Monday, December 16, 2013

Honors and Standard 12-16-2013

One week of presentations down and one week to go.  Okay, one week and an extra day or two after break.  I rewrote the schedule on the board, so be sure to check when your new scheduled presentation day is.  Remember, you need to be ready to present one day ahead of your scheduled presentation day just in case someone else is ill or unprepared to present for any reason.

I'd say the presentations are going pretty well so far.  I like the wide range of topics that were selected. we've heard discussions over everything from dirt to the Korean War to Jerome Bettis.   Here are a couple reminders to make sure your presentation is as strong as it needs to be:

Open with a hook

Support your claims with evidence from the text or the film

Be passionate

Use the checklist to be sure you complete everything you are supposed to complete

End with a BANG!

The article analysis today was over a couple detailed but fairly straightforward articles.  Lots of sources in each to be sure.  Hopefully you clearly identified the purpose and tied your evidence into sources. Did you explain your bias answer?  I hope so.  We are going to have to take it easy on the author response.  Seems there are a lot of Patricia Smith's out there.  I'll go easy on that one.  Period one finished during class--nice work.  Period two lost fifteen minutes due to a meeting and a video.  Period three had the same struggle. Periods four and six should have finished.  That was the expectation.  I'll start looking at them tonight.

That's all for now.  See you soon.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Honors and Standard 12-09-2013

Fine work today on the presentations.  Each one had examples to learn from and try to emulate.  Videos worked well too.  Couple key ideas to glean from our first day:

**Don't use note cards unless absolutely necessary, but if you must have them, do not read from them!

**Use quotes from the text; hard to be successful without the quotes.

**Be sure you differentiate between the central idea and the summary.  Too many times we blended those together.  The central idea/purpose/theme should be explaining the deeper message the author/director is trying to get across.

**Be sure you are emphasizing your points whether you are discussing advantages or introducing a clip or quote; be clear and precise.

Be sure to type those reflections tonight if your presented today.  I'll be collecting them tomorrow.  When reflecting think back on the entire process from your selection process to your reading schedule to your preparation through to your actual presentation.  Write about the good and the bad, the challenges and the successes.  Put some effort into it and you can earn ten points.
 
Reminder that I will be meeting with the Quigley people tomorrow during lunch for a chance to earn back some points on the group analysis.  Bring paper and pencil and the article.

See you soon.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Honors and Standard 12-04-2013

Today was effectively used working on our presentations.  I was impressed with some of what I saw.  You people are pretty creative with the technology components.  Be sure the information matches that level of success.

One more thing I want to make sure you remember is the focus of the presentation.  terry Fox was not the focus of my presentation.   He was the material I used to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the two mediums: film and text.  I then also was able to demonstrate my understanding of main idea and bias through the material on Terry.  Again, he was not the focus; he was the material that allowed me to discuss main idea and bias.  Be sure you don't make your material the focus of your discussion.  Keep your focus on the two mediums, the main ideas, and the bias.

Tomorrow you will be in groups of four.  You will be analyzing a nonfiction article and asking yourself four important questions:

Who is the author?

What is the purpose?

What is the evidence?

What/Who are the sources?

In addition you will be discussing the bias of the article.  Is it?  Isn't it?  Back it up either way.


Our last group article analysis before Thanksgiving did not go over well.  This one will be assessed regardless of the outcome, so you need to make sure you  read and analyze the article well and discuss the results with your peers.  One sheet will be submitted per group, four names, one grade.  I have several articles to choose from.   I'm not sure which one I will choose yet.  We'll all find out tomorrow.

See you soon.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Honors and Standard 12-03-2013

In Lab B tomorrow for work on the presentations.  They begin on Monday.  Period four already has three volunteers for Monday.  Way to go!  Period six has a couple volunteers as well.  Good to see.  Use your time wisely over the next few days and you will be ready to present.  We will draft a schedule tomorrow.  You will know the day you are meant to present.  Our goal remains to have these completed prior to break.  Read.  Watch. Prepare.

See you soon.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Honors and Standard 12-02-2013

Acuity tomorrow.  It's the predictive one so we need to complete the test in our one class period.  We've been going over the material that we were weak on before: identifying best sentences( precise/concise/vivid) and familiarizing ourselves with the elements of nonfiction.  Keep those in mind and do the best you can. This one will predict your spring ISTEP score.

We are in Lab B on Wednesday and Friday to work on those presentations.  Don't wait to get started though.  Start working tonight.  We'll be drafting for next Monday's presenters on Wednesday.  Be prepared.  

Here are the directions to use Tube Chop.  They may come in handy.


Enter www.tubechop.com in your search bar.

Search for Animal Farm.

Click on the 1954 cartoon version.

Enter the start time and the end time for your clip.

Where it says " (optional) write something about your selection" identify your clip.

Click on "chop it"

Copy the address in the Link box.

Now go to your Google document, highlight the word or phrase you plan on making the link.

Click on the chain symbol in the top tool bar.

Paste the address from the Link box into the space provided.

You should be good to go. 

Bring your headphones and any questions to class tomorrow. 

See you soon.  

See you soon.

Honors and Standard 12-02-2013: Presentation Example

Below is a link to the updated but not completed presentation on Terry Fox.  I repeat, this is not polished but it should give you a good idea what you need to do to be successful as far as the media portion of the presentation goes.  The information and enthusiasm are up to you.

https://docs.google.com/a/phm.k12.in.us/presentation/d/1DMs-fi5tyPLSikBJ949sKmIOZF6RZfexTu_wDWFCtr0/edit#slide=id.g17d70155e_034

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Standard and Honors 12-01-2013

The blog is back.  I was overwhelmed with assessments the last two weeks but that is now under control.  Let's get to it.

One thing I decided to do over the break was shave.  AH!  It feels good to get that scruffy, shag off my face.   But it was well worth it.  After period one asked, I promised not to shave throughout November if they won the food drive.  Congratulations to period one!  You amazed me with your generosity.  

I trust you all had a great holiday break.  Lots of turkey.  Lots of shopping.  Lots of rest.  Did you shop on Thanksgiving day?  Or did you wait until Black Friday?  We had a good nonfiction reading and video on that topic in the standard class.  I wonder what you all decided to do.

We'll keep looking at some nonfiction articles and speeches this week, but we are filling our time with other things as well.

First of all, we all have ACUITY testing on Tuesday.  This will be the second quarter predictive test we'll all be taking.  Our weak areas across the board had been recognizing nonfiction material, identifying the most precise and vivid sentences, and writing for clarity.  We have used Tool Time and class time to focus on these areas.   Hopefully, we will be able to see some progress on this test.

On Wednesday and Friday I have the computer lab (Lab B) reserved to help us prepare for the presentations that will start in a little over seven days.  I trust we have watched our films a couple times and have completed a majority--if not all--of our books.  We have taken copious notes and have narrowed our discussions down to some strong examples.  As a reminder, here are the priorities you need to be focusing on:


1) Open with an effective, engaging hook to your topic
2) Introduce the material you used 
A) title and author of the book
B) title and director of the documentary
3) Offer a summary of the information the material shared
A) this should be quick
B) this should be basic
4) Discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of the two mediums (book and film) 
A) this discussion will include quotes from the text (sources and evidence comes in here)
B) this discussion will include excerpts from the film (sources and evidence comes in here)
5) Explain what the central idea of the book is and back it up
6) Explain what the central idea of the film is and back it up
7) OPTIONAL: Touch on the bias that might be evident in either piece
*this is optional because you might find that the material is not biased
8) Have an effective closing to the presentation
9) Be ready to handle the Q and A following the presentation

I'll be sharing some more ideas with you tomorrow to help you make sure you are preparing for this presentation the best way you can.  We might have some trouble with the videos clips, but we are going to do the best we can to make sure that this goes over as effectively as possible.  There will be a checklist and a rubric that you'll want to look at carefully too.

That leaves part of Monday and Thursday for our nonfiction articles/speeches.   The goal is to have a group assessment followed by an individual assessment.  The group assessment will be tackled this week while the individual will be something you will demonstrate the following week.  Remember the four questions and the B--word.  

I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.  Three quick weeks and then winter break.  This year is moving fast.  Do your best to keep up.