Humanities: LoNGview, NoRedInk, StoryCorps & Of Mice & Men

Note: You can do everything up to the blogging discussion w/o Mr. Ryder saying a word.  Just jump right into it.  We'll be having people move around to places in the room based on how much help and direction they would like.

LoNGview
Today we begin with a LoNGview reading and discussion of this article from Fast CoExist about building sustainable low income housing.

MUGS/NoRedInk
We will do a quick MUGS exercise around it's/its and get on NoRedInk to do it.  Look for the next assignment in your list.

Here's a video to watch to help w/ it's/its.

StoryCorps
From there we take a look at the StoryCorps site and do a little spelunking.  Make sure you check out the mobile lab and see what sorts of ideas it gives you for our recording booth project (if that's something you'd like to be a part of.)

• What sort of stories would you want to hear?
• What sorts of stories are you hearing on this site
• How might you be able to capture these sorts of stories?

Blogging

There will be time to work on your blogs today as well as look at the new expectations for the blogs.  Look at the blogging rubric in the right hand sidebar.

We'll end the day with some continued reading of Of Mice & Men and the beginnings of our second 3-4-Thinking graphic organizer.

Homework

Blog: 

3+ Posts

Req'd Post:

Find a song that would belong on a soundtrack for Of Mice & Men.  Post the song/embed the video and write a paragraph explaining your thinking.

Be sure to check the blogging rubric in the right hand sidebar; to meet the standard you must now make posts connect to outside information and/or another student's thinking

Be Thinking:

Are you thinking about doing a photo essay, story corps?  Do you want to take on the design challenge of making the recording booth? What would your angle be in tackling these questions and ideas? What questions do you have?  

Humanities: What We Did on Monday & Tuesday

On Monday we broke down our goals for the poverty unit and the ways Mr. Ryder & Mr. Dunbar think we should tackle it.  Here are some pics of our thinking and plans.  Note that the second pic features the changes made after we listed everything.

Mr. Dunbar explains what happened in class on Tuesday:

The first thing we did in class today was make a list of all of the characters from OMaM on the board. This was easy and quick and numerous people offered up names.

Once the names were listed we assigned a quick (20 minute) vocab activity. The students chose one of the characters from the list. Once they chose a character, their task was to write about that character's background. Basically, where did they come from and how did they come to be at that ranch at that time. In order to complete this, they needed to include five root-based words from list 4 and five root-based words from lists 1-3 for a total of ten root-based words. A few students shared out some pretty creative and relatively far-fetched stories.

Next, we had two volunteers looking for critical feedback on the Three 4 Thinkings due today. We talked as a class about enhancing these by including the "so what?" portion. Why is what you wrote important? Why did you select that? -- Your next Three4Thinking on the next chunk of reading is due on Friday 11/8.

Finally, we explored one of our essential questions for the unit by watching and discussing THIS video: http://www.upworthy.com/by-day-he-wears-a-suit-by-afternoon-hes-in-rags-by-choice?c=fea

Class ended with Mr. Ryder starting on the next chunk of reading ending on page 52.  

Homework

Blog: 

3+ Posts

Req'd Post:

Find a song that would belong on a soundtrack for Of Mice & Men.  Post the song/embed the video and write a paragraph explaining your thinking.

Be Thinking:

Are you thinking about doing a photo essay, story corps?  Do you want to take on the design challenge of making the recording booth? What would your angle be in tackling these questions and ideas? What questions do you have?