Today’s Plan:
- Looking for a Note Taker
- Circle Back to “Sudafed”
- Presentation Sign Ups
- Presentation Materials
Looking for a Note Taker
“This class requires a student to take notes each class period. The notetaker selected will receive either UNC Apparel or a certificate for 45 service hours. The note-taker must have a GPA of a 3.0 or higher. Notetakers can sign up online through the DRC Online Platform by going to the Notetaking Information of our website. Please see me if you are interested in volunteering as the peer notetaker.”
Circle Back to “Sudafed”
After last class, I realized that I didn’t exactly do what I wanted–yes, we analyzed our poems, but we didn’t necessarily do the work on turning our analytical work into words that we can share with other people. To recap last class, here’s what I remember we identified.
I spent some time turning that into words.
Presentation Sign Ups
Here is a link to presentation sign ups.
Presentation Expectations and Materials
First let me say that these are not supposed to be formal or stressful. I’m looking to force you to sit down for a bit and reflect on both the theoretical materials/terms we’ve been exploring and the game you have been playing/writing about. This is an opportunity to reflect and share.
Here is a link to our Handbook of Tragic Terms in case you need it.
I also know that public speaking really frightens some folks. If you would prefer, you can write a paper and I can read it for you, or you can record yourself in an automated PowerPoint or Youtube video. You have 800 words to deliver to the class–but multiple ways to think about how you want to do that.
As I’ve said, the paper should spend about 150 words summarizing the plot of the game for us. THAT IS NOT A LOT OF WORDS–but you should give everyone a big picture view of the topic/action/main character in a very tight paragraph. You can also indicate how much of the game you have played so far (e.g., I’m 6 hours in and through about 40% of the story or I’ve completed 4 out of 7 chapters).
After that, I would like you to engage in some close reading of a particular scene or scenes. You’ll have about 600-650 words left to do that. Tell us the purpose of the scene–does it connect us to a character? Does it amplify an emotional mood? Does it reveal the characters flaw? Does it exemplify the theme of the game?
[Time permitting, Last of Us opening scene, 15 minutes long]
What does the beginning of the game do?
- Details: clock ticking and the watch / calling daughter baby girl (foreshadowing)
- Depth of love for daughter, sarcastic humor between them, poor, they are all they have
- Dad is protective. Absurdly so–telling her not to look, not letting Tommy talk about what is clearly happening
- Joel is also aggressively protective.
- Loses daughter to a soldier
How to make the tragedy frustrating and not just sad? Joel as jerk vs. Joel as tragic figure.
Your presentation should be accompanied with a slide show. Unless you are recording your presentation, I strongly prefer you use Google Slides for this–you can submit a link to the presentation to Canvas and it will make transitioning between speakers much faster as everyone presents. These do not need to be fancy–just share materials relevant to your presentation. Or maybe like this.
