Winter Reading Blitz!

How many pages will you read?

History’s Mystery – Little Rock 9

Photo courtesy of US Army

We’re in the middle of a mystery here in 8th grade – the Little Rock 9 documentary film group has just uncovered a source that states there were initially ten students who were supposed to attend Central High School on September 4, 1957.  The source (Stephanie Fitzgerald’s “The Little Rock Nine: Struggle for Integration,” Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2007) states: “A crowd of angry white people had already gathered in front of the school.  They were determined not to let in the 10 black pupils.” (Fitzgerald, 9).  She later writes “…one of the ten would not return to Central at all.” (Fitzgerlad, 15).  Greer, the 8th grader who pointed it out, is now on a search to find out the story behind this 10th student.  Initially, he thought it might be Elizabeth Eckford, who arrived separately from the group of students to attempted to enter the building on September 4, but as he read further, he realized this was not the case.

So now, Greer is off on a hunt to find out what the real story is.  We’re all excited.  He plans to look at some newspapers from September 4, 1957 to see if there’s another mention of this 10th person.

I’m going to let Greer work this one out, of course, but I couldn’t resist peeking myself, and I found this from the New York Times, September 3, 1957:

New York Times, September 3, 1957

And now there are 12!  Who were the other students?  How did there end up being only nine?  So full of questions!  Where will this mystery lead us?  I’ll leave it to Greer to find out…

ChicagoQuest – Game Design for Teaching & Learning

Saw this link about ChicagoQuest at Buffy Hamilton’s Unquiet Commonplace Book:

Where Gaming Rules …

Things I like about ChicagoQuest’s curriculum:

1.  No grades – students are given feedback on their level on a range from “novice” to “master of skills;”
2.  Principles of game design used both for teaching and learning (the teacher is the “game designer” (what has also been called “learning architect”) and structures the experience for the students; students design their own games as a method of assessment;
3.  Important distinction is made right on their webpage: students do NOT play games all day.  I think this is a common misconception about games in education.  It’s not to use a game to teach content and skills – it is to use the principles of game design to structure learning experiences which are learner-driven, and which foster problem-solving and collaboration.

Students in the Window Wells

This class really knows how to enjoy researching in the Library!  Mr. Rutstein’s 6th Grade Social Studies class:

Mr. Rutstein in a completely “ahem” unrehearsed teachable moment.

 

Grammar Games – Or – How I Ended Up with Verbs in my Hair

Dianna Newton, our 6th Grade English teacher, is teaching a unit on Grammar by having the students create grammar games.  Her explanation says it all:

“If you think of mind-numbing handouts or workbooks when you hear the word grammar, think again!  Many times students, like adults, have deeply-rooted insecurities about grammar.  Students think to themselves:  “I am really bad at grammar; I’ll never be good at it.”  In order to start to chip away at these misconceptions and get students excited about grammar, they created games which helped them learn important foundational lists which connected with our dependent and independent clause work, and this will connect to our upcoming exploration of sentence structure and sentence variety.

Students worked collaboratively in pairs or small groups of three in order to create fun and engaging grammar games which would enable players to memorize lists of linking and helping verbs OR lists of coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.  And guess what?  The games helped students prepare for upcoming quizzes on conjunctions and verbs so the work was meaningful because they were helping each other and themselves by creating these games.  A number of the games intentionally incorporated movement since many groups remembered that most students in the 6^th grade are kinesthetic learners, and so are you (most likely).  And don’t forget that the internalization of these lists didn’t simply happen while students played these games, it also happened while students were creating their grammar games.  They needed to be creative, adaptable, experimental and resilient as they went through various trial and error stages with their game development.  We invite guests to play the games, and please feel free to ask students questions.  Have fun, and remember that grammar can be fun!”

Empathy

Sent to me by my colleague Becky.   I agree with the message of empathy, and this also resonates with me in terms of believing that technology is not a separator of people, but can in fact be a uniter of people, and a means to create understanding among different people.  We have the opportunity to connect like never before.  Let’s use it for good ends, and let’s teach our students how to share their life stories with each other to build this global family.

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Sources

A little “Go Animate” I made for my 8th graders to help explain Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources.

http://goanimate.com/movie/0D4cPAMxMT1c/1

The cat’s name is “Simon” because the British voice option I used in Go Animate was called “Simon” (as someone said today “If it’s said in a British accent, it must be true”).    It has nothing to do with the cartoon “Simon’s Cat,” which I also love.  Alas, I hope my mini-lesson is entertaining and memorable, but it will never be as memorable as this.

Need Feed #3 – Solutionaries

I’m bringing back my old “Need Feed” category where I explained why we need information literacy in our schools.  A colleague of mine posted this TED Talk by Zoe Weil:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5HEV96dIuY

The talk is amazing and worth the time to watch, but briefly – she is a teacher of humanities who has her students research the positive and negative effects of objects (a t-shirt, a hamburger, a bottle of water, etc.) on ourselves, our local communities, and the world at large.  From looking at the pesticides that covered the cotton crops gfrown to made the t-shirt, to the labor conditions of the people who manufactured it, her students get a larger picture of the effects of the choices we make in purchasing every day.  Being able to find the at times well-hidden information behind the objects we take for granted is an essential skill if we are to be informed, responsible consumers who make decisions that are in line with our personal values and integrity.

One of her compelling arguments is to change our tradition of “debate” into “solution” teams.  Rather than arguing an either/or question (her example from an NPR story: “Is the U.S. responsible for Mexico’s Drug Woes?”) and debating it in order to win the argument – why not have them research and invent the best solution to the problem?  This way, they would compete for the best solution rather than the best argument.

I have always loved our tradition of debate because of the discussion it engenders, but I agree with Ms. Weil that this is but one step – the ability to perceive and create a solution is the real skill that the world needs.

And for this, we need to teach our students a strong background in information literacy.  This is how they will become the “Solutionaries” that Ms. Weil speaks of.

Scary Story Contest Winners!

So proud of our Scary Story Contest writers! Check them out on:

http://www.fsbscarletsun.com/arts/

They would love some comments!

Photo by Toby Ord

Flipped Classroom

 

Here’s our first experiment with the “flipped classroom” model.  It’s a video starting the 8th graders out with their research for the Documentary Project.  The idea of a flipped classroom is to have them view the “instruction” at home (whether that’s reading, writing, listening, viewing, etc.) and then they are prepared to practice in the classroom, rather than saving the practice for home, where they might not have anyone who can help them if they get stuck.  It’s not really a new model, but it certainly has been ramped up by all of the available technologies out there – Jing, Flip video cameras, podcasts, etc.  There are a few things I like about this model:

• They’re going to have more time to do the actual activity.  Before, it might take 20 minutes to explain what we’re going to do, and then they only have another 20 to actually practice.
• Students can learn at their own pace.  The can stop and start this video, or watch it more than once, or rewind to something that they didn’t get the first time around.
• I can reinforce what’s being said with text – iMovie lets me do that.  In this video, I run the definition across the bottom of the page while I’m discussing it.
• It allows me to be creative – look at how I took advantage of my talented colleague!  (Thank you, Shannon!)
• Students can listen at home when they can give full attention, and not be distracted by each other in class.  (Now, the disadvantage would be if they do not choose to even watch the video!  But we have a homework task attached to it, so they are being told that to be prepared for our in-class activity, they need to complete this “prep work” at home).

One thing I’m thinking of adding is a link where they can ask questions if they want.  Then I can read them before class and address them at the beginning, or if it’s just an issue for one or two students, I can reply specifically to them.