The first week of students’ 7.1 Social Studies experience has passed into the realm of what has been. Within such a small period of time, students learned much about what lies in front of them. They grasped the importance of the table, the music stand, reading “signs,” taking out their daily planners, and handling one’s own problems and challenges. We endured a week of PBIS training and emerged from it stronger, more capable, and more appreciative of in class instruction time. I stood impressed with how students were able to “read” me from such an early stage. My hope is that this continues as we face more challenges, more arduous tasks, more moments of tension and growth. (Certainly, the look of readiness that all students grasped would help them in these trying periods. Ask your emerging scholar what “twiddling thumbs” looks like and why it’s important.)
As this transition phase ends, the new and more lasting one of intense work and emerging to scholarship commences. This week, students will engage in the process of identifying and explicating the notion of living history. We will be accomplishing this through the Trace Fossil Writing Task. After a year hiatus from assigning this task, it has reappeared in a more substantiated and impressive form. The purpose of this writing task is for students to identify one particular item from their lives and explain it as an artifact of history, their history. The definition of a trace fossil is an object “that represents or shows an animal’s or human’s behavior, evidence of life and patterns of existence.” The question that Trace Fossil Writing Task seeks to answer is how students can use an artifact to draw out a narrative of their own existence. On one level, the task seems elemental. As long as children have been in school, they have been asked to write about “my favorite thing.” This has been a staple in essay prompts from all walks of academic life. Yet, the trace fossil writing task takes this rather obvious essay and attempts to invert it. Rather than students merely explaining their “favorite thing,” the paper seeks to explore their subjective links to the object, and then how this particular object represents their aspect of culture. It is in this stipulation where the paper reveals fascinating notions for students must define their own culture in relationship to their object. By being compelled to “choose” their notion of cultural identity, I believe that students explore a part of themselves that might not have been so readily evident. On one hand the paper is extremely subjective and personal, yet on another level it is collective and broadens what was individual to a larger scope. It becomes fun for me to see students define and explain their culture in unique terms. When students to state that “My culture is that of the Cubs, we who have suffered for 100 years” or “My culture is that of basketball players who seek to sink a jump shot and make a free throw” or “My culture is that of an artist and our identity is enhanced with each stroke of a pencil on paper or paint brush on a canvass,” I believe we see something emerging within the minds and souls of our students. This lotus is that of change and understanding that they are the authors of their own narratives. As students are compelled to define their culture and choose their individual trace fossil, they also engage in a form of historiography- the construction of history, in particular, their own personal history. By the conclusion of the Trace Fossil Writing Task, students will see themselves, their artifacts, and their cultures in new lights. The purpose of writing is to seek exploration and, as E.M. Forster says, “to connect.” I believe that these goals are accomplished in the Trace Fossil Writing Task.
There are some small items of housekeeping that need to be relayed. The first set of Social Studies Progress Reports will be going home on September 26. These reports have to be signed and returned by October 1, 2008. Curriculum Night is rapidly approaching and will be held on September 18 at 6:45 PM. This is your first opportunity to sign up for Conferences, so as those slots vanish in a very small amount of time, my hope is to see as many of you as possible. Finally, if I need to be contacted, I have instructed students and implore all stakeholders to contact me via email (akannan@op97.org) and have also given out my home phone number to all students. Please do not hesitate to access additional copies of in class handouts and work or copies of the next two syllabi on the option pane in the upper left hand corner of this blog.
Happy Hunting!
Mr. Kannan
As this transition phase ends, the new and more lasting one of intense work and emerging to scholarship commences. This week, students will engage in the process of identifying and explicating the notion of living history. We will be accomplishing this through the Trace Fossil Writing Task. After a year hiatus from assigning this task, it has reappeared in a more substantiated and impressive form. The purpose of this writing task is for students to identify one particular item from their lives and explain it as an artifact of history, their history. The definition of a trace fossil is an object “that represents or shows an animal’s or human’s behavior, evidence of life and patterns of existence.” The question that Trace Fossil Writing Task seeks to answer is how students can use an artifact to draw out a narrative of their own existence. On one level, the task seems elemental. As long as children have been in school, they have been asked to write about “my favorite thing.” This has been a staple in essay prompts from all walks of academic life. Yet, the trace fossil writing task takes this rather obvious essay and attempts to invert it. Rather than students merely explaining their “favorite thing,” the paper seeks to explore their subjective links to the object, and then how this particular object represents their aspect of culture. It is in this stipulation where the paper reveals fascinating notions for students must define their own culture in relationship to their object. By being compelled to “choose” their notion of cultural identity, I believe that students explore a part of themselves that might not have been so readily evident. On one hand the paper is extremely subjective and personal, yet on another level it is collective and broadens what was individual to a larger scope. It becomes fun for me to see students define and explain their culture in unique terms. When students to state that “My culture is that of the Cubs, we who have suffered for 100 years” or “My culture is that of basketball players who seek to sink a jump shot and make a free throw” or “My culture is that of an artist and our identity is enhanced with each stroke of a pencil on paper or paint brush on a canvass,” I believe we see something emerging within the minds and souls of our students. This lotus is that of change and understanding that they are the authors of their own narratives. As students are compelled to define their culture and choose their individual trace fossil, they also engage in a form of historiography- the construction of history, in particular, their own personal history. By the conclusion of the Trace Fossil Writing Task, students will see themselves, their artifacts, and their cultures in new lights. The purpose of writing is to seek exploration and, as E.M. Forster says, “to connect.” I believe that these goals are accomplished in the Trace Fossil Writing Task.
There are some small items of housekeeping that need to be relayed. The first set of Social Studies Progress Reports will be going home on September 26. These reports have to be signed and returned by October 1, 2008. Curriculum Night is rapidly approaching and will be held on September 18 at 6:45 PM. This is your first opportunity to sign up for Conferences, so as those slots vanish in a very small amount of time, my hope is to see as many of you as possible. Finally, if I need to be contacted, I have instructed students and implore all stakeholders to contact me via email (akannan@op97.org) and have also given out my home phone number to all students. Please do not hesitate to access additional copies of in class handouts and work or copies of the next two syllabi on the option pane in the upper left hand corner of this blog.
Happy Hunting!
Mr. Kannan
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