Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Repurposing the Textbook...

Wuzzup Teensters,

      Today is Tuesday, November 15th, 2011.  Some teensters have finished their memoirs.  Some teensters have finished their memoirs, but would like to put the "cherry on top" by adding detail or just a little extra.  Some teensters are still only half way to being complete with their memoir.  We are all over the board and you know what...?  That's OK: as long as you are engaged.  By engaged I mean thinking and doing. 
      Today,  some of you will be moving on to explore our next Unit of Inquiry: Exploration and Colonization.  Before we dive in and muck around together we have to make sure we've done a couple things:
1. Completed our memoirs
2. Submitted our memoirs
3. Thought about our next steps
      If you are on path 3 come see me to continue your adventure.  I read some text last night that really impacted how we as a learning community could move forward since we are leaving the Holocaust behind.  I thought about our online textbook as I read these words: Textbooks keep students in the dark about the nature of history.  History is furious debate informed by evidence and reason.  Textbooks encourage students to believe that history is facts to be learned. (Loewen, 2007, 5, 8)  After reading a line like that I had a few questions.  How could we use our textbooks differently?  They still do serve a purpose, so what could that purpose be?  Textbooks are a great learning tool, but they are not the end-all-be-all, so how do we know what to keep and what to toss?  What is HISTORICAL THINKING?
    Your learning target for the day is as follows: I can interact and collaborate with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.  Please make sure you know where you are in the process, and are learning accordingly. 

Sincerely,
C

From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Monday, November 14, 2011

Back from D.C...

Good morning y'all,

The gorgeous capital building.
      Today is Monday, November 14, 2011.  Over the weekend I received feedback requesting more time to improve upon and complete the Digital Memoirs of the Holocaust project.  We will be extending the due date to Thursday of this week.  This Friday we will be taking the whole class period to sit back, relax, and watch each others' digital memoirs in order to give each other feedback on what we all did well and what we could have improved upon.  As you use the additional time today and this week, think about your work and the process.  How have you used your resources?  Help each other please. 
You have a guest teacher today.  This will be the 8th grade teachers' last day of meetings.  If you finish your project early take time to help others with their projects.  You will have until Thursday, but that is not an excuse to misuse or waste time.  I hope that Friday will be enjoyable and a great learning experience for us all. 
      As you finish your digital memoirs, we will be posting them to the WIKI page under Bb9 - Holocaust - Go Public.  Down at the bottom you will see the Wiki page.  Good luck. Have fun, and enjoy. 
C and T.J.
       

Sincerely,
C
P.S. Please treat our guest teacher BETTER than your treat me.  They are a guest and may need our help here in the building. 
From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Friday, November 11, 2011

11 11 11...

Hey gang,

      Today is High Five Friday, November 11, 2011.  We have our Great STEM Challenge today!  Your guest teacher will lead you through the day.  Please your time to your advantage.  Your Digital Memoirs of the Holocaust are due on Monday.  You will also have Monday in class to do any finishing touches you may need.  So far your work is looking great! 

      Yesterday, you all heard, saw, and discussed a literary technique called PERSONA.  In the youtube video that I attached is Johnny Depp talking about the persona he took on for Captain Jack Sparrow.  As you watch, think about how his persona as Captain Jack is a similar technique to what you are all doing as you create your memoirs.  Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/T5p2EVcKeCE

Sincerely,
C
From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Persona in our memoirs...

Good day to you Teenie-Boppers,

      Today is Thursday, November 10, 2011.  I need not remind you that tomorrow is 11-11-11, the day of the Great STEM Challenge.  You will be having a guest teacher tomorrow and Monday as the 8th grade teachers have their alignment day.  What that means is that we have meetings.  Personally, between us, I would want to be in class with you guys and gals, but sadly it's not my call.  So please do your best to help out the guest teacher. 

      Anyways, down to brass tacks!  PERSONA.  Persona is a literary technique writers use to tell a story.  PERSONA refers to the voice through which an author tells the story.  Persona can be the identity of a character or narrator.  Writers develop a persona in order to help an audience see events from a particular perspective; in our case, a historical perspective.  By seing a digital memoir through the eyes of a bystander, perpetrator, victim, or helper our audience will naturally sympathize with that character.  The mood and tone you set in the memoir through soundtrack and text will also help your audience sympathisize with a PERSONA.

      PERSONA is connected to to point of view.  Since you are creating a memoir, your persona should come in the first person point of view.  This brainpop will help you grasp the concept.
  http://www.brainpop.com/english/writing/pointofview/ 
      Username: waukesha
      Password: media
Use your imaginations along with your schema.  Tie your right brain to your left brain and have fun while creating your memoirs.  If you would like to leave a comment for me feel free.  Enjoy!

Sincerely,
C
From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Word Wednesday...

Sooo...

      Today is Camel Day, November 9, 2011.  Yesterday after all of you lovely students left most of your teachers had meetings to attend over at the Randall Campus.  I joined the Literacy Leadership Team for my meeting, but happened to agitate the Community Leadership Team which I was once a part of.  Mr. Tomsett proceded to call me a TURNCOAT. 

      Now, the name that I was called stopped me in my tracks.  It made me start to wonder.  What is a turncoat?  Where would a weird word like that come from?  What is it's entymology?  Does the word have a historical context?  Did the word originate during a certain era in history: the Revolution perhaps?  So my next step was to find the definition.  I did and sent it via text message to this blog THINK SPOT.  The definition is below for your enjoyment. 

Turncoat:1.
a person who changes to the opposite party or faction, reverses principles, etc.; renegade.

      There are additional resources I added to Blackboard 9 that will help you download video and/or audio.  Ask me to show you! 

Yours Truly,
C

P.S. I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.
Do your best and forget the rest!!

Let the Digital Memoirs Commence...

Totally Tubular Tuesday Teenie-boppers,

      Today is Tuesday, November 8, 2011.  Remember that procedural writing is a genre that guides, teaches, and instructs a reader through a task or experience.  Read the mini syllabus below to become familar with how we will use our time the rest of the week as we create our digital memoirs...

Survey, read, and review this syllabus to understand and complete your digital memoir. 
Memoirs are deep thoughts that touch the essence of an experience.   Memoir is your memory and your study of an experience in life.  Memoir is your thinking really deeply: the meaning below the meaning…  The meaning below the meaning you thought you found.  Memoirs are not biographies or autobiographies.  They are something similar, yet not exactly the same.  The subtle differences make memoirs more like a narrative: a story about a particular experience in someone's life.  Memoirs are a part of a life: not the whole life of a person. 
Your task is to choose a "persona" from the era in history known as the Holocaust.  A persona is the perspective or lens through which you will tell your memoir of the holocaust.  We will be using the program Windows Moviemaker to incorporate TEXT and MULTIMEDIA to demonstrate what we have learned as we explored this dark time in human history. 

From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Monday, November 7, 2011

Digital Memoirs: mood and tone...

Monday Funday is here!

      Today is Monday, November 7, 2011.  Quick reminders: Friday is the STEM challenge. Next Monday your digital memoirs are due.  Next Monday your historical fiction texts are due as well.  You will have the majority of the week to work on your digital memoirs and also next weekend. 
      Now, down to brass tacks.  Click on the link below to start our class today...
http://www.brainpop.com/english/writing/moodandtone/
Username: waukesha
Password: media

      Ask and ye shall receive!  You all have expressed an interest in seeing some of that digital memoir again so let's roll up our sleeves, get out the rubric, and do some grading.  Woohoo!   As we watch portions of the digital memoir use the rubric to critique what you are reading and watching.  pay careful attention to the MOOD and TONE of the piece.  What do you think the creator/writer is trying to get the audience to think and feel?  Enjoy, and be gentle. 

Yours truly,
C

From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Friday, November 4, 2011

Literary Devices...

Good day to you all,

      Today is November 4, 2011.  Procedural writing is a specific genre that serves a specific goal.  Procedural writing teaches.  Procedural writing guides.  Procedural writing is concise.  It starts with a purpose, and arranges a method as a series of steps that provide exact instructions.

Below you will find a piece of procedural writing I have tried to complete for you.  Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to go back over the other 2 mini syllabi presented in the learning modules and evaluate me.  Grade me.  You will be provided with a checklist.  On the checklist, make comments and provide feedback on how I'm doing as a procedural writer.  What are your thoughts? 
- Does my writing have a purpose?
- Does my writing list a series of steps?
- Could a reader complete the task by following the instructions? 

                                                      LITERARY DEVICES

Description/Purpose
Survey, read, and follow this mini syllabus to identify Literary Devices and to use a wiki. 
For this Learning Experience you are presented with LITERARY DEVICES.  Literary Devices, for this lesson, are broken down in to two categories: Literary Techniques and Figurative Language.  (NOTE: Depending on who you speak with and/or what you read, Literary Techniques are often times substituted for "Literary Devices".  This can cause some confusion. For this learning experience please think of Literary Techniques and Figurative Language as two parts the make up Literary Devices.) 
     
      1.) Literary Techniques are tools and strategies that enhance a story in order to make is meaningful.  Techniques deal with the way a story is STRUCTURED.    These are the items in a story we love and remember.  From flashbacks to forshadowing, along with sub plots and plot twists, LITERARY TECHNIQUES are what make literature rich and engaging.
      2.) Figurative Language is a literary device that talented writers, film makers, and story tellers use to add depth and voice to their work.   
      -The wiki page is our way to demonstrate learning and share our new schema with each other.
A wiki (Listen i/ˈwɪki/ wik-ee) is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor.[1][2][3] Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include community websites, corporate intranets, knowledge management systems, and note services. The software can also be used for personal notetaking.
Wikis may serve many different purposes. Some permit control over different functions (levels of access). For example, editing rights may permit changing, adding or removing material. Others may permit access without enforcing access control. Other rules may also be imposed for organizing content.
Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work."[4] "Wiki" (pronounced [ˈwiti] or [ˈviti]) is a Hawaiian word meaning "fast" or "quick".[5]

Learning Objectives/Targets
I can produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task, purpose and audience.

Method/Procedure & Materials
1. Read through the mini syllabus to understand the task layout and learning target.
2. Click and "SURVEY" (scan/skim) the wiki page to see what is there. 
3. View the videos laid out for you in the order they are presented.
4. As you watch, pay attention to your thinking and post new learning, thoughts, schema, or questions on the wiki.
      Note: please post at least one comment for "Literary Techniques" and one comment for "Figurative Language"
5. Read through other peoples contributions and see if you can make any connections. 


From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

6 Word Memoirs...

Dear Teenie-Boppers,

      Today is Wednesday, November 2, 2011.  We will end our journey into the Holocaust with a memoir.  Below are some thoughts I've found about memoirs: what they are and what they are not.  Below you will also see a model of the writing process.  This is something we will visit many times over the rest of the academic year.  At the very bottom of the post you will see the memoir writing process.  There are three phases to writing a good memoir.  Those three phases fall into the writing process, but are just a little more specifically geared for memoirs. 

This brainpop is a great place to continue our memoir journey since we have already watched a digital memoir together:  http://www.brainpop.com/english/writing/biography/

Memoirs are deep thoughts that touch the essence of an experience.   
Memoir is your memory and your study of an experience in life. 
Memoir is your thinking really deeply: the meaning below the meaning…  The meaning below the meaning you thought you found. 
Memoirs are not biographies or autobiographies.  They are something similar, yet not exactly the same.  The subtle differences make memoirs more like a narrative: a story about a particular experience in someone's life. 
Memoirs are a part of a life: not the whole life of a person. 
Writing Process:
Step
Description
Strategies
Prewriting
An activity that causes the writer to think about the subject.  The writer organizes his thoughts before he begins to write.
Drawing
Talking
Brainstorming
Graphic organizers
Research
Listing
Field Trips
Drafting
The process of putting ideas down on paper.  The focus is on content not mechanics
Taking notes,
Organizing thoughts
into paragraphs,
Writing a first draft
Revising
The process of refining the piece of writing.  The writer adds to a writing piece.  The writer reorganizes a piece of writing.  The writer shares his story and gets input from peers or teacher.
Peer editing
Conferencing
Share Chair or Author’s Chair
Editing
Mechanical, grammatical and spelling errors are fixed in the writing piece.
Checklists
Rubrics
Editing Checklists
Proofreading
Publishing
The writing piece is prepared in final form, including illustrations.  The writer shares his writing with others.
Reading aloud
Reading to a group
Displaying in the room
Printing the books
Web publishing

Memoir writing process. 
Act 1 Downloading Phase
Act 2 Sorting Phase
Act 3 Framing Phase
I hope you take these lessons and concepts with you as you create your own memoirs this week and the next.  Enjoy!
Yours Truly,
C
From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Hola mis alumnos!

      Today is Camel Day, October 12, 2011.  You have heard me say before that good readers INTERACT WITH TEXT.  Good readers interact with text just like having a conversation with the author.  As we interact with text, we need to leave tracks of thinking.  This makes our thinking visible.  It brings it to real life OUR INNER VOICE that is so hard to hear sometimes. 

       Think about the tracks animals leave in the snow or the mud.  You can't see the animal.  You can't even touch the animal, but you know it has been there from the tracks it's left.  Readers need to leave tracks so that other readers and teachers can see the thinking.  Thoughts are invisible unless you leave tracks that they have been there. 

      Here is how we are going to start to leave tracks...
L         
Q or ?  
??      
!   
R     

That's it.  Have fun! 

Wait, I haven't told you what those tracks mean.  Silly Mr. C! 

L   new learning(At times this will be the answer to our questions.)
Q or ?  questions we have(These are the things that go on our Q and A forms.)
?? you are confused/gaps in knowledge
!  exciting or surprising information(These are very similar to the L, but they could be just random facts that surprised us.)
R for a connection (reminds me of...)

Tracks like these hold our thinking so we can come back later to see it.  If you are reading an article that is yours you can write these TEXT CODES right on it.  If you are reading a book that isn't yours feel free to use a post-it.  Have fun interacting with text and leaving tracks. 

Sincerely,
C
P.S. I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.
Do your best and forget the rest!

     
From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy