Navigating through the Matrix… of 7-1 Social Studies

This week will be one where students will focus their study on either individually reading or collaboratively presenting on steps towards the American Revolution. The metaphor of midnight has not been formally introduced to the students, as of yet. I believe that it will reveal itself to students in the course of the next week to ten days. After we hear Scholarly Sparknotes presentations or after students pour through chapter 5, sections 2 or 3, I believe that the image will hold more meaning to their analysis of this portion of American History.
The other central image that will accompany that of midnight will be that of inevitability. In more specific terms, we will be arguing that the breakup between the colonists and their English brethren was inevitable. This idea of something that was meant to happen will unfold to students in more than one way. The work is going to become progressively more challenging, with more at stake. This is inevitable. The ideas that students will confront will become more taxing on the mind and force the issue of reflection upon the laps of students. This is inevitable. The class will begin to move towards a labyrinth of ideas, where confusion and misunderstanding are often present, requiring a mature sense of analysis and supporting detail. This, too, is inevitable. The writing tasks will become more divergent. Alas, this also is inevitable. It seems that if there was a proverbial “honeymoon” period, it has moved into the past. We are now entering a configuration where strong students must rise to the occasion and focus must be demonstrated. When we analyze the American Revolution, or the steps to precede it, I have always looked at this content as the last portal before the unsafe and challenging waters of the intellectual ocean confront us. The safe harbor of docking is beginning to pass, and in its place is a setting where internal strength and intellectual commitment are the only compasses.
I have always been a fan of the Matrix trilogy. I believe that much of what is present in these films and ideas can be applied to students who have to endure my class. Consider for a moment: The students in the class would be “the one,” or the multiple representations of Neo. Their mission is to “be the one.” They must weave their way through the workings of the Matrix, which is everywhere and all around them. Such a description would aptly fit their Social Studies classes. The matrix is meant to challenge and demand growth out of “the one,” whose central purpose is to confront and triumph over a mighty adversary. As I examine where our students are, I can begin to see some of them become acutely aware of what lies in front of them. I can see that some of them are beginning to take those risks and chances that are so closely associated with being “the one.” I can observe how students are starting to shed fear and insecurity, for they are beginning to see themselves as a representation of “Neo” and embrace that which they know is their destiny. I suppose that my role in this narrative could be multi- faceted. At moments, I would serve as a Morpheus- like figure, while at other times, I could see myself as an Oracle (For I, too, love candy and cookies.) At other moments, I am an Agent Smith, and at others, the architect who designed the Matrix. The one critical difference is that at every step of the way, I stress student freedom. There must be a certain maturation of choice and decision making ability intrinsic to the function of the one. As I am studying American History with these students, your children, my prospective scholars, I am also studying them, to see if they are ready, willing, and able to become “the one.” As the oracle says, “I do not know, but I do believe.” I certainly can say that I believe. We have endured our first set of progress reports, our first set of exam revisions, our first really difficult multiple choice assessment, our first in- class presentation, and our first moment of teaching one another. I believe in what I see. It took time for Thomas Anderson, Neo, to accept his purpose and function as “the one.” It will take some time for some of our Neos to do the same. Yet, as the Matrix grows in strength and difficulty, the time for our Neos is at hand. They must become “the ones.”
In terms of other Social Studies events, Progress Reports in Social Studies were sent home on Friday, 9/28. All signed progress reports are due back to Mr. Kannan by Tuesday, October 2. Additionally, Progress Reports in all classes will be sent home on Friday, October 12. Students will be notified as to how these will be returned. In addition to this, please be vigilant for conference confirmations that will be sent home by your child’s conferencing teacher soon. These student- led, portfolio based Conferences take place on the week of October 15. As always, if I can provide any further assistance or clarification, please do not hesitate to email me, post a response to this blog, or contact me at either school or at home.
All best and happy hunting.
Mr. Kannan

“Taking Steps Towards Midnight:” Beyond our first exam, past the blue horizon

I tried to make a catalogue of the various phenomena I experienced today as my students, your children, took their first Social Studies exam. I saw the smudged palms and bases of hands, and I saw many a hand go through “writer’s cramps.” I witnessed students visually drawing triangles in the air and trying to envision a particular thought. Naturally, I beheld the sight of panicked faces with eyes running across the pages, as if there were some magic answer at the bottom of the exam. Providing a vivid contrast to this would be the vision of faces with a high level of confidence within many a student. I saw students calibrating their watches to synchronize their time to the exam setting, and I watched my students, your children, focus with laserlike precision on this, their first exam. Whether students possessed icons of the Lord Ganesh or were actively marking off which identification topic they were going to complete, I sensed a strong level of commitment and focus towards this assessment.
I remember telling the students at both study sessions that while this exam might prove challenging, it will represent a small exertion in comparison to the work that lies ahead. Once exams are returned, we will commence our study of chapter 5, the road to revolution. While the key concept of chapter 4 was the emergence of colonial culture vis a vis the Enlightenment, the analysis of chapter 5 will revolve around one central idea: Midnight. The moment when the clock strikes is also when both hands meet for a instant, but their touch can last for what seems to be an eternity. Indeed, this becomes the metaphor for our analysis of the road to American Revolution. I borrowed this idea of midnight and its inevitability from Salman Rushdie’s work, Midnight’s Children. As the protagonist, Saleem Sinai, is born into a world of mystery and freedom, so to is the nation of India. This notion found much resonance in my mind as I was drawn to the paralell of individual psychology and national history. The pain and joy of love and politics seem to be united in one image: Midnight. When applying this same idea to America, I found much similarity. Midnight: The stroke of time when nations and people awake to freedom and life. Midnight: When our “trysts with destiny” are met with the redemption of a promise and pledge. Midnight: While the world sleeps, a nation and a people awake to life and freedom and the inevitability of both. Prime Minister Nehru’s words serve as the backdrop to Rushdie’s work, but can also be deftly applied to the study of the colonists’ struggle for freedom.
Midnight will become our central image, our metaphor through which we will examine the colonial struggle for freedom. Within this will be the study of inevitability and its role in the American historical dialectic and within the evolution of individuals. We begin our journey with an analysis of the French and Indian war, and then continue with our first presentation, Scholarly Sparknotes. In this project, a group of students are responsible for teaching a section of the text and reporting out to their colleagues. With this task, the belief of dependence meeting interdependence arrives in a more developed form. Naturally, in recognition of such a powerful and meaningful metaphor, it can be understood that our end of the unit assessment will be equally potent in magnitude. I can offer a hint: It is worth 300 points and in three parts. I am confident that while students worked well throughout chapters 3-1 and 4, they will be working much harder to find success in chapter 5, throughout the darkness and light inevitably linked to midnight.
I will be sending out conference confirmations with students/ parents/ guardians with whom I will be meeting soon. I will also be sending out Social Studies progress reports Friday, September 28, 2007. As always, if I can be of any further help or assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me via district email, or at my home, or through posting a response to this blog.

All best and happy hunting.
Mr. Kannan

“A School Story:” One assessment down and another to go

The first major assessment of the 7-1 Social Studies experience has moved into the realm of what was. I marveled at witnessing in class focus and at how students struggled through particular questions on the assessment. Worthy of specific mention would be question number 6, which asked students to reflect on their own metacognition, or how they know what they know. This epistemological analysis of their own academic experience and thought patterns proved to be unique and quite insightful. Such a validation of student voice proved to be one of the most rewarding elements of this assessment. It is also my hope students learned the power of planning ahead and using time well. These are tools that will prove invaluable along the journey.
While this assessment can be revised for additional credit, if students choose to do so, our next level of focus now lies on the upcoming Social Studies exam. The facts of the exam have been divulged to students. It will take place on Thursday and Friday, 9/20 and 9/21. Its contents are will cover chapters 3-1 and 4, while its form will be of multiple choice questions, short answer, and extended essay format. The exam is worth 100 points. The weapons of choice that students can use to prepare for this exam are their homework, in class work, graduated difficulty essays, and their readings from the textbook. There will also be study sessions held during 5th period lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday (9/18 and 9/19). These sessions are voluntary, and passes will be made available to students, if they wish to attend. If I can offer additional insight into this assessment, I might suggest that students begin the process of studying for this exam soon… very soon. A good timetable might be the following:
The weekend- Spend time reviewing chapter 3-1 and chapter 4-1. In terms of the review of 3-1, pay close attention to the governments of Jamestown and Plymouth, as well as the DR-TA work which focused on essential elements of Jamestown and Plymouth. When reviewing 4-1, I believe the IEPC chart and summary of 4-1 could be highly beneficial. Special attention should be paid attention to the Zenger case, the Navigation Acts, and English roots of colonial government.
Monday night- Spend time reviewing chapter 4-2 and 4-3. Graphic organizers on both sections were distributed and should be completed. I believe these will be extremely helpful to student preparation. I would also suggest that students examine the ideas of Triangular Trade and the economic and political implications of slavery.
Tuesday night- Spend time reviewing chapter 4-4. If I were to identify one section that provides the genesis for this exam, it would be this section. Students took notes through the New American Lecture method of “chunks” on this section, which focused on the emergence of colonial culture. I would review the concepts of each chunk. By “review,” I would expect that students are fluent and proficient in discussing the chunks and embarking upon a fruitful and worthwhile conversation about each chunk. I have always suggested that if a parent/ guardian could simply ask their student to talk about a particular concept, and have them instruct the parent/ guardian, students would be ready for any assessment I give. Students should ensure that they are aware of the concept of Enlightenment theory, how it was reflected in the Colonies, and the role ideas played in developing colonial culture.
Inherent in all of these methods of study would be the notion of utilizing vocabulary effectively in articulating intellectual ideas. For students to become stronger participants in their learning, it is inevitable that they must appropriate the language that shows mastery of understanding. I believe that if students possess a greater understanding of the vocabulary in the unit of study, they have a better chance of finding success on this assessment, their first exam in Social Studies. Integration of vocabulary and key terms should be inherent to all nights of study and preparation.
I believe that this exam will be an excellent opportunity for students to display what they know about the content. I don’t feel that it is an exam to “catch students” in what they don’t know. Providing that all students have done what has been asked of them in an appropriate manner, I believe that each emerging scholar has an opportunity to demonstrate success on this exam.
I hope to see all 7-1 parents/ guardians Tuesday starting at 6:45 for Curriculum Night. It’s an excellent opportunity to visit with your teachers (and witness a fairly neat Powerpoint presentation in Social Studies). As always, if I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me at school or at home.

All best and happy hunting.
Mr. Kannan

“From Delusion Lead Me to Truth:” The Graduated Difficulty Task and Hopes for What Could Be

The graduated difficulty task is where our focus lies for this week. Keeping eyes ever fixed on our first exam to take place on the 20th and 21st, this week’s assessment will prove beneficial in preparing us for understanding both content and the modalities of metacognition that precedes all learning. I have been using the inclusive pronouns because I believe that it will be a process of understanding for both teacher and student. This task will require students to choose one of three sets of essays on the content of emerging Colonial Culture. Students will compose their writings and then check their work against exemplars that will be located in the classroom. Students will assess and evaluate their own writing. In doing this, students can understand where they are in their writing and where they need to be. This modeling of writing is critical in the development of student styles of writing and thinking. Finally, students will answer reflective questions about the task and their experiences. Students will have at home time and in class time to compose their work. During classtime, I will be conferencing with students about where they are, where they would like to be, and how they can get there.
This task reveals much about our journey this year. The stress on student autonomy is evident, as students choose which task to complete, how it should be completed, and assess their own work based on their own impressions. Similar to this is the critical element of choice is also present as students must make critical choice and abide by the consequences of said choices. This task also highlights the notion of discourse about student work. I have always stressed to students that the climate of our building can only improve if students are able and receptive to the idea of talking about what is done in their classrooms. I have often asked how glorious our school can be if students wait in the lunch line, discussing Lockian notions of freedom in comparison to Rousseauian notions of the social contract. What beauty lies in the students who fill the locker bays arguing about which method of Enlightenment was intellectually superior: Theory from Europe or Practice from the Colonies? When one closes their eyes and conceives of a world where students walk to and from class passionately arguing if Franklin was an Enlightenment or anti- Enlightenment figure, how much of a glorious picture emerges? This task compels students to talk to one another about content and their perception of it. This is a benchmark of scholarship and a goal worthy of attainment, or at the very least, the pursuit of attainment. Finally, this task places a strong stress on the idea of reflection and that the notion of a journey is not defined by a destination, but rather by multiple paths taken toward it. I can only hope that students learn that the process of learning is much more critical than its end products. If this lesson is learned and absorbed, it could help make our students more willing contributors to the dialogue of scholarship, and allow them to be greater participants in this experiment called democracy.
The graduated difficulty task is to be completed at the start of Thursday’s class. I am curious as to what the next three days will reveals about these learners, our scholars, your children. I hope it reveals what I suspect is true: We are making progress on our journey and we have “miles to go before” either one of us can sleep. In terms of other news, the exam on chapters 3-1 and 4 will take place on Thursday, September 20, and Friday, September 21. This exam will consist of multiple choice questions, short answer writings, and extended essay prompts. It will take two days to complete and students will be receiving an “Exam Basics” guideline to approaching studying for the exam on Monday, September 17. There will be lunchtime study sessions held, as there will be in class review sessions. Curriculum Night is also rapidly approaching. I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday, September 18 starting at 6:45 PM (Coincidentally, the first game of the Julian Jayhawks Girls Basketball Season. Mr. Kannan will run the trifecta: Teach, coach, and present all in one day.) This will be an excellent opportunity to meet your children’s teachers and sign up for Fall Conferences in October. As always, I encourage you to examine the contents of this blog, including the link to the District webpage, containing pdf versions of all the handouts to this course, the extra credit opportunities with the icon and quotes, as well as the poll of the week. If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me at home or at school. (Extra credit if you can identify what work inspired the title of this piece. Write the answer on the back of your syllabus.) Finally, Progress Reports in Social Studies will be sent home with students on Friday, 9/28.
All best and happy hunting to 7-1 students, you kings and queens of scholarly inquiry, and to their parents/ guardians.
Mr. Kannan

The Differences between “Knowing the Path” and “Walking the Path:”

The first week of school has now entered into the domain of the past. Something that had been met previously with anticipation, nervousness, and a bizarre combination of revulsion and excitement now must give way to creating and maintaining academic and personal notions of success. 7-1 Social Studies Students endured much in their first week. It was a moment in geologic time where scavenger hunts through an arduous textbook dominated, and survival (or minimizing embarrassment) made it a necessity to read signs on an almost hourly basis as well as claiming all needed items from “the table.” Ending this sequence was learning about the power of time and the purple prediction popper. At all points, I demanded that students “show readiness,” and in all of their minds was the visualization as to how this state of being actually looks. In the final analysis, the first week of 7-1 Social Studies was not geared to “getting to know one another,” but rather for students to “know thyself.” This theme of self reflection is what will frame this class, giving it meaning and purpose.

Now, students will begin to walk the line of academic rigor. This week will be an intense one for 7-1 Social Studies students. As we will flex out the schedule to allow for more core teaching time, this will increase the magnitude and forceful nature of the lessons. Students will start off the week in an acceptable enough fashion in the use of graphic organizers to configure the social setting of Colonial America. Their next adversary will be their first lecture in an unconventional format, the “New American Lecture,” where knowledge is chunked into specific portions in order to maximize student comprehension and focus. Students will end the week with their first significant assessment of the course, the Graduated Difficulty Task on Chapter 4. The first exam will be held on September 20 and 21. Hence, this week becomes a critical one for it will serve as the first steps 7-1 students take into the pantheon of scholarship. It is safe to say that the work of this week upholds the class mantra of continued improvement through means of consistent displays of personal and academic excellence

One of my reflections about the first week was that the 7-1 students who walked into my classroom, C105, possessed a desire to discover academic success. Simply put, I sensed that these students wanted to do well. They sought extra opportunities to display their knowledge and held the understanding that placing their trust in me would reap benefits in both knowledge and understanding. This “Sophia,” the Greek word for “wisdom,” seemed to emanate in all classes. Yet, I believe that while students “know of the path” that leads to academic and personal success, it will be this week that starts to display which students have the personal strength and intestinal fortitude needed to “walk along the path.” This week will be one of many that will prove there is a difference between “knowing the path” and “walking it.” (Extra credit can be obtained if students can identify from what movie and speaker the above line was borrowed. There were also some other movie references, and those can be identified, as well.)
Some other notes of interest would be appropriate at this time. I do hope to see all 7-1 parents/ guardians at Curriculum Night, which will be held on September 18, 2007 (Also, the first Julian Jayhawk Girls’ Basketball Game.) This evening is an excellent opportunity to meet your children’s teachers and sign up for Fall Conferences. I do hope to see all of you there. On another point of future dates, I am asking that all students bring a set of index cards to class on Friday, 9/14, in order to begin the process of reviewing for our first exam that will take place on 9/20 and 9/21.
Finally, I must offer my deepest apologies. I have made frequent mention to my webpage on the District website. Due to challenges that seem to lie in the technological domain, this is unavailable. I am taking all the possible steps to create the same links on this blog in order to make your lives (and mine) a bit less stressful. This will take time because like Neo from The Matrix, I seek to bring reconciliation between humans and the machines (or at least the server). I can only hope that my fate differs from his…

If you need to contact me, please feel free to email me at my district address at the bottom of this page, or contact me at home (I divulged this to all students within the first week.) You may also post a comment to this blog.

All best and happy hunting.
Mr. Kannan