The American Dream: Happy Monday...

Hey Partially 9th Graders,

We start this week with a couple questions:

1.  How has your experience this year at STEM influenced your idea of learning?

2.  How do the times that a person lives through influence that person's idea of the American Dream?


      Our friends at West are eagerly awaiting our arrival tomorrow to begin work on The American Dream.  We will be interacting with text and media.  We will be thinking about and looking for evidence that answers some curious questions.  We will be formulating and generating questions of our own.  This last and final West experience is the start of our push to the end of the 2012-2013 school year.

      It has been said and quoted many a time that, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".  Well folks, today is that step in a direction.  Most of the links found in this Think Spot post lead to a blog Dubbs found that is fantastic.  It gives us one author's perspective of The American Dream, and a tiny insight into the timing of the origin of The American Dream.  As I read this post it came across to me as a little idealistic.  An academic conversation with our 8th grade learning community would be an awesome place to share ideas about this text.

      Here is another person's idea of The American Dream.  Think about the Great Depression.  Think about what we know about the last two TLH categories: CC/CH & UP.  Remember CC/CH is "Change and Continuity".  Also remember UP is "Using the Past".  Let's look at the text provided by Dubbs and the link provided by your's truly to see if we can begin to THINK LIKE HISTORIANS.


Your's truly,
C
     

 



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

Using the Past with Change and Continuity: TLH Challenges...

Happy Camel Day Almost 9th Graders,

      I am still looking over some of your exit slips from yesterday.  To some of you, thank you for showing your best thinking.  This little formative assessment gave me a glimpse into who cares, who doesn't, who is getting it, and who needs more time.  The exit slip activity asked you to show your thinking in a paragraph.  We were thinking specifically about the TLH categories UP and CC/CH.

     So far here are some of the thoughts from our learning communities...

"Change and Continuity is what changed and what stayed the same.  Using the past is how the past is similar to the present." - David

"Using the past is an example like the Stock Market crash of 1929 and also 2008.  In 1929 businesses started to foreclose and in 2008 prices started going up on everything." -Olivia

"You basically have to define what's the same and what's different over time." -Alejandro

"Change and Continuity is dealing with how history changes and remains the same compared to time.  It's like a line: a linear progression.  Using the past is a direct comparison between two historical events or periods, like a 'Spot the Difference' game.  -Nathaniel

"I understand that change and continuity and using the past are both looking for similarities and differences.  I don't understand how they both do it differently.  The only difference I see is that the key word for using the past is RELEVANT and the key word for change and continuity is PATTERNS." -Lucas

      After you have read some of these responses think about the following question.  Which one of these quotes illustrates your level of understanding?  From these 5 statements let's move forward and try to further our understanding of the past.  

  

   


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

Looking Back As We Move Forward: Previous Posts...

Hey Gang,

      Please click on these links and review where we have come from to get to today...

Separate. Isolate. Recombine.

Tableaux

Tableaux & Metacognition...

PEER REVIEW

From tableaux to thinking, reflecting to peer review, our learning is taking many forms this week.  The feedback we received on our tableaux will give us insight into what good feedback and poor feedback look like.  We will get a clear picture of the kind of CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM that helps move us forward in our work.  You all have done well taking on this new learning strategy of tableaux.  Let's try to use what we have learned during the tableaux process for what we are trying to do with ARGUMENTATION & PERSUASION.  Enjoy peer review, and try to have fun!

Yours truly,
C
P.S. A little nugget that our Ana Sanchez shared with Dubbs and I yesterday...
WHY I HATE SCHOOL BUT LOVE EDUCATION



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

Tableaux & Metacognition: Things to Think About...

Happy Monday Guys & Dolls,

      As we kick off our week there are a few things we need to finish up from last week as well as some questions to think about.  Let's have a discussion or community circle to flush out some of our answers together.  Think about your learning.  Think about your interaction with text and media.  Think about your interaction and collaboration with each other.

      1.  When you do a tableaux again, what will you do the same?  What variations or improvements will you make the next time?

      2.  Why do you think tableaux can be a great way to learn?  How does tableaux get us to think about text and media?

      3.  How does working and collaborating with others help us construct meaning of history?  How does working and collaborating with others help us construct meaning of text, media, and information?

      4.  Has your understanding of the Great Depression expanded?  Has your understanding of learning expanded?  Do you feel better equipped to interact with text and media now?

Can't wait to hear some of your responses!  Enjoy and have fun together!

Yours truly,
C

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

TABLEAUX: Thinking About History and Learning Targets...

Happy Wednesday Gang,

      Yesterday, as we were wrapping up our work session for history, we began to discuss the learning targets for our tableaux projects.  Here are the learning targets we are trying to hit through text, media, collaboration, and performance:
I can identify main ideas, analyze supporting details, and evaluate inferences within discipline specific readings.

I can apply content in order to evaluate relationships of people and ideas and draw conclusions.

      How are we showing that we are meeting these learning targets by creating our tableaux?  What are some of the main ideas or THEMES that are being displayed through our tableaux?  Can we find any patterns that reoccur?

Sincerely,

C






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

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/Q_VVGafuMwk

Separate. Isolate. Recombine.

      Every history has a story.  Every story has a history.  And, a picture is worth a thousand words.  This simple truth and well known statement is why tableaux function so well for constructing meaning.  As I said in the blog post from yesterday, nothing in history happens in isolation.  There are always bigger things at work.  There always seem to be multiple things that need to be taken into account.  Keep this in mind as you work in your groups today to practice and finish your tableaux.

      Another item from the blog post yesterday was the introduction of a trick.  Separate.  Isolate.  Recombine.  Click on the link Google Image Search: The Great Depression.  What you will find is a slew of images connected to the Great Depression.  If we conducted an analysis, we could probably find certain images that would fit into categories.  This would be the first step in the trick: Separate.  Once separated, we can isolate a certain few that would tell the story we want for our tableaux.  When we have separated and isolated the images we want to use in constructing meaning, we can then recombine them in a way that makes sense to us and others.  This last part of the trick would illustrate, recombining.  Synthesis, coalescing, and recombining are all part of constructing meaning.  It is the hope of this teacher that you find making sense of history similar to making sense of  text or media.  Separate.  Isolate.  Recombine.

      In closing, look at the learning targets below.  Be ready to share an answer to this question: How are we showing that we are meeting these learning targets by creating our tableaux?

2 Media in Social Studies: Identify main ideas, analyze supporting details, and evaluate inferences within discipline specific readings

3 Content in Social Studies: Apply content in order to evaluate relationships of people and ideas and draw conclusions

     

     











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

Your Brain Is Hooked on Being Right - Judith E. Glaser - Harvard Business Review

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/02/break_your_addiction_to_being.html?utm_medium=linkedin&utm_campaign=Biz+101&utm_source=twitterfeed


Sent from my iPhone

Tableaux...

Here are some examples of tableaux from the book. Read the captions if possible.

Be in the Mystery: Separate, Isolate, Recombine...

Happy Monday to you,

      Every story has a history, and every history has a story.  We will attempt to tell the story of the Great Depression with the tableaux we create this week.  As we conduct our analysis and synthesis this week remember that nothing in history happens in isolation.  There are always bigger things at work.  There always seem to be multiple things that need to be taken into account.  That said, when we analyze we think in terms of BEFORE/DURING/AFTER.

      There is a neat trick that can help our analysis.  Keep this neat trick in mind as we move into our groups, revisit our graffiti, look through our texts, and conduct our tableaux:
1. SEPARATE.  
2. ISOLATE.  
3. RECOMBINE.  

      The Tableaux strategy is a series of scenes presented by groups of four to eight students who

are frozen in poses or positions that depict an historical event, famous speech, scientific concept, or scene from a novel. One student reads the Tableaux captions while the others create the scene being described (Wilhelm 2002). The Tableaux script can be based on existing text (textbook, novel, short story, magazine article) or original text written in response to something the students have read or studied.  Below, you will find the link to the youtube video we watched last week.  What makes a good tableaux?  What are some different variations or ways to make our tableaux different?  Enjoy, and have fun together.

Tableau: Theater and Language

Yours truly,

C

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