Grades Updated

All grades on Pinnacle are currently up to date with respect to work handed in in class and through Google Drive.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

12.20 - Assignment Completion and Revision

At the beginning of class today, we watched two videos of baby sloths to help soothe and relax everyone before getting into our work. The focus for today was on completing and revising assignments before break.

The break is an opportunity for everyone to get caught up on and revise work. What was not finished today in class should be finished when we return from break. Assignments which we were focused on today include:

Poetry Out Loud theme prompt

Poetry and Language

Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoting Exercise

Research Project:
find resources (at least 7)
add resources to their bibliography
create note cards (40 overall)

Individuals should also be working on any other assignments that they need to complete or revise.

The sloth videos from today were:

Homework:

If you have not done so already, everyone should have their 7 sources (at least) and at least 10 notecards for their research project.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

12.19 - Research (Sources, Bibliography, Notecards)

We spent today in the library computer lab where everyone had time to find resources, add resources to their bibliography, and create note cards for their research project.

For the research project, everyone should have:

7 sources (more are fine)
40 notecards which summarize, paraphrase, or quote resources.


Homework:

Continue to gather resources and create notecards.
By the end of break, everyone should have their seven sources and at least 10 notecards.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

12.18 - Poem Themes

In today's class we were looking at the themes and significance of the poems that people selected to recite for Poetry Out Loud. We first finished the recitations that we did not get to yesterday.

Everyone then had the period to work on their response to the Poetry Out Loud theme prompt.
I was on hand to answer questions.

During this time, individuals also took turns going online to fill out the Endicott Research survey about their perceptions of our school.


Homework:



Finish the Poetry Out Loud theme prompt if you did not do so today in class.

Complete the Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoting Exercise sheet and the Poetry and Language sheet if you have not yet done so.

Continue finding resources for your research paper related to your class project.

Complete work associated with your team's project as necessary.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

12.17 - Poetry Out Loud Presentations

At the beginning of class today, we finished the remaining Poetry Out Loud recitations.

We then went down to the library where everyone had time to find resources, add resources to their bibliography, and create note cards for their research project.

For the research project, everyone should have at least seven sources (more are fine) and 40 notecards which summarize, paraphrase, or quote resources.


Homework:

Finish the “Poetry and Language” sheet if you have not yet done so.

Complete the Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoting Exercise sheet and the Poetry and Language sheet if you did not do so in class.

Continue finding resources for your research paper related to your class project.

Complete work associated with your team's project as necessary.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

12.16 - Poetry Out Loud Performances

We started today's class with a review of the Poetry Out Loud rubric. In reviewing the rubric, we got familiar with the poem "Litany" by Billy Collins. We then used the Poetry Out Loud performance rubric to assess a recitation of the poem by a three-year-old fan. Below are the videos we watched in class.

After everyone had a chance to evaluate the three-year-old's performance, we discussed the rubric. Students then had a few moments to review their poems and we used the rest of the class to deliver recitations.

We will have time tomorrow to complete the last few recitations and have follow-up recitations for anyone who feels their recitation today did not represent their best form.


Homework:

Finish the “Poetry and Language” sheet if you have not yet done so.

Complete the Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoting Exercise sheet and the Poetry and Language sheet if you did not do so in class.

Continue finding resources for your research paper related to your class project.

Complete work associated with your team's project as necessary.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

12.13 - Summary, Paraphrase, Quoting Review & Poetry Out Loud Recitations

We started class today by reviewing the Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoting Exercise with which everyone was working yesterday. We did this by way of also looking at how to create note cards that use these elements in Noodle Tools. A screencast of this review is available below (while not the most concise review, it does cover the main points).

We then took a look at the “Poetry and Language” sheet which will help everyone get into some specific analysis of their poem. This will be helpful next week when we close this unit with some in-class writing analyzing individuals' poems.  To review this sheet, I shared a copy which I had completed for my poem (Poetry and Language exemplar). In looking at this example we covered the following two main points for unfamiliar words and familiar words.

1 - Unfamiliar Words - If there are words that you don't know, look the words up in the dictionary. Then explain what that part of the poem means accounting for your new understanding of the word.

2 - Familiar Words - For words that you do know, look up their meaning in the dictionary to get a sense for how they are different from other similar words (e.g. how is "terrible" different from "bad"). Then discuss how that word relates to the meaning of the poem (why did the author say "terrible" when they could have said "bad"? How does "terrible" affect the meaning of the poem).

Everyone had about fifteen minutes to revise previous responses if necessary or complete the assignment. Further revisions or work on the assignment should be completed for homework if it was not completed in class.

We then took a look at the Poetry Out Loud competition scoring rubric that we will be using to assess students' performances. I went over the rubric with everyone and then we watched a sample Poetry Out Loud performance for the poem "The Song of Powers."

We then created a presentation order on a volunteer basis. I ended up presenting my poem, "To a Mouse". Recitations are being recorded so that I can assess the overall performance in class and then go back and assess the accuracy of the recitation later. This is also helpful if anyone has a question about why they received a particular score. People will be able to recite their poem another time if they wish to improve their score.

We will finish presenting poems on Monday.


Homework:

Be prepared to present your Poetry Out Loud recitation for Monday if you did not present today.

Finish the “Poetry and Language” sheet if you did not do so today in class.

Complete the Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoting Exercise sheet and the Poetry and Language sheet if you did not do so in class.

Continue finding resources for your research paper related to your class project.

Complete work associated with your team's project as necessary.

Complete/revise work as appropriate. 

12.12 - Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoting (Substitute)

I was out sick from class today so a substitute was covering the class today. The directions for the substitute were as follows:

Students should complete the “Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation Exercise” sheet.
They should have a copy of an article from their research project to use for this.
If they don’t they can print one from one of the back computers (they should find the paper, print it, and then be done with the computer).

Students can then complete the “Poetry and Language” sheet using their Poetry Out Loud poem.
They should have a copy of their poem. There are some black and yellow books behind the teacher’s desk if they don’t have their poem. They can also print the poem from the Poetry Out Loud site.

If students have extra time they can do any of the following:
    complete the “Poem Tones” worksheet they got on Tuesday.
    quietly work at memorizing their Poetry Out Loud Poem
    other work that can be completed independently




Homework:

Complete the Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoting Exercise sheet and the Poetry and Language sheet if you did not do so in class.

Practice your Poetry Out Loud poem in preparation for our presentations on Friday.

Continue finding resources for your research paper related to your class project.

Complete work associated with your team's project as necessary.

Complete/revise work as appropriate. 

12.11 - Project Team Meetings and Research

We started class today by reviewing what makes effective meeting minutes (clear, specific details).
Project teams then had 15 minutes to meet in which one person in each group kept the official minutes. Priority in keeping minutes should be directed to people who have not yet taken any minutes and then to anyone who needs to revise their meeting minute grade.

I presented each group with specific questions to address in their group and take note of in their minutes (see below).

(Click Image to Enlarge)

We then went down to the library to continue finding sources relevant to individuals' project topics.
For class tomorrow, everyone should have a useful article with which we will be able to work.


Homework:





Bring in a source for your research project that should be helpful to you in writing your paper.

Practice your Poetry Out Loud poem in preparation for our presentations on Friday.

Continue finding resources for your research paper related to your class project.

Complete work associated with your team's project as necessary.

Complete/revise work as appropriate. 

12.10 - Poet Warrior

We started today's class by watching two Poetry Out Loud performances from Poetry Out Loud's competitions. In watching these presentations everyone took note of the following two elements in their writer's journals:

1 - What tones do you see the performers using in their recitations? How do they communicate these tones to their audience?

2 - These performances are in a recitation style. Based on what you observe, what are some of the characteristics of the recitation style?

After everyone had a chance to respond to these questions, we discussed everyone's answers. Significant points that people noticed were:

Performers communicate their tone via expression in their voice, facial expression, how quickly or slowly they speak, how quietly or loudly they speak, and using pauses in their recitation.

Characteristics of the recitation style are delivering the poem while standing in one place, communicating emotion through the use of voice and facial expressions, and using dramatic hand gestures. While hand gestures are dramatic, we also noted how they were not over done. Gestures are used at very specific moments to make certain parts of the poem stand out.

We then began working with a Poetry and Tone sheet which will help everyone to start thinking about the tones and emotions that are present in their poem. Everyone had time to copy their poem out onto this sheet and to begin to analyze tone.

After 10 minutes, we took a break to practice reciting our poems. Everyone first practiced reciting their poem with a partner. I then introduced a recitation game called "Poet Warrior" that people could play with their partner as sort of a challenge and way to help keep the continued repetition engaging.

Details of this game are as follows:

(Click Images to Enlarge)

We practiced our poems until the last ten minutes of class. In the last ten minutes of class, everyone returned to working on their Poetry and Tone sheet (now hopefully with a better understanding of their poem through the additional practice in reciting and working with it).


Homework:

Practice your Poetry Out Loud poem in preparation for our presentations on Friday.


Continue finding resources for your research paper related to your class project.










Complete work associated with your team's project as necessary.

Complete/revise work as appropriate.

12.09 - Research

At the beginning of class today, we reviewed the research schedule for our research projects. We then went down to the library computer lab to continue doing research. In the lab, I handed out updated grade reports. For tomorrow, everyone should have an article related to their topic that should be useful to them in writing their paper.


Homework:

Bring in a source for your research project that should be helpful to you in writing your paper.

Complete work associated with your team's project as necessary.

Complete/revise work as appropriate.

12.06 - Finding Resources, Bibliography

Our focus for today's class was on finding research sources using Marvel and Google Scholar and then on using NoodleTools' bibliography feature to log and properly cite these sources. Information on these processes is available in the LHS Research Guide under the following sections:

Using Marvel
(For information on using Google Scholar see the tutorial screencast below)

Works Cited

NoodleTools Bibliography

I also recorded the tutorial given in class through the screen casts available below:

Homework:

Begin conducting research for sources that will help you to answer your research question and sub-questions.

Practice your Poetry Out Loud poem.

Work associated with your project as appropriate.  

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

12.05 - Using Questions to Start Searches

We started today's class with everyone working in their project teams to type up the research questions and sub-questions that teams generated yesterday after reviewing the LHS Research Guide documents on these areas. Groups then also worked to brainstorm relevant search terms that would help them find relevant information for their topics.

These pages were shared with me on Google Docs so that I could share them with the rest of the project team members and everyone would have access to them. If you need access to these documents, please contact Mr. Collins at ccollins@lisbonschoolsme.org .

We then reviewed these questions and search terms as a class to revise and edit them as well as to help give people a stronger sense of what makes an effective question. In this discussion I also addressed using search terms to find relevant information and then looking through good sources for other key words to use in future sources.

Researchers can also be thought of as "Information Predators."

(click image to enlarge)

We then went down to the computer lab and everyone had time to start trying out some of their search terms.


Homework:

Practice your Poetry Out Loud poem.

 

Work associated with your project as appropriate.  

 

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

12.04 - Research Questions and Search Terms

Our main focus of class today was getting ready to do research related to the projects that project teams have undertaken this semester. In preparation for this, everyone read the following sections from the LHS Research Guide:

Main Research Question
Sub Questions
Search Terms

and then summarized them using the Explain Like I'm Five summary format that we used for our work with the belongingness hypothesis.

Once everyone had completed this, project teams met to share what they had taken away with respect to these areas and to generate a research question and sub-questions that are relevant to their project area.

Homework:

Practice your Poetry Out Loud poem.

Work associated with your project as appropriate.  

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

12.03 - Poem Message and Imagery / Noodletools Sign Up

At the beginning of class today, everyone practiced reading their poem out loud for three minutes. In doing this, everyone was encouraged to read the poem once through and then repeat reading it until time was up or repeat specific sections until the end of the 3 minutes.

Next, we returned to working with the illustrated stanza sheet for the Poetry Out Loud poems people have selected. Today, we focused on the question on the back at the bottom of the sheet:

Identify some key images from the poem that you feel are important to the overall meaning of the poem.
Describe how these images enhance the overall meaning of the poem.

 

In class we discussed how these responses should contain the following pieces of information:

1- Identify and explain the theme/message of the poem (using examples from the poem).

2 - Two images/moments that are key to understanding/appreciating this theme.

3 - Discussion of why these images/moments are key to understanding this theme.

 

Everyone had about 20 minutes to respond to this question. 

 

We then went down to the library to get everyone signed up on Noodletools for our research project related to people's projects. In the sign up, everyone used the following information:

MLA - advanced for citation style

Project Names = FirstName LastName - Project (Senior Citizen Outreach, Ice Rink Renovation, or Winter Clothing Drive)

Projects were shared with the drop box "Civic Action 2013"

 

Homework:

If you did not do so in class, finish the processing question on the back of your illustrated stanza sheet for your poem.

 

Practice your Poetry Out Loud poem.

 

Work associated with your project as appropriate.  

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

12.02 - Illustrated Poetry & Belongingness Revisions

We started today's class by talking about memorization and how a key to memorization is connecting with what you are memorizing in different ways. One way that people have found helpful in connecting to something they have to memorize is to clearly visualize what they are saying.

To engage this memorization technique I provided students with an illustrated stanza sheet for their poem. I described how to go about completing this sheet. It is important for drawings to be detailed so that each person is very clearly developing clear visual imagery to go with their poem. This does not mean someone has to be a good artist, they just have to have a drawing with plenty of detail. I used the first stanza of my poem "To a Mouse" as an example in class (see below).

Illustrations should have more detail than this illustration.
Due to time constraints, I sketched out the first few ideas for my illustration.

Everyone then had 25 minutes to work on illustrating the stanzas (or visual sections) of their poem.
If you did not finish illustrating your poem in class, do so for homework.

We then reviewed class performance on the belongingness assignments (Explain Like I'm 5: Belongingness and letters to Rufus Wainwright regarding his song "One Man Guy). Overall feedback on class performance and specific information regarding how to approach the assignments is available below.

 

(click image to enlarge)

 (click image to enlarge) 

(click image to enlarge) 

 (click image to enlarge) 

Homework:

If you did not do so in class, finish your illustrated stanza sheet for your poem.

Complete or revise the ELI5: Belongingness or Hugg/Wainwright Response Letter as necessary.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

11.26 - Poetry Out Loud

We started today's class with a follow up piece of writing from yesterday's status check in with project teams. This writing focused on what, individually, people had done so far. In identifying tasks, everyone was asked to be specific about what they had done (how much time they took, how often the task was performed, what specifically completing the task involved).

Everyone then had the opportunity to hand in their ELI5: Belongingness work and letter to Rufus Wainwright regarding his version of the song "One Many Guy."

Next, we started working with Poetry Out Loud. I read the poem I am going to memorize ("To a Mouse") to the class. We then reviewed the guidelines and practice tips for Poetry Out Loud.

Everyone then had the rest of the period to read poems and identify poems they may be interested in reading. The approach for reading poetry today was to be a lot like looking at a restaurant at a menu where you review a lot of the items and keep in mind what sounds best before making a final decision.

The Poetry Out Loud poem finder page is a great resource in looking for poems.


Homework:

Read through a variety of poems for Poetry Out Loud and find a poem that you would like to memorize and recite (choose a poem you want to explore and would like to work more with).

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

11.25 - Project Team Check In

We had a shortened class today due to the Student of the Quarter assembly. When we did meet, project teams met to discuss current and planned work. We then had a class meeting in which project teams shared out the work that they were currently working on and what their next steps would be. This provided us with the opportunity to address questions that groups had about their work and to re-establish a sense of what we were all doing together.


Homework:

Respond to the Wainwright and Belongingness by Anita Hugg (rubric available here)

If you did not do so in class, finish your Explain Like I'm Five summary of your section of the belongingness paper.



If you would like to look at any of the sections that people presented on today to help strengthen your response to Ms. Hugg's letter or to clarify your understandings of any sections, extra copies are available:

Belongingness abstract
Introduction to Belongingness
Overview of the conceptual background (reviews the 8 criteria for beloningness as a fundamental human motivation)

1 - Forming Social Bonds / Operating in a wide variety of settings
2 - Emotion
3 - Cognition
4 - Deprivation / Partial Deprivation
5 - Satiation and Substitution
6 - Universality
7 - Non-derivativeness
8 - Applicability

11.22 - ELI5 Share Out & Anita Hugg Letter

For class today, everyone had the a few minutes to meet with their partner(s) and prepare their share out for their Explain Like I'm Five summary of their section of the belongingness paper.

I then introduced the assignment which we will use to bring all of these pieces together in an everyday sort of discussion. This was in the form of a letter response to a woman (Anita Hugg) who is concerned about her friend (Rufus Wainwright) because he has released a song in which he claims to be a "One Man Guy." The assignment requires writers to fulfill Ms. Hugg's request of writing to Wainwright to explain the various effects that being a "one man guy" may have on him and what sorts of behaviors are and are not healthy. In class, we listened to the song "One Man Guy" and read the letter prompts so that everyone could have this in mind while hearing the summaries of the different sections of the paper.

The prompt and rubric for this assignment are available here:
Wainwright and Belongingness - Prompt
Wainwright and Belongingness - Rubric (also includes ELI5 response rubric)

Next, all of the groups shared out explaining what their section talked about, reviewing examples given by Baumeister and Leary, and providing examples that relate to high school students today.

While listening, everyone took notes on these elements using the note sheet from the ELI5: Belongingness hand out.

At the end of class we listened to the song, "One Man Guy" (included below) once more to help people review their notes and thinking about how to start responding to Ms. Hugg's request.



Homework:

Respond to the Wainwright and Belongingness by Anita Hugg (rubric available here)

If you did not do so in class, finish your Explain Like I'm Five summary of your section of the belongingness paper.



If you would like to look at any of the sections that people presented on today to help strengthen your response to Ms. Hugg's letter or to clarify your understandings of any sections, extra copies are available:

Belongingness abstract
Introduction to Belongingness
Overview of the conceptual background (reviews the 8 criteria for beloningness as a fundamental human motivation)

1 - Forming Social Bonds / Operating in a wide variety of settings
2 - Emotion
3 - Cognition
4 - Deprivation / Partial Deprivation
5 - Satiation and Substitution
6 - Universality
7 - Non-derivativeness
8 - Applicability

11.21 - ELI5: Belongingness

For class today, everyone had the period to work on their Explain Like I'm Five summary of their section of the Baumeister and Leary paper (ELI5 Summary sheet).

Extra copies of the sections are available below:

1 - Forming Social Bonds / Operating in a wide variety of settings
2 - Emotion
3 - Cognition
4 - Deprivation / Partial Deprivation
5 - Satiation and Substitution
6 - Universality
7 - Non-derivativeness
8 - Applicability

Homework:

If you did not do so in class, finish your Explain Like I'm Five summary of your section of the belongingness paper.

11.20 - Explain Like I'm 5: Belongingness as a Fundamental Human Motivation

In class today we were looking at specific sections of Baumeister and Leary's argument for belongingness as a fundamental human motivation. To begin this process we were looking at the qualities of a good summary. To inform this discussion, we looked at the sub-reddit "Explain Like I'm Five" from the internet message/posting board Reddit.

In class we talked about how we were looking at responses to questions on Explain Like I'm Five (ELI5) not for their factual accuracy (since this is highly questionable), but for their qualities as good summaries. Summary and not (necessarily) facts are the hallmark of ELI5 where people ask complex questions and get a solid summarial answer in response.

Background information and a sampling of ELI5 questions and responses are available in the
ELI5 background document.

Everyone recorded their responses to what makes a good summary a good summary on the
ELI5: Belongingness document.

We reviewed everyone's responses to what makes an effective summary in class and then everyone worked with their partner(s) to read a section of the Baumeister and Leary paper. We will be writing an ELI5 explanation of these sections and sharing them with the class tomorrow.


Homework:

If you did not finish reading and taking notes on your section of the Baumeister and Leary paper in class, do so for homework (see Mr. Collins if you need an extra copy of this sheet).

Work associated with your project as appropriate.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

11.19 - Belongingness Conceptual Background

At the beginning of class today, project teams had 15 minutes to meet and attend to business related to their projects.

We then used the rest of the class to review the conceptual background for Baumeister and Leary's argument for belongingness as a fundamental human motivation (if you need a copy of this reading, see Mr. Collins).

The categories as we identified them were as follows:

(click image to enlarge)

Everyone took notes on how Baumeister and Leary defined these elements as we discussed them in class. We will look at specific sections of this paper tomorrow.

Homework:

If you did not do so in class, finish identifying the specifics of the eight criteria outlined by Baumeister and Leary to establish belongingness as a fundamental human motivation.

Work associated with your project as appropriate.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate. 

11.18 - Beloningness Conceptual Background

We started today's class with an assessment review of the 2013 Lisbon bond order assignment (see below). In this we looked at trends in what people were doing well and which points seemed to trip people up in completing this assignment. Everyone then had time to make revisions to their responses or to complete their response and turn it in if they had not done so already. People who had not yet turned this assignment in were asked to review and make any necessary changes based on today's feedback.

(click image to enlarge)

We then returned to working with Baumeister and Leary's article on belongingness. We reviewed the selected vocabulary that the class identified last class as a way of reviewing key ideas for the reading. Next, people shared out their 1-2 sentence summaries for the first page of the text.

We then read the second column of text and people individually summarized the information covered in this section. We talked about the significance of transition words to key in on where big ideas are being addressed or summarized in the text. 

Our next piece of work with this article will be to read and summarize the individual points that Baumeister and Leary have identified as helping to prove that a need for belongingness is a fundamental human motivation. These points are outlined in the conceptual background section of the article. We are tracking these points with the conceptual background sheet and will continue working with this tomorrow.

At the end of class, project teams had time to meet and discuss their recent work.

Homework:

If you did not do so in class, finish reading the first two pages (up to the conceptual background section) of Baumeister and Leary's belongingness paper.

Work associated with your project as appropriate.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate. 

11.15 - Need and Belongingness Vocabulary

Today we began working with the article on Need and Belongingness that will be our model article for academic papers. To become more familiar with this article we reviewed the purpose and set up of abstracts of papers and then took a look at the abstract for this paper.

In looking at this abstract, everyone was identifying and defining significant words used in the abstract to better prepare for reading and digesting information in the article.

Once everyone had finished reviewing significant vocabulary from the abstract we reviewed and discussed the various terms that people had selected. See Mr. Collins if you need a copy of this article.

Next, I read the first page of the article and, after listening to this, everyone summarized what they felt this page was about in 1 to 2 sentences at the bottom of the page.


Homework:

If you did not finish with your identification of significant words/terms from the article abstract, do so for homework.

If you did not finish writing your 1-2 sentence summary of the first page of the article, do so for homework.

Work associated with your project as appropriate.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

11.14 - Belonging

Today we started work on our research projects associated with the projects that project teams are working on. The idea of these research projects will be to identify and explain why there is a need for the project and how the activities of the project benefit society. In their project teams everyone drafted questions in response to the following:

What questions would someone need answered in order to understand why your project team’s work is good?

To model possible questions in response to this prompt, I reviewed a list of brainstormed project questions for one of the projects we did not end up committing to (creating an animal shelter for Lisbon).

Animal Shelter
What services do animal shelters provide.

Why are homeless pets a problem?

How much of a problem is domestic animal homelessness a problem in this area?

To what degree do animal shelters help problems associated with homeless pets.

What are the benefits to having pets (when people get them from shelters)?

After creating their brainstormed lists, teams shared out their questions and we discussed these as a class to refine and improve the questions.

For the next part of our research, we are going to have a short unit on how to read and digest information from academic articles. In class we talked about how these articles are a lot like eating a coconut, hard to crack into, but then excellent and really sweet and refreshing inside. The article we are going to take a look at talks about the idea of a need to belong. To prepare for this topic we looked at the quote "People who need people are just people who need people." This quote is from an LCD Soundsystem song and provided us with a way to talk about whether there really are people who don't need people (prompt and song below).

 

Everyone had about 7 and a half minutes to respond to this prompt as we listened to the song "One Touch." Everyone then shared out their responses to this prompt with a partner and then we discussed responses as a class. The main points of our discussion were as follows:

1 - Everyone likely needs some contact with other people, but some people might require more or less than other people to have enough contact.
2 - It is probably possible to survive in the sense of being alive without contact from other people as long as someone has appropriate food and shelter.
3 - Someone without any contact with people might begin to change psychologically and become mentally unhealthy.
4 - People like Christopher Knight, might be the exception to this rule. He had food, shelter, and no real contact with people for 27 years and seemed to be doing fine.

We will continue developing our understanding of this topic in the next few classes.


Homework:

Work associated with your project as appropriate.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

11.13 - "Can Service Save Us" Revisions, Project Team Questions

We started today's class with a review of class performance on the "Can Service Save Us" article responses (assessment data shared in class below).

(click image to enlarge)

Suggested revision areas identified below the graph were for the class in general. Individual needs for revision may vary.

Everyone also had the opportunity to work on their responses to the work we did around the Lisbon 2013 bond order ballot questions.

In the second half of class, project teams met to review their previous meeting minutes and discuss recent progress on their projects. In addition to this, teams were beginning work in the research process by brainstorming questions that would need to be answered in order to prove that their was a need for their project team's work. The question to which groups were responding was:

What questions would someone need answered in order to understand why your project team’s work is good?

Some model questions for one of the projects we did not end up pursuing (creating a local animal shelter) were:

Animal Shelter

What services do animal shelters provide.

Why are homeless pets a problem?

How much of a problem is domestic animal homelessness a problem in this area?

To what degree do animal shelters help problems associated with homeless pets.

What are the benefits to having pets (when people get them from shelters)?

Homework:

Work associated with your project as appropriate.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

11.12 - Presentation Practice

At the beginning of class today, presenters from each project team delivered their 2 minute presentation for the school committee tonight. We then critiqued these presentations in terms of delivery, presentation content, and meeting the 2 minute target time. Project teams then revised their presentations and we did another final round of presentations.


Homework:

Work associated with your project as appropriate.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

11.08 - Presenation Finalization and Practice

In class today, project teams were finalizing their presentations for the school committee. We then presented these in class and revised presentations based on what changes groups needed to make.

Homework:

Work associated with your project as appropriate.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

11.07 - Presentation Preparation

We started today's class with a review of the effective presentation slideshow delivered yesterday since a number of people were absent/on filed trips.

Everyone then had the next half-hour to continue working on their presentation.



Specifics on the slide presentation and talk include:

Groups will need six slides (identified below) and have exactly two minutes to present. Our goal is for each group to take exactly two minutes which will use eight of the ten minutes we are allotted (the remaining two minutes will probably be used in transitioning between groups and with a little time for questions).

Each group should have the following slides:

1 - Title slide with project team name
2 - Project team's goal/mission
3 - Work completed so far
4 - Work currently going on
5 - Planned work for the future
6 - Intended outcomes and impacts


With fifteen minutes left in the period, we began a run through of our presentation to see what we needed to work on and how we were doing fitting each individual talk into its two minute time frame.


Homework:

Work associated with your project as appropriate.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

11.06 - Effective Presentations and Project Team Meetings

We started today's class with the announcement that a representative (or several representatives) will be presenting at the next school committee meeting on the work that we are doing. This will be next Tuesday at 7 p.m.

In preparation for this, I presented on how to make an effective slide presentation (this was done in a mystery-solving style with people in the class identifying what was wrong with each slide).

Groups will need six slides (identified below) and have exactly two minutes to present. Our goal is for each group to take exactly two minutes which will use eight of the ten minutes we are allotted (the remaining two minutes will probably be used in transitioning between groups and with a little time for questions).

Each group should have the following slides:

1 - Title slide with project team name
2 - Project team's goal/mission
3 - Work completed so far
4 - Work currently going on
5 - Planned work for the future
6 - Intended outcomes and impacts


Project teams then had the rest of the period to prepare their slide presentation for the meeting. This was to be done as part of a regular project team meeting with the team also reviewing completed work, current tasks, next tasks, updating the call log and task schedule.


Homework:

Work associated with your project as appropriate.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

11.05 - Lisbon Bond Orders

We started today's class with some revisions on the final answers for the Logic Model Revealed: The Affordable Care Act / ObamaCare. I returned copies of this assignment and students had fifteen minutes to work on their revisions and/or ask questions. Students who scored a 92 had the option of pursuing a 100 by using their analysis to respond to the following question:

For a 100:
What are specific strengths and/or weaknesses you see in this program design? 
What outcomes or impacts will these particular strong/weak elements have on people/society?

We then transitioned to looking at where careful reading and critical thinking skills are really important in life beyond high school: voting. Specifically, we were taking a look at the bond questions on this year's ballot in Lisbon.

In looking at these bonds, we read the bonds and then everyone received a typed copy of each bond, an article about bond question 1 (re: the Worumbo mill), and questions that analyze these bond questions.

Documents:
Article on the Worumbo Mill bond (link)
Typed bond questions (document)
Response Sheet (document)

For bond order question 1, everyone is to read the article and determine some of the arguments for and against the town buying the mill and then explain what they think is best to do based on arguments presented in the article and culled from their own experiences.

For bond order questions 2 and 3, everyone is identifying significant language in the question to help figure out exactly what the question is asking and then explaining how this fits within the context of the question. The idea here is that understanding the question is half the battle and decoding language is key.

Note: The questions on the response sheet do ask what people think the best choice is for the options listed. The questions were intended to be phrased in a manner which was not specifically asking how anyone particularly would vote though we acknowledged in class that this is a very slight difference. I was available to construct different questions for anyone who felt uncomfortable giving their perspective on the matter. I did talk about viewing discussion around voting and what the right choice is as a way to have dialogue and learn more about a topic, not a way to convince someone that your own view is correct. For the assignment there is no right or wrong answer, responses are assessed based on evidence and discussion of language (see rubrics on the response sheet).

Everyone had until the end of the period to work on this assignment. At the end we talked a little bit about the bond order questions. We will recap this reading tomorrow in class.

Homework:

If you did not do so today in class, finish responding to the questions on the response sheet for the bond order questions.

11.04 - Can Service Save Us

Today, we returned to working with the "Can Service Save Us" article from Time magazine with everyone responding to the reading and post-reading questions for the article. People then met in the groups with which they worked last class to review and discuss their answers. We went over possible responses to these questions in class and then everyone turned in their responses.

Next, project teams got together to update and manage work. I went around and checked in with groups during this time. Project teams should have someone be sure to take minutes for each meeting.

At the end of class, I handed out updated grade sheets for first quarter grades.

Homework:

Work associated with your project as appropriate.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

11.01 - PTSD and Service

Today in class, we returned to our discussion of PTSD and explored more of what the condition is like, how it affects people, and why it is a social problem. We achieved this by listening to act two of the This American Life episode "484: Doppelgangers."

For this activity, we compared the experiences of Curtis and Brandon in the episode and discussed what point the producers were trying to make in comparing these two people's lives. We discussed this story within the wider context of PTSD. I then handed out the Time article and questions associated with the article.

All of the documents used today are available here:

PTSD Background information and "Can Service Save Us" questions
"Can Service Save Us" article


Homework:

If you did not do so in class, finish reading the "Can Service Save Us" article and respond to the reading questions on the reading sheet for the article.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.30 - Group Juggle and Meeting Minutes

At the beginning of class today, we did an activity called "Group Juggle" in which the class was challenged to pass a number of object amidst themselves following a set pattern of conditions. The activity becomes more challenging as more objects are added and everyone must focus to keep the activity flowing smoothly.

Upon completing this activity we discussed how our literal act of juggling a lot of objects represented the juggling of work that is now taking place as our projects start to come together. This discussion lead us into talking about how some of the behaviors that helped us be successful in this activity could help us be successful with the projects that teams are undertaking.

In extending this conversation, I introduced meeting minutes as a format to help groups juggle a lot of information, maintain focus, communicate clearly with one another, and maintain a consistent thread of activity in their work. I went over the meeting minute format that groups should be following (the meeting minute document can be copied and renamed so that groups can just work from the original document to make their own notes).

Project teams then had the remaining twenty minutes to meet in their groups using the minutes as an agenda for what needed to be covered.

Each class, a new person should be taking the minutes (and therefore using the minutes to help facilitate the team's discussion). Once everyone in the group has taken minutes, the order can begin again.


All team meeting minutes should be shared with Mr. Collins.

In the event that the computers are not working, minutes can be taken on paper and given to Mr. Collins at the end of class (these will be scanned and then uploaded to Google Drive for future use/reference).

Homework:

 If you have not yet done so, finish generating final, formal answers to the questions about the logic model for Obama Care.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.29 - Conversation Web: Obama Care

Our main focus for today was discussing students' reactions to what they learned about The Affordable Care Act / Obama Care. Our format for this discussion was called "Conversation Web." In this format, one person speaks at a time and ends their speaking time with a question for someone else to answer. The question could be focused on one of the questions on the final response sheet or simply a question that they were curious about.

The guidelines for this discussion format were as follows:

 (click image to enlarge)

Everyone got credit for participating in this discussion. Participation was evaluated using the following standard as a 92:

Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well- reasoned exchange of ideas.

Homework:

If you have not yet done so, finish generating final, formal answers to the questions about the logic model for Obama Care.

Update your project team's task schedule and contact log as appropriate. 

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.28 - Affordable Care Act / Obama Care Final Responses

Today, I handed out final response sheets for looking at the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) logic model. Working with their partner, everyone reviewed the supplied documents and their notes to generate formal, informed answers on what different elements of the program appear to be. I was on hand during this time to answer students' questions about the program, readings, or how to interpret questions.

Tomorrow, we will discuss these as formalized answers tomorrow.

All of today's documents are available in this folder: Logic Model Revealed: Obama Care

Homework:

If you did not do so today in class, finish generating final, formal answers to the questions about the logic model for Obama Care.

Finish updating the task schedule and contact log as appropriate. 

10.25 - Logic Model Revealed: Affordable Care Act / Obama Care

Everyone started off in their project teams today with the following agenda:

Discuss completed activities/tasks
Identify next steps
Identify any questions people in the group have
Update task schedule
Update contact log

During this time, I went around and checked in with project teams to get a full status report on where they were with their work.

We then returned to the work we started yesterday with figuring out the logic model of the Affordable Care Act / Obama Care. Working with their partner, everyone reviewed the supplied documents and took notes on what different elements of the program appear to be. We will begin to look at recording these as formalized answers tomorrow.

All of today's documents are available in this folder: Logic Model Revealed: Obama Care

Homework:

















If you did not complete your note sheet on different logic model elements of the Obama Care program, do so for homework (all documents are available above). We will be coming up with final answers next class.

Work associated with your project team's work.

Finish updating the task schedule and contact log as appropriate. 

10.24 - Team Meetings / Revelaing the Logic Model: ObamaCare

Everyone started off in their project teams today with the following agenda:

Discuss completed activities/tasks
Identify next steps
Identify any questions people in the group have
Update task schedule
Update contact log

During this time, I went around and checked in with project teams to get a full status report on where they were with their work.

We then returned to the work we started yesterday with figuring out the logic model of the Affordable Care Act / Obama Care. Working with their partner, everyone reviewed the supplied documents and took notes on what different elements of the program appear to be. We will begin to look at recording these as formalized answers tomorrow.

All of today's documents are available in this folder: Logic Model Revealed: Obama Care

Homework:

Work associated with your project team's work.

Finish updating the task schedule and contact log as appropriate. 

10.23 - Logic Model Revealed: The American Care Act / Obama Care

We started today's class by addressing how with only one exception, project teams had failed to update their task schedules and contact logs. Teams had 15 minutes and access to two computers to update these two documents.

We then did a mixer activity to find partners for our next activity. Our activity was focused on looking at a program being implemented that seeks to effect positive change for a group of people. Our work will revolve around learning about the program and then use the language of logic models (resources/inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, impacts) to describe the work and effects of the program. This is an activity that we will be doing with a variety of programs (we already began this with our look at LACO's programming).

The program we are focusing on in our work today (and for the next couple of days) is the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obama Care). Today, we got all of the necessary papers and partners for the activity.

Having a partner will help since some of the documents are dense to work through and having someone to talk to them about will help. Everyone will be recording their own responses for this work.

All of today's documents are available in this folder: Logic Model Revealed: Obama Care


To help everyone understand some of the language around this law and how to properly sort piece of information into different steps of a logic model, we looked at the 100-word explanation of the law and sorted different parts of the explanation.

 Homework:

Work associated with your project team's work.

Finish updating the task schedule and contact log as appropriate.

10.22 - Tasks

We started today's class by checking in with the remaining two groups from yesterday regarding what they had accomplished for work, what work was in progress, and what work was next up to do.

We then went over how to manage work through the task schedule sheet and contact sheet online.

Next, we worked with some roots and prefixes as part of our vocabulary building work. See Mr. Collins if you need a copy of these sheets.

Homework:

Update task schedules online.

Update contact logs to reflect the contact you have had with various people.

Complete the practice sheet for the roots/prefixes.