Tony Xhudo, make up blog 1/26/17

In todays class we discussed some more about our upcoming report based on a documentary. Shortly after the class was back to watching "Bowling for Columbine" and we would take pauses every few minutes to discuss and analyze the directors point of view and how he supports it. Some examples of this would include when we were showed the "happiness is a warm gun" montage. It expressed his claim that Gun owners are irresponsible by showing how many people not only kill themselves with these weapons but how many people will get themselves killed by acting up around these weapons. Overall the director Michael Moore seems avid to keep gun rights more strict. This documentary gives us a clear claim and many ways to analyze how that claim is supported being a great example for when we do this on our own.

Patricia Aldrich 1.26.17

Today in class we watched Bowling for Columbine again. The author's argument still applied to gun safety and control but today he focused more on how gun owners are too irresponsible for guns. One of the claims made was that "Gun owners are not responsible enough to have such lose gun control laws". The author helped to prove his argument by using a particular shot of a mother with her child. In the shot the mother was outside clearly with other hunters and bundled up because it was presumably cold outside. The baby was crawling around outside in the tent naked. Because the mom had a naked baby it made her argument for loose gun control laws less credible. Another shot the author chose to use was militia men talking about how responsible you need to be to own a gun and then on the screen was a shot of a poster of women half naked lying on american flags. This shot showed that you can not take anything that these militia men were saying seriously which also made their argument less credible. The whole class we watched the documentary and we had to write one claim we saw and also 2-3 sentences describing how the author proves his claim.

1/26/17 Providing claims in documentaries Jake Vreeland

Today, January 25th, 2017 as a classed we continued watching and explaining the documentary Bowling for Columbine.  We are using this film as an example to pick out the claims of a documentary and explaining it.  In about a month the longest essay I have ever written will be due and it will explain the claim my documentary states.  Today the film showed a bunch of short interviews of some people.  So far none of them have to do with the incident in Columbine.  He uses the interviews to exploit the not so smart people.  He uses them with talking about guns and violence and how its not safe.  He even shows a bunch of adults bundled up with warm clothes and guns to their sides, while a baby is basically naked walking around.  He also shows the kind crazy people who operate guns and bombs.  This one man held up a loaded gun to his head like it was nothing.  For the rest of week we will watch this somewhat comedic film and analyze it more to help write our own paper.

Connor Gormley Make Up Blog

1-25-17

Today in class we started our work for our research paper. We started watching the documentary "Bowling for Columbine", which is a documentary about the school shooting that happened in Columbine, Colorado. In the beginning, we analyzed the title of the documentary. We knew what the words "bowling" and the word 'for" meant, but we discussed in our seats what Columbine meant and what its significance is. We came to the conclusion that it was the school shooting the happened in the small suburban town of Columbine, Colorado. The title is an allusion is a reference to the fact that the two school shooters went bowling before shooting up the school. Then we dove into the movie. In the beginning the director Michael Moore goes into a bank and gets a gun with a very limited background check. His argument is shown here, which is "guns are too easy to obtain in the United States." The shots that he uses in this also illustrate his point of view by showing guns on the shelf in the back to show how easily obtained. He also shows a poster of the ad to get the free gun, which shows that these guns are available to everyone. He then shows an interview with a Michigan police officer which intends to lessen the other opinion's credibility. This officer doesn't seem very smart and takes the incident too seriously. This incident where somebody was shot with his own gun after using very little caution show that gun owners are very laid-back with their gun use. At the end he adds a clip of Chris Rock to give comic relief that also aims to entertain the audience and take a break from the seriousness of the topic.

James Lynch Make Up Blog

James Lynch

Mr. Rivers

American Lit

1/25/17

Make-Up Blog

Today in class, we started off with handing in our Great Gatsby books. We were all so sorrow to be doing such a thing, but all good things must have to come to an end. Then in groups, we talked about what we need to do for our up-coming documentary research essay. We talked about the requirements for the research paper (it is in fact a lot of work, so don’t sleep on it). After this short discussion, we started to watch the documentary Bowling for Columbine. While we were watching the film, we had to determine what the argument was, and how the speaker developed and supported the argument. In the first couple of minutes, the man got a free gun just for signing up for a bank account. The argument the he may be trying to make is that it is too easy to get a gun. He supports his argument by going to the bank a getting a gun. Just as he walked out, he asked “don’t you think it is a little dangerous to be handing out guns like this” which shows his argument. Also, to support his argument, he includes a picture of the ad, in which he had the idea to get the gun, showing that anyone, and everyone can get a gun as easy as that. After this short segment of the documentary, we paused and went over the arguments that other groups came up with. We wrapped up class by going through due dates of the project. Thanks for tuning into the Lynch Blog. See you next time.

Ryan Ryersen 1-23-17

Today in class we wrapped up The Great Gatsby and started looking at our next unit which is a research paper that is based on a documentary.  Over the weekend we had to finish the narrative assignment where we had to choose a scene from The Great Gatsby and rewrite that scene from another character’s perspective. All of these narratives were combined into one collective document titled “Mega Gatsby”.  Then, we had to add at least three comments onto some of the narratives. The comments could be about three things, they could be about how this narrator's perspective makes the story different than when Nick is the narrator, they could be about how a literary device develops the scene or it could be about how a certain perspective shapes character. The class made their comments and then we began discussing the cover of the book. The cover of the book has been the original cover ever since the book’s debut in the 1920’s. The cover shows a picture of a bright city the city is purposely mushed together and hard to define. The city is blurred which represents movement either towards the city or away from it. Watching over it are 2 eyes and lips. Many students guessed that they were the eyes of Myrtle or Dr. T. J. Eckleburg. While there is no definite answer it certainly ties into the modern feel of the novel. After that discussion, Mr. Rivers introduced us into our next unit which is writing a research paper. Over the next month we will be practicing and modeling our paper’s with the documentary Bowling for Columbine. This is all in preparation for our research paper that will be due on March 2nd.

Samantha Russo- 1/20

Hello to everyone! Today in class we continued working on our summative essay on if The Great Gatsby is romantic or modern. Today at the end of class was when the essay was originally due, but Mr. Rivers decided to extend the deadline to Sunday night. Also our narrative writing is due sunday night also. Remember that it needs to be at least 500 words if you are working alone and if you dedide to work in a group every person is worth an additional 250 words. That is just about everything we did in class today, I hope everyone enjoys thier weekend!