June 12, 2015

I had another great day with Cohort N today!  We have two really big classes, and you come to me awfully early in the morning, but I couldn't ask for a better group of students.  Thank you again for another great day!

This is what we did in the 9:00 class:

• Freewrite (thinking about your homework reading on "Harrison Bergeron") – Is everyone equal in the United States in 2015? Why or why not?  Would it be good if the government made everyone equal? Why or why not? 
• Great work here!  I enjoyed your thoughts. While we needed to have a short discussion because we had a lot to do, you provided some excellent examples of current events that demonstrate why we have not achieved equality in 2015.  
• Read passages from "Harrison Bergeron" (link in post below) and discuss dystopian governments.  Again - good job here!  
• Those were both teacher-led discussions. However, as we discussed today, I want to make certain I devote enough time in our class to discussions in which YOU, the students, are leaders.  So, at this point in our class, we moved to our small groups.   You used your small group discussion form to analyze the theme and poetic elements in the poem "Daddy" (link in post below) by Sylvia Plath.  As I walked around the room listening to your discussions, I was really impressed by all I was hearing.  You were doing a good job of "inviting in" when students were hesitant to share their ideas.  Later, I saw many of you working hard to "build on" each others ideas as you discussed the themes you had generated and the poetic elements you'd found.  We did not have time to reach the summary phase, so we will complete this on Monday.

HOMEWORK:    "Where I’m From" poetry assignment

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This is what we did in the 10:30 class:

• Freewrite (thinking about your homework reading on "Harrison Bergeron" - link in the post below) – What type of government did Harrison represent?  What about Diana?
• Great work here!  We were about to talk about monarchy, communism, anarchy, feudalism, and a number of other issues.  We were also about to talk about whether or not a perfect government is even possible.  I encourage you to continue thinking about these issues.  
• Then, we reviewed the poetic elements in the poem "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath.  (Link in the post below.) Once again, you did a nice job.
• Both of the previous discussions were teacher-led discussions. However, as we discussed today, I want to make certain I devote enough time in our class to discussions in which YOU, the students, are leaders.  So, at this point in our class, we moved to small groups.   You used your small group discussion form to attempt to understand what is happening in the poem "Adolescence II" (link in post below) by Rita Dove.  As I walked around the room listening to your discussions, I was really impressed by all I was hearing.  This is a tough poem to analyze! You were doing a good job of "inviting in" when students were hesitant to share their ideas.  Later, I saw many of you working hard to "build on" each others ideas as you discussed the themes you had generated and the poetic elements you'd found.  We did not have time to reach the summary phase, so we will complete this on Monday.

HOMEWORK:    "Where I’m From" poetry assignment