This week in 205

Lit & Lang 9R - I am still working to teach basic reading skills.  But each day I learn more and get a little bit better.  This week we've tackled sequence.  As it happens, one of the reading packet selections deals with monsters.  In the packet is one of my favorites, "werewolves."  So as we read this, not only did students get work on finding the main idea, using words in context, finding facts, determining author's purpose, and finding correct inferences, but I was also able to work in sequence of events.

This particular short article on "werewolves" focused on one of my favorite moments in Western Civ, the Beast of Gevauden.  This actually coincides with one of my favorite History Specials, The Real Wolfman, which sends two men (a cryptozoologist and a criminal profiler) to France to see if they can actually solve the Gevauden mystery.  And they do.

So I was able to have students compare the short article we read to the events in the documentary.  I was also have to have them compare facts and to work on sequence of events.

Not a bad way to spend two days with freshmen who aren't terribly enthusiastic about reading.

College Comp 2 - Students are finishing up their Sticky-Note Book Report.  I had students write down two subjects they are interested in reading about and one subject they didn't want to read about at all.  From their lists, I assigned each student a college level, nonfiction book to read.  Students have had most of the past two weeks to finish it.  Their books, replete with 50 Sticky-Notes, will be due tomorrow.

After that, they will each give a 5-10 minute Book Talk on their books.  Then their final assignment, due next Friday, will be to create a blog and write a hyper-text essay on one specific aspect of their book that they find interesting and want to analyze more fully.  Here is my example.  I still have more writing to do, but you can get the general idea.

College Comp -

Now that we have finished three themes (a descriptive essay, a narrative essay, and a how to essay), we turned our attention to finishing The Element by Sir Ken Robinson and reading some of the best fiction I can find ("Doe Season," "A Rose for Emily," and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber").  This is to help them prepare for their literary analysis essay in a couple weeks and then finally their large research paper they will write at the end of the semester.

Teaching and Learning 250 -

Two weeks ago I brought Mr. Zutz to speak to the class.  It was a smash hit.  So naturally this week was a bit of a let down.

Students turned in their technology projects (I presented them with a ton of tech resources, such as Twitter, Padlet, Blogger, Pinterest, Thinglink) and charged them with taking a traditional lesson or subject (like grammar, for example) and using one form of technology to make it more interesting and engaging for the target age of their students.

I did this so they would begin thinking about lesson planning, which will be their next project.  So last Tuesday I went over UND's "Backward Design" lesson formula and also showed them Madaline Hunter's classic lesson plan format.  I was hoping for a greater discussion on this, but it was pretty flat.

Next week, though, will be better.