10.31.07

Core 1:

1. Discuss-on: Do you have to organize the examples and quotations in your essay chronologically as the book has?
2. Continue working on your essay, perfecting it into a form that you would want to turn in.
   • If you finish, get a couple of people to read it and comment.
   • Comment on other students’ essays.
   • Look for revisions to make your piece more persuasive
   • Edit using one of the following checklists if you like:
     • Checklist #1
     • Checklist #2
3. For added flavor, record your essay as a podcast (on garageband with music or on the iPod recorder without music).
   • Or, you can work on your next Academy Authentic.
4. Extension:
   • Make sure that your essay is ready to turn in by Friday morning. (I changed it because of Halloween.)

Core 2:

1. Act-on: Print out your oppression piece from your blog or take it out of your notebook. Share it with one person so that you can get feedback on it and practice reading it.
   • Did the mood of the story come through to your writing?
2. Record 4 oppression pieces for the classroom podcast.
3. Explore the images of the time period:
   • How do these images help you to understand the desperation in the Logan’s voices?
   • How do they change the way that you think of owning land?
   • Which images are most closely tied to your piece on oppression?
4. From within your niche (or not), finish work on your next Academy Authentic (due Friday).
   • Share with others on docs to receive comments (or receive comments on your blog)
   • Revise to the point that you would be proud to turn it in.
5. Extension:
   • Finish your Academy Authentic for Friday and share it with Mr. Wilkoff

Core 3:

1. Using your own book or the searchable google merchant of venice, answer the questions in this word document. Then e-mail it to me using your http://mail.academyofdiscovery.com account. (Try to take no more than 20 minutes doing the quiz.)
2. From within your niche (or not), finish work on your next Academy Authentic (due Friday).
   • Share with others on docs to receive comments (or receive comments on your blog)
   • Revise to the point that you would be proud to turn it in.
3. Extension:
   • Finish your Academy Authentic for Friday and share it with Mr. Wilkoff

Core 4:

1. Write-on: Take one of your quotes and try to prove your thesis with it.
2. Reflect upon how well you have accomplished a good quotation.
   • What have you learned about writing with quotations?
3. Continue working on your essay, moving into your body paragraphs that prove your thesis statement with examples and quotations.
4. Extension:
   • Finish your body paragraphs for Friday.

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Imagery in Blogging (and Cell phones in the Classroom)

As my students work more and more in the non-fiction realm due to their new found niches, they have a tendency to lose sight of just how descriptive and beautiful their writing can be. As a blogger, I have found that some of my greatest pleasure is derived from my ability to string together an image or a particularly well described passage.

A blog is informative, but stylistically so. The ability to craft a unique image within the information is a virtue that we should all be striving for. So, in an attempt to put these words into practice, here is what I am talking about.

Topic: Cell phones and iPods in the classroom

With his two fingers pushed together, carefully spreading them outward across the screen, one of my students was doing something that I had never thought of a couple of years ago. He was blogging from his iPod. Immediately, we gathered around the gadget, pondering its significance. It was distracting and powerful: the ability to blog about anything at any time. Just think if twitter wasn’t blocked at school.

I still can’t quite wrap my head around cell phones being used for things other than voice. I have been saying for quite a while that we need more laptops in the classroom, as many as there are laps. But can’t we get done most of what we need with our plans from verizon and AT&T? Watching the mini-safari browser spin into action leads me to believe that we aren’t far off from this reality.

I want my students to be thinking about how they can utilize their cell phones in my classroom not how they can sneak a look at what time it is on the display when I am not looking. Their cell phones are bejeweled with authenticity. In many cases, their cell phones are so representative of their lives that given the choice of losing a cell phone or a limb would cause them to pause to think.

Where is the research that says cell phones are great for the classroom. Well, mostly it doesn’t exist yet, at least not that I know of. If anyone has seen any great studies or has done some great work with non-laptop ITC, please share. All I have right now is anecdotal evidence from my classroom and the presentation from K12 Online 2007. Surely there is more to it than that.

I have italicized (for my students) the moments where I intentionally added imagery or description in order to make a potentially boring subject interesting (at least to me). My hope is that blogging moves closer to this style and further away from the dense writing of academic papers. Let me know what you think about either idea.

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10.30.07

Core 1:

1. Discuss-on: What makes a conclusion a good one?
2. Check out some good feedback about revision.
3. Continue working on your essay, perfecting it into a form that you would want to turn in.
   • If you finish, get a couple of people to read it and comment.
   • Comment on other students’ essays.
   • Look for revisions to make your piece more persuasive
   • Edit using one of the following checklists if you like:
     • Checklist #1
     • Checklist #2
4. If and when you finish working on your essay, you can start/continue your Academy Authentic work.
5. Extension:
   • Make sure that your essay is ready to turn in by Thursday morning.

Core 2:

1. Write-on: What is creative non-fiction?
2. From within your niche (or not), finish work on your next Academy Authentic (due Friday).
   • Share with others on docs to receive comments (or receive comments on your blog)
   • Revise to the point that you would be proud to turn it in.
3. Finish work on your chapter three Oppression piece. (You can use it for your Academy Authentic if you wish.)
4. Extension:
   • Finish reading Chapter 3 and write your Oppression piece which was outlined in yesterday’s agenda.

Core 3:

1. Write-on: What is creative non-fiction?
2. From within your niche (or not), finish work on your next Academy Authentic (due Friday).
   • Share with others on docs to receive comments (or receive comments on your blog)
   • Revise to the point that you would be proud to turn it in.
3. Extension (or in class after blogging):
   • Finish Act II and your scale(s) for tomorrow.

Core 4:

1. Act-on: Grab a laptop.
   • Go onto morguefile.com and grab an image url for an image that
     represents your thesis. Start by searching for things to do with your
     book.
   • Put that image at the top of your essay for inspiration.
2. Work on writing your essay in any order you like. Please ask neighbors and Mr. Wilkoff for help if you need it.
   • Introduce your thesis.
   • State your thesis.
3. If you finish early, publish it and have others comment on it. You can also continue working on your Academy Authentic.
4. How can you use another author’s words to prove your point?
   • What are the attributes of a good quotation?
   • How do you plug that quotation into a persuasive paper?
   • How do you use those words to weave your own theories and ideas?
5. Extensions:
   • Refine your Introduction so that it in only introduces what is essential.
   • Write down 3 quotations that would help to prove your thesis.

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The Complexity of Relationship Scale for MOV

Bassanio and Portia engage in a relationship based upon nothing but a look from one to the other. They are overcome with this psuedo-love. So much so that Bassanio is willing to risk his friend’s life to pursue Portia. The total amount of time that Bassanio and Portia have spent together is so slim that it hardly seems worth the three thousand ducats he solicits from a sworn enemy. On the other side of this relationship, Portia is hardly involved. She merely believes that she could love Bassanio, that he is better than any other suitor to come her way. Of him she says, “I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy [nerissa's] praise” (1.2). This hardly seems to be a description of true love.

Lorenzo and Jessica, however, have real affection and true experiences together. Their plans to be with one another do not involve schemes or money. They are simply interested in being with one another, not being with one another’s fortune or lack of fortune. Jessica is willing to give up her religion in order to be with Lorenzo, providing the old adage that “love is blind” to the follies and transgressions of the individual (2.6). Lorenzo is a master of action, and unlike Bassanio, he needs only to catch Jessica in her earnest confession of love, a leap of faith. Their relationship clearly is both more filled with true love and is more complex in deeds rather than words and money.

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Cassie and Oppression

This poem is a response to the oppression that Cassie feels in the third chapter of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
I tremble and shake.
I am huddled and awake.

I want to blow past these feelings.
Go deeper, unfurrow my brow beatings.

I push them deep into my head.
The fear of what they could do, it spreads.

We proved something to ourselves.
I thought we did, I can’t now tell.

The ditch we dug was our stand in the sand.
Purchased with fleeting thoughts, our dirty plan.

If they have the rights, we are always wrong.
Our sense of hope is lost, injustice prolonged.

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10.29.07

Core 1:

1. Write-on: What is revision?
2. Why are revisions made?
   • Choose two revisions made in the Declaration of Independence and write out your theory on why these particular revisions were made from the viewpoint of one of the founding fathers.
   • Speak as if in the continental congress and try to convince the assembly to revise the document before sending it out into the world.
3. How can you use the importance of such revisions to create your own value on revision.
4. What is in a conclusion?
5. Collect AR Contracts and Blogging Buddies
6. Extensions:
   • Comment on at least two other student’s essays in terms of revisions.

Core 2:

1. Write-on: How could you describe an emotion weighing down upon you?
2. Read Chapter 3:
   • Describe the feeling of oppression in the first person. What is weighing upon you? Where are you safe from this feeling?
3. Collect AR Contracts and Blogging Buddies
4. Extensions:
   • Finish Chapter 3 for Wednesday and finish your oppressive piece for Wednesday to be read to the class.

Core 3:

1. Write-on: How do you believe that antisemitism and stereotyping has played a role in the play up until this point?
2. Turn-in: AR Contracts, Blogging Buddies, and Questions from Friday.
3. 
   • In terms of the value of a human life, draw out how you believe Shakespeare would weigh out his characters.
4. Read to the end of Act II.
5. Extensions:
   • Quiz over Act I and II on Wednesday.

Core 4:

1. Share-on: Share your thesis with three others. Ask them if it is provable. Ask them if there is another way to write it so that it is more provable.
2. Work with thesis statements on the document camera:
   • Are the provable?
   • Are they interesting?
3. How can a thesis be an outline of an essay?
4. Talk about Start Me Up Sentences: start-me-up-sentence.doc
5. Extensions:
   • Write the introduction that goes along with your thesis (including a start-me-up sentence).

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Two New Documents

I have been working on a couple new documents that make sense for the development of pedagogy and the future of education. You can find the links to them at the k12online conference: http://k12online.wm.edu/AuthenticLearning.pdf

http://k12online.wm.edu/101Resources.pdf

A New Possibliity

This new possibility (which is now kind of old) is a total reversal of some of the things that I have consistently talked about and advocated for. This only comes about because of a great contact I have made with the principal of our online school (eDCSD). The possibility is this: Starting from a place of amazing technology and bringing in education rather than starting from a traditional school and trying to shove technology into it. What do you think about it

10.26.07

Core 1:

1. Extended Write-on: Head over to the computer lab and continue your essay work.
2. Please ask yourself the following questions as you write:
• Am I proving my thesis?
• Are my examples and quotations as relevant as they need to be?
• Have I explained my quotations so that my words are even more vital than those in the quotation?
• What can I take out in order to make this more persuasive or vivid?
• Can I see the words as pictures in my mind?
3. Use those around you for help in writing your first draft (Mr. Wilkoff included).
4. Extensions
• Finish your first draft by Monday.

Core 2:

1. Quiz-on: Why do you think that Papa brought Mr. Morrison home?
2. Looking for setting:
• Setting is somehow the simplest and most complex of all of the elements of a novel. You can immediately recognize where something is taking place, but looking for all of the possible clues about the characters and plot within the setting is much harder.
• Setting has three parts: Time, Place, and Mood.
• What is the mood of Chapter 2? What are the details that lead you to believe that?
3. Take a look at AR and AR+ in our Class.
• New AR Contract
• New AR Commitment to reading in school and out of school.
4. Go down to the library to read Chapter 3 or your book of choice.
5. Extensions:
• Get your AR contract signed.

Core 3:

1. Write-on: What is a deal with the devil (with someone unsavory) that you would be willing to make?
2. Read through 2.2
• Does Shylock have legitimate grievances against Antonio?
• Is a pound of flesh too much to ask?
• What is the role of Gobbo?
• Why does the Prince of Morrocco choose the casket wrongly?
3. Take a look at AR and AR+ in our Class.
• New AR Contract
• New AR Commitment to reading in school and out of school.
4. Go down to the library to read Chapter 3 or your book of choice.

1. Extensions:
• Finally… Write out what you believe the boundaries of Shylock’s life are?

Core 4:

1. Write-on: How do you prove something about a book?
   • Just think about this question: What do you think that your change
     and persuasion notes would help you to prove about your character?
2. How do you show character development and change in piece of writing without resorting to plot summary? (Lord of the Flies Example)
3. Thesis writing as an art form:
   • How do you choose something that you want to prove?
   • How do you state it so that you will be able to prove it in multiple ways?
4. Take a look at AR and AR+ in our Class.
• New AR Contract
• New AR Commitment to reading in school and out of school.
5. Extension:
   • Write out your idea of a perfect thesis for what you want to prove
     in your book about change, persuasion, or character development.

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K12 Online: More than a conference

My daughter was born last October. So, I spent quite a bit of time keeping my daughter happy in the wee hours of the morning, sitting on a red love seat and listening to the podcasts from the first K12 online conference. The podcasts were a way of keeping up because there was no way that I had time for a lot of blogging. They were a way of seeing what else was out there, of seeing who was going to guide the edtech conversation in the coming months.

Well, the time has come for a new K12 Online conference, and I am happy to report that my daughter reached her first birthday without any major catastrophe (although she is still keeping me up at sometimes). This time, though, I am not merely listening in on the conversation. This time, I am a presenter in the Obstacles to Opportunities strand. It is my greatest hope that the work I have done for this conference will be seen in the same light by other new fathers who are trying to find a way to both cradle their baby’s head correctly and balance an iPod on their pajama leg.

So, if you are interested in the presentation check it out here. 

You may find the supporting documents even more intriguing, though:

1. Starting From Scratch Companion
   
2. Authentic Learning: Metaphor and Vision
3. 101 Resources and Tools for Authentic Learning