90 Second Novel

Throughout the Coin Arc the Amber Band read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. In the book Junior, an aspiring cartoonist, decides to leave behind his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend a farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. This book gave us an opportunity to talk about what Junior values, and how social currency is constructed. After reading the book we discussed the overall theme in the book. Students reflected on what Junior valued most:"I think Junior values friendship most since he asked Gordy to be friends instead of punching him." — Norabelle"Junior values money, mainly to achieve his dreams, and the dreams of others around him. I saw this when he said: 'But we reservation Indians don't get to realize our dreams. We don't get those chances. Or choices. We're just poor. That's all we are.'" —Oscar"Junior views possibility as value, or as he puts it, hope. I think this is the hope of possibility. In the book he says: 'Where can I find hope?'"—Huxley  Inspired by the 90 Second Newberry, we decided to try synthesizing the big ideas from this book into a 90 second video. We started by analyzing other 90 second films, like the one that the Amber Band made last year for Crossing the Wire. Students worked in small groups to draw up a storyboard, record audio, film and edit their stop-motion animations. The resulting animations showed the story of Junior, and what he values most.[embed]https://youtu.be/Yq91_R5z8lY[/embed][embed]https://youtu.be/VKU3MUKrfwA[/embed] Making these movies gave us a chance to consider the math behind stop-motion animations. We looked at the work of contemporary artist William Kentridge. In the video he talks about his process. This got us wondering, if it takes William Kentridge 100 frames to make 4 seconds of animation, how long would it take him to make a 90 Second Novel? Students worked through the problem independently, then came together to share their process for finding the answer.   This project helped us to analyze the novel we read, and it helped prepare us for the work we'll be doing all November long—NaNoWriMo! We've already started to discuss plans for how we'll be participating in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and some of the Amberites even have an idea for the stories they'd like to share in their own novels.