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.