My APUSH class and Eng III class are a shared class. I have the same kids for the same periods everyday, but they switch from APUSH one day to Eng III the next day. This is an effort to 1) allow me to teach APUSH all year long, rather than in a semester as our block schedule should do, and 2) make it harder to drop from my APUSH class--since we will only have covered 1/4 of the material at quarter time, per class, than everyone else. We'll see how it works.
I am working on the answer to persuasion today and should post at some point today. I had to spend a few days doing the summer child switch with my ex-husband, so I have been away from the house for awhile, but I'm back! Hope your house moving is going well!
Monday, June 18, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Redkudu
Question for Ms. Q:
Does your APUSH class coincide with your English III? What I mean is, do you teach the same students English III one day, then APUSH the next?
Does your APUSH class coincide with your English III? What I mean is, do you teach the same students English III one day, then APUSH the next?
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Redkudu
Quick answer here, then more later. (I'm in the home stretch to move to the new house on Sunday.) I especially want to talk about teaching persuasive techniques.
How do you teach research? Is it a unit saved for a specific time? Is it a building of skills?
I would like to build on research skills all year too, but it's difficult. I either have to book time in the library, or book time on the laptops, usually months in advance. This year, I'm trying to bring more supplemental literature into each lesson, and have kids refer to that literature for compare/contrast, analysis of ideas, etc. It isn't quite research, but it's an attempt to have them use different sources to develop their arguments and analyses.
How much fiction versus non-fiction do you cover?
All the novels are fiction. Quite a bit more fiction than non-fiction, but again, I'm making an effort to bring in non-fiction to supplement. For instance, the first 3 weeks are Nat. Am. folklore, then 3 weeks of speeches. The next 3 weeks are Puritan lit, Bradstreet and "Sinners," then 3 weeks of the Declaration of Independence and Transcendentalism. So we won't get to lengthy fiction until Gatsby, in the 3rd 6 weeks, which is where I'd like to conduct some sort of research, although doing that right before the holidays is difficult, so I'm thinking of a kind of mini-research. I'm trying to focus a lot with the students on putting information from text into other forms (charts, graphs, notes), and also reverse (translating from charts and graphs into their own writing), so I may do something with that. I'm thinking about the Payne article - maybe something comparing laws, social relationships, etc. between the 20's and today? I don't know. You can see that's still just an abstract idea.
Do you discuss or point out purposes for reading (i.e.; reading a textbook, reading for specific information, reading to determine author's purpose, etc.)? How?
I do as often as possible. I do it a lot through comparison of language and syntax. I point out the difference in language (slang, academic vocab, etc.), and syntax (variation of sentence length, etc.). I like to do author's purpose with the Nat. Am. speeches (especially the use of irony), and reading for details and diction with the transcendentalists.
Do you teach dialogue writing?
Whenever I can. I hardly get any time for fiction writing anymore, but I do try to teach them to include it in personal essays. When I can't teach it, I point it out in the reading.
Do you do an author study?
I have not yet done an author study, but I am considering it this year for my English II class.
Question for you: How do you teach persuasive techniques?
How do you teach research? Is it a unit saved for a specific time? Is it a building of skills?
I would like to build on research skills all year too, but it's difficult. I either have to book time in the library, or book time on the laptops, usually months in advance. This year, I'm trying to bring more supplemental literature into each lesson, and have kids refer to that literature for compare/contrast, analysis of ideas, etc. It isn't quite research, but it's an attempt to have them use different sources to develop their arguments and analyses.
How much fiction versus non-fiction do you cover?
All the novels are fiction. Quite a bit more fiction than non-fiction, but again, I'm making an effort to bring in non-fiction to supplement. For instance, the first 3 weeks are Nat. Am. folklore, then 3 weeks of speeches. The next 3 weeks are Puritan lit, Bradstreet and "Sinners," then 3 weeks of the Declaration of Independence and Transcendentalism. So we won't get to lengthy fiction until Gatsby, in the 3rd 6 weeks, which is where I'd like to conduct some sort of research, although doing that right before the holidays is difficult, so I'm thinking of a kind of mini-research. I'm trying to focus a lot with the students on putting information from text into other forms (charts, graphs, notes), and also reverse (translating from charts and graphs into their own writing), so I may do something with that. I'm thinking about the Payne article - maybe something comparing laws, social relationships, etc. between the 20's and today? I don't know. You can see that's still just an abstract idea.
Do you discuss or point out purposes for reading (i.e.; reading a textbook, reading for specific information, reading to determine author's purpose, etc.)? How?
I do as often as possible. I do it a lot through comparison of language and syntax. I point out the difference in language (slang, academic vocab, etc.), and syntax (variation of sentence length, etc.). I like to do author's purpose with the Nat. Am. speeches (especially the use of irony), and reading for details and diction with the transcendentalists.
Do you teach dialogue writing?
Whenever I can. I hardly get any time for fiction writing anymore, but I do try to teach them to include it in personal essays. When I can't teach it, I point it out in the reading.
Do you do an author study?
I have not yet done an author study, but I am considering it this year for my English II class.
Question for you: How do you teach persuasive techniques?
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Ms. Q: Some Planning Questions
Ok. Here is where I am at right now.
I have taken my state standards and culled the ones I won't have time to cover (because the have "already" been covered and we work on them with every story anyway--like reading comprehension).
I took my list of standards and turned them into B R O A D objectives.
I took these broad objectives and found the following list of CONCEPTS I need to cover:
Vocabulary development using roots and affixes as inference clues
Literary elements: hyperbole, metaphor, etc. (the list seems endless!)
Author's purpose (all genres)
Theme-P O V-Setting-Characterization-Plot
Poetry elements
Author's use of evidence
Structure
Persuasion (techniques, use of)
Writing Process
6 Traits of Writing
Types of Writing: Personal Narrative, Non-fiction, work document, persuasive piece
Research
Now I am looking at my history outline and determining what eras I will cover when and determining how much time I have for each era.
Once I have determined this, I will move on to selecting the major work(s) to study for each era and some of the supplemental materials.
Once I have this I can go ahead and determine where the above concepts are best covered.
I have stumbled across a few questions:
How do you teach research? Is it a unit saved for a specific time? Is it a building of skills?
I want to build on research skills all year. When I have taught it as a distinct unit in the past, students did not do well with research. I do think being able to incorporate more primary and secondary source documents will help teach certain research skills small amounts at a time. I plan on having the students complete the research standards through the election project. More on this as the project develops.
How much fiction versus non-fiction do you cover?
Do you discuss or point out purposes for reading (i.e.; reading a textbook, reading for specific information, reading to determine author's purpose, etc.)? How?
Do you teach dialogue writing?
Do you do an author study?
I have taken my state standards and culled the ones I won't have time to cover (because the have "already" been covered and we work on them with every story anyway--like reading comprehension).
I took my list of standards and turned them into B R O A D objectives.
I took these broad objectives and found the following list of CONCEPTS I need to cover:
Vocabulary development using roots and affixes as inference clues
Literary elements: hyperbole, metaphor, etc. (the list seems endless!)
Author's purpose (all genres)
Theme-P O V-Setting-Characterization-Plot
Poetry elements
Author's use of evidence
Structure
Persuasion (techniques, use of)
Writing Process
6 Traits of Writing
Types of Writing: Personal Narrative, Non-fiction, work document, persuasive piece
Research
Now I am looking at my history outline and determining what eras I will cover when and determining how much time I have for each era.
Once I have determined this, I will move on to selecting the major work(s) to study for each era and some of the supplemental materials.
Once I have this I can go ahead and determine where the above concepts are best covered.
I have stumbled across a few questions:
How do you teach research? Is it a unit saved for a specific time? Is it a building of skills?
I want to build on research skills all year. When I have taught it as a distinct unit in the past, students did not do well with research. I do think being able to incorporate more primary and secondary source documents will help teach certain research skills small amounts at a time. I plan on having the students complete the research standards through the election project. More on this as the project develops.
How much fiction versus non-fiction do you cover?
Do you discuss or point out purposes for reading (i.e.; reading a textbook, reading for specific information, reading to determine author's purpose, etc.)? How?
Do you teach dialogue writing?
Do you do an author study?
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Ms Q
APUSH is AP US History. I teach it in addition to English III. I am currently working on aligning time periods between APUSH and ENG III and should have an updated plan posted soon.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Redkudu: Sharing Resources
Dana asked:
I think probably both, depending on the student. The visual record is certainly helpful. I know that there were times when I was in school when I was mystified about where my grade came from. I don't want my students to be mystified about anything having to do with my class.
I wanted to post this helpful site for anyone reading as well: Incompetech.com
This site allows you to generate your own graph paper to your specifics. They have an amazing amount of graph papers to choose from. If you know a math or science teacher, you might pass that on to them. Also, if you scroll down, you can generate storyboards as well, which I know somebody can find some clever use for. I'm looking for a way to use them when we study the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. I'm not a huge fan of artsy projects, but this is a unit where I know students really are inspired to respond with many different forms of expression. Illustrating a poem or powerful passage from something we read, I think, will create some beautiful results.
Do you think the effectiveness of the grade graph is primarily due to the visualization of the bars, or more to having a record of each of their grades?
I think probably both, depending on the student. The visual record is certainly helpful. I know that there were times when I was in school when I was mystified about where my grade came from. I don't want my students to be mystified about anything having to do with my class.
I wanted to post this helpful site for anyone reading as well: Incompetech.com
This site allows you to generate your own graph paper to your specifics. They have an amazing amount of graph papers to choose from. If you know a math or science teacher, you might pass that on to them. Also, if you scroll down, you can generate storyboards as well, which I know somebody can find some clever use for. I'm looking for a way to use them when we study the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. I'm not a huge fan of artsy projects, but this is a unit where I know students really are inspired to respond with many different forms of expression. Illustrating a poem or powerful passage from something we read, I think, will create some beautiful results.
Redkudu: Graphs and Grade Weighting
Dana, I attached the actual grade graph from my 1st 6 weeks to a post at Redkudu. You should be able to open it. If not, let me know. In the first column is the assignment title. The second column is where the kids write their actual grade. Then, out to the side, they graph the grade by coloring in the row. For grades that are weighted twice, they color in two rows. Then, at certain intervals, we go through and calculate the total grade according to the percentages, as I explain below.
On Grades:
Our district has a set policy for grades. We only have 2 categories: daily, and major.
Daily grades: 6-8 per 6 weeks required, can be activities, reading, quizzes, writing, etc. Worth 40%.
Major grades: 2-3 per 6 weeks required, can be tests, papers, projects, presentations, etc. Worth 60%.
So you can see my hands are slightly tied in regards to grades. However, I can weight homework to be worth 2 daily grades, and etc., as you can see by the grade graph.
I had similar problems with the grade graphs before. I tried them, but hadn't plannned as well, and they fell by the wayside, which is why I'm trying to be more organized this year. When I did use them, I found the kids more attentive, and there were fewer "surprises" come report card time.
A collaboration on something like what you're working on would be interesting. I'd love to give it a try.
What is an APUSH class?
On Grades:
Our district has a set policy for grades. We only have 2 categories: daily, and major.
Daily grades: 6-8 per 6 weeks required, can be activities, reading, quizzes, writing, etc. Worth 40%.
Major grades: 2-3 per 6 weeks required, can be tests, papers, projects, presentations, etc. Worth 60%.
So you can see my hands are slightly tied in regards to grades. However, I can weight homework to be worth 2 daily grades, and etc., as you can see by the grade graph.
I had similar problems with the grade graphs before. I tried them, but hadn't plannned as well, and they fell by the wayside, which is why I'm trying to be more organized this year. When I did use them, I found the kids more attentive, and there were fewer "surprises" come report card time.
A collaboration on something like what you're working on would be interesting. I'd love to give it a try.
What is an APUSH class?
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Ms. Q: Payne and Homework
While I have heard of Payne, in fact missed the great staff presentation the year before I moved here, I have not read her work, but have seen her quoted in many places. This is an issue I am currently struggling with in my graduate program. I am planning my study around Hispanic students, for many reasons, least of which is they are my students, and I have been coming across research I am finding very interesting and worth looking into. Specifically, I want to look into the resilience of the students who succeed and see if there are ways to promote resilience using culturally competent, rigorous, and relevant curriculum. Middle class values--politically loaded word, but I do believe there is some backing behind the arguments for and against Payne. I was just reading an article the other day on culture and sensitivity and the cultural deficit model and was thinking along the same lines as you are. I think using something in class on this might prove interesting. Let me look through my piles of research again (still haven't set up a real filing system, unless you count the numerous piles scattered around my house). I bet we can come up with a collaborative project, even!
As for homework--
I have found, in my area, if I don't make homework a daily thing, kids are less likely to do it when I do have a homework assignment for them to complete. So, homework for me must be everyday, except for on Friday (unless it is a paper/project).
[the weight of the grade] it's going to make a big difference if they don't do any of it
I find this is necessary as well. But, I still struggle with the equality in grading. What am I truly grading for? I believe we do teach life skills, as well as content. Just because the standards don't address these does not mean we should discount them.
I think your idea for grade graphs is an excellent idea. I have a friend who has used these and she swears by them. The reason I have not implemented them before is due to a lack of planning and preparation on my part. There were weeks I had no idea what I was teaching until Monday morning during planning. This is why I decided to try this collaboration this summer. I want to plan and need to plan, but have always needed a sounding board, someone to share ideas with, get clarification from, or someone to just tell me I am doing something wrong and this is what and why!
The actual assignments I give run the gamut--sometimes it's a review sheet for a concept we learned. Sometimes it's reading comprehension & higher order questions for the next days discussion. In the beginning of the year, I have smaller assignments and we always start them during class so they "know" what is expected.
The way you seem to plan is according to the UbD scheme of things. You start with the end in mind and work from there. I think I need to step away from UbD (the book) and just start planning. When given a form, I try to force myself to follow the form exactly and I think this is why I have been so frustrated with UbD in the past. I just need to take what I know and work from there.
I do have class everyday, BUT for me it's an alternating block (I have the same kids everyday, for the same periods, but I teach APUSH one day and Eng III the next). Normally, I would have the kids everyday for a semester and then be done with Eng III. Our classes are also 90 minutes long.
You mention weighting--do you weight your grades? Do you do points, percentages, what/how?
As for homework--
I have found, in my area, if I don't make homework a daily thing, kids are less likely to do it when I do have a homework assignment for them to complete. So, homework for me must be everyday, except for on Friday (unless it is a paper/project).
[the weight of the grade] it's going to make a big difference if they don't do any of it
I find this is necessary as well. But, I still struggle with the equality in grading. What am I truly grading for? I believe we do teach life skills, as well as content. Just because the standards don't address these does not mean we should discount them.
I think your idea for grade graphs is an excellent idea. I have a friend who has used these and she swears by them. The reason I have not implemented them before is due to a lack of planning and preparation on my part. There were weeks I had no idea what I was teaching until Monday morning during planning. This is why I decided to try this collaboration this summer. I want to plan and need to plan, but have always needed a sounding board, someone to share ideas with, get clarification from, or someone to just tell me I am doing something wrong and this is what and why!
The actual assignments I give run the gamut--sometimes it's a review sheet for a concept we learned. Sometimes it's reading comprehension & higher order questions for the next days discussion. In the beginning of the year, I have smaller assignments and we always start them during class so they "know" what is expected.
The way you seem to plan is according to the UbD scheme of things. You start with the end in mind and work from there. I think I need to step away from UbD (the book) and just start planning. When given a form, I try to force myself to follow the form exactly and I think this is why I have been so frustrated with UbD in the past. I just need to take what I know and work from there.
I do have class everyday, BUT for me it's an alternating block (I have the same kids everyday, for the same periods, but I teach APUSH one day and Eng III the next). Normally, I would have the kids everyday for a semester and then be done with Eng III. Our classes are also 90 minutes long.
You mention weighting--do you weight your grades? Do you do points, percentages, what/how?
Redkudu
Here's some interesting reading. I know you'd probably see it eventually, but since I'm thinking about Gatsby and etc, it was serendipitous. From Joanne Jacobs: on Ruby Payne and Class Consciousness.
Oddly enough, I'd been seeing the name Payne pop up for a while in a couple of books I got off a half-price bookstore shelf, always associated with statistics having to do with poor, middle class, wealthy. Now I know why. I'd be interested to know what you think about bringing this into the classroom somehow - both sides - for students to consider. It's certainly interesting. I could see it leading to either debate, or personal scrutiny through journals. Very interesting debate on both sides.
Oddly enough, I'd been seeing the name Payne pop up for a while in a couple of books I got off a half-price bookstore shelf, always associated with statistics having to do with poor, middle class, wealthy. Now I know why. I'd be interested to know what you think about bringing this into the classroom somehow - both sides - for students to consider. It's certainly interesting. I could see it leading to either debate, or personal scrutiny through journals. Very interesting debate on both sides.
Redkudu
Thanks for the ideas for Gatsby. I think I will seriously consider using excerpts to lead into that. I finished up my 2nd 6 weeks lessons and materials last night, so I'm about ready to begin working on Gatsby in the 3rd. The kids end the 2nd 6 weeks writing an essay comparing the growing ideals for an independent nation as laid forth in the Declaration to specifics from "Self Reliance" so I'm hoping they will have a strong foundation to begin looking at these notions of new wealth and individualism. I ended up using the Declaration to introduce and practice recognition of the 8 parts of speech so they will be familiar with it. This is new for me, so I'm hoping it works.
Homework...gah. What haven't I done? The only homework I used to have was reading and revising work for final drafts, but I'm not satisfied with that any more. I'm going to try some new things this year. First, I've weighted homework more. It's not going to mean the difference between passing and failing if they skip a few, but it's going to make a big difference if they don't do any of it. Second, I'm creating grade graphs. Basically, I made a graph, and filled in all the assignments I will take a grade on, including skills tests and exams. The kids will fill in the grade they made, and then create a bar graph by coloring in columns. They can then calculate their overall grade, as well as have a visual representation of their grade. I am hoping this will solve the "out of sight, out of mind" problem a lot of our students seem to have in regards to their grades.
For the first 2 six weeks, I've created homework assignments which can be copied, but even if they are, the student will be reviewing in some way, at least. (Or that's my theory). All of the homework assignments are directly related to what we've done in class that day - in other words, reinforcement. We check the homework at the very beginning of the period - so if they're going to copy, they need to get it done before class! :P Some of the homework I've chosen came out of a workbook I found in our English office which did not match our textbooks, but I thought was interesting. They are articles, letters, short stories which correspond with certain subjects/works. For instance, there is an article on the life of Anne Bradstreet which will be their homework after they've read and analyzed "On The Burning of Our House" in class. These worksheets require close reading and using context clues to analyze vocab. I have some for Nat. American folklore, Emerson, science fiction...just about anything we might read, so a few of these, I think, will be good supplemental materials. I am structuring lessons as best I can so that some of the vocab they are introduced to is reinforced in the next day's lesson, and some of it is what they're responsible for memorizing and experimenting with in their writing.
I keep fairly tight control on writing for the first 2 6 weeks. This is due to my previous experience and background knowledge of our students - they generally come to me without really knowing how to plan writing, so we do a lot of brainstorming, organizing, and composing in class. Once we hit Gatsby, I kind of like Dana's idea (from the comments) - I might look at using it somehow. At that point they will be reading the novel for homework as well, so it would be a good opportunity to have written responses to the novel - perhaps some kind of journal that would build up toward whatever their major writing component will be for that unit.
I read a post at Huffenglish.com about UbD, and now I'm even more intrigued. It sounds a little like what I do - plan for the desired results first. Would you say, from what you know, that it's similar? I'll have to wait a while to purchase new books - new house and all - but I definitely want to see that one and the English book as soon as possible.
How do you fight the homework battle? Or do you have to? Also, do you have classes every day? I have classes every other day for 90 minutes.
Homework...gah. What haven't I done? The only homework I used to have was reading and revising work for final drafts, but I'm not satisfied with that any more. I'm going to try some new things this year. First, I've weighted homework more. It's not going to mean the difference between passing and failing if they skip a few, but it's going to make a big difference if they don't do any of it. Second, I'm creating grade graphs. Basically, I made a graph, and filled in all the assignments I will take a grade on, including skills tests and exams. The kids will fill in the grade they made, and then create a bar graph by coloring in columns. They can then calculate their overall grade, as well as have a visual representation of their grade. I am hoping this will solve the "out of sight, out of mind" problem a lot of our students seem to have in regards to their grades.
For the first 2 six weeks, I've created homework assignments which can be copied, but even if they are, the student will be reviewing in some way, at least. (Or that's my theory). All of the homework assignments are directly related to what we've done in class that day - in other words, reinforcement. We check the homework at the very beginning of the period - so if they're going to copy, they need to get it done before class! :P Some of the homework I've chosen came out of a workbook I found in our English office which did not match our textbooks, but I thought was interesting. They are articles, letters, short stories which correspond with certain subjects/works. For instance, there is an article on the life of Anne Bradstreet which will be their homework after they've read and analyzed "On The Burning of Our House" in class. These worksheets require close reading and using context clues to analyze vocab. I have some for Nat. American folklore, Emerson, science fiction...just about anything we might read, so a few of these, I think, will be good supplemental materials. I am structuring lessons as best I can so that some of the vocab they are introduced to is reinforced in the next day's lesson, and some of it is what they're responsible for memorizing and experimenting with in their writing.
I keep fairly tight control on writing for the first 2 6 weeks. This is due to my previous experience and background knowledge of our students - they generally come to me without really knowing how to plan writing, so we do a lot of brainstorming, organizing, and composing in class. Once we hit Gatsby, I kind of like Dana's idea (from the comments) - I might look at using it somehow. At that point they will be reading the novel for homework as well, so it would be a good opportunity to have written responses to the novel - perhaps some kind of journal that would build up toward whatever their major writing component will be for that unit.
I read a post at Huffenglish.com about UbD, and now I'm even more intrigued. It sounds a little like what I do - plan for the desired results first. Would you say, from what you know, that it's similar? I'll have to wait a while to purchase new books - new house and all - but I definitely want to see that one and the English book as soon as possible.
How do you fight the homework battle? Or do you have to? Also, do you have classes every day? I have classes every other day for 90 minutes.
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