Friday, October 15, 2021

Blogger #12 - Michelle Guo - Period 3 - 10/15/21

Aim

How can we use “The Masque of the Red Death” Mask success criteria to construct a mask, which clearly reflects the assignment for my upcoming oral and visual presentation project?



Do Now (THINK/PAIR/SHARE)

Conventional Symbols Packet:


https://classroom.google.com/u/3/c/Mzg4MjgzNjUzODQ4/m/MzQ2NjQzMzYwNjA1/details

Symbolism: Refer to the Conventional Symbols Packet (found on Google Classroom).

Choose any two things from the packet, which you believe could represent you. Explain why you chose it? (Ex. What’s your spirit animal…)


The class began with a question about symbolism. The question was “From the Conventional Symbols Packet, what do you believe could represent you and explain why you chose those symbols.” My classmates that responded to the question said that they believed the color blue was a symbol that could represent themselves. This was because the color blue was a color that stuck with them almost throughout their whole life. They mentioned examples such as their favorite color was blue, their walls were painted blue, and that they considered the color to be a sign of peacefulness. Personally, I never thought about a symbol that could represent me, but after participating in this discussion, I believe that “Light” can be one of those symbols. “Light”, as it states in the Conventional Symbols Packet, represents truth, safety, warmth, and knowledge and it can also be a symbol of life, happiness, or prosperity. Light is necessary in this world that we live in and it is something that I tend to like as well. I would much rather prefer being in the light instead of being in the darkness. I also believe that I am quite a cheerful person and a person filled with warmth, which is why I believe it can be a representative symbol for me.


Oral Presentation Project Introduction

“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OnAs_D6gUwcV3lrptLyN8sPOymSJg-Gx/edit

You have been cordially invited to attend Prince Prospero’s Masquerade Ball!


The class was then introduced to our first project of the year, which is the Mask Project. This project is based on the short story we read in class by Edgar Allan Poe, which is titled “The Masque of the Red Death” As the instructions state, we are to create and present a mask made by ourselves. However, the mask must be decorated and colored based on symbols that represent uus and descriptive of the stage in our life that we are currently in. The colors of the masks should also correlate to the room we would be found in based on our current stage in life. Along with completing the mask, we are also required to assess the masks of another group according to the Mask Success Criteria, which should support the symbolism implied by the creator of the mask. The review should discuss our respective group’s interpretation of the mask and then the true interpretation of the mask by the creator.


Mask Success Criteria

The Mask Success Criteria is as stated below:

1. How did you interpret the creator’s symbolism?
2. Did the student have self-awareness through their understanding and ability to articulate the stages of life?
3. Did the student accurately apply the use of symbolism to represent their personality? (In essence, your correct application of Symbolism is transcendent across literature.)


Achieving Mastery

- Your symbolism accurately represents your stages of life.
- Your chosen colors accurately depict your intentions
- Your reviewer can correctly identify your intention


Creating The Masks

The masks can be decorated with almost anything we would like. This can include feathers, stick-on jewels/rhinestones, and glitter. Masks can also be built from scratch. To build a mask, you can cut it from paper, put something solid on the back of it to help secure it, and simply glue a long popsicle stick on the side or back of the mask.


Masks Group Discussion

After being given all the instructions for the project, we were allowed to use the remaining class time to plan our masks.


My partner and I began looking at the Conventional Symbols Packet to decide which symbols we would each like to use for our masks. We first looked at the color symbols, which were the first section in the packet. My partner said that her current ideas were either white or violet. She said that she chose white since it was a color that symbolized “innocence, life, light, purity, or enlightenment, critical, can represent completeness, and can also be reverence” as stated in the packet and she believed herself to be someone who had a pure and innocent heart. She chose the color violet as it was her favorite color, and it was a color of wisdom and sensitivity. The color violet can also be representative of the words wise, thoughtful, and empathetic. I had similar ideas to my partner as I was also considering the color violet in addition to the color blue. As discussed in the do now, the color blue represents the words cool, calm, and peaceful and can be associated with health and life. I personally really like the color blue since it reminds me of the sea, something that always puts my heart at ease and gives me a sense of calmness. I also considered other symbols, such as flowers and doves, which I may include on my mask. Flowers represent “beauty, youth, strength, gentleness, and love” and the dove represents “peace, purity, and simplicity” both as stated in the Conventional Symbols Packet. These two symbols are things that I like and find to be representative of me since they represent the words youth, gentleness, and purity.



Reflection

What did I learn?

Why did I learn it?

How will I use what I learned?




In this lesson, I learned about the many symbols that can represent oneself. Symbols are concrete objects which are used to represent an abstract idea. Throughout this lesson, I found symbols to represent myself that I have never thought could represent me before. These symbols are light, the colors violet and blue, flowers, and the dove. Symbolism is an important component of literature that can be seen in many forms of literature and the real world. Since symbolism is used frequently, it is essential to know conventional symbols because they can be used to suggest ideas that are more universal than the literal or physical meaning of the symbol. After learning about conventional symbols, I will use what I learned to identify these symbols and know what they represent whenever I come across them, perhaps in my future readings. We, as readers, must understand symbolism when it is used in literature to understand when stories have a deeper meaning so we can truly understand the story and the author.

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