Teachers: tired and lucky...

Teachers: 
I was thinking today about how much I miss this part of the school year; the impending doom, the race to the finish, knowing that a long and much-needed break is just around the curve. Most people never get that sense of accomplishment, so quickly followed by a reward of an entire season left to their own devices. I know you're tired, but you're also lucky.

Calvin & Hobbes & "Dover Beach"...

Who says 20th Century Comic Strips and Victorian Literature don't have anything in common?

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

-Matthew Arnold ("Dover Beach, 1867)

Just posting this lesson plan so I can link it for a class...

GOLD SEAL LESSON		Romeo & Julietymology: How Language Changes
Subject(s) English/RLA		Rigor/Relevance Framework
Grade Level  8-12
Instructional Focus		Reading Students read a variety of grade level materials, applying strategies appropriate to various situations Listening Students listen for a variety of purposes appropriate to the grade level. Writing Students write for a variety of purposes and audiences with sophistication and complexity appropriate to the
Student Learning		What students should know and be able to do as a result of this lesson such as concepts, knowledge, skills, and behaviors. For example: Students use the results of that conversation to predict the evolution of the English language. Students will support those predictions by creating a reasoned argument.
Performance Task		Overview Students will ask, “Why is Shakespeare so hard to read and understand? Why do they talk that way? Why did the language change to the way that it is today?” Language changes in a random—yet logical—manner. As my classes study Romeo & Juliet, we will be discussing the changes that have occurred within the English language—when, why, and how those changes occur. We will then use the results of that conversation to predict the evolution of the English language and support those predictions.  As part of the preparation for this larger discussion, we will talk about how “pidgin” languages have developed on the fringes of larger lingual empires, just as slang develops on the fringes of society. This lesson is coupled with study of Romeo & Juliet and Latin-base vocabulary. Description Activating Strategies: 1.      What words do you use that your parents didn't use when they were your age? Name a few words that are completely new words. List a few words that you think were in use, but are used differently now. 2.      Discuss the words that the class has listed. ·         Where did these new words/new uses come from? ·         How do different situations dictate the appropriate use of "new" language? Lesson: Introduce the idea of alternate forms of English (pidgin). 1.      What is a pidgin language? 2.      Watch pidgin videos. (Search teachertube.com for “pidgin” and “part”. All four parts will come up.) 3.      Discuss how pidgin came about on Hawaiian islands. 4.      Students will be put into groups to investigate the idea of pidgin English. Groups will be organized by research question. ·         Which languages have pidgin forms? ·         Where is pidgin English spoken? ·         Who speaks pidgin English? (Which countries, cultures, populations, parts of society?) ·         Why do pidgin languages develop? Why is it invented? Why is it spoken? ·         When were most pidgin languages invented? 5.      Groups will report, once sufficient time for research has passed. 6.      My classes have a Essay of the Week, every week. This week’s essay question(s) will be: “How/Why does English change over time?  Describe the mechanisms that cause language to evolve over time.” The essay should be the standard, five-paragraph format. (The rubric for this essay is included below.)
Essential Skills		Apply writing rules and conventions (grammar, usage, punctuation, sentence structure, and spelling). Read for main ideas and supporting details and discriminate important ideas from unimportant ideas to aid comprehension. Follow oral directions. Research information from a variety of sources and draft a well-organized, accurate, and informative report or essay that engages an audience and addresses its needs. Develop processes or techniques for building vocabulary, decoding unfamiliar words/texts, and understanding or remembering information by using such strategies as context clues, word structure, letter-sound relationships, word histories, and mnemonics. Organize supporting detail in logical and convincing patterns that focus on audience and purpose. Create a connection to a text by understanding the personal, social, cultural, and historical significance of it. Use ideas from different sources to write a paper that expresses a personal opinion or uses specific evidence from literary texts to support an opinion. Develop and use expository writing skills in all content areas. Identify and interpret idiomatic expressions and figures of speech that enhance oral communication.
Assessment		Rubric for “Essay of the Week” is attached below.
Attachments/ Resources		http://teachertube.com/  “Ha Kam Wi Tawk Pidgin Yet?” Parts 1-4

Submitted by: Adam Hunt; Huntington High School, Huntington, WV;  hhs.hunt@gmail.com

CATEGORY	10- Above Standards	8- Meets Standards	6 - Approaching Standards	2 - Below Standards	Score
Grammar & Spelling	Author makes no errors in grammar or spelling that distract the reader from the content.	Author makes 1-4 errors in grammar or spelling that distract the reader from the content.	Author makes 5-10 errors in grammar or spelling that distract the reader from the content.	Author makes more than 10 errors in grammar or spelling that distract the reader from the content.
Sentence Structure	All sentences are well-constructed with varied structure.	Most sentences are well-constructed, and there is some varied sentence structure in the essay.	Most sentences are well constructed, but there is no variation is structure.	Most sentences are not well-constructed or varied.
Complete	Answer is complete and shows depth, effort, and understanding.	Some effort shown; answer is complete but lacks depth or full explanation.	Answer may or may not be complete. Little to no effort shown.	Answer not attempted or complete. No effort shown.
Response	Response answers all parts of the question; great effort and thought are reflected in response. The piece reflects above average effort compared to the standard that the student has set this semester.	Response answers question on a basic level; effort and thought are reflected in response. The piece reflects average effort compared to the standard that the student has set this semester.	Response mildly answers question and shows little to no effort. The piece reflects below average effort compared to the standard that the student has set this semester.	Response does not answer the question and shows no effort or thought. The piece reflects no effort compared to the standard that the student has set this semester.

Rubric for Essay of the Week

ADD and keeping an intelligent network of friends...

I just had a mind-blowing insight into why I hang out with people who are smarter than me. If you don't know me well, you might not know that I don't focus very well. This can make deliberate, thoughtful discovery pretty difficult for me. However, I am good at creating questions, which I then deliver to my intelligent friends so that I can parasite their processing power to receive the response I require. I'll usually ask the same question of several friends, and usually deliver it by some method of provocative statement that requires their response (because of emotional speak that I've inserted into the comment). I sort responses for logical clarity and add the new schema to my world-view. I've been doing this for years, never realizing that I'd developed a way to compensate for my constantly drifting attention and the fog that occludes nearly every unfocused moment of my waking life.

The importance of concept acquisition and attention to Constructivist theory in the classroom...

Another graduate class-initiated diatribe about Constructivism and concept acquisition...

"Describe concept development. Give examples to elaborate your ideas."

            I can’t think of a subject that is more up my educational alley than concept acquisition and the importance of interweaving of concepts as part of the educational process. As Henson points out, this is an area that is WOEFULLY ignored in American education: “[T]he high-performing Asian students spent far more time making connections among major concepts than U.S. students do” (338).

            Students are being terribly mis-trained about the nature of knowledge, about the way that we learn, and about the connections that exist between all things that can be known, and they are being misled by their own educational system. I have had students remark that I was drifting from my subject matter during my occasional forays into science, social studies and mathematics. I have to say  that I expected those comments to some degree. I realized there was a problem when a student appealed to me in my English class: “Why are we reading so much? This is English class!”

            The general education that students receive in public school creates a false impression of the world being divided-up by subject when there are no such walls in the real world. Students are taught to think linearly, inside several different boxes, and to never let thoughts from one box interfere with those of other compartments.  A superior education is both broad and deep. It enables students to view the world in an objective, quantifiable way as well as with a subjective and philosophical eye. The late Dr. Philip Phenix, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Education at the Teachers College of Columbia University once summed up a person of superior education as (1964):

            “[being]  skilled in the use of speech, symbol, and gesture, factually well informed, capable of creating and appreciating objects of esthetic significance, endowed with a rich and disciplined life in relation to self and others, able to make wise decisions and to judge between right and wrong, and possessed of an integral outlook. These are the aims of general education for the development of whole persons.”

             As an English teacher, I feel that Phenix’s sentiment airs my central calling. In Write for Insight: Empowering Content Area Learning, Grades 6-12, it says that “[i]f students are to make knowledge their own…they must struggle with the details, wrestle with the facts, and rework raw information and dimly understood concepts into language they can communicate to someone else.” (Strong 2006)

            If we want students to really learn information, and not regurgitate it, they must interact with it, discuss connections, and apply those connections to their own constructs. There really is no other way.

            So how is such a thing taught? Kenneth Henson has put together a neat little checklist (339):

1.      Present a nominal definition of a concept and give examples—I usually skip this one and let the students do this for me, too. There is no concept that I’ve come across that no one in the room has any idea about.

2.      Emphasize common attributes and ask students for further attributes—Again, I let students lay the groundwork here as well, applying questioning where necessary to get the language clean and concise.

3.      Ask students to generate examples.

4.      Have students give totally opposite examples (nonexamples).

5.      Have students name metaphors to compare and contrast with the original idea—I prefer analogies. But same difference, right? I also like to find related art or images to use as a background for my Smartboard’s laptop, which I change almost daily.

6.      Have students review contexts in which the concept takes place.

7.      Describe the overt application of the concept.

8.      Identify factors in the environment that facilitate or hinder the application of the concept.

9.      Formulate an operational definition involving the last steps of “this” process.

10.  Discuss consequences in terms of viable solutions to a given problem.

            As an example, I have provided an instructional activity that I taught to fellow teachers at a National Writing Project seminar a few years ago. There is not a lot of correlation between the Numbers (1-10) above and the letters (A-J) below because I didn’t know there was an official formula that I should be following. That said, the flow is pretty tight.

A.     Bellringer: What do you know about constructivism? Write down everything that you know about constructivism and constructivist theory.

B.     Pass out KWL chart and have fellow students rewrite their thoughts as a bulleted list under “Know”. They should then fill out the second column, “Want to Know/think I’ll Learn”

C.     Discuss responses. Invite a fellow student to write the responses on the board.

D.    Attempt to categorize the responses using a graphic model or mind map. Ask fellow students for possible category topics.

E.     Create a working-definition of constructivism.

F.      Pass out Some Possibly Useful, or Maybe Just Interesting Stuff  About Constructivism. Divide the fellow students into 4-5 groups and have them read the papers aloud, breaking up the work however they see fit.

G.    Once reading is complete, ask the students to briefly share something they found interesting, something they agreed with, or something they took issue with from the list of facts about constructivism.

H.    Demonstrate how knowledge is fluid and subjective (which is a good thing) by doing a few organizational charts on the board using random/semi-random subjects. Connect the subjects by whatever means necessary.

I.       Demonstrate classroom use of constructivist teaching using part of a 9^th grade Persuasion/Propaganda Unit from this past year using a provided prompt.

J.        Have the fellow students complete the KWL chart and ask them to write a brief paragraph that tells what ideas they have for the use of constructivism in their own classrooms.

Works Cited

Henson, K. (2010). Curriculum Planning: Integrating Multiculturalism, Constructivism, and Education Reform (4^th Ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.

Phenix, P. (1964). Realms of Meaning: A Philosophy of the Cirriculum for General Education. McGraw-Hill Education.

Strong, W. (2006). Write for Insight: Empowering Content Area Learning, Grades 6-12. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

"Introduction to Constructivism"

Taken from a demonstration I gave at NWP summer institute:

 “In the art of living, man is both the artist and the object of his art;

he is the sculptor and the marble; the physician and the patient.”

-Erich Fromm

            Students are being terribly mis-trained about the nature of knowledge, about the way that we learn, and about the connections that exist between all things that can be known, and they are being mislead by their own educational system. I have had students remark that I was drifting from my subject matter during my occasional forays into science, social studies and mathematics, and I expected those comments to some degree. I realized there was a problem when a student appealed to me in my English class: “Why are we reading so much? This is English class!”

            The general education that students receive in public school creates a false impression of the world being divided-up by subject when there are no such walls in the real world. Students are taught to think linearly, inside several different boxes, and to never let thoughts from one box interfere with those of other compartments.  A superior education is both broad and deep. It enables students to view the world in an objective, quantifiable way as well as with a subjective and philosophical eye. The late Dr. Philip Phenix, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Education at the Teachers College of Columbia University once summed up a person of superior education as (1964):

            

“[being]  skilled in the use of speech, symbol, and gesture, factually well informed, capable of creating and appreciating objects of esthetic significance, endowed with a rich and disciplined life in relation to self and others, able to make wise decisions and to judge between right and wrong, and possessed of an integral outlook. These are the aims of general education for the development of whole persons.” (Phenix, 1964)

             So what does this have to do with writing? In Write for Insight: Empowering Content Area Learning, Grades 6-12, is says “If students are to make knowledge their own…they must struggle with the details, wrestle with the facts, and rework raw information and dimly understood concepts into language they can communicate to someone else.” (Strong, 2006)

            If we want students to really learn information, and not regurgitate it, they must interact with it, through writing, and through communities of learning where they can teach what they have discovered to others.

A happy Hamlet, if there could be such a thing...

This is something I wrote before going home to visit family a few years ago. I live far from my family and only see them once a year. As you get older, you start to understand that you stand outside of the circle of your family when you miss so much time with them. 

'Nebraska—a month from today: I have to go home. I want to go home. I need to go home. I hate to go home. “You can’t go home again.” It’s been said so many times, and become such a cliché, that it has started to compile a dry irony that makes it nearly tolerable to express again in Literary circles.

Visiting home is like visiting ghosts. My family isn’t dead. In fact, go to a family gathering, and you’ll probably find me the least outgoing in the bunch. I mean that they have stopped growing, developing, and changing for me, as I know I have for them. I remember them the same way that I remember my dead grandfather—I didn’t get to attend his funeral, you see, so he is still alive to me. My family is forever young, forever stuck in one place. And when they demonstrate their evolving person to me, I wonder: Are these the same people? Are they who they say they are? I am confused. But I am also home. I’ll have a beer, a chat, and a hug on the patio with my dad—a happy Hamlet, if there could be such a thing.'