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#Post#: 3823--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: February 16, 2018, 4:25 pm
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[quote author=David M. Katz link=topic=349.msg3821#msg3821
date=1518817642]
Will you be providing a summer reading list?
[/quote]
Not specifically, but I have put together a list - if you liked
this, you should try these, and here's some stuff in other
genres.
[hr]
I was given a verbal reprimand this morning.
It was a very nice day at the start (cold front blew in a little
after 8am). Sometimes one of the boys will ride in to school
with me, and it was Van's turn today.
After almost a year without one, we finally have a new Alt rock
station in DFW, and they play a good mix of new and old school
(a little too much rap, but still very pleasant).
So, Van and I are driving along, the top was up, but the windows
were down, and No Sleep Til Brooklyn came on. Van turned it up,
and we were head banging and singing along as we pulled in... to
the Christian Academy... the teacher's parking lot.
Apparently a couple of parents complained - and maybe even a
teacher (and I'm pretty sure I know which one).
Mr. P was trying not to laugh as he spoke to me about
'appropriate, on campus behavior.'
I did apparently get some street cred, tho.
#Post#: 3921--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: February 20, 2018, 4:29 am
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Things are going well in class just now.
All the kids finished Brian's Winter over the weekend.
Yesterday, I told everyone we were going to do a writing
assignment
This is actually pretty interesting, because the younger kids
are having to write a 5-paragraph theme. The older kids are
allowed a more open format (well, so are the younger kids,
actually, but the 5PT gives them a structure ,and so is easier
to work with, and gives them a good idea if they're really
finished or not). Because of the nature of my class, I'm going
to have to grade each kid on a different standard, based on
their grade level and probably giving a bit of leeway for their
history.
The guys have three choices on what they right. The easiest is
(are really) a basic report on the two novels, either selecting
which is your favorite and explaining why, or doing a basic
comparison contrast between them. The second is about survival
skills, and I'm looking to see how people develop that, because
one of the points has to be how to learn them. The final is one
I don't expect to see much, if any of, but about Brian's
development as a character, either across Hatchet or the series.
Today will be mostly to work on that, though we're going to talk
a little about Paulsen's other books. When I made my reading
list for this class, I tried to avoid repeating the same
authors. The only repeats I had were Paulsen and Jack London,
and both of those were chosen for specific reasons. That was
really hard to stay with in a few cases (Kipling, E.R.
Burroughs, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie), but I wanted to
give them a wide sampling.
Tomorrow, we'll be starting on A Separate Peace. Trying
something different, I'm going to play the Matthew Modine
audiobook, instead of us reading along in class.
[hr]
Paul got in trouble Friday night. His family had something
going on Saturday morning, so he wasn't allowed to spend the
night. He was playing in the parking lot with some of the other
kids when his parents got ready to leave. He wasn't happy, and
it sounds like he was maybe acting a little snappish (or a lot).
It was actually a pretty interesting conversation.
"So your parents just punished you for nothing?"
"They said I was being rude and not minding."
"And of course you'd never do anything like that."
He's got a pretty good fish eye.
So, he admitted he had to stand in the corner when he got home.
"It could have been worse, Paul. You could have gotten
whupped."
"That's not worse."
It turns out most of his dad's spankings are just hand, and a
lot of times not even bare, and, to an extremely hyper boy like
Paul, those aren't worse than *shudder* corner time. For other
stuff, Dad sometimes uses a paddle, and those are worse.
Likewise, a basic paddling at school (I guess he means 2 swats
on trousers) aren't too bad.
[hr]
Speaking of Paul, a memo went out last week.
[font=impact]As a reminder:
While students remaining in dress code compliance is important,
and we want all staff to continue to turn in dress code demerits
in cases where students are in defiance of dress code, let's
also remember that not every violation is on purpose.
It's come to my attention recently that some students -
especially adolescent boys - may have trouble complying. For
instance, if a boy comes in with his shirt tucked in, but it
comes untucked due to natural movement, that's really not a
violation, and a simple reminder will do to correct it. [/font]
#Post#: 3923--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: db105 Date: February 20, 2018, 5:42 am
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Have you posted your reading list for the course? I don't
remember seeing it.
Ah, it's great being so energetic that having to stand still
seems awful. ;D
#Post#: 3927--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Journey Date: February 20, 2018, 5:59 am
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How old are the younger kids who are doing the 5-paragraph
format? I do the same thing - I usually have my grade school
kids (the tweens) use that format while encouraging the older
ones to be a bit more creative. Still, I sometimes wonder if I
get the age ranges right.
I really like your essay topics. The survival skills one should
be interesting and very appealing to the boys.
So you'll be playing the audiobook in class? Do the kids usually
read the assigned books outside the classroom and then you just
discuss during class or do you read the book together during
class as well?
I know some people here love A Separate Peace, but that's never
been a favorite of mine. Just different tastes, I guess.
#Post#: 3929--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Zyngaru Date: February 20, 2018, 7:18 am
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I am so glad that memo was sent out. It make sense.
There is a difference in disobeying the dress code on purpose
and being an energetic boy and falling out of the dress code,
because of activity.
There is also the situation when a kid hits his growth spurt,
that staying within any dress code is difficult unless a parent
wants to buy new clothes every month.
A Separate Peace is a good choice from my perspective. I didn't
read much as a boy, because there just weren't many books that
interested me. (Fantasy) Of course schools back then didn't
take Fantasy or sci fi as legitimate literature. The two books
I did enjoy were A Separate Peace and Tom Brown's School Days.
Probably because both were about boys I could relate to. Mark
Twain wasn't considered literature either back then, at least
not in the school system I was going to. Actually Huck Finn was
banned from even being in the library.
Are you going to show the 1972 film, A Separate Peace? In the
film the boys wear shorts (boxers) to swim. They don't skinny
dip. I can't remember in the book if it specifies which they
did, but when I read it, I imagined them skinny dipping, because
that is what boys did in 1943.
#Post#: 3930--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Adric Date: February 20, 2018, 7:30 am
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[quote author=Zyngaru link=topic=349.msg3929#msg3929
date=1519132722]
I am so glad that memo was sent out. It make sense.
There is a difference in disobeying the dress code on purpose
and being an energetic boy and falling out of the dress code,
because of activity.
[/quote]
I agree. The memo was a good idea.
#Post#: 3934--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: February 20, 2018, 1:50 pm
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[quote author=db105 link=topic=349.msg3923#msg3923
date=1519126930]
Have you posted your reading list for the course? I don't
remember seeing it.
[/quote]
I have not. It's not in any great format, because I changed my
original plans after Monte Cristo. I can still post the books,
and I should be able to this afternoon, but I think I will do so
in a separate topic (Probably in FAQs).
[quote author=Journey link=topic=349.msg3927#msg3927
date=1519127960]
How old are the younger kids who are doing the 5-paragraph
format? I do the same thing - I usually have my grade school
kids (the tweens) use that format while encouraging the older
ones to be a bit more creative. Still, I sometimes wonder if I
get the age ranges right.
[/quote]
When I was in school, it seems like we started using 5PT in our
freshman year in middle school, and I tend to think it might
have been 8th grade, but I'm really not sure. Now, it seems to
be taught in later elementary. I know that middle school
focuses heavily on grammar and structure, so I'm letting anyone
under 9th grade use the 5PT format.
[quote author=Journey link=topic=349.msg3927#msg3927
date=1519127960]
So you'll be playing the audiobook in class? Do the kids usually
read the assigned books outside the classroom and then you just
discuss during class or do you read the book together during
class as well?
[/quote]
We have been reading aloud in class for some, then the kids read
more at home each night. We will continue that format
(probably) but listening to the audio book, because that's how I
first 'read' this novel, on a trip from Fort Worth to San Diego.
[quote author=Zyngaru link=topic=349.msg3929#msg3929
date=1519132722]
A Separate Peace is a good choice from my perspective. I didn't
read much as a boy, because there just weren't many books that
interested me. (Fantasy) Of course schools back then didn't
take Fantasy or sci fi as legitimate literature. The two books
I did enjoy were A Separate Peace and Tom Brown's School Days.
Probably because both were about boys I could relate to. Mark
Twain wasn't considered literature either back then, at least
not in the school system I was going to. Actually Huck Finn was
banned from even being in the library.
Are you going to show the 1972 film, A Separate Peace? In the
film the boys wear shorts (boxers) to swim. They don't skinny
dip. I can't remember in the book if it specifies which they
did, but when I read it, I imagined them skinny dipping, because
that is what boys did in 1943.
[/quote]
There are a lot of things I love about this book, and there are
a lot of reasons I think it will be good for the kids to read.
I am trying to find a lot of different books, that take the kids
to different places, and that introduce different ideas. I want
to see what the boys think about the narrator in this.
No, I haven't considered showing the movie to this. I wanted to
show the Count, because I wanted the boys to see why I loved it
so much (and what a difference good editing can make). At this
point, I have almost three weeks left, and I would like to teach
three more novels after A Separate Peace, for this six weeks. I
also have a couple of other things I have to work in.
Which brings us to my next point. I am delaying A Separate
Peace by a day (possibly two). One of the things I'm required
to do is a section on parts of speech and some grammar. What
I'm going to do is have the boys read The Strange Sea Monster of
Strawberry Lake from the eponymous first Mad Scientist Clulb
Book, and they're going to have to find examples of each part of
speech, and several different types of sentence (compound,
complex, etc.). I also put copies of the other three books in
that series into our class room library. I'm diabolic that way.
#Post#: 4106--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: March 1, 2018, 5:03 am
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We have finished A Separate Peace.
The grammar assignment I did on Mad Scientist Club went great,
and a number of the kids have read more stories in that series,
so we have discussed those a bit more.
A Separate Peace went a bit slower than the Brian novels,
because it deals with a much more complex topic, and there was
more thought into the discussion.
The History channel has an interesting page on The Home Front
During WWII, and while I'm not going to have time to show
December in it's entirety, I have selected a couple of clips
that I think might interest the boys and persuade them to watch
the entire thing.
I've argued back and forth with myself, but I've decided to take
today and tomorrow to discuss the book, and the related issues,
along with each boy making a short presentation on some issue
relating to it. Monday we'll be starting Lassie Come Home.
#Post#: 4131--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: db105 Date: March 1, 2018, 5:33 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Jack link=topic=349.msg4106#msg4106
date=1519902225]
We have finished A Separate Peace.
[/quote]
I want to read that one, but it'll have to wait, because I'm in
the middle of a fat epic fantasy book.
#Post#: 4155--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: March 2, 2018, 3:13 pm
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Today was the last day of the six weeks. Doing grades is SO
much easier than it was the last time I taught. The last two
years I taught in 89/90 and 90/91, I used my store computer to
make a spread sheet that did most of the work (was that
Lotusworks 1-2-3 back then?). Now I bought a little program
that I could run on my tablet, except I hate trying to type on
that damned thing. I probably should do a test over A Separate
Peace, but the boys and I value the discussion more.
So, we ended up doing the Count of Monte Cristo. It took longer
than I expected, but it did give us a lot of side work to
explore, and a lot of things to discuss, and the kids weren't
too bored by all the side stuff (they were interested to see
where most of it went). I made them to oral presentations
during Count, but we'd already done a lot of discussion, so the
presentations weren't too horrible. The Brian Saga went great
and got us back on time, even with missing the two flu days.
The boys were much more interested in doing presentations about
that, and they had their themes, so I got a couple of grades
from that. Then we had the work sheet with Mad Scientist's
Club, and the boys all turned in another theme on WW2 and the
home front or another topic they came up with and I okayed.
That's not a lot of grades, but it is more than they expected
from this group of kids. My department head, Mr. P, and even a
couple of the trustees sat in when I said we'd be having
discussion, and no one had any complaints about me or the kids.
For discussion, I use a five point scale (arguably six point, I
suppose).
5 - participation and insight
4 - active participation
3 - paying attention and answering
2 - paying attention
1 - not participating or paying attention
0 - disruptive
And yes, I do grade on a curve. I don't expect the same level
of behavior from Asa or Paul as I do from Scotty or Tyler. And
no, I don't have anyone who had a 0 more than once - though part
of that is that I offered to paddle repeat offenders.
So anyway, I need to double check the grades to make sure
everything was entered correctly, but that shouldn't take long,
and I can connect with the school's web page to upload the
grades when that's done. Easy peasy.
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