September 12, 2007

Homework:
Collage due Friday
Written presentation due Monday

Today:
Buzzword
Today, we finished examining "Fabulous" and how Sharpay defines herself by her material things and her popularity. I also showed them the video "Material Girl" by Madonna. In the video, the material girl is the woman wooed by lots of men. She gets everything she wants, but she does not get one man. The actress (a character in the video) who plays the material girl has a boyfriend who gives her lots of stuff, but she does not like it. In the end, the actress ends up with a man who gives her simple flowers and drives a simple truck. The video juxtaposes the material girl on stage getting stuff with what love should really look like.

I then pointed the students towards what they should be writing about for their presentation. I keep telling them to do the collage first. This way, by looking at what they made, they can better organize how they want to present themselves to us. The topic of how we define ourselves is deep. In some classes, I discussed that there is who we actually are, what we think we are, and how we want to be seen by others. We present ourselves to varying degrees in all three ways. Ultimately, during the presentation to the class, the students, like Sharpay, will present how they want to be seen. Of course. That is what I do as well in my class. I am not going to reveal all of myself, and neither does Sharpay as we learn later in the movie.