Building off the previous units, especially the core concepts of visual culture, this unit examines the way images reflect, construct, and change our concept of race. If there is the myth of photographic truth, what does that mean as we deconstruct images that represent African Americans, Asian Americans, and under-represented peoples? If our ideologies inform the way we see images, then can images ever affect social change? Can we ever move beyond what our own ideologies see? What is the tension between the ability of an image to liberate us from one way of seeing and/or limiting our seeing?
Essential Questions
- How do images reflect, construct, and change our concept of belonging and citizenship?
- How do images simultaneously liberate and limit?
- Can the circulation and distribution of images bring about social change?
- Do our ideologies promote, prevent and/or limit the ways of looking at an image in a variety of ways?
- If there is the myth of photographic truth, what does that mean as we deconstruct images?
- How can we promote civil and democratic discourse about sensitive and controversial topics?
Final Assignment
Create an assemblage/multi-modal piece of writing that makes an arguable claim about one or more of the essential questions by assembling a combination of visual and textual evidence to explore and support claim. You will draw on the resources (films, texts, images) used in this unit in addition to your own independent research. In this piece of composition, you will demonstrate an understanding of how the history of visual representation impacts our contemporary cultural ideas about race and individual ideologies.
Other Assignments
- Writer’s reflections
- Viewer’s notebook responses
- Presentation on 13th or I Am Not Your Negro
- Film review for Do the Right Thing
Fri 2/1
Presentations
HW: “‘Mary Poppins,’ and a Nanny’s Shameful Flirting With Blackface” & “We Need to Talk About Digital Blackface in Reaction GIFs”
- What is your reaction to each article? What do you think about the information, history of minstrel performances, and what these writers are saying about GIFs and the new Mary Poppins?
- The piece about Mary Poppins is a piece of criticism, while the piece about digital blackface is an op-ed. How does that affect your reaction to the pieces?
Mon 2/4
Newsworthy topic-LM&JP
Presentations cont.
HW: Gates “Frederick Douglass’s Camera Obscura” and Wexler “A More Perfect Likeness”
Tues 2/5
Gone with the Wind viewing and response
Wed 2/6
Presentations cont.
Thurs 2/7
Drop
Fri 2/8
Presentations cont.
HW: Reading and preparing for discussion for Newsworthy topic
Mon 2/11
Presentations cont
Tues 2/12
Snow day
Wed 2/13
Newsworthy topic discussion
Final presentation
Thurs 2/14
Newsworthy topic discussion
Reflection on project
Fri 2/15
No school – Enjoy the break!
Mon 2/25
What was Douglass’s project with photography?
- Take out readings
- Identify writer’s thesis. What is their project they discuss in the piece?
- In “Vision & Justice” what connections does Sarah Lewis suggest between images and citizenship?
- In “Frederick Douglass’s Camera Obscura” what does Henry Louis Gates Jr. identify as significant to understanding photography as Douglass used it?
- Visual culture of the time period
- Reading images
- Who created this image?
- What techniques are used to attract my attention?
- How might different people see this image differently from me?
- What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?
- Why was this message sent?
cont. discussion from Douglass
Presentation Assignment
- I Am Not Your Negro
- 13th
Film Viewing
Presentations on I Am Not Your Negro and 13th
Tues 2/26
Finish Presentations
Wed 2/27
Drop
Thurs 2/28
Newsworthy Topics Discussion
I AM A MAN
Emmett Till and Dana Schuz painting
Fri 3/1
1989 and Do the Right Thing
HW: “Asian-American Actors Are Fighting for Visibility” and paragraph length response how that article and”Love/Hate: New York, Race, and 1989” influenced your viewing of Do the Right Thing. What specifically stood out to you?
Fri 2/2
Do the Right Thing
- What is the ‘right thing’?
HW: Newsworthy Topic (see shared google doc)
Mon 2/5
Drop
Tues 2/6
finish film
HW: Preparing for the Socratic Seminar by creating 6 discussion questions about the film. Your questions should not only address the film but also consider the essential questions of this unit and the readings and other texts we have examined as part of this unit.
Wed 2/7
Newsworthy Topic
Socratic Seminar
HW: review your questions given today’s discussion
Thurs 2/8
cont. Socratic Seminar
HW: Reading the overview of the final assignment & Zadie Smith’s “Getting In and Getting Out: Who Owns Black Pain?”
Fri 2/9
Volunteers to visit junior classes
“Getting in and Getting Out” as multi-modal (one example)
Writing the Do the Right Thing Response
Brainstorming possibilities for multi-modal
HW: Thomas’s and Dylan’s Newsworthy topics
Mon 2/12
Newsworthy Topic Discussion
Working on The Proposal
Creating The Proposal
- Which essential question are you addressing? What are your initial thoughts on answering this question?
- Potential images to examine and synthesize
- What form will your piece take? Why? How will it help further the idea of your composition?
Tues 2/13
Presenting proposals
- Feedback from peers and teacher
HW: Reflection: After hearing the feedback from my peers and teacher, I…
Wed 2/14
Continuing Proposals
HW: Enjoy the break
Thurs 2/15
Drop
Mon 2/26
cont. Proposals
Drafting the intro
HW: Newsworthy topic and have images to show tomorrow – begin playing and assembling images – what relationships are created when these images are side by side?
Tues 2/27
Newsworthy discussion
Assemblage Day
HW: writing the introduction – submit on google classroom
Wed 2/28
Newsworthy discussion
Drafting day and conference time with Ms. Weeks and/or the Writing Center
Thurs 3/1
Drafting day and conference time with Ms. Weeks and/or the Writing Center
HW: submit draft
Fri 3/2
Drafting day and conference time with Ms. Weeks and/or the Writing Center
Mon 3/5
Drafting day and conference time with Ms. Weeks and/or the Writing Center
Submit your draft by 2.05
Tues 3/6
Black Panther debrief and discussion
HW: submit final draft
Wed 3/7
Starting next unit
