Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Humanities: Tuesday's Station Work

On Tuesday, I read another chunk of Of Mice and Men aloud and then we worked through four stations.

Everything is described in this sketchnote of my plans.


SHOW YOUR LEARNING.
No New Blogs This Week.
Demonstrate Your Best Evidence in Req'd Posts of the Past

Revise. Submit. Multigenre.  Cardboard Challenge.

Study. Roots Quiz 3 (1-3)
Due.  Thursday. 10.29.15
Optional Evidence. Roots-Based Product.


AP Lit: Joyce & Dubliners

For this week, we are exploring James Joyce and his short story collection, Dubliners.

We are looking to Joyce's style to help us explore the relationship between setting, character and plot structure.

Key features of Joyce's style include:

  • Fusion of Fiction w Reality
    • Real places, real buildings, even real people appear amongst the fiction
  • Epiphany
    • awakening/understanding
    • appeals to all 5 senses
  • Free Indirect Discourse 
    • a particular style of stream of consciousness
    • fluid movement between narrator and character
  • Manipulation of Language and Aesthetics
    • experiments with word play, structure, linguistics, genre

    We started our work with a close read of "Araby" together to have a collective experience with Joyce's style.  

    The readings for night one were then, "Eveline" and "The Boarding House."  Sketchnote/annotate and literary 3x3 each of the short stories. 


    The readings for night two, "Clay" and "A Mother."  Again, sketchnote/annotate and literary 3x3 each.  

    We'll be looking for trends across the collections of stories in terms of character, setting, structure, and style as means to understanding and to applying to our own thinking.   But not yet, one step at a time. . .


    Pop Culture: HMW Design a Film Festival

    How might we design a film festival?  How might we demonstrate our listening & speaking skills via a film festival?

    We'll use these for DISCOVERY phase. 15 min

    http://www.sundance.org/pdf/film-guide/SFF14-FilmGuide.pdf

    http://fantasticfest.com/

    http://www.miff.org/

    http://allsportslafilmfest.com/

    http://iffboston.org/

    http://www.festival-cannes.com/en.html

    You might Notice/Wish/Wonder:

    What do you notice about these film festivals?

    What do you wish about film festivals?

    What do you wonder about these film festivals?

    OR

    Rose/Bud/Thorn:

    What are the roses (cool aspects) of these film festivals?

    What are the buds (opportunities/ideas you have) based on these film festivals?

    What are the thorns (things you don't like/find ineffective) in these film festivals?

    EMPATHY phase. 15

    Interview at least 2 people from another design team.

    Ask these three Qs

    Which genres of film do you enjoy the most?

    Would you rather watch a film you love again or watch something new?

    What

    Ask at least one follow up question in each interview to help you program your festival.

    Record the answers.

    EXPERIMENT phase. 15 min.

    Craft it!  Design it.  What are the films you would show?  What would it be called? Where would it be held?   Why?  Use your empathy knowledge and your discovery to help you.

    PRODUCTION phase. 15 min.

    Four corners feedback.  (More on this in class.)



    Tuesday, October 20, 2015

    Eng 9. Kickstart Your Creativity.

    SHOW YOUR LEARNING.
    Blog.  3+ Posts.
    Critical Creativity Challenge Post. Kick Start Your Creativity.
    Take a look at these examples of creative Kickstarters

    Now it is your turn.  Invent a product you would pitch on Kickstarter.  What does it do?  What problem does it solve?  How much money will you be hoping to raise?  How will you spend it?  What will your stretch goals be?  Enhance your blog post by including drawings or photos, a logo, maybe even a pitch video.

    Study.  Roots Quiz 3.  (Includes lists 1-3)
    Optional Demonstration of  Understanding.  Roots Product 3.
    Next wednesday

    Write.  Cardboard Challenge One-Page Reflection.
    Due. Thursday, Oct. 22. 

    Sunday, October 18, 2015

    Pop Culture: Film Trailers & Film Culture & Project Interviews

    Hi folks,

    We are going to pack today full of film culture goodness as we explore and discuss the beautiful thing that IS the film trailer.  You may want to create a film trailer for your film culture product due next Thursday.  We're going to watch and talk and review.  A lot.

    Here are three great resources to help us get started.  All of these can be found on our Pinterest board.

    Resource 1.  9 Short Storytelling Tips.
    Fantastic storytelling tips that can be applied well beyond film trailer designing.

    Resource 2. The Golden Trailer Awards.
    The Awards for Best Film Trailers.   (There are lots. Lots and lots.)

    Resource 3.  Trailer Fatigue.
    History and Current State of Affairs of Film Trailers.

    You'll divide up into teams of 1, 2 or 3 to tackle this work today.  Pick your crew and get to work.

    We'll start with the 9 Short Storytelling Tips.  In the space of 10 minutes, do the math for I will be cruising at breakneck keep-it-tight speed, I will give you both a sketchnote and a brief explanation of each tip.

    Then!  In your teams, you will get to work looking for examples of those 9 short storytelling tips in either the Golden Trailer Awards nominees and winners OR Trailer Addict.com or a movie trailer source of  your liking.  Avoid the general YouTube search.  It can be cumbersome.  There's better curated sources out there.

    Meanwhile, as you do that work, I will be conferencing with folks about their music culture products and write ups, giving feedback and putting you in a position to revise before next Friday if you so choose.

    For the FILM CULTURE project, you will be able to choose if you want it to count on 1st Quarter or the 2nd, but not before it is assessed.  You know what the strength of your work will be.  You know the depth of your understanding.  Where do you want your evidence?

    Also, the rubric for the FILM CULTURE product is exactly the same as the MUSIC CULTURE product.  Just insert FILM everywhere it says, "MUSIC."

    SHOW YOUR LEARNING.
    2 Req'd Blog Posts. This Week.
    Last Week of Blogging for the Quarter.
    Blog: 3+ Posts
    Req'd Post 1:  Film Review.
    A.  Read through the four reviews of the first Hunger Games films linked here.Roger Ebert hereLisa Schwarzbaum herePeter Travers hereIMDB.com User emptygravity here
    B.  Choose a film you feel worthy of your time to write about.  It may be because you want to tear it apart and it may be because you want to sing its praises.  It may be a little bit of both.
    C.  Write a 2-3 paragraph film review in which you attempt to copy the style of one the above reviewers by using the same techniques in your own review.


    You might consider which of the above reviewers use the following:
    • References to other films in which the actors have appeared
    • References to other films the director has made
    • References to the source material for the film (in this case, a novel)
    • Summary of the plot
    • Spoilers and/or spoiler warnings
    • Spoiler-free discussion
    • Vivid and descriptive language
    • Casual and general langugage
    • Use of 1st Person "I"
    • Some form of review coding system: numbers, stars, thumbs, etc.
    D.  In a final paragraph, explain which reviewer's style you were trying to adopt for your review.  
    To what extent has this influenced how you watch films?


    Req'd Post 2.  Pinterest Curation.
    You've collected a series of articles for the class Pinterest boards.  In a three paragraph discussion, discuss which article you find most entertaining and why, which you 'd most likely replace and why, and which you think would be most important for me to use with other students and why.

    DUE.  Friday 10.23.15

    Revise. Music Culture Project.
    Due. Friday. 10.30.15

    Design.  Film Culture Project.
    Due. Thursday. 10.29.15






    AP Lit: Prufrock Remixes, Process, Woolf, and More


    This week will feature more Prose 15 on Monday and Tuesday.  I've been enjoying our digging into Jane Eyre and "The Things They Carried."  I'm going to find a shorter excerpt, however, for Monday and Tuesday.  It is taking us almost as long to read it as it is to think about it.  Hopefully this next, from one Virginia Woolf, will allow us more space to discuss.

    Then we will examine the results of last week's remixes and map and chart how our thinking is evolving and growing.  Our goal in this?  To become more and more keenly aware of both our creative and analytical processes.  In fact, that would make for a remarkably good third blog post for this week.

    Your creative and analytical processes, as you see them now.   Monday and Tuesday in class will give you an opportunity to discuss.  Wednesday and Thursday classes will give you an opportunity to put them in practice as I'm giving you folks the all-too-uncommon-in-AP-land time to work.

    There will be expectations for documenting your work on those days.  

    Then Friday's class will begin our transition into Cunningham's The Hours and our move into less holistic, more precision focused literary analysis.   We'll be using The Hours to explore the relationship between character, point of view and plot and uncovering Cunningham's design.

    Of course, as I type this, I'm thinking we may start delving into Joyce's Dubliners instead.   Hrmm . . . well!  We'll just have to see what Friday brings, won't we?  In that case we'd be looking at the relationship between character and setting and point of view.  See a trend emerging?

    If you have a preference?  Holler!  Let's customize as much as we can.




    Show Your Learning.
    Blog. 3+ Posts.
    (Last Week of Blogging for the Quarter)
    Req'd Critical Creativity.  Finished Prufrockian Remix.
    After having read & re-read the poem, sketchnoted & remixed the poem, design an original Prufrockian remix that employs Eliot's poetic device strategy and sensibility while offering something new.
    Due. Friday. 10.23.15

    Close Read.   Eliot Academic Articles.
    Close read these articles then choose two to annotate and/or sketchnote.
    Then discuss the extent to which the articles' content informs your understanding of Prufrock and any influence it may have on your remix design.
    Blog your work.
    Due. Friday. 10.23.15

    Revisions.  Synthesis Essays.
    Due. ASAP.  Final day for Revisions.  10.27.15.

    Indie Book Projects.
    Read & Design.  Due 11.4& 5.

    Wednesday, October 14, 2015

    Eng 9: Work. Work. Work.

    Hey folks,

    Friday, you have a day to update your blogs and post your work on the blog tracker.

    You have a day to complete or revise your Playlist for Others.

    Remember there's a rubric for this.  (The media standard is optional.)
    To cite your songs properly in your project for the research standard you should follow this format.


    • Artist/Performer's name "Name of the Song" (Year of Release)
    which becomes . . . 
    • Pearl Jam "Evenflow" (1993)


    You can take it to the next level by adding the video or the link.

    Pearl Jam "Evenflow" (1993)

    While I'm on a roll, here's an example of an explanation.  This is why I would include this song on Mr. Brackett's playlist:

    I included "Evenflow" by Pearl Jam (1993) on Mr. Brackett's playlist because he was in high school when this song came out and I know how much he loves the '90s.  He told me it was his favorite era of music.  Just listening to this song I can immediately picture Eddie Vedder wearing a flannel shirt and throwing his hair all around.  I think Mr. Brackett would enjoy rocking out to this song while driving his truck through the back roads of Temple, playing the bass line on the steering wheel.


    You have a day to study for Roots Quiz 2  that will cover Roots 1-2 next TUESDAY.

    And finally you have a day to start your one-page reflection essay on the Cardboard Challenge.

    You have three options to choose from for your essay.

    Option A. Product/Process/Outcome.  
    • Describe what you made using specific, meaningful details.
    • Describe how you made it by sharing specific step by step directions in what it took to make it.
    • Describe how you feel about the final results by discussing what you like about your final product and what you might do differently next time or on a different iteration.

    Option B.  Yourself/Others/Creativity.
    • Discuss what you learned about yourself from completing the cardboard challenge, including things you didn't realize about your abilities and talents, struggles and strengths.  
    • Discuss what you learned about others as a result of completing the cardboard challenge, including the experience of interviewing others and their needs or perhaps what it is like to work with a partner.
    • Discuss what you've learned about the creative process and what it is like to make something for others and to make it using only a particular set of resources.

    Option C.  Three Things You've Learned About Creativity
    • Discuss three things you've learned about creativity from completing the cardboard challenge.
    For this essay, I want you to keep it within a one-page limit, 11 or 12 point font, single spaced.  (Don't play around with the fonts to make it seem like you wrote more than you did.  That's not the point.  Also: super annoying.)  The point is to use specific details to get your ideas across to your reader in a short amount of space.  

    Here's what I'll be assessing (grading):

    Your Details (writing) How well did you use specifics to show exactly what you mean?
    Your Organization (writing) How well did you use paragraphs to organize your thoughts and ideas?
    Your Voice (writing) How well does your personality come through in your writing?
    Your MUGS (MUGS - mechanics, usage, grammar, spelling) 
    Your Timeliness (Due next Thursday, Oct 22)


    SHOW YOUR LEARNING.

    Blog.  Get caught up with your evidence.  At minimal, post your 5 Card Flickr from Week One, your playlist from others for Week Two, pictures/notes/plans from Cardboard Challenge for Week 3, and then your finished Cardboard Challenge or more pictures/notes/plans for Week 4.  Those are the required posts and the thinking I most want/need to see.

    Study.  Roots Quiz 2 . Tuesday.

    Know the Roots Quiz 2 (lists 1 & 2)& What They Means.
    Other Evidence of Learning:  In addition to the taking the quiz, you may want to create a roots product that demonstrates your understanding of the roots and what they mean.  Some of us struggle with quizzes as a way of proving we know something, but if we get a chance to use our knowledge, we knock it out of the park.  Consider writing a story, a set of instructions, making a video, recording a podcast, building something on Minecraft or in LEGO, recording a song, drawing a comic strip, or some other way of showing me that you know those roots and what they mean in a way that shows you truly understand.
    You may want to make one of these for Roots 1 as well. 
    Due. Tuesday 10.20.15 








    Pop Culture: Making Movie Magic Happen (Sorta.)

    Making the Movie Magic Happen. (Sorta.)

    Stage 1. After watching a couple of clips under Mr. Ryder’s tutelage, try your hand at storyboarding, directing and cinematography.

    1. In groups of one, two or three, choose a film from the  AFI Top 100 - 10th Anniversary list that you have seen or at least sorta kinda “know.” (This list is due for an update in 2017.  I’m curious to see what happens  . . .)
    2. Find a clip of a well-known scene from that film online.  They are out there.
    3. Using either people or LEGO minifigs and either digital photography or sketching, recreate that scene shot-by-shot, angle-by-angle
    4. As you are producing that recreation, think about the placement of the camera, the framing, the movement.  Do your best to create as honest a reproduction as possible.  The point?  To see if you can see filmmaking from a creator’s point of view and become more aware of how the filmmaker’s convince their audiences to see and think about the subject matter in a particular way.

    Which takes us to Stage 2.
    After recreating that scene to develop a sense of how it all “works” in a finished product, use your skills to tell the following story.
    Screen Shot 2014-11-10 at 11.24.47 AM.png

    Choose and recreate the camera angles to the best of your abilities from the following sources:

    Great tool because it shows you examples from actual films

    Fantastic explanation of camera angles

    Several great examples of storyboarding at work

    Stage 3. #ShowYourWork by Creating a Google Presentation, Prezi, or other slideshow to show how your team did.   Post that to each of your blogs.

    Due at the midpoint of next class for sharing and feedback.

    SHOW YOUR LEARNING.

    Blog: 3+ Posts
    Curate: 1 Pin on Pinterest.
    Critical Creativity Options.
    Option 1.  Soundtrack a Clip. Choose a clip from MovieClips.com or use one from our class folder and link/embed a song that suits it, a song that transforms it, and a song that's completely inappropriate for it.  Explain your thinking.

    Option 2.  Score a clip.  Choose a clip from MovieClips.com or use one from our class folder and use Garageband,Soundation, live instrumentation/vocals, or another tool to design a score.  Explain your thinking.

    Option 3.  Six Shot Story.  Tell a complete story using six different camera angles.  You may choose to create this as a video or as a storyboard.

    REQUIRED BLOG POST.  Rose. Bud. Thorn. Read One of the Articles Above and Complete a Rose/Bud/Thorn Graphic Organizer over that article.  Post the results of your thinking on your blog.

    AP Lit: Design Challenge: Prufrock Remixed

    Design Challenge: Prufrockian Remixing.

    How might we remix “Prufrock” into a derivative work (meaning, it is based on/inspired by an original) that reflects the poetic and design qualities and intentions of T.S. Eliot’s original?

    DISCOVER.

    Last class you did just this.  You spent a day exploring Prufrock and discussing and figuring.

    Today, before you start empathizing and experimenting, take a moment to refresh your thinking with this spidea web.
    Screen Shot 2014-10-27 at 8.58.42 AM.png

    Recreate this on paper in front of you.  When you think of what you’ve done with “Prufrock” so far, what immediately springs to mind.  5 min.  No more.

    Follow this up quickly with an I NOTICE/I WISH/I WONDER over “Prufrock.”  Again, quick.  5 min.  Rekindle what you’ve already discovered.  

    EMPATHIZE.
    Work as a whole class on this.  Someone has to volunteer to be interviewed about their thoughts and feelings about “Prufrock.”  Here’s the thing.  It isn’t a lecture on Prufrock.  They must be asked questions by the other members of the class.  5 min interviewing one student.  
    Then choose another.  Grand total.  10 minutes.

    As you are taking notes during the interview, use this empathy map tool.  Consider what they are saying and doing as they are talking, and imagine what they might be thinking and feeling based on that.

    Screen Shot 2014-10-27 at 9.07.20 AM.png

    This is your first twenty minutes of class.

    EXPERIMENT!

    Print off copies of “Prufrock.”   Cut it up.  Make it bigger.   Rewrite.  Move it around.  Remember in a remix you can add layers upon layers, bring in new, add your own.

    There’s butcher paper in the lockers in the hallway.  Use it.  There’s stuff in the closet.  Use it.  There are LEGOs and Jenga blocks and who knows what? Use whatever you have and need.

    The key?  Making sure it embodies the spirit and intention of the original while still seeming like a whole new work.

    Inform your experimentation with what others have told you, what you’ve discovered about Prufrock.

    Be wild.  Be free.  Try things.  See what happens.  Take lots and lots of pictures.  Put them on your blog.  Not because it is required but because it matters and it helps.  Please share them with me as well.

    PRODUCE.

    For next class, bring a working iteration of your remix for discussion, feedback, exploration.  We’ll be using the feedback wheel.  The what?  Next week we learn about the feedback wheel

    Also, next week, we’ll  read and annotate  articles I will be sending to you about Prufrock and Eliot.  What do they uncover that we hadn’t?  How does your remixing experience lend itself to that sorts of thinking?

    SHOW YOUR LEARNING.
    Blog. 3+ Posts.
    Req'd Critical Creativity.  Literary Emoji.  Choose any of our works from this year and express them in emoji form.  Or use symbols of your own.  Explain your thinking.  

    Read & Respond.  How to Read Lit Like a Prof.  Is It a Symbol?
    Post on your thoughts on Foster's ideas on your blog.

    Essay Revisions. If you are intending to revise your  synthesis essay, you may want to get on it.  
    I will only accept revisions up to October 27.  If you complete a revision, you must also submit a Revision Submission Form.
    Due.  As many times as possible between now and Oct. 27.

    Blogging.  If you revise your posts or if you post late, please use the fill tool on the blog tracker to turn that box, Green.  You can revise your blog posts 

    Read & Design. Indie Book Project.
    Due. Wednesday & Thursday.  November 4 & 5.


    Tuesday, October 13, 2015

    Humanities 2BG: Completing the Cardboard Challenge and This Week's Creative Blog Post

    We're going to complete the Cardboard Challenge this week with an exhibition of our work and a reflective piece of writing.

    We also have Roots Quiz 2 on Thursday  Several folks seemed to have trouble submitting Roots Quiz 1, so those folks will need to take a retake of that one as well.

    But first, Wednesday, we will put up our Cardboard Challenges.

    Thursday you have a day to start your one-page reflection essay on the Cardboard Challenge.  It is due on Friday.

    You have three options to choose from for your essay.

    Option A. Product/Process/Outcome.  
    • Describe what you made using specific, meaningful details.
    • Describe how you made it by sharing specific step by step directions in what it took to make it.
    • Describe how you feel about the final results by discussing what you like about your final product and what you might do differently next time or on a different iteration.

    Option B.  Yourself/Others/Creativity.
    • Discuss what you learned about yourself from completing the cardboard challenge, including things you didn't realize about your abilities and talents, struggles and strengths.  
    • Discuss what you learned about others as a result of completing the cardboard challenge, including the experience of interviewing others and their needs or perhaps what it is like to work with a partner.
    • Discuss what you've learned about the creative process and what it is like to make something for others and to make it using only a particular set of resources.

    Option C.  Three Things You've Learned About Creativity
    • Discuss three things you've learned about creativity from completing the cardboard challenge.
    For this essay, I want you to keep it within a one-page limit, 11 or 12 point font, single spaced.  (Don't play around with the fonts to make it seem like you wrote more than you did.  That's not the point.  Also: super annoying.)  The point is to use specific details to get your ideas across to your reader in a short amount of space.  

    Here's what I'll be assessing (grading):

    Your Details (writing) How well did you use specifics to show exactly what you mean?
    Your Organization (writing) How well did you use paragraphs to organize your thoughts and ideas?
    Your Voice (writing) How well does your personality come through in your writing?
    Your MUGS (MUGS - mechanics, usage, grammar, spelling) 
    Your Timeliness (Due Friday, Oct 16 )
    SHOW YOUR LEARNING.
    Blog.  3+ Posts.
    Critical Creativity Challenge Post. Kick Start Your Creativity.
    Take a look at these examples of creative Kickstarters

    Now it is your turn.  Invent a product you would pitch on Kickstarter.  What does it do?  What problem does it solve?  How much money will you be hoping to raise?  How will you spend it?  What will your stretch goals be?  Enhance your blog post by including drawings or photos, a logo, maybe even a pitch video.

    Study.  Roots Quiz 2.  (Includes lists 1-2)
    Optional Demonstration of  Understanding.  Roots Product 2.

    Write.  Cardboard Challenge One-Page Reflection.
    Due. Friday, Oct. 16.  




    Pop Culture: Music & Film

    Station 1.  Music Supervision and Soundtracking.

    Step 1.  Choose the clip from our class folder on Google Drive for which you'd like to create a soundtrack.

    Step 2.  Dig into the CD bin to experience what music supervisors go through when they are sent unknown music.

    Step 3. Investigate that music to find three songs.

    a) One that suits it perfectly and the intention/feeling/mood of the scene.

    b) One that transforms the scene into a different intention/feeling/mood scene.

    c) One that just doesn't fit.  At all.

    Step 3.   Document those songs perhaps by finding them on YouTube/Vimeo or Spotify and keeping a list.

    Step 4.  Read & Rose/Bud/Thorn one of these three articles.   Then explain how the insights you gained from this  article might have impacted the work you did on the activity in class.  Post your thinking and your Rose/Bud/Thorn work on your blog.

    Glee. http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2027592,00.html

    Twilight. http://www.fastcocreate.com/1679123/twilight-soundtrack-saga-why-there-will-be-no-white-wedding-for-bella-and-edward

    Broad City. http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6451150/broad-city-music-supervisor-matt-feldman



    Station 2.  Music Composition and Scoring.

    Step 1.  Choose the clip you'd like to score.

    Step 2.  Use GarageBand, Soundation, live instrumentation, or another music generator to compose an original score for that clip.

    Ennio Morricone.  http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/03/ennio-morricone-good-film-scores-replaced-by-bad-and-ugly

    Best Film Scores of 2014. http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/the-15-best-film-scores-of-2014

    Michael Giacchino. How to Score a Film in 6 Lessons.  http://www.vulture.com/2013/10/michael-giacchino-how-to-score-a-movie.html#

    Step 3.  Read & Rose/Bud/Thorn one of these three articles.   Then explain how the insights you gained from this  article might have impacted the work you did on the activity in class.  Post your thinking and your Rose/Bud/Thorn work on your blog.

    SHOW YOUR LEARNING.

    Blog: 3+ Posts
    Critical Creativity Options.
    Option 1.  Soundtrack a Clip. Choose a clip from MovieClips.com or use one from our class folder and link/embed a song that suits it, a song that transforms it, and a song that's completely inappropriate for it.  Explain your thinking.

    Option 2.  Score a clip.  Choose a clip from MovieClips.com or use one from our class folder and use Garageband, Soundation, live instrumentation/vocals, or another tool to design a score.  Explain your thinking.

    Option 3.  Six Shot Story.  Tell a complete story using six different camera angles.  You may choose to create this as a video or as a storyboard.

    REQUIRED BLOG POST.  Rose. Bud. Thorn. Read One of the Articles Above and Complete a Rose/Bud/Thorn Graphic Organizer over that article.  Post the results of your thinking on your blog.

    Grades And Flight307: It's All About the Evidence

    Hi folks,

    This post is intended to be a reference for you to use when looking at your grades posted on PowerSchool.  I'm hoping it helps you understand the difference between MODE (the most frequent score & reliable trend) and MEAN (the average score) and why I use a combination of the two to determine your grades.

    Here are a few key points to keep in mind.

    KEY POINTS ABOUT GRADING IN FLIGHT 307.

    1. EVERYTHING IS EVIDENCE.  Every activity we do in class, every graphic organizer you complete, every project, every blog post, every quiz, every paper.  It is all evidence of your learning, which means everything counts.

    When I assess your achievement of a standard, it is based on the evidence you provide me.  Provide me piles of evidence and I can make a much better, much more accurate assessment of your understanding.  Complete most of the blog posts and show your classwork.   Complete the writing and media projects and revise them.

    At the same time, if you don't provide me with very much evidence, I have to make an assessment based only on what I have.  You may be a fantastic writer and an excellent reader -- what evidence have you given me to show this is the case?  Only one blog post out of fourteen?  Only a rough draft of a paper?  If that's what you give me, that's what I have to use to make my professional judgement.

    2.  YOU CAN SUBMIT WORK ALL QUARTER LONG.  I will accept evidence of your learning all the way up until the last day of the quarter.  (And sometimes even beyond that date depending on the circumstances and if you communicate with me.)

    3. EVERYTHING IS REVISABLE/RETAKABLE.   Don't do well on a quiz?  Show me evidence of studying and I'll gladly provide another opportunity for you to demonstrate your knowledge.  Don't do great on an essay?  Revise it based on the feedback I've provided.  Complete a revision submission form so that I know exactly how you've developed this new draft. Same goes for projects.

    4. WHAT'S THE STORY?  The whole point of grades to tell the story of how much you know.  (At least, that's how I see grades.) I want to tell the most accurate story possible and in order to do that, I need your evidence.  And I also need to know the story behind that evidence.  Was it your best effort?  When did you complete it?  What was going on at the time?  Is it really that you didn't try or was it that other things were going on that made that work unreliable evidence?  Communicate with me and help me tell your story.

    Those are the three most important things to know.  Now . . . here's how the math works.

    MODE VS AVERAGING.


    MODE.  Mode is the most frequent number that shows up in a set of numbers.

    MEAN.  Mean is the average of the numbers in a set of numbers.  (Add 'em up, divide.)

    Most of you have experience averages as the way of determining your grades.  I have to use averaging as well, but not until I've used mode.  Here's why.

    If you look at Student A above, you can see the scores on his . . . oh . . . reading standard for the 1st quarter.  He didn't meet the standard on the first assessment, exceeded on the following three, and then didn't do the last one.

    If I were using MEAN, averaging, he'd end up with a 73, Meets/Partially Meets.  This feels weird to me.

    Here's the thing.  If I'm assigning meaningful reading assessments and this student has exceeded the standard three times?  Then that student likely knows how to read and thinking about reading in the ways that I need to assess.  In fact, if he has exceeded the standard three times?  That seems like pretty strong evidence that student is at least meeting the standard, and likely exceeding it.

    I have to take a look at what exactly those assessments were and consider them. That zero?  Maybe it was a relative minor reading assessment? A blog post.  A graphic organizer.  Or perhaps it was part of a major project?  I have to think about these things when I assess your abilities.

    And that's why I don't put zeroes in the book and I don't average them.  It leads to inaccurate stories.

    If I use the MODE, however, then I see the most frequent score is a 100 and that tells me you are nailing it.  At least thats what the evidence suggests.

    Sometimes, the average is accurate.  Student B shows that.  

    And sometimes the story is more complicated as with Student C, who seemed to struggle at the beginning and then had one really strong assessment score and then lost it again.  If I were to average, that student would have a 75, meets/partially meets.

    But that doesn't seem accurate as a story of the student's learning.  Most of the time the student struggled.  It was only a couple of times things seemed to click -- click in a big way -- but it didn't happen consistently.

    I'm always going to use the evidence available to me to determine the most accurate reporting of your understanding and achievement.

    WHEN YOU LOOK IN POWERSCHOOL.  

    When you load up your grades in PowerSchool you will see the only grades that "count" are the standards grades listed as due on the last day of the quarter.  These grades will go up and down over the quarter based on the evidence you provide me.

    Where's that evidence?  It is all of the other assignments in the grade book: blog posts, written assessments, projects, vocab and such.  This also includes Habits of Mind.

    Those individual assignments are all grayed out because if I don't put them in as "doesn't count," then PowerSchool will automatically average them.  And we know how I feel about averaging.   Instead what I have to do at various times over the quarter, is take a look at the evidence, figure out the MODE, and put that mode into the Standard Grade for the quarter.   Again, the may go up and down depending on the evidence provided.  Change the trend.  Change your grade.

    Unfortunately, I have to average all of the standards grades together to get your quarter grade.  It pains me to have to do it and I don't have a choice until the school changes how it reports your learning.  (And that will be happening eventually, just not in 2015-2016.  It is part of the movement toward Proficiency Based Education and it has the chance to increase fairness and opportunity in our school in huge ways.)

    SO WHAT?

    So what does all of this mean?  Do your work.  Provide me the most accurate story of your knowledge and abilities.  

    Having a bad night? Rough weekend?  That's okay.  If it's a minor assignment and you've provided lots of other evidence of learning, you may choose not to do it.   It won't hurt you.  Turn it in several weeks late?  That's okay.  You will be held accountable for the timeliness on Habits of Mind and can still fully demonstrate your learning for the other standards.

    What if you don't provide enough evidence for me to see you have met the standards?  That has consequences as well.  I need to be able to see a trend in the data.

    I know this is a lot of words.  I just wanted you to always have an explanation you can review, that you can share with your folks.

    Most important things you can do?  Provide evidence.  Communicate with me.  



    Monday, October 5, 2015

    Pop Culture: How Might We Design a Better Music Experience?


    Today, we are going to run a 20 minute design flashlab.  How might we design a better listening device?

    We'll use DEEP design thinking to do this.

    Discovery.  We'll start with making a list of all the devices we use to listen to music 1 min.

    Empathy.  We'll make a massive bug list of what annoys about our listening devices. See what we like, dislike.  5 min.

    Experiment. We'll dig into the maker cart and come up with prototypes for better listening devices.  They may be tiny.  They may be massive.  10 min.

    Produce.  We'll share and quickly get some feedback.  4 min.

    Consider building something like this for your project due this week.

    Then you will have time to work on your projects, blogging, Pinterest and more.




    Blog. 3+ Posts.
    Curate.  1 Pinterest Pin.
    Required Critical Creativity Blog Post Options.
    Option 1. (From my friend Amy Burvall)   Analog Remix Found Poetry: Developed by David Theriault (another friend of mine) who has an excellent blog post/lesson plan about this with ideas for all disciplines. You can create the Burrough effect by laying two poems or lyrics or any text next to each other (he even suggests chapters from a textbook) and manually creating the found poem using a variety of techniques (“blackout poetry” is always a good choice, but you can get more fancy).

    Option 2. Sketchnote the lyrics to a favorite song of yours. What are sketchnotes?

    Option 3. Create a YouDubber that takes a current news story and puts a song on top of the footage for a an intentional effect. Explain your thinking.

    Design & Submit. Music Culture Projects.  
    Due. Wednesday. 10.7.15.
    We start our film unit on Wednesday with a nice bridge: film score composition, sound tracking and music supervision.

    Sunday, October 4, 2015

    AP Lit: Last of True Grit, Opening of Our Work with J. Alfred Prufrock

    This Monday and Tuesday, will be putting a bookmark in our work with True Grit.  We will inevitably come back to Portis and his work because that's how this class works -- building connections, finding patterns, reading and re-reading, uncovering layers and intentions.

    Verse 15.
    We'll open with a Verse 15.  Trying to name what I want us to be doing each class, opening with a cold reading and a close reading and annotation.  Verse on days we've been focused on prose.  Prose on the days we've been focusing on verse.

    So today, thanks to my friends on the #aplitchat Twitter chat (click on it -- it's a real thing and they are neat folks) we'll be looking at Barbara Crooker's "And Now It's October" via The Writer's Almanac.

    15 mins.  We're going to hold ourselves to that.  We can always continue the discussion . . . on the blogs.

    Elements of Fiction & Sketchnoting.

    Extending from our work with the LEGO metaphors, we'll identify the key elements of fiction & determine Portis' development of each in True Grit.

    We will use this as the basis for our first intentional work with sketchnoting as I will show you techniques for turning doodles into ideas and ideas into pre-writing.

    I may have posted this list before, but here are a few resources around sketchnoting you may find helpful.

    Here are a few resources to help:

    First Time Sketchnotes on Sketchnote Army

    Sunni Brown's Doodle Revolution 

    And...


    Show Your Learning.

    Blog. 3+ Posts.
    Req'd Critical Creativity Challenge. Sketchnote T.S. Eliot's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock"  Document your process as you go.  Simple as that.  
    Due. Friday. 10.9.15.

    Read, Annotate & Literary 3x3.  Eliot's "Prufrock." 
    Due. Next Class.

    Study. Vocab Quiz 1.
    Next Class.  We keep pushing it back because I keep forgetting to remind you.
    See the link to the list on the right hand side of this blog.
    Expect a Quiz a Week for the Rest of the Month.
    Don't Quiz Well?  Retake as Many Times As You Like.
    Or. Create a roots-based product to demonstrate your knowledge.
    It's all about evidence.

    Revise. Synthesis 1. 
    Due. ASAP.  Revise as many times as you like.
    Final Revision Due. Monday. Oct. 27.