My Google Form - Chinese Legalism

LiveBinder

Teaching American History

This LiveBinder is actually a really good resource for primary source analysis materials. The author has documents on how to analyze a primary source, maps, how to do expository writing, etc. I love this software! overall very useful for teaching history.

Hulu - Watch your favorites. Anytime. For free.

http://www.hulu.com

This is the home of Glee. My most favoritest vice.

 

SAS curriculum pathways

Launch #: 401

The lesson from SAS that I chose is a writing and research project on 19th century American reformers. I didn't find many of the projects included on this site to be particularly interesting for the teaching/learning style that I hope to have, but they all do offer the opportunity of revision and expansion to create a more compatible lesson or project. As such, it may be more helpful to think of these as ideas for projects and lessons, rather than ready-to-go ones.

The project I chose was one that I found that I could use almost as written. It allows a lot of leeway for the teacher, and acts really as an outline and list of resources for a research project. The thing that drew me to this one in particular was that it incorporates several different, important skills that mostly all students need to work on: researching, writing, empathizing, analyzing, etc. It also allows for an element of choice, which I find to be incredibly important when doing research. Starting with some of the online resources that the website suggests, students will choose a reform movement that interests them. They create a fictional character based on historical facts and write several journal entries from that person's perspective.

One way that I might modify or add to the assignment is to have students choose reforms that were happening simultaneously but were in some sort of opposition to one another. Then through their fictionalized character, they would have a debate about the merits of their reform and the deficits of the other. This would add even more skill building to the project: public speaking and argument formation.

माय प्रेजी - अप्परेंत्ल्य इन सम ओथेर language

Homework

Things that I like about Zoho Writer that makes it unique:

1. 1. Tabs at the top make changing between docs way easy.
   
2. 2. You can convert to PDF - super awesome
   
3. 3. This is not unique, but I like that it is reminiscent of Word, which I am familiar with.
   

Things that I think Zoho Writer lacks in comparison to other word processors:

1. 1. Not as versatile as Google Docs
   
2. 2. lack of folders is kind of weird.
   
3. 3. only 1 gb is not too much memory!
   

I could integrate this program into my classroom by... asking students to use it when collaborating on papers/projects in social studies.

 

Book review grading

I've found the prospect of grading group work to be really difficult. It is hard to balance process and product, especially when 4 or 5 people are involved. For the book review, I think it makes sense to factor in both individual work and final product/group work. Because part of the point of group work is to create something together (the sum is greater than the parts), I think the grading should reflect that. If you leave out one part of that equation, the project grade will only reflect assessment of one part, not both. It seems to make sense that each group member's grade would be weighed with 40% of their work grade, and 60% as the final product or overall group grade.

Higher level thinking in intel

I'll be honest: sometimes I worry that when I'm a teacher I won't be able to happily mix content with and higher order thinking skills, both of which are very important to becoming a well-rounded, smart, critically thinking adult. The Intel workspace tools offer a relatively simple way to incorporate both aspects into the learning process. Each of the tools (visual ranking, seeing reason, and showing evidence) goes beyond simply regurgitating facts, or just making a claim. They force students to rationalize their thoughts and thought processes. This is crucial, especially for young people. So often people - of all ages - make claims that they cannot substantiate, or they don't have evidence or don't know where it came from, or they blindly say one thing is better than another. The Intel programs offer very clear and process-oriented opportunities for students to think about their thinking, which I highly value. An example of the cause-effect tool used to encourage higher thinking skills is writing a paper on WWI. There are many causes of WWI, and this tool could be used to help organize students' arguments, and then also make them rationalize the reasons they include and exclude.

Another way these tools promote higher order thinking is by requiring students to respond to their classmates' work and critique their choices. Not only does this benefit the student whose work is being critiqued, it also forces the critiquer to look at other perspectives and ways of seeing the same argument, which can help make his/her argument stronger. If, for example, students are asked to rank the most influential people in US history, they also have to justify their responses. So while it is likely that each student (or group of students) will have a different opinion and perspective, they will be able to explain their thinking within the tool and other students can better understand, and potentially adjust their perspective.

Intel - showing evidence

The intel Teacher Workspace projects are nifty tools.

Here's the Teacher ID: Kkondrat

Student ID: Team1

Pswrd: Team1

Student ID: Team2

Pswrd: Team2

I did my assignment in Showing Evidence. It is targeted at a 10th grade global studies class where most students still need a great deal of guidance when writing papers with a thesis and supporting claims and evidence. In this hypothetical assignment, I ask students to write a midterm research paper (that we work on together in stages in class for quite a while) about the reign of Louis XIV. The question is: The art and architecture commissioned by Louis XIV went beyond ornamentation; it also served political purposes. What role did the art, architecture, and court life surrounding Louis XIV play in building a system of absolutist monarchy in France? (this question is taken from Dr. Andy Evans's Modern Europe class).

With the showing evidence tool, students will use their research to compile claims and evidence to write a coherent, well-organized paper that addresses the question at hand. The research paper itself is a summative assessment, but along the way there will be a series of formative assessments to gauge students' work and keep them on a schedule (research sheets, outlines, drafts, etc.).

This tool is for the students' advantage much more than my own. Yes, I will be able to see their progress and comment on their work, but they hold the reigns. They will be responsible for creating each claim and supporting evidence based on their own individual research, supporting their own thesis that they crafted. Once they have created and substantiated their list, each student will sign on to two other students' projects and comment on and rank their classmates' evidence. While it will be beneficial to the student whose work is being reviewed, it also benefits the reviewer since they will be able to see other organizations, claims, evidence, etc. and can potentially revise their own work for the better.