Eng 9 4G: Classroom Re-Design Challenge Continues

Last week we dove into our first design challenge with the classroom re-design challenge: How might we design the room to meet the needs of all of the students using it this semester?

We did some discovery work through observations, note taking, photo documentation, and what we call affinity sorting -- putting characteristics on post-it notes and then arranging and organizing them in a way that makes sense.  

We jumped into the empathy phase of the challenge by taking note of our own needs and then sitting with partners to share our needs.  We each identified three key needs, put them on post-it notes and then sorted those as well into like ideas.  We looked for outliers -- ideas that no one else put down, but that seemed really important or interesting.

Today we got to see all six classes' needs stacked together and found some key ideas carrying over: organization, comfortable seating, color/decoration, a place to work/create.

We found that the AP Lit class had started moving the room into zones/sections/spaces.  We seemed pretty happy as a class with the layout so we focused on organizing.  

Next class, it will be a very short class because of the campus celebration.  Please be right on time because we'll want to take advantage of every moment.  

OUT of CLASS WORK.

Design Kits.  Bring them in ASAP.

We have a home for them now!

And a use for them!

AP Lit: Room Design & Tracy K. Smith

Room Re-Design, Tracy K. Smith's "I Don't Miss It" and Literary 3x3

Room ReDesign.

We collaborated with the other classes sharing Room F-215 by looking at the discovery, empathy, and experiment work done so far.  This revealed concerns about color, organization, seating, space for creating and a few other needs as well.  (Class pet is way high on the list.  I'm okay with a fish.  A. Fish.)   We took the next steps by applying some of the common design features from the drawn and LEGO'd mock ups  by creating a comfortable corner in which to work, moving some of the cabinets and book shelves, and establishing seating clusters.

"I Don't Miss It" and Literary 3x3.

We read Tracy K. Smith's "I Don't Miss It" and did some close reading and annotating by using David Theriault's SCOUT method.  

Then we QUICKLY introduced Literary 3x3.

Literary 3x3.  You can read more detail about it by reading Rebecca Daniel's explanation of William Melvin Kelley's technique in the AP Lit guide available here.

Screenshot here.

From the AP Lit Writing Guide

The idea here is that by distilling our thinking about a text down to a 3x3, we can hone our thinking and then use it as a catalyst for further development into . . . oh . . . say . . . a piece of analytical writing.  I'd argue that developing a 3x3 is completely worth your time as a pre-writing exercise during the on-demand portion of the test.

We ran out of time before we could create a Literary 3x3 for Smith's poem.  So you'll do that for Friday along with the following.

Out of Class Work

Read & Annotate.  How to Read Lit Like a Professor Introduction.

Create.  Literary 3x3.

"I Don't Miss It"

Write.  One paragraph analysis of "I Don't Miss It."