100 Vision Boards To Learn Literature! Kohanim's Board Art

This is how I introduce/ review units in my Language Arts classes. I call them Philosophy Vision boards. Students offer a question that relates to what we are studying and we set aside one class period to go through the pictures on the board. It is erased at the end of the day and we keep moving through the unit. Kids dig it.

1.

Am Lit: Romanticism

2.

Close up of Romanticism

3.

Pharmakon and Orwell's 1984

4.

Crucible Assignment for Am Lit

5.

Crucible Assignment for Am Lit

6.

Ideologies behind political speeches. (Am Lit)

7.

Kant and founding of the United States (Am Lit)

8.

Modern linguistics and deconstruction

9.

Full board: took about 2 hours

10.

Genie and critical age theory. Saussure and Lacan

11.

Freud and characterization in Cat in the Hat (introduces short story unit in 9th grade)

12. GOTHIC LIT: YESTERDAY AND TODAY 2013

This was a request by a student. The questions was how was Gothic literature used a genre and how is it seen in modern lit? I explained how Gothicism has changed into "horror" as opposed to "terror." I love it when they request things.

13. GOTHIC LIT: YESTERDAY AND TODAY 2013

A closer view of Gothic Lit and Modern Horror

14. PURITANISM

We ended the semester at Transcendentalism going into Realism/ Naturalism. So the stuff in black and white is the previous units. The stuff in color is Transcendentalism.

15. GOTHIC LIT: YESTERDAY AND TODAY 2013

16. AM LIT REVIEW SEM 1

We ended the semester at Transcendentalism going into Realism/ Naturalism. So the stuff in black and white is the previous units. The stuff in color is Transcendentalism.

17. AM LIT REVIEW SEM 1

We ended the semester at Transcendentalism going into Realism/ Naturalism. So the stuff in black and white is the previous units. The stuff in color is Transcendentalism.

18. AM LIT REVIEW SEM 1

We ended the semester at Transcendentalism going into Realism/ Naturalism. So the stuff in black and white is the previous units. The stuff in color is Transcendentalism.

19. AM LIT REVIEW SEM 1

We ended the semester at Transcendentalism going into Realism/ Naturalism. So the stuff in black and white is the previous units. The stuff in color is Transcendentalism.

20. AM LIT REVIEW SEM 1

We ended the semester at Transcendentalism going into Realism/ Naturalism. So the stuff in black and white is the previous units. The stuff in color is Transcendentalism.

21. AM LIT REVIEW SEM 1

We ended the semester at Transcendentalism going into Realism/ Naturalism. So the stuff in black and white is the previous units. The stuff in color is Transcendentalism.

22. AM LIT SEM 1 REVIEW

We ended at Transcendentalism going into Realism/ Naturalism. so the stuff in black and white is the previous units. The stuff in color is Transcendentalism. Yes. I know my Transcendentalists look like hipsters...

23. Baudrillard_Hyperreal_Consumerism

I use a lot of philosophy in Lit Class.

24. DERRIDA and CONTEXT

Derrida and Deconstruction is a big hit. The kids argue that postmodernism ruins everything. That makes me giggle

25. Plato's Allegory of the Cave

This is how I introduce concepts of enlightenment in Orwell's 1984.

26. How it looks in the room

Just for visual reference

27. How it looks in the room

28. Derrida in context of Linguistics

We don't get to spend a lot of time on this, but when we DO get to--it's great fun. Most kids say the learn more in these three days than any other days. Sadly, standardized testing requires us to spend less and less time exploring linguistics and philosophy in Language Arts. :P

29. Romeo and Juliet 2014

30. Romeo and Juliet 2014

31. ROMEO AND JULIET 2014

32. ROMEO AND JULIET 2014

33. SEUSS and PHILOSOPHY

34. SEUSS and PHILOSOPHY

35. SEUSS and PHILOSOPHY

36. SEUSS and PHILOSOPHY

37. MARXISM AND LITERATURE (GATSBY) A request

This was a request by a student. It is a HUGE concept to answer, so I tried my best to capture all of it. It ties in beautifully with our latest novel, The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

38. MARXISM AND LITERATURE (GATSBY) A request

Shortened class period means less time to explore concepts, so this is a smaller board. (Not completely fill all parts of board)

39. MARXISM AND LITERATURE (GATSBY) A request

Platonic Conception and Proustian Metaphor were some big concepts we tackled with Gatsby. They are finally moving away from the "Did the author mean for it to be that way" and towards the concept of art as a process and product.

40. MARXISM AND LITERATURE (GATSBY) A request

Time is an obvious entry point for understanding how our environment shapes our realities (and therefore identities) , so I often use it as entry point to understand really big concepts like these. For this one, division of time and labor and conversations as value-commodity exchanges (also seen in Gatsby through Valley of Ashes and Tom, Gatsby, and Nick).

41. MARXISM AND LITERATURE (GATSBY) A request

42. The Odyssey: 9th Grade

This was just a quick intro to our last unit in 9H

43. The Odyssey

44. The Odyssey

45. Puritans and the founding of America 2014

46. Puritans and the founding of America 2014

47. Puritans and the founding of America 2014

48. Puritans and the founding of America 2014

49. 1984, Lacan, Kant, Wittgenstein, Descartes, Zizek, Chomsky, and a nod to Ray Bradbury

It is mine :) I made the image. / Via scribd.com

Plato solved the question why Socrates’ conversation partners were apparently able to “remember” various cognitive capacities, which they didn’t themselves know they had, by referring the capacities to an existence prior to the individual’s birth: the immortal soul. The latter problem, of course, is the exact opposite: How is it possible that we know so little, given that we have so much evidence? (McGilvray: 238, Chomsky 1986: ch. 3 & 5). This is “Orwell’s Problem”, because it is the problem of how those in power are able to produce “manufactured consent” in their subjects, even though there is more than enough evidence to give reason to doubt the official truth. George Orwell’s version of this problem in 1984 was the invention of the concept of “newspeak”: by calling war “peace”, slavery “freedom”, etc., the State is able to trick or coerce its subjects into actively accepting things, which they would oppose had they been described as what they really are.

SOURCE: This paper was presented at the conference “The Grammar of Politics”, arranged by the Danish Wittgenstein Network, (Aarhus, November 2005). It was first published in Krtaca, Slovenia, (Ljubljana 2006).

50. Request from student: The Crucible/ The Scarlet Letter

It's mine....well, mine and my student's. :)

What is the nature of human beings: Good? or Bad? Is the influence of an outside event making a person all good or all bad?

Is the calling of spirits what turns Salem bad?

51. Kant, Descartes, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Being versus Essence

52. Morality, Binary Oppositions, Ethics, and Moral Relativism

53. Kant's Categorical Imperative, Qua, Metaphysics

and puppets. Those aren't mine though. The kids made them. I think Reverend Hale fell over.

54. American Literature Honors

Philosophy Friday. Puritans and morality. Are we inherently good or evil?

55. Age of Reason AM LIT Honors

56. Age of Reason AM LIT H

57. 2014 - 2015

Student request for link between empirical knowledge and Transcendentalism. American Literature

58. 2014 - 2015

Student request for link between empirical knowledge and Transcendentalism. American Literature

59. 2015 Request from my 9th Honors students.

We were in the media literacy unit which largely focuses on how language is used in advertising, television shows, print media, and visual rhetoric.

60. 2015 Request from 9th Honors

61. 2015 Request from 9th Honors

62. 2015 Request from 9th Honors

63. 2015 Request from 9th Honors

64. Student Request 2015: How does language carry power?

65. Student Request 2015: How does language carry power?

66. 2015 Romeo and Juliet: Student Request

Shakespeare added a lot of words to the English language. To do this had to have either taken different meanings of different words and combine them into one word, or take an unnamed meaning and get it a word. How does/ did this "creation of expression" s

67. 2015: Romeo and Juliet: Student Request

Why is young love alway[s] in conflict or doomed like Romeo and Juliet? Did Shakespeare always do this?

68. 2015: Romeo and Juliet: Student Request

69. 2015: Romeo and Juliet: Student Request

70. 2015: Romeo and Juliet: Student Request

71. 2015: Romeo and Juliet: Student Request

72. 2015 student request: Plato, philosophy, and 1984

73. 2015 student request: Plato, philosophy, and 1984

74. 2015 student request: Plato, philosophy, and 1984

75. SCARLET LETTER

Jordan Kohanim

This is a request from students. They asked about Hawthorne's transitional philosophies (namely, from the Age of Reason into (Dark) Romanticism) in comparison/ contrast to the setting of the novel's transitional philosophies (from Puritans to Age of Reason). They also asked questions about feminism in the novel, idealism in the novel and in today's society, purity and Puritanism, and the nature of humanity/ human nature.

76. SCARLET LETTER

This is a request from students. They asked about Hawthorne's transitional philosophies (namely, from the Age of Reason into (Dark) Romanticism) in comparison/ contrast to the setting of the novel's transitional philosophies (from Puritans to Age of Reason). They also asked questions about feminism in the novel, idealism in the novel and in today's society, purity and Puritanism, and the nature of humanity/ human nature.

77. SCARLET LETTER

This is a request from students. They asked about Hawthorne's transitional philosophies (namely, from the Age of Reason into (Dark) Romanticism) in comparison/ contrast to the setting of the novel's transitional philosophies (from Puritans to Age of Reason). They also asked questions about feminism in the novel, idealism in the novel and in today's society, purity and Puritanism, and the nature of humanity/ human nature.

78. SCARLET LETTER

This is a request from students. They asked about Hawthorne's transitional philosophies (namely, from the Age of Reason into (Dark) Romanticism) in comparison/ contrast to the setting of the novel's transitional philosophies (from Puritans to Age of Reason). They also asked questions about feminism in the novel, idealism in the novel and in today's society, purity and Puritanism, and the nature of humanity/ human nature.

79. SCARLET LETTER

This is a request from students. They asked about Hawthorne's transitional philosophies (namely, from the Age of Reason into (Dark) Romanticism) in comparison/ contrast to the setting of the novel's transitional philosophies (from Puritans to Age of Reason). They also asked questions about feminism in the novel, idealism in the novel and in today's society, purity and Puritanism, and the nature of humanity/ human nature.

80. Romanticism 2015 - 2016

81. Romanticism 2015 - 2016

82. Romanticism 2015 - 2016

83. POISONWOOD BIBLE SUMMER READING 2016

84. POISONWOOD BIBLE SUMMER READING 2016

85. GATSBY BOARD 2017

Questions posed by students: What is a Proustian metaphor in Gatsby? Why does Fitzgerald use Proustian metaphor what is his purpose for doing so? Can we talk more about how the separation of mind and body in different characters? How do we tie in Nietzsche/ Nihilism/ Proustian Metaphor and Great Gatsby? Can we go further into the distinction between Nietzsche and nihilism and the presence of both in Gatsby?

86. GATSBY BOARD 2017

Questions posed by students: What is a Proustian metaphor in Gatsby? Why does Fitzgerald use Proustian metaphor what is his purpose for doing so? Can we talk more about how the separation of mind and body in different characters? How do we tie in Nietzsche/ Nihilism/ Proustian Metaphor and Great Gatsby? Can we go further into the distinction between Nietzsche and nihilism and the presence of both in Gatsby?

87. GATSBY BOARD 2017

Questions posed by students: What is a Proustian metaphor in Gatsby? Why does Fitzgerald use Proustian metaphor what is his purpose for doing so? Can we talk more about how the separation of mind and body in different characters? How do we tie in Nietzsche/ Nihilism/ Proustian Metaphor and Great Gatsby? Can we go further into the distinction between Nietzsche and nihilism and the presence of both in Gatsby?

88. GATSBY BOARD 2017

Questions posed by students: What is a Proustian metaphor in Gatsby? Why does Fitzgerald use Proustian metaphor what is his purpose for doing so? Can we talk more about how the separation of mind and body in different characters? How do we tie in Nietzsche/ Nihilism/ Proustian Metaphor and Great Gatsby? Can we go further into the distinction between Nietzsche and nihilism and the presence of both in Gatsby?

89. GATSBY BOARD 2017

Questions posed by students: What is a Proustian metaphor in Gatsby? Why does Fitzgerald use Proustian metaphor what is his purpose for doing so? Can we talk more about how the separation of mind and body in different characters? How do we tie in Nietzsche/ Nihilism/ Proustian Metaphor and Great Gatsby? Can we go further into the distinction between Nietzsche and nihilism and the presence of both in Gatsby?

90. 2017 Romeo and Juliet

Question by student: Why did Shakespeare make up so many words? What's the point of new language?

91. 2017 Romeo and Juliet

Question by student: Why did Shakespeare make up so many words? What's the point of new language?

92. 2017 Romeo and Juliet

93. 2018 Gatsby

94. 2018 Gatsby

95. 2018 Gatsby close-up

96. 2018 Gatsby close-up

97. 2018 Gatsby close-up

98. Beloved novel questions 2018

99. Beloved novel questions 2018

100. Beloved novel questions 2018