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.
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