After a hiatus from posting on the blog for about two weeks, I hold a great deal of excitement about what we will be addressing in C105 for Social Studies. There is much to behold as we will be adding more to our garden of scholarship.The Writing Tasks on Chapter 6 have been graded and will be returned on Monday. It was another moment where our emerging scholars, your children, progressed on the path of academic scholarship. This can be viewed on both narrative and empirical levels. Of the 109 papers assessed, 95 possessed a score that would be at the “A” or “B” level, which translates to 87% of the team. No paper scored lower than a “C”, which means that with revisions due Friday, 1/11, all 7-1 students have the capacity to earn an “A” or “B” on the hardest writing task thus far in the year. In going beyond the numbers, I noticed a great deal of austerity demonstrated on this work. By far the most selected writing task was the “Identifications and Pictures” followed by the “A-B-C Summaries.” Regardless of their choices, students will be seeing each of these particular writing types of writing tasks again in the future in different forms. As a collective unit, our writing in history is developing more breadth and greater precision.
The first week back will be an intense one. As mentioned, Revisions of the Chapter 6 Writing Tasks will be due on Friday. In order for students to revise their writing tasks, they need to rewrite what needs to be revised with the areas of improvement added. I went to great lengths to make comments on each and every writing sample and outline on the attached rubric where improvement was needed. Revisions should be completed outside of class and be ready for submission at the start of Friday’s class. If students require further guidance, they should speak with me before school, during lunch, or contact me outside of class via phone or email. Examining the week, Monday will also be the introduction into the concept of Outcome Sentences, another method of gauging student comprehension. This tool rests on the idea that a student creates their own sense of understanding within a particular concept. They are asked to compose one sentence on a specific idea that must begin with “I” and some type of verb associated with learning. For students to derive different means of explaining how one learns is a challenge in its own merits. We will be using this activity often, so a benchmark is reached on Monday. On Tuesday, we will begin our Philosophy Seminars with students from the high school. Students will be broken into different groups that deal with topics such as selfishness, the presence of God, freedom, and the notion of happiness. Groups will consist of 2-4 students and a high school facilitator who will drive the discussion based off of a thinker’s ideas on the topic. Students will be taking notes on the thinker’s view on the topic and the nature of the discussion. There will be a reporting out session on Wednesday. The purpose of this experience is to familiarize our students with the elements of a philosophical discussion, the importance of active listening, and to gain a better understanding of the discourse technique. These benefits will be felt when we engage in a discussion of government and its purpose. Finally, we will conclude the week with a series of Speak/ Write Lectures, a method of direct instruction that compresses topics from the text into three minute “chunks.” The steps taken this week will lead us into the foray of the United States Constitution. Progress Reports in all classes will go home on Thursday, 1/17 with Winter Conferences to soon follow. Students should be aware of assignments this week. Student work during the philosophy seminar, the composition of outcome sentences, and the signed cover letter from all Language Arts Progress Reports all will be reflected in student grades. As we hit the ground running, work awaits our students with intense process leading to powerful product. All stakeholders are reminded that this blog contains pdf copies of class handouts, lecture notes, as well as syllabi for this week and the next week (See pane on left hand side of screen). Also present on this blog are extra credit opportunities. As we begin another phase of our journey, all stakeholders are reminded to use this blog as a resource to help advance expectations and achievement, promises and possibilities.
We are approaching a point of the year where it is becoming evident that we are closer to the end than we are the beginning. I hope that our emerging scholars have rested well over the Winter Recess as they will need a great deal of internal strength and academic and intestinal fortitude to withstand this particular leg of the journey from now until Spring Break. It is a great time, indeed! It is in this particular leg of our voyage where the emergence into scholarship will be most evident. That which appears to be a wilderness will serve to allow our garden to grow with more songs of the nightingales sung.
Happy Hunting!
Mr. Kannan
No comments:
Post a Comment