PACE: Freedom, Autonomy, Accountability, Independence & Education

Today's plan ended up changing a bit because of a fire drill.  Glad we are all safe and sound, though.

We started by watching this video on visual thinking.

We used these skills to visualize our thinking about

• Independence
• Autonomy
• Freedom
• Accountability

From there we watched Sir Ken Robinson's thoughts on education via RSA Animate.

And the big essential question we left thinking about?

How might we experience independence, autonomy, freedom and accountability . . . 

in schools?

at Mt. Blue Campus?

in PACE?

Next class we dive into our first unit and unlike traditional classes, I'll be showing you how I planned it, how I developed the essential questions guiding it (and what essential questions are), and you'll be getting your first book to read: Hunger Games or Adventures of Ulysses.  Your choice.  (WHAT?!? Choice?! Yes.)

Humanities: Goal Setting & Cardboard Planning

Today we break in two . .

One group will work with Mr. Tierney on goals setting.  You need to complete the goals form for Tuesday a.k.a. tomorrow!

Another will work with Mr. Ryder on thinking about the Cardboard Challenge.
That session includes watching this video on visual thinking.

After watching the video, you'll put your visual thinking skills to work answering these three questions:

1. If you could help one person today, who would it be and why?

2. What are problems you see in our community, nation, and world?

3. What makes you happy?

These questions tie right into the Caine's Arcade Cardboard Challenge project that Mr. Tierney has outlined for us. (Click on that link for a .PDF version.)

AP Lit: Jago, Viz Think, Ender, Pip & Miles Roby

Monday and Tuesday, AP Lit will be all about finding common threads and ideas, training our brains to get beneath the surface, and practicing visual thinking or "viz think."

Discussing

We begin by looking at the "What Is Literature?" chapter from Carol Jago's text and identifying highlights, the moments that stuck with us, and the poetry and fiction we each chose from the selection.  We'll be tossing ideas up on the boards.

We'll take a moment to watch this video on visual thinking.

Analysis & Visual Thinking

This will propel us into work with Ender's Game, Empire Falls, Great Expectations and the selections from the Jago chapter.  

We will use visual thinking to conceptualize the connections between these two works as we continue our question to answer the essential question: Why do we study Literature?

Homework

Read: The rest of Ender's Game for the first class of next week.
Read: "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams for next class
Write/Create/Answer:  
Part I: What makes a great analytical essay? What are the essential qualities? Necessary component?  
Part II: To what extent are you capable of producing a great analytical essay?  What are your strengths & weakness as an essayist?    

Humanities: Personal Artifacts & Uniting Our Designs

Today we will split the class in two, something that will happen more and more in Humanities.

Artifacts

Mr. Dunbar will work with folks on their personal artifacts, uncovering understandings about one another.  

Design

Mr. Ryder will work with folks on designing Room F-215, plotting ideas on a chart, examining models, making physical changes to the room, and planning on how to make others next week. 

And then the groups will switch.

Homework

Complete: Artifact work if not yet complete.

Gather: Resources we need to finish the room design.

AP Lit: Designing, Sharing, Norming, Discussing, Connecting

Discussion & Analysis

Today we talk about the introduction Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor.   We'll share our insights & understandings and how Gibson's ideas connect to our past experiences.

Design

We will also post our design models of the classroom and plot our thinking on what changes should be made and how we can get those changes to happen.

Community

We will take time to discuss our norms as a class, the habits of culture in the room that each of us really need to be successful.  For example, I need a space where it's okay to be raggedy -- to express half-ideas, not quite formed thoughts, almost there notions, and to then be able to say, "You know what? I wasn't quite on with that."    

What are your particular needs?

Producing & Sharing

But we'll start the day with another round of sharing our summer projects.  Four more folks will share their thinking, ideas, and products.  

Homework

Read: Ender's Game (1-100)
Prepare to Discuss: To what extent does EG qualify as "Literature?" 

Read: "Thinking About Literature" packet
Complete: One of the activities based on the poetry & short stories embedded in the packet.  This is another benchmarking piece for me.  I'm looking to see what you choose, the quality of the work you produce.

Humanities: Designing, Boxing, Imagining, Artifacting, Digging Deep

We continue to shape up our learning space today as we do a different sort of work to determine next steps in the space.

Thinking

We'll begin with this video, "Adventures of a Cardboard Box" from Studio Canoe and activity to get us thinking outside the box.

Questions to Answer After Our Watching

• Why did we have you watch this video?
• How can what we say affect how other people think about us?
• What can we learn from our responses to another’s painful experiences?
• What effect can our jokes have on the people around us?

Artifacts & Humanities

From there we will turn our attention to artifact thinking & critical thinking, digging deep, going beyond the surface as we try to determine what Humanities is all about through evidence.  

Yesterday's artifact work was pretty good.  We can do even better.  

Design

After the artifact work, we return to designing the classroom where we will be using a 2x2 plotting system to help us whittle down all the room design ideas we have going to those we should probably actually put to work in our space.

And then . . . we can start moving stuff around.

Homework

Due Thursday 9/5

Gather artifacts that represent you based on these criteria.

a. One artifact should be about you as a student. 

b. One artifact should be about you socially (family/friends)

c. One artifact should be about your personal interests/hobbies.

d. The last artifact is completely up to you.  

On the sheet provided, write a few sentences about what each artifact says about 

you.  Put all of the artifacts in the brown paper bag given you along with the rationales.  

Put your name ONLY ON THE SHEET.  


Identity Cultural Anthropology Experience:  We will place the artifacts that each of you have brought in 

paper bags. Your job/and my job will be to get one bag, put the items on your desk, take a 

look at them, and then circulate around the room.  Make your best guess as to who belongs 

to each set of artifacts and why you think that.

PACE: Designing, Interviewing, Mapping, Prototyping

Wednesday's class is going to make some tremendous headway for our classroom design.

Design

We will start with Thirty Circles again to warm up the brains.

Then we will interview one another using the Four Compass Points protocol, a way of asking key questions about a problem you are trying to solve and finding out what your partner thinks about that problem.

From there, you can choose the design work that most appeals to you:

Organizing & coding the input from the various sources

Drawing/constructing models of the classroom based on the data available

Prototyping and physically experimenting with configurations in the classroom

The above will take about 45 to 50 minutes.

What Is PACE?

The rest of class will be a discussion of what PACE is, what it means, what is going to happen this year, and what each of us needs for this to be successful.  This will mean "norms" work a.k.a. "how we roll" work.

Homework

We will be working a great deal with symbolism, metaphor and analogy this year.
Bring three objects with you to class:
One represents yourself as a learner
One represents what you are thinking about PACE right now
One represents what you hope to gain from PACE
Be prepared to discuss, defend, praise your choices.