Humanities: Room Design Day One of ?

We kick off our room design process today.

Before we get to that, however, we want to wrap up our mini-work with Langston Hughes' "Harlem."  We will be discussing cause, effect, dreams, goals, wins and fails and completing a short analysis activity of the poem called a "Chalk Talk."

And then . . .

Note: Everything below is copied from the AP Lit blog entry from today.  Why? Because Humanities & AP Lit are following the SAME PROCESS!  9th graders & 12th graders doing the same work?!! What is this madness?!?

From here we will do a few community building activities -- two quick ones and start a much more involved process: designing our space.

Each of the above will provide us an opportunity to dive into DESIGN THINKING, a human-centered way of approaching problem solving and creating.

Over the next couple of weeks we'll be exploring the ideas presented by David Kelley's IDEO, Stanford d.School & Mary Cantwell's DEEP Design Thinking.

For today though, we will be taking a page from Jillian Hinesley's work and shaping our learning space.  We will follow the "See, Think, Wonder" learning routine.

John Stuart Mill: Huge Fantasy Football Nerd.

Each of my classes will be doing this and we will follow a process to choose the best of the best ideas to create a John Stuart Mill room, achieving the greatest good for the greatest number of students.  We'll be collecting observations of our space's use, assessing its form and function, and revisiting the designs later in the year.

I don't want to give every little nook & cranny away, but that's what will drive our first day.

And since you all worked so hard this summer -- or at least these past few days -- you have a three-day weekend to unwind and reset for our AP Lit Design Thinking/Literary Analysis & Composition Boot Camp arriving next Tuesday & Wednesday.

Don't forget: Designer Starter Kits!  Get them in ASAP!