Course+Syllabus

In this course we will critically investigate mass media across a wide variety of genres. Through the study of narrative techniques dating back to ancient mythological archetypes through modern film and television, we will develop criteria for analysis and foster a deeper understanding of the various forms of mass media we are exposed to on a daily basis.
 * Course Description:**

English skills will be addressed and strengthened through process writing of essays, critiques, and research projects. Students will read novels (independently and as a class), short stories, poetry and magazine articles that relate to the units being studied. Students will improve their verbal skills through formal class presentations, small and large group discussions, study of story-telling techniques and Socratic Seminar. By creating and presenting various projects of their own, students will gain an understanding of media construction and the psychology behind the mass media.

· To help students increase their perceptive skills and to interpret the language of mass media through student-generated criteria for evaluation. · To foster critical literacy. · To investigate the nature of film as a distinctive art form and to relate and compare it to the other arts. · To help students recognize and communicate their own psychological and emotional responses to film and mass media. · To help students develop criteria for aesthetic awareness, so they may evaluate film and mass media. · To help students learn how to verbalize the experience of seeing and hearing visual communication through oral and written evaluations. · To sharpen the skills necessary to create various forms of media that reflect our values, aesthetics, experiences and tastes. = =
 * Course Objectives:**

· Film as modern mythology · New American Archetypes: A critical inquiry · Polemics: The art of controversy · Fiction into film · Advertising for change -Documentary Filmmaking
 * Major Units:**

You are allowed **one** unexplained/unexcused absence per quarter. After the first absence, you must make up the class the following day during activity period. If the class is not made up, you will lose **one** point from your final average. This mirrors a standard college-level English class attendance policy.
 * Attendance Policy:**