decision Making
• Loss, Faith, and Redemption
• Peer, Parent, and Community Support
• Goals
• Discipline and Violence

Today, we will be taking our unit 1 pre-assessment. The purpose of this assessment is for me to recognize the class’s strengths and weaknesses so I can teach more effectively throughout the unit. This will ensure that we don’t waste time on concepts you’ve already mastered and work on what you will need in order to best prepare for the EOC at the end of the semester.

With that said, please take this assessment seriously. Although it is not necessarily for a grade, this is an opportunity for you to show me what you already know!

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Once you are finished with the assessment, please continue reading The Other Wes Moore. Be sure to continue taking notes on your timeline!

It’s Tuesday, so you know what that means: Lit Term Tuesday! Since our novel switches points of view frequently, we will review the four points of view for this week’s Lit Term. Please be sure to get the notes from a friend if you were absent!

We will also review the Nature vs. Nurture debate questions as a class, so have those ready!

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Over the next few weeks, we will read and discuss Wes Moore’s The Other Wes Moore. We will be tracing the most prominent themes in the novel and how they are developed throughout the stories of each character.

Please do your best to be on time and present each day in class. It will be very easy to fall behind on our reading, and you will miss out on classroom discussion.

I hope you had a nice weekend! As always, we will start class with MUG Monday today; please be sure to get the notes from a friend if you were out!

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Today, you will use the anticipation guide to debate some of the key themes in The Other Wes Moore. Please be on the lookout for these themes and how they are developed throughout the plots of each character and his choices. Remember: you have a voice and it is valid; argue it out! 🙂