transcript of audio

part 1

0:01 Start the class activity. So again, I promised you that you would leave with more like, more solid feeling. It might carry over into Thursday.

0:12 Meaning, we are going to… It’ll probably carry on into Thursday. We’re gonna have an artifact that we’re all working together with.

0:20 We’re gonna work on the same artifact, but each of us in groups are gonna take on a different element. And we’re gonna perform and practice the things that you’re supposed to be doing in your own pieces.

0:28 Does that make sense? So we’re gonna practice it together. You can ask all kinds of good questions. I can tell you where you’re going wrong. I can tell you what you’re doing right.

0:35 And then you’re gonna take that same knowledge and apply it to your own pieces. Okay? So, with that. I do want to give a disclaimer.

0:43 Just like Noelle did before the performance last Tuesday. This is graphic. Has everyone seen Childish Gambino’s “This is America?” For the most part?

0:57 Those of you who have not. It is very graphic and violent. A lot of guns, a lot of blood. So, and children.

1:04 So, anybody who is uncomfortable or doesn’t want to watch. You can put earbuds in, headphones on, look away, or pack up and leave when I turn the lights off.

1:14 I will not be offended. I will not hold it against you. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable, so I’m just giving you the option.

1:19 If you want to go to the bathroom for a few minutes, do that. It’s okay.

 

 

part 3

0:01 Okay, so what are our initial responses? What’s our immediate reaction to it? What do we think? At first, well this is something like prior knowledge because I remember when this first came out and I saw basically like someone explained like what he had basically shot the guy in the back of the

0:27 head that was like a… I don’t know what it’s called, but it was kind of like a racist propaganda image back in like you know, slavery time, and then now that I know that and like seeing that figure like throughout the whole video it’s like, woah, that’s like he had a different meaning now.

0:47 Yeah, I said in another section, whether you agree with his perspective, um have the same views on the issue, um it’s still brilliantly done.

1:04 It’s like a rhetorical masterpiece. So, it’s incredible the elements that are used in what’s done to convey a message. Um, whether it’s through symbol, color, uh gesture, it’s really really rich with what um Donald Glover and the director did, who’s a famous, famous director.

1:26 So, what I want us to do with it is start picking this apart. Figuring out what this is all about and how to analyze something.

1:34 Yeah. Okay. So, what I’m gonna do is, um, warn you and emphasize to you this is not about the lyrics.

1:48 It’s about the video and how the video visualizes, conceptualizes, or shows what’s happening in the song. Okay? There’s a difference.

1:58 And I said this to some of you individually. It’s about the video. It’s about and what you’re seeing. Yes, it’s about what you’re hearing, but what is it about the connection between what you’re hearing and what you’re seeing on the screen?

2:09 That’s the analysis. Cool? So, I’m going to group you off. I’m going to group you off. I’m going to give you what your assignment is.

2:16 I’m going to say a few things.

 

part 4

0:00 These are your instructions with what it is that you are supposed to post about the video. These were your groups.

0:11 Group 1, physical appearance. I would advise choosing one that you may work on too. If you want to talk about his pants and shoes or his bare chest or his face.

0:20 Facial expressions or two of those things. You decide. Group 2’s, your visualization of lyrics. You must pick a particular lyric.

0:28 Whether that’s one, two, three lines, whatever it is. And work exclusively on one set, one of those lines. Okay? So you decide as a group what lines you want to do.

0:37 My group 3’s, which are up here. What’s the position of dancing against the chaos and violence? I would point to one scene.

0:45 Uh, you could talk about the fact that he’s dancing his way through the video, often accompanied by the group of schoolchildren in the uniforms.

0:53 You could talk about it generally, but I think to mark certain points, like he dances into the room before he shoots the fire.

1:00 Like something like that. That would be most helpful, I think. Group four, use of color. Um, red is what I told you, cause that’s really one of the only colors that’s really prominent.

1:15 Um, but see what you notice about red and where it comes up and where you see it. Or if you see something else that’s totally different.

1:22 It’s just red is the most obvious one. Okay? So, in words you want to talk about red being used. Okay?

1:29 Are you clear on what it is your element is? These are your elements. Right? Okay. So, this is what you will do with those elements.

1:39 Once you have your specific example. Your job as a group is to draft a response. To analyze your element and be specific and clear about it.

1:50 Think back to what Childish Gambino’s purpose in the video is. What is his statement on? What’s he talking about? Go ahead and answer.

1:59 What’s he talking about? What do you mean? He’s talking about violence in America and how things happen. With, okay. What, what’s the, killings.

2:12 Kill, gun. gun killings, right? He’s talking about gun violence. He’s talking about gun control maybe. Maybe he’s talking about how rampant access is to guns.

2:22 Whatever way you want to talk about it, make sure that’s what’s in the back of your mind as you draft your analysis.

2:28 If he’s making a comment, he’s making a social commentary about gun control or gun violence in America, how is he doing these things?

2:38 So like my group ones, he’s bare chested with a pair of pants on. How does that have anything to do with gun violence?

2:46 What’s he saying? Why didn’t he wear a suit? Why didn’t he wear a tux? Why didn’t he wear a t-shirt that says, you know, why didn’t he wear a t-shirt that has a gun on it with a big slash to it?

2:58 Why didn’t he have kids in school uniforms? Yeah, why kids in uniforms? See what I’m saying? Think about these things.

3:06 They’re rhetorical choices. So, see my ah group twos. What are you working on? Lyrics. He could have written anything. Why did he write that?

3:18 And why did he visualize it that way? So, like if you were going to talk about like the one example I used in the slide is um ah it you know the celly being a tool.

3:29 Why would he say that about gun control? What does that have to do with gun control? Okay. Um group threes.

3:38 You’re doing dancing. Why is he dancing? What does that have to do with gun control? Like these are the questions you have to ask yourself.

3:46 Like why didn’t he sit in a chair the whole video? Why? Why is he in the video? He could have used anybody.

3:53 We see videos like that when the artist doesn’t appear. And then group fours. You’re doing um I don’t know. Maybe?

4:05 We’ll be talking about why is everything else grey? Everything in the video is grey, white, or black- essentially. There’s also some color in the background.

4:17 You’ll see some like orange ember. Something like fire. You know what else I noticed? Most of the people in the video is white.

4:23 I don’t know. Well, maybe that tells you something too. So, work on whatever aspect. If you want to take on like color, you decide as a group.

4:37 You decide as a group what you want to talk about. This is a really good time to, like I said, go to those resources.

4:43 Look at Time. Look at Insider. Look at the Washington Post. Maybe it’s just a prompt for yourself. Then, okay, yeah, I got this.

4:50 Okay? Some reassurance. Or maybe they’ll say something that you haven’t thought of. Okay? And you’ll see some of them if you read multiple pieces.

4:57 Each one you have different characteristics. At this particular I had a student working, uh, last section. That might, Wow, okay.

5:05 I never, like, really thought about Like, they had a reading on it that I didn’t notice and no one else wrote about.

5:11 So, yeah. I mean, I’m not just qualifying or discounting anything that you come up with. It’s fair. It’s open game.

5:17 See what Yeah.

 

part 5

0:00 First project builder, okay, which is the first draft it’s always the first draft, but what I asked you for was only two elements one page for each element. So, it’s basically a half of a half that’s all we’re doing right now pick two of your elements and that’s why we just did this whole walkthrough with

0:18 “This is America,” That’s the artifact you each took time analyzing one element oh that’s what you’re going oh okay, okay. You just did exactly what you’re gonna go do this weekend. So, take your artifact pick two of your elements and remember we listed those in class together the other day so see which ones

0:37 you want to work on and get your first one-page draft for each element. So this is what I said I gave you parameters for everything here in the write in complete sentences no bullet points. Right now I said it can be piece-y or drafty, but I don’t want bullet points, ok? You get an automatic zero. Number two, you

1:10 have to have one page for each element that’s huge. Otherwise, I don’t have enough to read. Ok, next your first sentence, and this is where I want to be really clear about your directions, ok, so, this is the assignment you’re submitting pretend, on Canvas, for your project builder, I want you to write the word

1:28 “claim” and then you’re going to put your line. Then, you’re going to put like element one and what it is and then write it and then element two. So you’re basically creating section headers so that I can see the section is semi-organized. Ok? And what this is, so like here, you might write the word “figurative language,”

1:48 because that might be your first element that you’re looking at. Or you might just be working on pathos, an appeal.

1:55 Does that make sense? So, the claim is one sentence and did we write it? Did we write the claim together the other day in your Design Journal one to fill in the blank sentence?

2:06 Yup, you already have it. All you need to do is copy and paste it into this. So, what goes in those little um exclamation marks?

2:16 In the quotes is you’re basically what you have to fill in. So, the claim statement is I am working on this artifact, and you named it, and this is what the artifact’s purpose is, and I think they do a good or a bad job.

2:30 Remember we wrote that together? That’s your claim. You just copy and paste it here. And then like in the paragraphs, when we’re talking about that specific thing, we’re providing is it like you want us to be evidence in common?

2:44 Yup, I’m going to talk about that right now. Copy from DJ-1 to see that you remember. And then element 1, remember you listed your element possibilities.

2:53 You have to pick two of them, and you’ll write element 1 in your first one, element 2 in your second one, and then this is where you write a page up for each.

3:00 Okay. And in those pages, we’re going You’re basically doing what you just did in class. You’re going to hone in on very specific parts of your artifact that evidence that element.

3:11 So again, if I’m working on a poem that uses figurative language, pick specific lines that you can break down. If I’m working on pathos, what specific parts in this poem are really important?

3:23 Specifically emotional and appeal to me, to make me sad or happy or reminiscent or nostalgic for a moment when I was a child.

3:30 Do you see what I’m doing? Pick specific things just like I told you to do with “This is America.” If you’re working on the color red, you can’t just stop at the color red.

3:38 The color red in the fabric to cloak the guns, the color red that pops up on the carpet, what part?

3:45 Do you see what I’m doing? Then you break it down. But in the break down, are we like focusing on the why question?

3:52 Like this is the design. It can be a little bit of both. It can be, you have to understand why these things are used instead of something else.

4:03 So like the color sure as hell wasn’t green. It was red. Why? And why does that operate as a device for the viewer?

4:11 Okay. So, the first step is yeah, what’s the red doing? Okay. Why wasn’t another color used? And then as you keep going, you’re going to break down how it works.

4:22 Well, the red is the color used. The color of blood. And the color of blood does this. It makes me upset because, you know, this or there.

4:33 The way that red is used, I think, appeals to emotion in the video. Right? So, you might have to go into that in a paragraph on that element.

4:41 Right. Right? Okay. Like, give me another example or ask me anything. I’m happy to try and break it down. So, I know like, we can’t be biased though.

4:52 So, right? Okay, no. You can be biased in your body paragraphs. I said, when you’re straight up talking about what the artist or speaker or writer does, that’s factual.

5:02 Right. Okay? That’s like, that’s factual. This is what they produced, and this is why they produced it, because that’s what they said.

5:07 Don’t mess with that. Okay. But when you get into the body paragraphs, it’s your job to see if you think it’s effective or not.

5:13 So, you know, um, when you first started, you’re like, I don’t know how I feel about this color red thing.

5:18 You weren’t convinced. Yeah. So, she can absolutely say that. She can be like, you know, I didn’t think, I didn’t think it was effective.

5:24 It’s not obvious. Whatever. That’s her, that’s her call. Okay. Yeah. But she’s got to back it up. She can’t just say, I don’t think it works.

5:36 Right. Tell me why it doesn’t work.