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 

PACE: Reading & Writing Continues

According to the due dates, if you are following the teacher PACE suggestions, you are finishing your first book this week as well as submitting your first working draft of your first essay.  Working drafts may be revised as many times as the author wishes after receiving feedback.

Last Thursday, we looked at hooks and thesis statements.   Here's the examples.

We have done a few different rounds with reading graphic organizers as well.

On Monday, we will work on using text evidence to back up our thoughts.  You received an organizer to help you pull together ideas.  But finding it and using it in a piece of writing effectively are two separate things.

For those interested, I will offer a writer's workshop to help with embedding text evidence and meeting that standard on the essays.

Here's a link to that workshop.


Also, expect rubrics early this week.

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Find an image online that relates to your essential question or thesis statement.  Then use Realtime Board OR Thinglink to create annotations for that image that explain the connection to your thesis statement.  (Consider that those thoughts might make effective evidence/thinking for your essay.)

Vocab:  Quack Unit 2 Part 2

Quiz: Wed, May 21

MUGS: TBA.

Quiz: TBA.

Read:  2 Novels from Selections

Complete: 3 Graphic Organizers Per Selection

Due: June 1

Complete 1st Book by May 15

Write: 2 Essays over Self Selected Essential Questions

Due: June 8 

Complete 1st Working Draft of 1st by May 15

PACE: Work Plans, Pre Writing

On Friday, we established our fourth quarter work log.  If you check the Due Dates spreadsheet in the Google Drive, you will find a sheet for Quarter 4.

And what you will see includes a suggested teacher PACE timetable for the rest of the quarter.  Included are stages and assessments of the book work as well as the essay work.

For the rest of class, folks could opt into two activities or work independently.

In the reading activity, we read an excerpt from House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisernos.  

We practiced using the GIST literacy strategy to document our understanding.

You can find the GIST form in your Google Drive PACE OUT folder.

We also did some work with our essay writing and used a "Why" chart exercise.  We established our essential questions and then started asking the question "Why?" to explore possibilities for our arguments.

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts (Q4 Wk 2.)

Req'd Post: Make a five song playlist for conflict resolution and post it on your blog with explanations for each one.  You might choose songs that feature each type of conflict or you might choose a song you'd suggest one listen to in order to resolve a conflict.  Explain your thinking for each.

Person vs Self

Person vs Nature

Person vs Person

Person vs Society

Person vs Technology

Vocab:  Quack Unit 2 Part 1

Quiz: Thursday, May 8

MUGS: TBA.

Quiz: TBA.

Read:  2 Novels from Selections

Complete: 3 Graphic Organizers Per Selection

Due: June 1

Complete 1st Book by May 15

Write: 2 Essays over Self Selected Essential Questions

Due: June 8 

Complete 1st Working Draft of 1st by May 15

AP Lit 2B/3B: Embedding Text Evidence & Building Power Guides

We focused our energy today on uncovering understandings about embedding effective text evidence.

We took a rather non-traditional approach to this work, reading through a number of sources for highlights and insights and then creating our own . . .

POWER GUIDES.

A power guide includes the key takeaways from the sources as well as examples of those takeaways in practice.  What's important about those examples?  They must be your own!

Here are some pics of the various approaches folks took to solving this challenge so far.

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Use Colourlovers.com  to create a custom palette of at least three colors relating to meaning in Frankenstein.  You will need to name the palette and each color within it.  Be certain to choose purposeful names and push your self to go beyond the concrete.  (Concrete:  "blue sky" because the sky was blue.)
Due: March 7

Complete: Synthesis #3
Due: Mar 7

Humanities: Visual Thinking for Cardboard Challenge Essay

Floyd and Mr Ryder came up with this as a way to plan his essay.

Humanities: Cardboard Challenge Essay & IGNITE Rubric

Today we started class with a quick improv game to see how we felt about our Cardboard Challenge Projects.  It was interesting to hear the various responses.  I'm glad so many folks felt great about their work and I wondering why so many folks didn't.

From there we did a little Pictionary-style activity to prep for Roots 2.  REMEMBER: The quiz is over BOTH Roots 1 & 2. And you have a word map due over Roots 2! (Or a roots-based word product of some sort.) Super important that you study both.  Click on the link in the sidebar to find your Roots study tools.

That led to breaking up the class in two to cover the expectations for the Cardboard Challenge IGNITE research presentation and the Cardboard Challenge 5 Paragraph Reflective Process Essay.  Those expectations are in the rubric below:


This rubric is available as a PDF in your Google Drive.

Homework:

Study: Roots Quiz #2 (over 1 & 2) and Word Map
Due Thursday, 10/10

Blog: 3+ quality posts on your blog. (Make sure you are caught up! Need ideas? Post your pre-thinking about your essays, about your IGNITE research.  Post pictures of your work on Cardboard Challenges.  Post the results of your Roots practicing.
Due Friday, 10/11

Cardboard Challenge IGNITE Research Presentation: 2 min, 12 slides
Due Tuesday, 10/15

Cardboard Challenge 5 Paragraph Essay: Intro, Product, Process, Outcome, Conclusion
Due Thursday, 10/17

AP Lit 2B/3B: Chess & Literature

We begin by submitting our synthesis essays.  Create a Google Drive folder called "[First & Last Names] AP Lit 2013 IN," make me an editor of that folder.  Finally, put a Google Doc version of your essay in that folder.

Note: It has to be a Google doc, not just a Pages document uploaded.  I need to be able to comment on it using Google, not Pages.

This should only take a few moments.

Then . . .

Chess.

Why chess?

We'll discuss at length in class.

And speaking of discussions . . .

We will practice using a class discussion protocol that we will use next week for our first formally assessed class discussion.

Homework

Write: Work on your college essay.  (If no school chosen yet, go w/ the common app prompt.  You can find that all over the interwebs.)  Your submission draft is due next Thursday or Friday, depending on which class you are in.
Due:  Friday, 8/4 (I know there's no school!  Yay internet!)

Blog: 3+ entries for Friday, 9/27

Assigned Creative Blog Post:  Mrs. Dalloway employs color in meaningful, powerful ways.  Perhaps you have noticed this, perhaps  you have not.  (Pay particular attention to flowers, foods, skies, clothing and faces.)

Use Colourlovers.com  to create a custom palette of at least three colors relating to meaning in Mrs. Dalloway.  You will need to name the palette and each color within it.  Be certain to choose purposeful names and push your self to go beyond the concrete.  (Concrete:  "blue sky" because the sky was blue.)

Share your palette on your blog w/ explanations of your choices.

Added Challenge: Create a piece of digital art employing the color palette in a way congruent to Virginia Woolf.

Read

Dallowinian Reading Chunks (pg. #s are Mt. Blue copies, Harcourt ed.)

1: a t an O an F (1 - 29)

2: he never saw her again (29 - 64)

3: Dr. Holmes, looking not quite so kind. (64-94)

4. Elizabeth Dalloway mounted the Westminster Omnibus (94 - 139)

5. For there she was (139 - End)

One reading per night.

Blue Day classes finish the book for Tuesday, the 1st.   Gold Day classes  finish for Monday the 30th.

AP Lit 3G: Chess, Strategy & Literature

We begin by submitting our synthesis essays.  Create a Google Drive folder called "[First & Last Names] AP Lit 2013 IN," make me an editor of that folder.  Finally, put a Google Doc version of your essay in that folder.

Note: It has to be a Google doc, not just a Pages document uploaded.  I need to be able to comment on it using Google, not Pages.

This should only take a few moments.

Then . . .

Chess.

Why chess?

We'll discuss at length in class.

And speaking of discussions . . .

We will practice using a class discussion protocol that we will use next week for our first formally assessed class discussion.

Homework

Write: Work on your college essay.  (If no school chosen yet, go w/ the common app prompt.  You can find that all over the interwebs.)  Your submission draft is due next Thursday or Friday, depending on which class you are in.
Due: Thursday, 8/3, Friday, 8/4

Blog: 3+ entries for Friday, 9/27

Assigned Creative Blog Post:  Mrs. Dalloway employs color in meaningful, powerful ways.  Perhaps you have noticed this, perhaps  you have not.  (Pay particular attention to flowers, foods, skies, clothing and faces.)

Use Colourlovers.com  to create a custom palette of at least three colors relating to meaning in Mrs. Dalloway.  You will need to name the palette and each color within it.  Be certain to choose purposeful names and push your self to go beyond the concrete.  (Concrete:  "blue sky" because the sky was blue.)

Share your palette on your blog w/ explanations of your choices.

Added Challenge: Create a piece of digital art employing the color palette in a way congruent to Virginia Woolf.

Read

Dallowinian Reading Chunks (pg. #s are Mt. Blue copies, Harcourt ed.)

1: a t an O an F (1 - 29)

2: he never saw her again (29 - 64)

3: Dr. Holmes, looking not quite so kind. (64-94)

4. Elizabeth Dalloway mounted the Westminster Omnibus (94 - 139)

5. For there she was (139 - End)

One reading per night.

Blue Day classes finish the book for Tuesday, the 1st.   Gold Day classes  finish for Monday the 30th.

AP Lit: Synthesis Essay Rubric

AP Lit 2B/3B: Zones: Workshopping, Writing, Discussing

Hey folks,

You have four zones in which you may function today. The intention is to maximize our classroom time opportunities for folks to get what they need/want from the class period. We won't be able to do this everyday. But I'd like to try it out and see how well it works.  

1. Use the inspiration area as a discussion hub to discuss Mrs. Dalloway.  Please record your conversation for my benefit in some way.

2. Use a cluster of desks in the center of the room to run a peer editing workshop.  I'll create a shared Google doc on which you should paste each essay examined and mark up with your comments.  Start from the same place we began the other day: author cannot speak, comments and constructive criticisms given, author given a chance to ask questions and clarify.

3.  Find a comfortable space and work on your synthesis essay in solo fashion.  Again, share it with me through Google docs so I can see the results of your Wednesday.

4.  Find a comfortable space and answer some of the questions on Google+.

Friday will be a very discussion and movement and chess oriented day.  And next Tuesday will be rich with discussion.  

Folks that intend to buy their own copy of The Hours should get their hands on it by early next week.

Homework

Write: Synthesis Essay 1st Submission Draft Due Next Class!  Thursday! Rubric here!

Blog: 3+ entries for Friday, 9/27

Assigned Creative Blog Post:  Mrs. Dalloway employs color in meaningful, powerful ways.  Perhaps you have noticed this, perhaps  you have not.  (Pay particular attention to flowers, foods, skies, clothing and faces.)

Use Colourlovers.com  to create a custom palette of at least three colors relating to meaning in Mrs. Dalloway.  You will need to name the palette and each color within it.  Be certain to choose purposeful names and push your self to go beyond the concrete.  (Concrete:  "blue sky" because the sky was blue.)

Share your palette on your blog w/ explanations of your choices.

Added Challenge: Create a piece of digital art employing the color palette in a way congruent to Virginia Woolf.

Read

Dallowinian Reading Chunks (pg. #s are Mt. Blue copies, Harcourt ed.)

1: a t an O an F (1 - 29)

2: he never saw her again (29 - 64)

3: Dr. Holmes, looking not quite so kind. (64-94)

4. Elizabeth Dalloway mounted the Westminster Omnibus (94 - 139)

5. For there she was (139 - End)

One reading per night.

Blue Day classes finish the book for Tuesday, the 1st.   Gold Day classes  finish for Monday the 30th.

AP Lit 3G: Lot Jotting & Google+ & An Experiment

When you walk in, I will ask you all to take five minutes & write an essay about whether or not I should wear a tie to school.  Have fun with it.  (It's for my daughter. I'll explain.)

Then we will do the Lot Jot question generating activity described here.

After lunch, we are trying an experiment.

There will be three zones.

A book discussion zone.

A synthesis solo work zone.

A synthesis group work zone.

I will work my way through all three, as you will choose the zone that most suits your needs.  You can also move fluidly from zone to zone as your needs dictate.

This is an effort to maximize the class time for you, while still affording a structure in the room.

Homework

Write: Synthesis Essay 1st Submission Draft Due Next Class!  Thursday!

Blog: 3+ entries for Friday, 9/27

Assigned Creative Blog Post:  Mrs. Dalloway employs color in meaningful, powerful ways.  Perhaps you have noticed this, perhaps  you have not.  (Pay particular attention to flowers, foods, skies, clothing and faces.) 

Use Colourlovers.com  to create a custom palette of at least three colors relating to meaning in Mrs. Dalloway.  You will need to name the palette and each color within it.  Be certain to choose purposeful names and push your self to go beyond the concrete.  (Concrete:  "blue sky" because the sky was blue.)

Share your palette on your blog w/ explanations of your choices.

Added Challenge: Create a piece of digital art employing the color palette in a way congruent to Virginia Woolf.

Read

Dallowinian Reading Chunks (pg. #s are Mt. Blue copies, Harcourt ed.)
1: a t an O an F (1 - 29)
2: he never saw her again (29 - 64)
3: Dr. Holmes, looking not quite so kind. (64-94)
4. Elizabeth Dalloway mounted the Westminster Omnibus (94 - 139)
5. For there she was (139 - End)
One reading per night.
Blue Day classes finish the book for Tuesday, the 1st.   Gold Day classes  finish for Monday the 30th.

AP Lit 2B/3B: Workshopping Synthesis & Lot Jotting Mrs. Dalloway

As we continue our work together, I continue to learn more about our various classroom dynamics and strive to find methods that gets everyone what he or she needs to feel confident with our work.  It's a challenging work in progress.  Thank you for bearing with it and engaging with the work heretofore present.

We accomplished two key goals today: workshopped synthesis thinking & discussed Mrs. Dalloway.

To be honest, the latter was mostly determining great questions for later discussion of Mrs. Dalloway, though I would argue in formulating those questions, ideas were considered.  We will have much closer textual examinations on Wednesday and Friday and next week as well.  (I had something of an a-ha! moment today.)

Here's pics and description of our modified Lot Jot work.

We also got everyone started on Google+ and nestled into his or her correct Google+ AP Lit class community.

The in-class synthesis workshops are accessible in your Google Drive.  Just look for AP Lit Synthesis Workshop inside the AP Lit 2013 OUT/Synthesis Thinking folder.  I'm making all of them visible to all  AP Lit 2013 students.  (None of us is smarter than all of us.) You can see what other folks have been doing for thesis statements and introductions.

Homework

Blog: 3+ entries for Friday, 9/27

Assigned Creative Blog Post:  Mrs. Dalloway employs color in meaningful, powerful ways.  Perhaps you have noticed this, perhaps  you have not.  (Pay particular attention to flowers, foods, skies, clothing and faces.) 

Use Colourlovers.com  to create a custom palette of at least three colors relating to meaning in Mrs. Dalloway.  You will need to name the palette and each color within it.  Be certain to choose purposeful names and push your self to go beyond the concrete.  (Concrete:  "blue sky" because the sky was blue.)

Share your palette on your blog w/ explanations of your choices.

Added Challenge: Create a piece of digital art employing the color palette in a way congruent to Virginia Woolf.

Read

Dallowinian Reading Chunks (pg. #s are Mt. Blue copies, Harcourt ed.)
1: a t an O an F (1 - 29)2: he never saw her again (29 - 64)3: Dr. Holmes, looking not quite so kind. (64-94)4. Elizabeth Dalloway mounted the Westminster Omnibus (94 - 139)5. For there she was (139 - End)
One reading per night.
Blue Day classes finish the book for Tuesday, the 1st.   Gold Day classes  finish for Monday the 30th.

Write
Next working draft of synthesis for workshopping on Wednesday.  

1st Submission draft of synthesis #1 due on Friday.

AP Lit 3G: Synthesis Workshop 1 & Mrs. Dalloway Begins

Two goals on this far too short of a day.

1. Workshop Synthesis Essays.  Our focus for this session will be strictly upon the introduction & thesis statement.  Why?  Go back and take a look at our data on where we believe our strengths and weaknesses as writers lie.  Also, important to have that foundation and as we discuss them, we can also raise ideas from Ender's Game and the other texts for which we haven't had much opportunity.  Yet.

We'll start with you posting your introductions on this Google doc right here.

For those anxious to discuss, know that there is a graded class discussion/seminar in our near future.  It is on its way.

2.  Discuss Mrs. Dalloway.  We will look at Woolf's style & techniques, clarify characters & plot events, and make sense of it all.

Homework

Blog: 3+ entries (3 effective, meaningful entries = meets; exceeds = 4 OR mindblowing, uber brilliant 3)  for Friday including 1st creative prompt:

Soundtracking a Most Cinematic Moment: Each of our novels thus far has possessed certain cinematic qualities.  Choose a passage from a particularly cinematic moment, post that passage, and link/embed a song that you believe would serve as an effective soundtrack to that moment.  Added challenge? Compose your own original.

Write: Synthesis Essay: 2nd Workshop worthy draft due in class on Friday, 9/20

Read: Mrs. Dalloway up to "He went away that night.  He never saw her again."

AP Lit 2B/3B: Brainstorming & Synthesis Thinking & Mrs. Dalloway-ing

We start today with setting up our blogs.    Blogs -- and soon Google+ -- are going to be vital for folks to share the ideas and continue the conversations that get the short shrift in class.

Blog

We should be able to do this rather quickly and start our synthesis work which requires our handy dandy DESIGN KITS! Yay! (Seriously. I'm excited. A lot.)

Synthesis Thinking

We'll look at this post from OpenIDEO to get tips on brainstorming.

Then we'll formulate ideas for our synthesis essays by brainstorming connects between the works we have read and putting that on paper.  After the brainstorm, the workshop turns to construction as each group will build a powerful synthesis thinking thesis statement to serve as a model as you embark on your individual work.  

We will document the snot out of this work and put it here as well for continued referencing.

Synthesis essay rubric, culled from your group work, lands Thursday.  A workshop worthy draft is due that day as well.

This is also our opportunity to raise ideas from Ender's Game that we have not yet had a chance to explore.

Mrs. Dalloway

From there, we dive into Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.  We will discuss stream of consciousness narratives and the challenges they pose both reader and creator.  There's a great article here that discusses the syntax & construction Woolf uses in her narrative.  (Click on "Download PDF" to read the whole thing.)

And we'll start the reading together as a class so we have a shared experience with the narrative.

Homework

Blog: 3+ entries (3 effective, meaningful entries = meets; exceeds = 4 OR mindblowing, uber brilliant 3)  for Friday including 1st creative prompt:

Soundtracking a Most Cinematic Moment: Each of our novels thus far has possessed certain cinematic qualities.  Choose a passage from a particularly cinematic moment, post that passage, and link/embed a song that you believe would serve as an effective soundtrack to that moment.  Added challenge? Compose your own original.

Write: Synthesis Essay: Workshop worthy draft due in class on Thursday, 9/19
Read: Mrs. Dalloway up to "T, an O, an F."

AP Lit: Synthesis Thesis Example

AP Lit: Synthesis Essay Thinking

Notes from board AP Lit 2B and 3B

AP Lit 3G: Legos & Literature & Synthesis Thinking

Today's AP Lit 3G class started with a quick trip to our new Make Space design & innovation lab in the incubator room here at Mt. Blue Campus.  (It's still getting refined  down there and when it is all ready to go?  Look out, cook out.)

Legos & Literary Analysis

There we built Lego constructs, reflected on the construction process, and then developed analogies between that process and the literary construction and analysis processes.

And it was super fun.  See more here.

Assessment & Synthesis

After lunch, we returned to the room to discuss our strengths and weaknesses as literary analysis essayists and construct rubric drafts for our first synthesis essay.

This lead to our first foray into synthesis thinking. 

Our examples of synthesis thesis statements are on the board (which is away from me at the moment so I will update this soon).

At the heart of our synthesis work lays this process:

Analyze the literature we read
Reflect upon your life experience and content knowledge across your spectrum of contexts
Identify threads, patterns, meaning, symbols across the literature, experience & knowledge
Focus upon a single, powerful idea/understanding that emerges from the above work
Defend your understanding with evidence from the above work

Synthesis thinking is what writers and thinkers like Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink, and Steven Johnson do every day.  Chuck Klosterman and Sarah Vowell, Cintra Wilson and Barbara Ehrenreich do it too.

We are in age where the amount of information exceeds our ability to consume it.  We have to cull and curate, extract and explicate, and then find the underlayment, the powerful notions holding it all together.  Then we might be able to start making sense of this world in which live and figuring out ways to make it better.

Finally, a heads up.  As we haven't had our primary means of communication, the laptop, at our disposal until now, I have been soft on due dates and submitting work.  Starting Monday, timeliness rubrics (see Guidelines & Expectations in their colorful glory) will be strictly enforced on all assigned homework.

Homework

Finish: Ender's Game for Monday
Complete: Student Designed Essay Rubric - send along ASAP
Draft: 1st Working Draft of Synthesis Essay Due for Workshop Next Wednesday, 9/18

Major Due Dates

AP Lit: Rubrics & Wheelbarrows

Mr Ryder is out for period 2 on Wednesday while I make an effort to improve everyone's lives around Mt. Blue RSD.  (That is actually what Mr. Dunbar and I are doing at this meeting.)

Here is the plan for the day written out as a lesson plan.  It is also in e-mail.

1. 20 min. Copy “The Red Wheelbarrow” up on one of the marker boards (okay to erase one)

Annotate as a class; what do you notice? what questions does it raise? What about the structure seems important? Why this particular language?  Key words?  Images?   

Take a picture of your class annotations and send it to me.  I’ll be looking for it around 9:40 or so.

Only 20 minutes to do this!  Keep careful eye on the time.  

2. 10 min. Take the survey I’ve sent you in your e-mail regarding essay writing. (Also here: https://docs.google.com/a/mtbluersd.org/forms/d/1ppSPxVQuZxwzUxn05i-wi6lLpNE_1M_14DG5t79d5tA/viewform)  If you’ve already taken it, relax and enjoy the mountain air.  I’ll be seeing how many are completed around 9:50 or so.

3. 30 min. Using the blank rubric in Google Docs that I’ve shared with you, work in groups to craft language you feel should be on our essay writing rubric.  Make a copy of the blank I have there and then share the copy amongst your group members and me - make sure you make me an owner of your copy too.  Lets me work with it more.

Consider your own strengths/weaknesses and what you know good writing to look like. I’ll be using this input to inform my rubric design for your 1st essay.  In the DEEP design thinking process, this is both empathy stage  and playing into experiment stage.  You did a little discovery work for homework and I’m going to use it to create a prototype essay rubric that may need refining as we move forward.  See? This is how design thinking works!  (Man, I LOVE it.)

4. Remaining time: look at examples of visual thinking posted on the Flight307.blogspot.com blog (and those remaining around the room).  Work as a class to do your own viz thinking where you look for connections between Ender’s Game, Great Expectations & Empire Falls.

H/W:

Reminders:

• Need Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway in hand for next Monday & Tuesday, Sept 16 & 17.  If you are expecting to get an English dept. copy, you need to ask ahead of time as per last week’s e-mail
• Always check the major due dates form at http://goo.gl/Z4PqCx

Read: Finish Ender’s Game for Tuesday, 9/17

Read: “Anything Can Happen” by Seamus Heaney http://goo.gl/jNemdA; annotate for Friday

Finish: Rubric Draft for Friday

Turn In: What makes a good essay & strengths & weaknesses; any other work for me (signatures, activities, annotations)