S(no)w school

Happy snow days! I haven’t seen an updated finals schedule yet but we will plan to work on your books all class on Wednesday instead of doing a final blog post. I might need to hang on to them over break to grade but we will see. It will be okay! Right? Be safe.

Final Project: Altered Book Portfolio

Here is the link to the Altered Book Final Portfolio Project assignment sheet and the scoring guide for your reference.  The books are due at the beginning of class Wednesday, 18 December.  Make something you love and that you will enjoy stumbling upon one day down the road...

XOXO

This is... Photo Writing

Happy French Girl and Her Cat, 1959

I'd like you to do a New Post on your own blog with some writing about one of your own photos inspired by Katy Barber's "Photograph 1969." I'll leave it up to you to decide whether you'd like to arrange your words as a poem or a short piece of prose. I'll be looking for a vivid description of what we can actually see in the photo, followed by that "twist" we discussed in class, where you intimate or imply what else is "in" the photo...an understanding, an observation, a hint at something that came later, a bigger idea at play...something more. Please include the photo in your post. 

If you don't have a photo of your own or find that too personal, find a striking or interesting photo that speaks to you on the internet or in a magazine or use one we looked at in class and write about it in this same way instead.  Here are some historic photos you could use, and here are some heartwarming ones.  

Photograph 1969 by Katy Barber

This is my mother

lifting her hair long

like a low whistle

off her neck

These are her fingers

caught in the tangles

of brown and gold caught in

silver earrings

This is my father

reaching through the lens

to touch the edge

of a new family

to touch her opening belly

under her full dress

This is existing

before I exist

This is me growing up

against their lives

him watching for a sharp

breath from her looking out

onto the border of birth

this is bumping us into three

Photo Hunt

In a New Post on your blog, please share at least 10 of the photos you took during our Photo Hunt. Add a caption of at least 25 words to go with each photo, and include a clever #hashtag with each caption.  You can decide whether to label or otherwise indicate which photo on the list each was supposed to be.

At the end of your post, include a quote that suggests something about paying attention or writers noticing everything or the power of photographs.