April 29th Daily Plan

9th Grade - Freshmen had a three-part lesson today. The first part involved a quiz over stage directions, reviewing from our lesson on this topic last week. Basically, for this quiz I gave students a blank image of a stage with some directions written, and students had to track where the actor would shift throughout the scene.

Students then had about 20-25 minutes for S.S.R. As I've explained to all classes before, the goal with S.S.R. is that students are reading something that they actively enjoy and want to be reading. If students do not enjoy the book they have chosen, they should be looking for new books and have something they DO enjoy to bring in to class. Students only receive credit for S.S.R. if -

1) They are reading what they have told me they are reading (i.e. no pulling books off my back shelf, this does not count), and
2) They spend the full amount of time reading.

10th Grade - Sophomores had a slightly modified class again, to account for the assembly yesterday around the Wyoming Supreme Court. This means that classes that did not meet yesterday were in the library today to complete the Design a Class Project.

The other two classes had their days divided between S.S.R. (see explanation for S.S.R. credit above), and a short video that highlighted similar topics to what we have discussed revolving designing classes.

Late Work for Sophomores -

• Several students are still missing two major assignments from the past two weeks.
• "Dissecting an Ad" Project - last day to turn in will be Monday, 5/2.
• "Design a Class Project" - last day to turn in will be next Friday, 5/7.

Be aware that each additional day late subtracts 10% from the total score.

April 28th Daily Plan

9th Grade - We reviewed Act 1 of "Romeo and Juliet" in two different ways today, to make sure that students are all comprehending the storyline well enough, and that they are able to decipher the old-English writing of Shakespeare.

First, we continued with their modern-English translation of sections of Scene 5 in small groups, to allow me to guage how well they are able to identify what specific passages mean (some of the phrasing is counter-intuitive).

Second, we watched Act 1 of the 1968 film version of the play. There are some minor modifications to the dialogue, but for the most part, this version is done exactly by the book. It is useful as it provides a very visual reinforcement to what we have read this week, and can help make sure that students are all on the same page in terms of comprehension as we start Act 2.

We will pick up speed with the reading next week, having less reading as-a-class and more in small groups and individually.

Homework - study for STAGE DIRECTIONS quiz.

10th Grade - Sophomores had a divided schedule, because of the Wyoming Supreme Court visit to the high school that occupied about 1/2 of the day.

For the sophomores that did have my class today - we used this period as a work-day to complete the Design a Class Project in the library. Students were shown an example of what I expect for the writing (about 1 - 1 1/2 pages long and based off the outline they worked on yesterday).

1st and 5th period were able to use the entire class period in the library, and the majority of both classes finished before the end of the period.

Homework - for those that did not finish, I will accept this project at the start of your class Friday without counting it as late. Each day past that is -10% (as it always is).

April 27th Daily Plan

9th Grade - Freshmen continued through Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet, and we completed Scene 4 and Scene 5 in class today. We did have a specific method/structure to the reading in class, where we read Scene 4 and worked on the comprehension as a class, but students read Scene 5 in small groups.

The small group assignment attached to Scene 5 was a short handout that I provided the students. Students had to read through the scene with their classmates, and then create a brief (3-4 sentence) summary of the scene.

Each group was then assigned a certain number of lines that their group had to translate into modern-day English. We will put together their modern translations tomorrow and see how well the classes could interpret what they have read.

10th Grade - Sophomores continued on with the next project for the Critical Thinking unit, specifically looking at the purpose and methodology of education. We watched an excerpt from a TED Talk video about multiple means of assessing intelligence, and discussed how there is not really a "one-size-fits-all" education system.

The project for this week - Design a Class. Students were given a template to fill out, creating an additional class to add to a high school curriculum.

Requirements -

• Create a Course Name and Description
• List the skills (Academic? Social? Physical?) that will be developed
• List the factual knowledge needed (for example, a class on American History NEEDS certain facts - cause of the Civil War, etc)
• Connections Beyond School - How does this class help students once they graduate?

We will have some time in the library tomorrow to type up a final draft of this project.

Homework - Complete Template (If not completed in class)

April 26th Daily Plan

9th Grade - Freshmen continued reading in "Romeo and Juliet," and we dedicated this entire class period to getting further in the text by reading it out loud, as a class. This is in large part because Act 1 is very important in terms of setting up the story that follows, and I want to make sure that students are exactly on the same page (literally and figuratively) in terms of comprehending the storyline.

As we get further into the story, I will start having students work more in small groups and individually, and then returning to a full class to discuss and assess.

As a class, we read through the end of Act 1 Scene 3, moving through these opening scenes slowly to allow students to get used to the old English writing style. We will move on to Scene 4 and 5 tomorrow, but had a preliminary discussion about the role and purpose of dreaming, since Act  1 Scene 4 discusses dreams.

10th Grade - We continued reading the Freire article about different methods of education, and I provided students with a simplified explanation of "Banking" vs. "Problem-Posing" education. We discussed some of the pros and cons of each system (for example, banking education can be viewed as having a lack of pragmatic application for students, but problem posing education can be incredibly difficult to standardize across a wide area, and can make it difficult to provide equal levels of education, even within one building).

Students were asked to reflect on this article for their 2nd PORTFOLIO ENTRY.

Questions I provided -

- Do you agree or disagree with the author? What do you think about "banking" vs "problem-posing" education?

- Should all schools teach the same general material?

- Who should decide what all students should know?

- Is it possible to match student's individual goals within the regular school system?

- Students have more access to information and technology now than ever before.
Is this a positive change, or are there negative implications?
(students could answer one, two, all, none, but have to write approx. 1 full page as a response).

HOMEWORK - 5th Period - Finish Freire Essay.

April 22nd Daily Plan

9th Grade - Freshmen started reading "Romeo and Juliet" in class today. The main goal was to make sure that students are able to comprehend the older style of English writing and understand the plot in terms of a story.

We discussed a couple aspects of this process, and I gave students some ideas for how to make the writing more accessible.

1) Remember - this is a play. It wasn't originally intended to be read by one person sitting down, but was intended to be performed by multiple actors who have rehearsed. We are reading it slowly, but the entire piece is designed to be finished in a 2 hour time span (which students will see when we watch the film).

2) The version we are reading is broken down in a very specific way - every other page is simply notes for old terminology and explaining some of the puns/lines that students will likely not understand, because the language is so old. Do not rely on reading this part first! It will be much easier overall to try and read the page of the play itself, and then refer back to the notes if something is particularly confusing. However, if you can understand the majority of the writing without referencing the notes every couple of lines, the reading will go much more smoothly, faster, and make more sense overall.

10th Grade - Sophomores are done with studying the idea of fallacy, and now we are looking at some questions about theories of education. Basically, the point of the section of this unit is that students take time to reflect on their own educational histories, and think critically about what is important to know, and how do you know it is important?

Periods 1 and 4 - we started reading an article by Paolo Freire, a Brazilian educator who has had a large influence on theories of learning. The main point from Freire's article which we discussed is the role of the student-teacher relationship and how it impacts learning. Freire's discussed two styles of education -

1) The Banking System - students are seen as empty vessels who need to be "filled" with information. He argues that traditionally, much of education has followed this model, though there are many faults in it.

We stopped reading before reaching the second system, so I will outline it when we reach that point.

Period 5  - These students had the same set-up as the previous classes, but we did not begin the article. This is because I had promised all classes that they would have time for S.S.R. (Silent Sustained Reading) in class, and I had given it to all periods but 5th this week. They will catch up with the article on Tuesday.

Have a good weekend.

April 21st Daily Plan

9th Grade - Freshmen took our last section of notes before we start reading "Romeo and Juliet" tomorrow. This lesson was specifically based around stage directions, and making sure students understand that the way characters are positioned on a stage has an important effect on the performance.

We talked about how it is easy to disregard directions when reading a play, but that the reader needs to remember that the story was not designed to be read - it is designed to be performed. This means that when reading, students should think of this in terms of a performance.

The class played a game in which everyone was given a "map" of a stage, and then had to create a six-step process of directions. One student would then have to try and follow the directions without looking at the map.

Quiz on stage directions sometime next week, following the same format!

10th Grade - Sophomores presented the Dissecting an Ad projects that we have worked on this week. Everyone who has been here for the past two days presented, and overall this went very well.

Students who missed days this week, or were unable to present today - to get credit, you can still create a Powerpoint presentation and send it to me via e-mail to get credit for that component of the project. However, we are moving on to the next topic in our unit tomorrow, and there will be no more time for presentations for this project.

Sophomores also finished with about 10-15 minutes of S.S.R. in most periods.

April 20th Daily Plan

9th Grade - We only have a few more days of prepwork before starting to read "Romeo and Juliet" on Friday, and today was focused on getting some background knowledge of the author, as well as an introduction to Shakespearean English.

In terms of background, I gave a very brief biography of Shakespeare, and students who missed class can come pick up the notes from me.

In terms of Shakespearean English, we worked with three main ideas today - omission, contraction, and sentence structure. In everyday speech, students use a significant amount of omissions and contractions - for example, the sentence - "I'ma go to the store" literally implies "I am going to go to the store." Four words are omitted, but because we are so used to it, it is easy to infer the meaning.

The exact same thing occurs with Shakespeare's writing, however, because it is in an older style of English, it can be confusing. Student have a list of common omissions/contractions to reference when reading.

The other important focus was sentence structure. Oftentimes, Shakespeare will change the subject-verb-object order to create a better rhythm in his writing.

For example, in the sentence "I went to the store" -

I - subject
The store - object
went - verb

So the sentence can be re-ordered as -

"To the store went I"
"Went I to the store"
"The store, went I to"

They all have the same meaning, but the ordering of the parts is modified.

10th Grade - Today was the last day in the library to work on the Dissecting an Ad project. Students were shown a model of what is expected in their presentation tomorrow -

1) What is the product/service and where is it being sold?
2) Who is the target audience, and how can you tell?
3) What strategies are the marketers using to make their product appealing?
4) What are the fallacies found within the advertisement?

Everything was due at the end of the class period for full, on-time credit - that means students had to turn in the ads they used, the written component, and a copy of their presentation (generally PowerPoint).

Because we are only going to use tomorrow to present, students must have their presentations by tomorrow morning. Turning this in later than tomorrow will still get credit, but the presentation component will be deducted.

April 19th Daily Plan

9th Grade - We continued our pre-reading discussion on some of the major motifs and elements that will be brought up in Romeo and Juliet. The first part of class was a discussion over the various ways of defining "love" as a concept; specifically, comparing the ideas of love, true love, lust, infatuation, crush, puppy love, etc. Students realized that the definitions are at times murky, and can shift from one to another as well.

The class also looked at some of the other topics for discussion - what kind of responsibility teenagers should have, and whether love at first sight is possible, were a few of the examples of the questions that we talked about.

10th Grade - Today was Day 2 in the library for the Dissecting an Ad project. At this point, students should all have their two ads chosen, and I provided a model of what I am expecting for the written component. Basically, each ad used needs a two paragraph explanation, typed in M.L.A. format.

The first paragraph should describe what is being advertised and where, and who the target audience is.

The second paragraph should describe the tactics used to present the product/service, and what logical fallacies are involved.

Students had the whole class period for this assignment, and will have through tomorrow to have the project fully completed. I will provide a model of what I expect to be on the presentation tomorrow in class.

Dissecting an Ad Project - Resource

The Internet Encyclopaedia of Fallacy - http://www.iep.utm.edu/fallacy/

April 15th Daily Plan

9th Grade - ***The two periods of freshmen are still at slightly different spots, but should be on the same spot by the end of monday***

The main goal of class today was to finish the story we started yesterday, as well as complete a journal entry over several topics. The first journal entry question - would you rather be able to change one thing in the past, or look into the future once?

In 3rd period, the rest of the time was dedicated to allowing students to complete reading on their own, and then answer some reflection questions in their journals about the story.

Reflection Questions - What ONE moment in the story would you change if you were the narrator? What COULD you change?

What were the most pivotal moments in the story (what was necessary for the plot to develop)? What was planned, and was complicated those plans?

In 7th period, everyone finished the story and we had time to discuss/clarify confusing points and address these questions.

10th Grade - Sophomores continued our study on intended meaning vs. created meaning when reading. As an example, we listened to the song "Killing an Arab," by the Cure, which has very easily be misconstrued (the song is actually based on the Albert Camus novel The Stranger and has no intended racial overtone). However, it is very easy to read a racist viewpoint into the chorus, and the question becomes - is an author obligated to do everything possible to make sure the intended meaning is clear?

We continued to read the Stanley Fish essay "How to Recognize a Poem When You See One" and discussed the ideas of individual thought. Students then were given some time to do a reflective writing piece on the essay, as well as using any of the materials of the past several days.

Homework - Finish reflection on Stanley Fish essay; this is the FIRST piece for the PORTFOLIO.

April 14th Daily Plan

9th Grade - Freshmen put some finishing touches on their graphic life map assignments, and attached them to posterboard provided in class.

The rest of class was dedicated to reading a Stanislaw Lem short story. The rationale behind this is that we are looking at the ideas of choice, consequence, and identifying the difference between planned actions and complications in a plotline. The Futurama episode used was a very simplistic example - it is designed as a 1/2 hour TV show, and therefore the plot must be appropriately simplified. This short story is definitely more complex, and the differences between what is planned and what complicated the plan are more subtle.

This is a good intermediate step before beginning "Romeo and Juliet," which is the main text we will be working with. The goal is to have students able to clearly discern between intended and unintended events in a story. We will continue working with this short story tomorrow.

Homework - Have an S.S.R. book!

10th Grade - Sophomores were introduced to the major assessment for this unit - The Portfolio Assignment. Over the next month we will read a series of texts related to critical thinking skills, and requiring that students think about their own learning processes. I expect that students will write a one-page response paper to each of these texts that we read in class, outlining specific questions we will discuss for each one.

The first text, which we started today, is by Stanley Fish, entitled "How to Recognize a Poem When you See One." To prepare for this, students had to interpret a poem written on the board in small groups. After analyzing this poem, I explained to the class that it was something I had written by taking lines from random books on my desk, and there was no "intended" meaning to it. The question then becomes - are the interpretations created by the class still valid, or does the writing lose meaning because I did not intend a deeper meaning?

Fish's essay is based around this concept - whether we construct our own meaning into every situation, or if some things are self-imbued with purpose. We began the Fish essay, and will continue/respond to it tomorrow.

Homework - Have an S.S.R. book!

April 13th Daily Plan

9th Grade - The majority of the time was spent in the library, using the Graphic Life Map program provided to create a visual representation of the pivotal points students listed the day before. This took longer than intended because many students had difficultly printing, but everyone was able to complete the assignment.

3rd period had about 10 minutes left in our Futurama example of planned actions and complications in a plot line, so we finished this in class. 7th period had finished yesterday, so they had 10 minutes to read at the end of the day.

10th Grade - We continued our study of advertisement tactics and strategies, with students finishing their marketing projects and presenting them to the class. Students were asked to identify the strategies they used, where they had learned them, and how they felt their strategy was the one most likely to sell a product.

We also looked at the idea of product placement in media, and how technology changes the nature of advertisement (ex. personalized ads on the internet, Facebook using images of friends to promote a given product).

Finally, students were introduced to the concept of fallacy. In the examples we used (ads targeting teenagers), it is usually pretty easy to find the false logic. However, fallacies occur quite often in many other venues, and students took notes on the top 10 most common fallacies. For those that missed class, see me to get a copy of the notes.

Freshmen link - Graphic Life Map

9th Grade - This is the link to the actual Graphic Life Map program.

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/graphicmap/

April 12th Daily Plan

9th Grade - Freshmen had two sections to today's lesson.  The first part was self-reflective, in that students were asked to list down what they considered "pivotal" moments in their own life. I provided some of my own as an example, and students were given a planning sheet to list off what moments in their own lives they considered important.

The purpose of this part of the lesson is for students to see how the same concepts we are focusing on academically are connected to their own lives; much in how we will look at the ideas of choice and consequence in "Romeo and Juliet," students should try to see how their choices in life have actual effects.

The second part of the lesson was focused on determining planned actions vs. complications when looking at a plot line. If there are no complications, the plot cannot advance because there is no conflict. We watched an episode of Futurama as a simple example, and students needed to be able to identify the planned actions in the plot, and the complications which provided conflict.

10th Grade - We spent today focused on advertisement and persuasive tactics used in marketing. As a class, we discussed the idea that marketing is often based on very specific demographics - the ads designed for teenagers are not the same as the ads designed for their parents. We dissected several ads in class - specifically, ads aimed at children (ex. Lucky Charms cereal), ads aimed at adolescents (Red Bull), and ads aimed at a larger audience (Apple Inc.).

As practice, students were given an activity in which they had to market a hard-to-sell product in a teenage demographic (for example, selling Lawnmowers to teenagers through Facebook ads). Most students came close to completion and we will finish this activity tomorrow.

9th and 10th Homework - S.S.R. sign-up by Friday!

April 11th Daily Plan

Hitting the ground running.

9th Grade - Freshmen will be starting a unit focused on the text "Romeo and Juliet" for the next several weeks. The themes in this story are quite universal, and I feel that in terms of cultural literacy, this is an important story to know.

While there are many directions of analysis we can review with "Romeo and Juliet," we will study this story as an exercise in the understanding of choice and consequence. I spoke with students today about how one of the main goals of my class is to demonstrate how the reading and writing done in class connect to life outside of school, and the ability to consciously map out the potential effects from a given cause is incredibly useful.

As an introductory activity, students played a short scenario game. Each group was given a scenario that required a difficult decision to be made, and had to 1) decide on the correct course of action and 2) explain to the class why their course of action was the best choice.

Homework - New S.S.R. Book by Friday

10th Grade - Sophomores were introduced to our new unit on Critical Thinking Skills. Basically, I explained to students that the focus of this unit is more on process than content. I also explained to students that a major aim with this unit is transparency - I want everyone to very clearly know WHY we are doing what we are doing, and how this knowledge extends beyond just my class.

As a generation, these students have more access to information than anyone else has in history. All of this knowledge is not retainable by any one person, and students will have to develop skills in understand WHAT is useful to know and HOW to learn it.

We started today by taking a brief survey about independent thought and influence, and will be looking at media and advertisement over the next week.

Homework - Have a new S.S.R. book chosen by Friday.

April 10th - Update Before Returning from Spring Break

Hi -

Hope everyone had fun over the last two weeks, and got to enjoy some sun whether they were in Jackson or elsewhere.

All assignments turned in before Spring Break have been graded and entered into Powerschool; the major ones to note are the last B.O.E. exam and the S.S.R. project (both 9th and 10th grade).

We will be starting new units in both the 9th and 10th grade classes tomorrow.

For sophomores, we will be studying Critical Thinking - in particular, students will work on learning HOW they know what they know, and what knowledge is important in life. The goal of this unit is to give students a framework for self-reflective thought processes, which will benefit them in any classroom.

For freshmen, we will be starting Romeo and Juliet, with an emphasis on reading this play as an examination into the idea of cause and effect. The question for students to think about is how a given choice now can affect one's options in the future, and how to best predict how a particular decision will play out.

Have a good last day of break, and see you all tomorrow!