Why: I am working with these people because they have the same academic goal in this class as me, not to mention these are the people I trust to actually put the effort in to finish this project on time and with high standards.
What's your final project: A visual design that demonstrates our understanding of the American Dream that doesn't tell a single story (a massive poster)
Why: Posters are a unique medium that will allow us to incorporate multiple types of analysis
Deadlines: Due October 22nd
Benchmark 1: October 15th: 1/4 of the poster completed, materials obtained, created our thesis, understand where we will go with the rest of the project, big ideas chosen
Benchmark 2: October 19th: 3/4 of the poster completed, literary connections made/chosen
Why we will succeed...
The project type we chose was a poster; we chose that because it is the best way we can represent our understanding of the prompt. I believe we will succeed in our project type because Katie Gipe is a master at creating posters and drawing. The rest of our group, although not spectacular artists, is able to color and draw and glue.
Although I myself am not a person with artistic skill, I have enough skill and over the course of my academic career I have done my share of posters. For example, last year in AP English with Mr. Porritt, I created a photo essay representing the layout of my house in individual tiers so that the overall picture was a pyramid with layers of the pyramid representing different objects and their functions of my house. Mr Porritt also had us create visual flowcharts to represent the language, style, theme, and content of essays in his class many times. I learned a great deal in the skill of poster-making from that. Additionally, Sharvil Patel and I are taking multivariable calculus and we have covered sketching in 3-dimensions so any drawings that are required to be in three planes we can do. What I am not capable of doing in art I believe the rest of my group can do or combine with me to get it done (this belief is founded on two main ideas: Katie is in lead and I have seen her posters and their high quality; and I was in the same class as Katie and Mitch last year and therefore I have seen there capability of creating posters)
On the other hand, there is another essential component of posters. It is the ability to make meaningful connections and use purposeful pictures and descriptions to get a point across. I have survived through many years of advanced language arts classes (and so has the rest of my group) so I believe we have the capability to handle the analysis and content of this project. I have written multiple argument essays and synthesis essays and read many advanced placement level essays: that is my experience in the language arts part of the project. For example, I wrote synthesis essays on whether government spending on space exploration should be discontinued or not and I wrote another (for the advanced placement test) for whether the post office should be discontinued or not. The analysis of this project should not be a struggle—I think that our group will develop an accurate and useful analysis of this prompt about the American Dream.
The final and perhaps most important component of this project type is that the only way to improve my skills with this type of project requires me to practice it and deploy it in projects; hence using a poster as the project type for this specific project. I have faith in myself and my group to pull together and hammer out this project with a level of creativity and elegance that has never been seen before.
Although I myself am not a person with artistic skill, I have enough skill and over the course of my academic career I have done my share of posters. For example, last year in AP English with Mr. Porritt, I created a photo essay representing the layout of my house in individual tiers so that the overall picture was a pyramid with layers of the pyramid representing different objects and their functions of my house. Mr Porritt also had us create visual flowcharts to represent the language, style, theme, and content of essays in his class many times. I learned a great deal in the skill of poster-making from that. Additionally, Sharvil Patel and I are taking multivariable calculus and we have covered sketching in 3-dimensions so any drawings that are required to be in three planes we can do. What I am not capable of doing in art I believe the rest of my group can do or combine with me to get it done (this belief is founded on two main ideas: Katie is in lead and I have seen her posters and their high quality; and I was in the same class as Katie and Mitch last year and therefore I have seen there capability of creating posters)
On the other hand, there is another essential component of posters. It is the ability to make meaningful connections and use purposeful pictures and descriptions to get a point across. I have survived through many years of advanced language arts classes (and so has the rest of my group) so I believe we have the capability to handle the analysis and content of this project. I have written multiple argument essays and synthesis essays and read many advanced placement level essays: that is my experience in the language arts part of the project. For example, I wrote synthesis essays on whether government spending on space exploration should be discontinued or not and I wrote another (for the advanced placement test) for whether the post office should be discontinued or not. The analysis of this project should not be a struggle—I think that our group will develop an accurate and useful analysis of this prompt about the American Dream.
The final and perhaps most important component of this project type is that the only way to improve my skills with this type of project requires me to practice it and deploy it in projects; hence using a poster as the project type for this specific project. I have faith in myself and my group to pull together and hammer out this project with a level of creativity and elegance that has never been seen before.
Works Studied
Title: I, Too, Sing America
Idea: American Dream and Immigrants
Learning: Those who are in the worst jobs and treated the worst, specifically immigrants, stay in those jobs so that they will become stronger and fulfill the American Dream by bettering their life in the future.
Title: Survey
Idea: The availability and purpose of the American Dream of teenagers compared to adults
Learning: Adults involve money in their life a greater amount than teenagers, but money defines adults so that they can provide for family and others while teenagers strive for money to provide for themselves.
Learning: A white-collar upbringing leads to a white-collar career.
Learning: Almost nobody is willing to say that there is nothing more important than money even if society often acts opposite to this in actuality.
Title: The Great Gatsby
Idea: The American Dream is Decaying
Learning: Drastic changes in culture that can lead to immorality can change the American Dream of the era--and not in a good way.
Title: "next to of course god america i"
Idea: The importance of maintaining a sense of reason and not being a blind patriot
Learned: This poem will be a great a counterargument for our thesis because it represents a criticism of people who blindly love their country. Patriotism is often considered a virtue - and it is - but it must be upheld within moderation. This poem effectively ridicules the abstract "blind patriot", the person who lives every line of the Star Spangled Banner without ever considering the negative qualities of our nation. Evidence taken from this poem will make excellent qualifying statements when addressing the prompt.
Title: The Andromeda Strain
Idea: Personal sacrifice and its impact on our social psychology and community.
Learned: Although my independent novel is realistic fiction, the theme and attitude of personal sacrifice represented throughout the book is extremely relevant to the American Dream. In the novel, people are dying and a group of adults are forced to put themselves in harms way for the good of the country. The concept of personal sacrifice, and Michael Crichton’s immersive representation of this idea, combines to portray the chain reaction personal sacrifice can set off. When we are discussing the American Dream, sacrifice is definitely going to come up. One of our crucial ideas when addressing this prompt is going to be that sacrifice is necessary in order to achieve our American Dream. Citing evidence from The Andromeda Strain will help explain this idea.
Title: Mammon and the Archer
Idea: Acceptance and the profound associations of money and the American dream
Learning: Perhaps the most obvious theme presented to the reader in Mammon and the archer is the contrast between money and love. However, this can also be represented as the extent that money has a control over our lives; whether good or bad is ultimately left up to the reader to decide.
Title: The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton
Idea: Personal choice is a key facet of how people in society approach their lives.
Learning: While the subject of my book is very analytically and scientific in nature, it delves into the implications of personal choice and how these choices can be affected by the actions or manipulations of others. While the protagonist in the story was a doctor essentially implanting a device that could control the brain of the patient (for a valid medical cure), a key issue of how often our own choices are reflective of our own personal thoughts was brought up. This can be related by saying that our decisions are often the result of what we have been told is the American dream and our perceptions based off of what we see.
ex) White collar family leads to a white collar career.
Idea: American Dream and Immigrants
Learning: Those who are in the worst jobs and treated the worst, specifically immigrants, stay in those jobs so that they will become stronger and fulfill the American Dream by bettering their life in the future.
Title: Survey
Idea: The availability and purpose of the American Dream of teenagers compared to adults
Learning: Adults involve money in their life a greater amount than teenagers, but money defines adults so that they can provide for family and others while teenagers strive for money to provide for themselves.
Learning: A white-collar upbringing leads to a white-collar career.
Learning: Almost nobody is willing to say that there is nothing more important than money even if society often acts opposite to this in actuality.
Title: The Great Gatsby
Idea: The American Dream is Decaying
Learning: Drastic changes in culture that can lead to immorality can change the American Dream of the era--and not in a good way.
Title: "next to of course god america i"
Idea: The importance of maintaining a sense of reason and not being a blind patriot
Learned: This poem will be a great a counterargument for our thesis because it represents a criticism of people who blindly love their country. Patriotism is often considered a virtue - and it is - but it must be upheld within moderation. This poem effectively ridicules the abstract "blind patriot", the person who lives every line of the Star Spangled Banner without ever considering the negative qualities of our nation. Evidence taken from this poem will make excellent qualifying statements when addressing the prompt.
Title: The Andromeda Strain
Idea: Personal sacrifice and its impact on our social psychology and community.
Learned: Although my independent novel is realistic fiction, the theme and attitude of personal sacrifice represented throughout the book is extremely relevant to the American Dream. In the novel, people are dying and a group of adults are forced to put themselves in harms way for the good of the country. The concept of personal sacrifice, and Michael Crichton’s immersive representation of this idea, combines to portray the chain reaction personal sacrifice can set off. When we are discussing the American Dream, sacrifice is definitely going to come up. One of our crucial ideas when addressing this prompt is going to be that sacrifice is necessary in order to achieve our American Dream. Citing evidence from The Andromeda Strain will help explain this idea.
Title: Mammon and the Archer
Idea: Acceptance and the profound associations of money and the American dream
Learning: Perhaps the most obvious theme presented to the reader in Mammon and the archer is the contrast between money and love. However, this can also be represented as the extent that money has a control over our lives; whether good or bad is ultimately left up to the reader to decide.
Title: The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton
Idea: Personal choice is a key facet of how people in society approach their lives.
Learning: While the subject of my book is very analytically and scientific in nature, it delves into the implications of personal choice and how these choices can be affected by the actions or manipulations of others. While the protagonist in the story was a doctor essentially implanting a device that could control the brain of the patient (for a valid medical cure), a key issue of how often our own choices are reflective of our own personal thoughts was brought up. This can be related by saying that our decisions are often the result of what we have been told is the American dream and our perceptions based off of what we see.
ex) White collar family leads to a white collar career.