Deciding on the 'How'

The past few weeks we have been slowly, but surely, chipping away at our Human Rights Design Challenge. Students have presented on their group's right and grades are finally posted on how their presentation went. Mrs. Soblo and Coach K were in Austin last week at SXSWedu and so Mrs. A and Mr. Mayes (Coach West's long term sub) were with the students. They worked diligently on a children's book for Mrs. Soblo and their first drafts have been submitted. Here is that information. She is working hard to get feedback on those so that students can make revisions and hopefully get those into the hands of elementary schools students for even more feedback.

 Mr. Mayes began a Middle East culture project and the rough draft of that is due today. Here's that assignment again, in case you need it. 

For the Human Rights challenge, students were asked to put together a proposal for Coach K on their top 3 preferred methods of delivery for what they have learned. Essentially, students have spent weeks talking about why their human rights are important, why they are worth teaching about, and proving that they have a solid understanding of both of those points. Now that they have achieved those things, they have to think about HOW they want to inform their peers and community about human rights violations both locally and internationally. So, while Coach K was gone students worked on putting together presentations that talked about their top 3 choices of how to present their information. Students, on the whole, did a great job of selling their preferred method of delivery. There were some really great ideas and some not so great ideas. Students were able to give feedback via Google Doc to air out any questions they might have about the presented ideas.

As of Monday, the top three group favorites were a game show, a documentary or film, and a scavenger hunt. Just because they're student favorites doesn't mean that they're the teacher picks, but they will definitely be taken into consideration.

Later on in the week students will get their feedback from Coach K as to which methods were presented the strongest, and which, as a group, we will be moving forward with in the very near future.

Today students are also taking a quiz on The Book Thief (surprise!) and continuing with our bi-weekly EOC practice for the English 1 EOC.

12.4.13 The Book Thief: Part Two through Four Reading Questions

Mrs. A left you questions to go along with your reading. You may read however you like: in pairs, alone, read as you go and answer questions, read the whole thing and go back and answer questions....whatever works for you.

These are the questions, broken down with guidelines of what you should be doing each day. If you have not finished the summary of Part 1 that is your number one priority. All of this will be done BEFORE Mrs. A gets back!

Day One Work: 

Part Two - The Shoulder Shrug

A Girl Made of Darkness

The Joy of Cigarettes

The Town Walker

Dead Letters

1. What does Liesel give herself as a birthday present?

2. What is the source of the “second Watschen” that Liesel receives?

3. Explain the colors in this chapter/scene. For example, what color does Lisel

know the real scene was and what color did she see? What do you think this

might mean?

Hitler’s Birthday, 1940

1. What is the “minor calamity” and why is it a problem?

2. What is the issue between Hans and Hans Jr.?

Day Two Work:
100 Percent Pure German Sweat

1. On page 108 the author includes the sentence “It was a small moment, but it

was also a preview of troubles to come.” What literary device is at work in this sentence?

2. “It reminded her of an unpopular child, forlorn and bewildered, powerless to

alter its fate” (109). What is the “it” in this sentence? How does this metaphor work to make the reader feel a particular way about this scene?

3. What do the Germans burn and why?

4. “He was just an animal, hurt among the melee of its own kind, soon to be trampled by it” (112). What do you think the author is trying to tell the reader with this comparison to animals?

The Gates of Thievery

1. Why does Papa slap Liesel?

Book of Fire

Day Three Work: 

Part Three - Mein Kampf

The Way Home

1. What does Liesel promise Papa in exchange for the book?

2. What book does Papa buy with cigarettes this time?

The Mayor’s Library

1. Summarize this chapter in a few sentences.

2. “The mayor’s wife bruised herself again” (137). What does this sentence literally mean

and how do you know?

Enter The Struggler

Day Four Work: 

The Attributes of Summer

1. Who is Johann Hermann and how did he die?

2. How does Liesel learn to swim?

3. What convinces Arthur Berg to let Rudy and Liesel into his crew?

4. Why does Liesel throw up? What does this show us?

The Aryan Shopkeeper

Day Five Work: 

The Struggler, Continued

1. What is the English translation of “Mein Kampf?” How is this title ironic?

2. Who is “the Struggler?”

Tricksters

1. What do the neighborhood kids steal and why?

2. Where do the chestnuts come from and what do Rudy and Liesel do with them?

The Struggler, Concluded

11.7.13 The fruits of their labor

Today students split into thirds, like yesterday.

Mrs. A had students reading the Prologue in their newest book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This marks the beginning of a new humanities design challenge for our students, one that involves researching human rights both globally and locally. The book is just the gateway into the project and students are already into it. They even asked if they could stay during lunch to get a little further into the book. Makes this English teacher proud.

Students working with Mrs. Soblo continued their storyboarding and their use of VoiceThread to critique their storyboards. They should be ready for her tomorrow.

Students with Coach West and myself in the tool room continued their work on different deliverables each group had designed. Today we had our first finished product, and Group 1 (Tavarous, Alicia, Trinity, and Xavier) were so proud of their bench. Rightfully so, too. Check out how beautiful it is!

They were just a little proud of themselves.

And who could blame them?

The entire bench was made from pallet wood, with the exception of one 24 inch piece of 2x4.

This is their first of several, eight I think, but they did a great job and cranked it out in one day! Once they hand the hang of it you couldn't stop them. So proud of that group for working so hard today!

Our other groups are right on their heels and should have more designs completed as the next few class periods unfold. Some students even came back during lunch to work on their projects.

Seriously, what teenager does that?

Ours do. And they're awesome.

So proud of you all today!

And for those of you who think it's cute to blow up Coach K's phone with selfies....there is payback my friends.

                               

                                  







Boom.