More and more students are finished with the 1965 video project, including the MLA citations page. On Friday Core 2 turned in their Outsiders sequels. It was a good day to see some short clips of music from 1965 mentioned in the novel and learn two very easy, very popular dances from 1965, the Twist and the Monkey. Those blurry pics are them in action (I found my new phone isn't good at capturing movement).
Monday began with our first test on their first group of vocabulary words. This was a summative grade (80%), so the handful that didn't study discovered what an impact one poor summative grade makes in the middle of all those formative grades (20%). We read a poem called "Loving Red" by the award-winning poet Amaul Amaud Johnson. They had some questions only the poet could answer. I located him, e-mailed, and had a response by lunch! The poem was rich in symbolism.
We learned what participial phrases are and how they can enrich writing. They are working on their first essay on what's important in life. Core 3 finished The Outsiders on Friday and Core 1 is almost there. Core 2 began watching the movie; many kept their computers on and worked on their sequels at the same time. Some students were so far ahead that they were able to begin planning their next project. They're required to use reading and writing and choose a product to deliver their research. I've given them a planning sheet, which they have to complete, that helps them narrow the topic and plan the steps to complete it. A few so far: creating a portfolio to becoming a certified teacher, improving a volleyball serve through video, coaching, and researching professional advice, a duo researching Vladimir Putin's Ukraine activities, writing a skit, and acting it for the class (including learning some basic Russian phrases), reading selected novels by an author and comparing and contrasting them, researching the deer population of Shenandoah County. We've only started on project planning, so I'm looking forward to hearing more proposals.
Core 2 had a very quick introduction to Hamlet on Friday, a play I haven't taught since I had seniors at SJ. We're going to see in December at Blackfriars Playhouse, so I wanted them to have a background in it. The Lion King is based on Hamlet, so it should seem familiar.
ECO only met once this week because of Aimsweb screening. We began reading an article from The Northern Virginia Daily about a grant they received to improve Valley job skills. Encore finished reading Honus and Me, completed a ten question SOL-style quiz on it, then watched a Twilight Zone episode that was remarkably similar called "Extra Innings." Next week, they'll complete a Venn diagram comparing the two works. (Since The Twilight Zone episode aired in 1988 and Honus and Me was published in 1997, the author clearly took some major inspiration from the episode.)
No comments:
Post a Comment