Month: March 2010

Wednesday March 31/10

Today we will be working in room 211. You will log on to our class ning and then complete the following tasks:

As a group, compose a summary of what’s happened in your book so far. Then add some of the ideas you discussed in your book club. What were some of the questions that generated the most discussion? Share those questions and ideas. Post this information to your group page on the ning by starting a new discussion.

Then I’d like you to each blog about your personal response to the book. What do you like/dislike. What predictions can you make? What connections can you make? I have added a blogging section to the ning so you will each have your own individual blogs. Please tag your blog post with the “title of your book” and “post 1.”

Tuesday March 30/10

We are having our first bookclub meeting today. In order to participate, you must have your bookmark questions done as well as your additional discussion question. Have fun!

Monday March 29/10

We’ve  got a LOT to cover today, so let’s get going!

1) We’re going to talk about what makes a good discussion question and then you will generate a discussion question for your bookclub meeting tomorrow.

2) Then we’ll do a practice bookclub meeting using some short articles.

You will arrange yourselves into groups of four and then choose one of the following articles to read.

“A Clone of Our Own” pg 20

“Stem Cells Q and A” pg 23

“When Cars Drive You” pg 32

“Sporting that Strangely Piercing Look” pg 65

“When Choosing Your Path, Follow Your Heart” pg 99

(You have to read the same article as your other group members!)

Read individually and silently, using post-its to make note of connections, discussion questions, and key passages.

3) I will choose a discussion director for each group. Your job will be to get the conversations going. Invite people to share their thoughts, questions, and connections they have made note of. Keep the conversation flowing.

4) Reflection: How well did you work in your group? What were some of the challenges? How do you plan to deal with these challenges during tomorrow’s book club.

5) If there is any time left, you may work on your discussion questions for tomorrow. Remember, they need to be finished in order for you to participate in the book club.

Friday March 26/10

Today we have some people who still need to write their unit tests. The rest of you may use class time to read and work on your discussion questions for our first book club meeting on Tuesday. On Monday we will have a practice bookclub meeting using some short articles and we will also do a mini-lesson on generating good discussion questions.

Tuesday March 23/10

I’m still working on putting together the book club groups. If you were absent yesterday, you’ll have time to check out some of the books today while the rest of the class is reading silently. If you are absent today as well as yesterday, I will choose your book for you.

In order for the book clubs to work, you need to be able to work effectively as a group member. I want you to think about a negative experience you had working in a group. How did you feel? What went wrong? Then think of a time when you were working in a group and it went well. How did you feel? Why do you think it was successful?

These are the basic elements that are necessary for cooperative learning:

1) Positive interdependence

2) Individual Accountability

3) Face to Face Interaction

4) Social Skills

5) Processing

You will practice all of these skills in a problem solving exercise. When you finish, reflect on how effectively you worked in your group.

Monday March 22/10

Welcome back!

Just a reminder that you will be having a short horror fiction unit test on Thursday this week. If you will be absent on that day for any reason, please come and talk to me.

Today we will begin our book clubs. The first thing we need to do is get you to think about what book you’d be most interested in reading. I will have you rank your top three choices and then I will do my best to give you one of those choices.

Friday March 12/10

We’re going to finish watching Secret Window today and then I’d like you to hand in your charts.

Then I’m going to have you guys make some mind maps so that you can see the connections between all of the ideas we’ve studied in the horror fiction unit.

Also I apologize to those of you who commented on the personal essays but didn’t see your comments. I didn’t realize so many of you commented outside of class time and that’s awesome! They should now show up. So at some point over the break log on to the blog to see some of the comments your peers made on your essays. They’re awesome!

Wednesday March 10.10

Your retells for Heil are due.

Today we are going to continue with “I Am the Doorway”. For homework, I asked you to finish reading the story.  Now you are going to work on the questions and journal response. These will be due tomorrow.

Tomorrow we’re going to begin our film study for this unit.

Tuesday March 9/10

Today we will begin with some silent reading.

Then we’ll move on to taking up the short story chart for Heil.

Finally, we’ll start reading a short story called “I am the Doorway.” I will be posting a digital copy of this story on edmodo later today.