Documentaries, Children's Books, and MiddleEastProjectsQuoteAnalysis, Oh My!

Documentaries

Today students worked in their human rights groups to determine an "angle" for their documentaries. They drafted essential questions, listed sources to consult, and considered the role they want to tackle for this challenge. 

• Reporters: grassroots work, plan/set-up/conduct interviews, transcribe interviews, gather research (including information,photos, videos, b-roll, music, etc.), keep log of all actions/findings
• Screenwriters: view & edit research/interviews (from reporters), study action logs & provide guidance, pull sound bites, storyboarding, script writing
• Producers: computer editing work, create final product, take all pieces from reporters and screenwriters and match-up (put together narration/script with photos, videos, music, etc.), transition rough work to professional quality

Next week, groups will continue researching, mapping and storyboarding. A rough draft of story boards will be due for critique on Wednesday, March 19th. 

Students are using the project management app Basecamp to organize themselves, their thoughts, their research, their to-do lists, and their deadlines. (And it helps us keep us with them too!) 

Children's Books

Mrs. Soblo returned children's book drafts with LOTS of feedback for students! The next steps, which began with fervor today, have students revising, correcting, and re-drafting their books and then passing these new and improved drafts among their peers for critique and even more feedback. 

Middle East Projects

On Monday Mr. Mayes wants to see a final draft of students' Middle East Culture Project. They will have a BINGO opportunity for this assignment if they need one, but final products are now due. 

Book Thief Quote Analysis

Quote Analysis #2 (as well as any quote analysis BINGOs) is due Monday as well. 

Students had class time Wednesday and Thursday to work on this assignment and receive feedback and extra assistance from Mrs. A. It's apparent that students are getting better and better at this skill with each attempt. Many students finished early this time and have already turned it in! 

It's documentary, my dear Watson.

I crack myself up.

Today we worked in halves.

With Coach K, students were introduced to the idea that we would be putting on a film festival to feature student written, produced, and filmed documentaries highlighting their human right group and violations. Some were more enthusiastic than others but there is SO much potential here for creative license and amazing products, we just can't pass it up. We're shooting for a showing on May 9th to collaborate with D10 and their 'The Other F Word' design challenge on fitness. They are also producing videos and documentaries so we are hoping to offer a double feature and invite the community and school to attend. With a May 9th deadline, this gives students approximately six weeks to plan, write, film, and edit their 5-8 minute films.

Students took notes on the 6 different forms of documentaries according to Bill Nichols, author of Introduction to Documentary. Here are those notes for anyone who did not get them, or needs them again. There is also a page with extra resources and other video examples than the ones we viewed in class.

Students also spent some time with Mrs. A. They finished Part 9 of The Book Thief and she has graciously offered her lunch tomorrow to provide extra help for students who are struggling with their quote analysis. PLEASE take advantage of this opportunity if you are having a hard time, or even just want extra help. She'll be in her classroom during lunch.

Critiques and BINGOs

Students' rough drafts of their Middle Eastern Culture mini-project were due to Mr. Mayes yesterday. He was able to look over them and today students were able to critique their classmates' work.

Students collaborated on a list of qualities that, aside from the required content, a quality final product would need to have. This is the list they came up with:

• Clear Organization
• Labels of Parts
• Bullet points of important information
• Skimmable
• Title
• Visually Appealing
• Neat
• Colorful
• Font Consistency
• Visuals Incorporated
• Captions
• History as well as modern culture
• Grammar/Punctuation/Capitalization
• Interesting
• Relevant
• Personal
• Points of Interest 

Students were then given 4 minutes to exchange their rough draft with another group. The first two minutes were spent silently critiquing the other group's project based on the criteria above. The second two minutes were split between the groups; each group had one minute to get clarification on any questions or to give their suggestions. This allowed students to both give and receive feedback on their work.

         

        

 

           

After four rounds of feedback students were put back in their groups and began to sort through the feedback they were given. They began revisions based on their classmates feedback and will continue those revisions later this week. The final product is due Friday, March 21st but students will have a chance to conference with Mr. Mayes early next week. 

With Mrs. Auspelmyer, students reviewed how to write quote analysis and were given a second assignment to practice their skills. Those students who are still having difficulty with quote analysis formed a small group with Mrs. A talked  about their weaknesses and the feedback they had received. Students who had previously BINGO'ed their first quote analysis were given the opportunity to BINGO that assignment again. Students were also given a second set of quotes to continue practicing their close reading skills. The second set of quotes will be due Monday and that assignment information is here. 

         

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

11.22.13 Student Achievement

This stuff ain't easy!! Celebrating the daily victories... 

Stars indicate the student has earned at least one A on a vocabulary quiz!
Pink stars indicate the student has scored a perfect 100% on at least one vocabulary quiz!
Stickers indicate the student has earned an additional A on a vocabulary quiz!
Keep shooting for the stars (and stickers)!!

Yellow books indicate the student has earned a B on a reading quiz!
Orange books indicate the student has earned an A on a reading quiz!
Read to succeed!!

11.20.13 The Independent Reader

Students are currently reading the New York Times bestseller The Book Thief, set in 1939 Germany, as we embark on a study of human rights. They are really loving the novel! (They are also excited by the prospect of the movie coming out, which was news to me! I have begged them all NOT to go and see it yet, lest they spoil the rest of the book for themselves. We will see who can hold out!)

We began by reading the book aloud in class, stopping to discuss and take notes as we read. Throughout our reading of the prologue, I did a "think-aloud" for students, questioning the text, deciphering unknown words, and modeling how I determine which parts of the text are important enough to take notes on, and which parts are just extra details. Once we finished reading and discussing the prologue we wrote a class summary of it, and again I modeled how to write a successful summary and how to select which details are important enough to include and which we could leave out.

Since then we also began reading Part One of the novel aloud in class, continuing to take notes as we read, in an effort to engage in active reading, reading with the intent to critically engage the text, understand it, and ultimately be able to analyze and evaluate it. For days, students have been engaged in class, taking notes, making predictions, asking great questions, providing evidence from the text to support their points, and staying really focused as we work!!

And then something happened.

I sent students home over the weekend with a few chapters to read by themselves and the promise of a quiz on the material when they returned. For the most part, the quiz was a disaster. When I said, "But you were doing so well in class as we worked together - What happened?!," students responded, in writing:

"I did not comprehend."
"Some of the questions on the quiz didn't match the notes I had taken."
"I didn't read it at all. I completely forgot I had to read."
"I think when I was reading I wasn't paying attention to detail because I was also watching TV while I was reading."
"I really wasn't expecting some of the questions."
"I couldn't remember what I read."
"I didn't attempt to read the book. I wanted to play basketball instead."
"I didn't pay attention to what I was reading."

Students' answers indicate a wide range of issues. Some students simply are not completing work unless someone is standing over them, making them do it. Some students are not managing their time wisely and are only completing portions of their assignments. Some students aren't keeping up with assignments and deadlines because they aren't using a calendar and a daily "to-do" list. These are issues we can and do address each and every day in Studio D.

But the real issue I want to address, the issue I HAVE to address, is the issue of reading but not comprehending, reading but then forgetting what they've read, reading but not being able to distinguish which details are the most important or not being able to anticipate what questions might be on a quiz. THIS is what we began working on today. Students began taking notes on reading strategies that will help them succeed, and we will continue this discussion in the coming days and weeks. We will take more time to read The Book Thief aloud together in class, and to discuss and analyze the novel. But students also know that more and more they will be expected to read independently, and actively, and that ultimately they DO have enough strategies at their disposal to read successfully.

11.18.13 UDHR/Hitler/Inertia

Weirdest blog post title ever, right?

With me today, students learned about the history of human rights and where they began. We watched a cool video on the history of human rights and you can find it below.

Students used this document as their guide to the history behind human rights. They also used LucidChart and began a document to show the progression from one document to the next, ultimately showing how we arrived at the modern day Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I walked through the first document with them and modeled how I wanted the chart set up. It's like a timeline, but it also includes the details of each document and what happened as a result of this document's creation. This is the example....

With Coach West, students watched a video on Hitler and his rise to power. They are learning about Hitler in conjunction with their study of The Book Thief. In Mrs. Soblo's class, students took a video quiz on Inertia, and began planning for an egg drop project. Mrs. Soblo told students if you bring in a canned good, she will award you a 100 on her video quiz from today! (woop woop)