Humanities: Introducing the Habits of Mind

I know they were in your guidelines and expectations at the beginning of the year, along side academic initiative.

Perhaps we should have done this before now, but here we are going to dive into the Habits of Mind.  What they mean and how we can develop them.

We started class today with an improv game called "World's Worst."  We've played it before, but I had forgotten.  We started with breakfast cereals and worked up to scenes of the world's worst students.

Then we went to BlueLab and did some brainstorming with post-it notes and big ol' tables.  We identified qualities that make up:

• good students
• good leaders
• good employees
• good problem solvers

We noticed that these four groups of people share very similar positive qualities.

From there, we handed out an explanation of the 16 Habits of Mind from Costa & Kallick.

From Mindwerx.com

Each of those habits was printed on a different sheet of paper.  We sorted our qualities of effective leaders, problem solvers, students and employees on to the different habits based only on what we could figure out from the sheets.  No teaching has happened yet, so this is a scary place to be.

We took some time to check our work after this sort.

And then we reflected by adding "I Noticed/I Wonder/I Think/I Want" statements to a white board using post-its. (This way we can do some prioritizing on Tuesday.)

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts 
Req'd Post of the Week:  What do you think of these habits of mind?  Why do they seem important?  How well developed are these habits for you?
Due: Friday, December 20

Study & Complete Roots 7: Product & Quiz
Due: Thursday, December 19

Projects & Arguments, Self Assessments & Reflections
Due: ASAP

AP Lit 2B/3B: Poetry as Design - Empathy Stage & More!

We're working our way through the design thinking process, which can seem like a long time before tangible products are in hand.  By following this process, however, we better ensure that which we make achieves our intended goals.

Remember, we are using the DEEP Design Thinking Process.

Last week, discovery.  Today, empathy.

We started by calibrating ourselves to last week's work and making sure we share a common goal within each class.

Note the sumo-esque qualities of the earlier goal set.  It felt powerful and big, but lumbering.

The team members luchadored their thinking and narrowed it into a nimble, powerful, explosive set.

The four elements at the bottom will serve as the concrete entry points for creating
poetry and designs that achieve the end goal.

Period 2B: To motivate and inspire students w/ "You Can Do It" Encouraging Michal philosophy
Period 3B: To encourage self-expression

From there we completed one of Standford's d.School empathy map exercises described in detail here with examples.

Here's what that work looked like:

These notes and ideas will go up in more detail on Tuesday.

Ultimately, they will inform the poetry and design pieces we create.

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts

NOTE: 2 Req'd Posts 

1 Req'd Hamlet: Act II.  Branagh. The guy directed Thor.  Check out his Hamlet. And your Drive. Thoughts?

2nd Req'd: Post Your Suggested Means/Proposal/Prototype of Collecting Evidence of Thinking & Writing Processes as well as your thoughts on what the end products should look like to be most useful in demonstrating your understanding as well as being useful in the future.

Due: Friday, December 20

Watch:

Clips of Branagh Hamlet posted and shared for Act II in your Google Drive.

Reflect on Blog w/ Analysis/Thoughts on Versions

Due: Friday, December 20

Design:

Poetry as Design Project (create one poem, create visual interpretation of a found poem)

2 Products Total

1 must be a design interpretation of a found poem/lyric

1 must be connected to the collaborative goal

From there:

1 may be an original poem

1 may be a personal piece

Both may be connected to your goal

Friday:

Graded Class Discussion

1st Semester In Review Including But Not Limited To:

* Big Take Aways?

* Where Are the Gaps?

* What Is Working?

* What Could Help Things Work Even Better?

Not going to be in class?  Put these ideas on . . .  your blog!  Record them!  (This is a listen/speaking assessment after all.)

Due: End of 1st Week of January (we may want to think about an installation/publication the 2nd week of January)

Think ahead: 

Revisions of Synthesis Essay

Indie Book Project Due at Top of Q3