Foundations of American History and Literature

NOT MANY RAINY DAYS

2010-06-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

Wow!! What a Trip!

2010-06-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Thank you Larry H. Miller Foundation and Zions Bank for sponsoring such a fabulous trip to Boston, Philadelphia, and all the other assorted historical places that we went to along the way. The trip was a total eye-opener to me, and the insight that i gained to our country's history will be invaluable to my lesson planning this Fall. I enjoyed very much meeting all of you and the daily activity we had in the adventure of walking into the richness of our history. Can't wait to see you all in August!!

Photos of Boston Red Sox Game

2010-06-19T16:52:00.000-07:00

Taking the Measure of John Adams

2010-06-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

It's understandable that we're all impressed by John Adams after reading the McCullough biography. His accomplishments, his foresight, and his forebearance were and are remarkable. Sometimes, though, we tend to see things only in the tone of what is presented to us. He did have enemies and they were quite vocal in what they saw as his shortcomings. He didn't come dashing out of a phone booth wearing a cape every time there was trouble. I would think capes and frilly shirts and such would be more Alexander Hamilton's style. I'm sure that Adams also engaged in the rough and tumble of politics, although we get the impression from McCullough that Adams did expect a certain decorum and statesmanship from himself and from others...and that often he was disappointed in the duplicity of others. If there is a nobility that comes through with him, it is that Adams seemed to place his ambitions on the back burner in critical times and do what he felt was in the best interests of America. This brought him to some uncomfortable choices. He defended British soldiers after the Boston Massacre. He took on friends in political fights because he believed that his agenda was best for America. He served a very difficult, protracted amount of time in Europe when he desperately wanted to be home. His letters to Abigail show much of what he wrestled with. And they also are the best argument for the sincerity of his sacrifice. His service as vice-president and the deference he showed to President Washington speak highly of his willingness to set good precedents for the new government. Even his actions and reflections after serving as president and enduring some bitter lambasts against him show that he possessed a view of founding something that was larger than any one group of people or any one generation. He certainly wasn't perfect, but he is a great example of devotion to a cause and sacrificing for future generations.

Walking, Ponds, and Getting Excited.

2010-06-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

So with the fact that we are leaving in a few days, I keep thinking about the first article we were supposed to reading about "walking", and Walden Pond.

With the shows that I've been watching, there have been a few people sitting next to ponds, and I think about how he must have sat on a tree, or side, and gone over all of his thoughts.

I also think about the walking essay and how he mentioned that if he didn't spend around 4 hours walking each day, it didn't feel worth it. I highly doubt that I could walk that many hours in a day, just for the fun of it.

I love hiking, and walking around the Daybreak Lake, but that seems a bit much.

The real reason to write this was that I am getting excited for the trip, and I keep thinking about the reflection and thoughts I am hoping to have at the pond and while doing all of this walking.

What do you think?

Marzano Lesson #2 Compare/Contrast

2010-06-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

I started this lesson by reading the book, "I am the Dog, I am the Cat" by Donald Hall. This book shows all kinds of similarities of dogs and cats by having the dog and cat tell about themselves. (Example: “I am the dog. I like bones. I like to bury bones. As for eating, I can take it or leave it – but I like it when they feed me.”) The next page is the cat talking telling similar things about itself.

Next students put the information about dogs and cats into a Comparison Matrix, to show the specific similarities and differences. As teams, the students chose the items to compare.

Then we took this strategy to the Civil War. (We didn’t do this until we had completed our Civil War Unit) As teams, students choose things to compare. These are possibilities but I did not limit them to the following items.
North/South Northerner/Southerner
Slave/free black black child/white child
Rebel soldier/Union soldier slave/master
Lincoln/Davis Grant/Lee
They started by filling out a Venn Diagram, listing as many similarities and differences as possible. Then they took this to a Comparison Matrix choosing the specific items to be compared.

Finally they wrote a story modeled after the book, I am the Dog, I am the Cat.

Reflection: I really liked this activity and although I used it with the Civil War, it could be used in any unit where comparisons are valid. The students seemed to be able to do this quite well because we started whole class and I guided them through identifying the similarities and differences in the book we read. (The book is great for this) Most of the students are very familiar with Venn Diagrams but it helped to start with a Comparison Matrix whole class using the dog and cat book.

I saw some great work and some deep thinking in this activity. Most of the students really enjoyed learning about the Civil War, so they were excited to use their knowledge and make the comparisons. I think it helped to give them some choice on what they could write about. I also think that it helped them to work in groups, but I would love to take this to an individual project comparing something else. (next year)

Last minute questions...

2010-06-07T14:07:00.000-07:00

In case anyone is reading this before we leave, could you answer some questions for me? What materials are any of you taking besides the binder, which already weighs 25 lbs? I don't have, need, or want a kindle, so my books are real and very heavy as well. Are we supposed to take JA and Walden?

Also, I have run off my 45 copies of my research paper and that alone weighs a few pounds, which I will still have (the weight) because we will be trading papers soon. Our instructions are to bring a fanny pack or small backpack but how is all the paperwork/binder going to fit into something that small?

Ok, now that you can see I am stressing over silly things, what are your solutions as I am open to any and all. Thanks, Pat Drussel

John again....

2010-06-07T07:10:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I can't stop thinking about John Adams. I listened to the book twice while walking on my treadmill right after we learned we had this opportunity to go to Boston. Then now that the seminar is getting closer I checked out the movie from the library to get another shot of John. Now it's about all I think about. Today I keep thinking how he was so adamant we become an independent nation from Great Britan and how he sacrificed his marriage and family to serve his fellowmen and his country over an ocean and 3000 miles away. When he does return from Europe, his children are grown, he is 53 years old, and John now begins another relm of his legacy.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

2010-06-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

Wow! I think this particular reading did more to awaken me to the religious climate of early New England than any other. I knew those early ministers felt a great responsibility to keep their flock on the straight and narrow, but Jonathan Edwards was over the top. It would have been funny if he wasn't so serious about it. "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you and is dreadfully provoked." "You are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venemous serpent is in ours." "He will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush out your blood, and make it fly." I'm pretty sure that I would have a hard time with religion if he were my religious leader.

Sleeping with John Adams...

2010-06-07T06:12:00.000-07:00

I've downloaded John Adams onto my Kindle and I take him with me to bed every night. I'm almost finished and have loved every minute of my reading. Thanks for the book selections because I would have never chosen this book of my own accord and I feel like my perspectives have changed dramatically as I have embarked on this journey. You have caused some marital discord as my husband has chaffed just a little as I have shared our bed with our founding fathers and their views. But the discussions we have engaged in have been stimulating and interesting. I can't wait to put geographical locations with the images and emotions I have in my head regarding these historical connections. Thursday can't come soon enough...

2010-06-07T06:04:00.000-07:00

I am so impressed with John Adams. He impresses me with his courage and integrity throughout his entire life, but beginning as a young lawyer when defending the accused British soilders in the Boston Massacre. He is a great man who had much more influence with our country's beginning than I orginally realized. The more I learn the more I want to.

Message to my daughters...

2010-06-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

Message to my daughters from John Adams and me…

I couldn’t help but smile as I came upon the tender letter John Adams wrote to his daughter, Nappy regarding her escalating relationship:

Daughter! Get you an honest man for a husband, and keep him honest. NO matter whether he is rich, provided he be independent. Regard the honor and moral character of the man more than all other circumstances. Think of no other greatness but that of the soul, no other riches but those of the heart. An honest, sensible, humane mane above all the littleness of vanity and extravagances of imagination, laboring to do good rather than e rich, to be useful rather than make a show, living in modes simplicity clearly within his means and free from debts and obligations, is really the most respectable man in society, makes himself and all about him most happy.

This is what my mother taught me and what I wish for you both!

Love,

Mom

This is a facebook posting I send to my daughters. Thanks John for helping me out on this one!

Our current errand...

2010-06-07T05:05:00.000-07:00

Errand into the Wilderness…

It was interesting as I read the text dripping with piety as they described their “mission” to become a shining example of Christianity to the world. As their ambitions crumbled giving way to human nature, I was struck with a quote from the text…”Having failed to rivet the eyes of the world upon their city on the hill, they were left alone with America.” This reminded me of the circumstances we as a nation are facing now. Now we are left alone with America and all of the triumphs and tragedies present. We have some pretty deep political issues to solve. I believe we can look to the past for the remedy. Our strength lies within. It’s time to shoulder responsibility for our current state of affairs and quit wasting time assigning blame. The time is short and the need for great minds and quick thinking is dire. Where are the John Adams’ of our generation? Our errand is now upon us.

Dancing through the Declaration...Marzano

2010-06-07T04:50:00.001-07:00

Marzano Lesson Plan 2:

I was excited to see that Marzano and I both agree on the idea of kinesthetic activities to facilitate authentic learning. As part of my poetry unit, students are required to memorize the preamble of the Declaration of Independence each year. A prospect many find daunting. This year, with the help of Marzano, I decided to try it a little differently.

Summary: Utilizing kinesthetic movements as a mnemonic device.

Instructional Procedures: 1. Start with each student writing out the preamble and identifying words they don’t understand. 2. Look up the unknown words and add them to the vocabulary lists for the week. 3 Have the students come up with hand motions to help demonstrate the idea of the meaning of those words. For instance; my students decided that pointing to their eyes for the words “self evident” would denote that it’s so obvious that you should simply be able to see something that is “self evident.” 4. Continue on throughout the text identifying words and connecting them to a physical action that demonstrates the meaning 5. After all of the difficult words have been identified and categorized through movement, put it all together into a big, loud choral experience that allows students to “move” through the desired memorization.

Extensions: Have students work as teams to come up with the “best” physical representations and compete for placement in the class’ final compilation of movement

Assessment Plan: Students must “pass off” the memorization in either a private or a classroom setting. Both instances are covered in the Utah State Core, so you could even utilize both manners of assessment and have them build off of each other, for instance: have the student pass of the memorization first privately and then have a final public presentation to follow.

(Marzano:Classroom Instruction that Work, pages 82-83)

Reflections: I couldn’t believe the difference in the ease in which my students memorized this beautiful passage. We reviewed it each morning right after the pledge. It was kind of elegant to follow the pledge with our very active version of the Declaration of Independence! I watched them enjoy the whole memorization process instead of finding it drudgery. By the time we were finished with the whole thing, my students had created a physical interpretation of the Declaration of Independence that will stay with all of us. Thanks Marzano!

Dr Seuss, Marzano and I...

2010-06-07T04:23:00.000-07:00

Marzano Lesson Plan 1:

In much of his writing, Marzano discusses the idea that learning is much more effective when prior knowledge is activated, synthesized and then applied. I devised this lesson plan to stimulate that prior knowledge activation and infused it with a little fun. The synthesizing and application aspects follow with the assessment phase.

Summary: This is a creative and fun way for students to grasp the meanings and applications of prefixes and suffixes.

Main Curriculum Tie:  Language Arts - 8th Grade Standard 2 Objective 3 (Revision and Editing): Revise and edit to strengthen ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions.

Materials: 1 large piece of butcher paper for each small group of students

Instructional Procedures: 1. Start with a list of the suffixes and prefixes on the board. Have the students write the definitions of each suffix and prefix along with examples of words that utilize them. 2. Read any Dr. Seuss book aloud to the class paying special attention to the creative use of inventive vocabulary. 3 Have the students "Seusize" words by creating new words with the prefixes and suffixes. Note...make sure that the true meaning of the suffixes and prefixes stay in tact with the new "Seusized" words. 4. Divide students into groups. Each group has a piece of butcher paper with one of the suffixes and prefixes written in marker at the top of the page. The students in each group read their "Seusized" words that correspond with the prefix or suffix on the paper. 5. The group comes to consensus and picks their two favorite words and writes the words, their definitions and a sentence on the paper and passes it to the next group until all group have added their two best "Seusized" words to the corresponding list. 6. Send the completed lists again around the class and have each group put gold star stickers beside 1 favorite word on each sheet. Display the winning words for each prefix and suffix around the room.

Extensions: Have students take either the "winning words" or their personal list of "Seusized" prefixes and suffixes and create a story. These stories can be presented in a PowerPoint format and presented to the class.

Assessment Plan: Graphic Organizer for Analogies: Students are given a list of root words and prefixes and suffixes. To successfully pass, each student creates a new word and explains how the prefix or suffix directs the meaning and then creates a graphic organizer illustrating an analogy for that new word.

(Marzano:Classroom Instruction that Work, pages 26-28)

Reflections: My students loved this activity. The analogies they came up with just seemed to “cement” that understanding of prefixes and suffixes. Their analogies were hilarious and very astute.

Marzano Lesson Summarizing

2010-06-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

This is a really basic lesson that I used with my students to help them summarize books they read. I made a summary frame for book reports that is very similar to the Narrative Frame. Usually with book reports, students would go on and on and retell the whole book, they would give too little information or they would rewrite the back cover. I made a summary frame that included:
1. Characters: Who are the main characters?
2. Setting/ s: Where did most of the book take place?
3. Problem: What was the main problem the characters faced?
4. Solution: How was the problem solved?
5. Opinion: What did you like or dislike about the book?
This became the focus of their book reports. They had to delete minor characters. They had to analyze and report the main setting or settings. They had to think deeply to figure out the main problem and solution. They were able to end with their opinion of the book.
Reflection: Using this simple summary frame really helped my students. They were able to get much better at choosing the most important information, delete unneeded information, practice and come up with a good concise book summary. In the past I have found that it is hard for students to pick the most important information to tell about. Some want to tell every little detail and others tell parts without getting to the plot of the book. This solved my problem with book reports, helped students learn and practice summaries and helped them with thinking and analyzing along with practice story elements.

"Sinners"

2010-06-06T16:26:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"is one of the first things in my literature textbook for my English 11 class. It's a pretty harsh way to start the year, but I figure if I can't put the fear of God into my students, perhaps Mr. Edwards can. We listen to it on a cd, and that makes it really come alive for my classes. I just read the biography and full text of "Sinners," and I found out some new info. My lit book mentions that Edwards was dismissed from his parish because the people thought him too harsh, but it didn't say that he stopped allowing every baptized member to take communion, but only those who he thought were worthy. After reading "Sinners," I find it hard that he found anyone worthy. My students often laugh at some of the things said in this sermon (I think we all have to laugh to keep from crying tears of fear), but they are also able to put themselves into the shoes of the congregation. I explain how these people believed this and reacted in fear and repentance to such sermons. We contrast that with most religions of our day and how people want to be taught about how God loves them, not about how much he despises their sins. Even back in Edwards' time, this was happening, which is why he was dismissed from his church. I ask my students to think about which kind of sermon is more effective--one about love, or one about fear? They often decide that it depends on the circumstance. I read the excerpt on Benjamin Franklin right after I read "Sinners" and was interested in this quote from "Poor Richard's Almanac":"Those who are feared are hated." I found this interesting as it was written at almost the exact same time as "Sinners." Again, this shows that not all people appreciated Edwards' Calvinist views on God.

personal errand

2010-06-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

Another connection i made with the Miller piece was this idea of going on an errand. The beginning talks of two types: a person going on a mission for a superior and someone going on their own errand or mission. Which of these types of errand am i on regarding the studies for this seminar? Am i doing the readings because they were assigned by the instructors and that is what they want me to do? Or, am i completing these things because i am on my own journey for intellectual advancement? Do I see them as tasks or burdens, or i am using them as a manner of becoming a more informed educator? I hope the latter is the case.

Errand into the wilderness

2010-06-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed the "errand into the wilderness" by miller. I thought that it was summed up pretty well by the phrase on page eight: "to possess the land but not be possessed by it." I think that that is what many of the strict religious people of the time were most concerned about. They thought that many were more concerned about gaining wealth or power instead of keeping their focus on the ultimate reward of eternal life. They talked often of losing unity in the society because so many had lost this focus.

Help Help Help

2010-06-03T20:40:00.000-07:00

Ebay failed. I can't sell this ticket.

I still have one extra ticket for the Red Sox Game Friday Night.

Call me if you are interested, I don't want to get stuck. 801-558-7308.

(Helama it would be nice if you stepped up)

Marzano Lesson

2010-06-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

I know this is a simple lesson that i should have learned a long time ago. I read in the Marzano book about the different uses for the Venn Diagram and decided to put the suggestions to use in my classroom. Earlier in the school year, we used Venn diagrams to find differences between several groups of Native Americans. I had the thought that it was nice but the answers didn't have much depth and, although students were able to see many differences, there were not as many similarities noted.

Marzano suggested that teachers get very specific with the scope of the diagram. For example, instead of having them find general characteristics of Utes and Navajo, for example, have the students complete separate diagrams for similarities and differences in dwellings, clothing, food sources, or customs specifically. I had my classes revisit the activity using more specific topics for their diagrams, and i really enjoyed seeing the outcome. Students were forced to dig a little deeper, looking at very specific details. I was thrilled to see that many of them actually enjoyed the more focused diagrams. this is something that i will continue to use in the future.

Reflections: Walden's Pond and a Bath tub in a Pasture

2010-06-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

This book struck several different emotions for me while i was reading it. First, i couldn't wait to get into this book as i had heard excellent comments about him as an author. Well, as i started to read Walden, i couldn't stand it. Ahh! was i disapoointed, what did all the other folks see in his writing i thought to myself. I had to force myself to read a bit of it each day and push my way through it. I thought that he had a lot to say about nothing and that he regarded himself rather highly. As you might predict, as i kept reading i started to notice a change, or perhaps it was me. I was able to start getting the "gist" sorta, of what he was trying to portray. Seemed to me that he got off himself a bit and i started to enjoy it, i even found humor in some of the pages and some of his expressions.
I grew up as a kid with a beautiful grassy pasture behind our house, and my Dad put in a small pond beneath the massive dense Black Willow trees for the 4-5 cows that roamed the field. Eventually Dad built us a tree house that my brothers and i spent hours and hours in right next to the pond.
At the north end of the pasture were two bathtubs one draining into the other that Dad used as watering troughs. Dad used to do all the duties of maintaining the needs of the field and the cows. Now, that Dad has passed on, it has come to me to carry on these duties. Well, I'm a rookie at these sorts of things. Over the winter the tubs evaporate out leaving all the decomposed leaves and muck at the bottom. (I didn't know that you were supposed to drain them and then flip them over so they don't crack in the winter). As i was cleaning the tubs and refilling them the water drained out of the first tub. It was then that i noticed the plug, an old wooden plug that my dad had carved out of a hunk of wood some 15 years before. I pulled the plug out and held it up, sure enough, there was a hole right in the middle of it. As i held up this plug, so many reflections of Dad, the field, the tree house by the pond came pouring back to me. It was then that a wave of appreciation of Thoreau's reflections around his pond settled in my mind, sorta like putting a new plug in the tub so water could once more reflect the beauty of the trees and life around it.

Almost time ...

2010-06-02T21:31:00.001-07:00

I have enjoyed reading the recent posts. I do have to mention that 1) I have learned a lot through the readings and your posts, but 2) I am glad it's almost time to go so that I can actually see what I have been reading about. I also feel like a couple of you as I have been doing this, overwhelmed. I am a middle school English teacher of low-income/ ELL students/ with a few above average students thrown in. I am happy if my students show up most of the time, so teaching them anything more than the basics hasn't always happened. That being said, I guess since I haven't taken or used the opportunities to teach any of these authors in depth before, a lot of this is 'new' again from when I was in high school or taught it decades ago. I have struggled with many of the readings and hoped I was getting the gist of what I read. After I read some of your posts, I had to go back and skim a couple of articles to see what I missed. :)

I feel a little like Helama 'n' when he mention that so much of this was new to him. I look forward to conversing, traveling, and sharing insights with all of you. See you in a week hopefully with my assigned paper making sense. Pat Drussel

Thoughts on "Deep Thinkers" in Retrospect

2010-06-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

I feel as if I am sticking my neck out, but, life is a gamble at times. Thoreau states: “A man, any man, will go considerably out of his way to pick up a silver dollar; but here are golden words, which the wisest men of antiquity have uttered, and whose worth the wise of every succeeding age have assured us of; - and yet we learn to read only as far as Easy Reading, the primers and class-books, and when we leave school, the Little Reading and story books which are for boys and beginners; and our reading, our conversation and thinking, are all on a very low level, worthy of pygmies and manikans (sp). I aspire to be acquainted with wiser men than this, our Concord soil has produced. (I must remember that he was a transcendentalist and they were accustomed to the frequent use of their thumbs and noses.) Thoreau had his right to his own opinion. There may have been great literature in the past that came from great minds of great and important thinkers in their day, (I wouldn’t know; I have never read any of his favorites. I was one who left off reading much of anything as I entered junior high on through high school. It wasn’t until after I went to college that I “woke” up to reading, writing, learning, thinking, and in general the world of higher learning, etc.) Nevertheless, it seems more than a little conceited and ego-centric to make the kinds of statements he was wont to do in Walden, on any of his chosen topics. It is as if his experience and thoughts make his “knowledge/experience” the only good and true sentiments there are regarding anything he chose to write about in Walden. (Again, I keep forgetting that the universe revolved around him and others like him.) He, in my opinion, was wrong about the veracity and worth of the thinking and writing of any “that Concord has produced.” This is only one instance I believe he is wrong because the “founding fathers” were also great thinkers/writers; at least some of them. To compare them, though with earlier, ancient writers/thinkers, though, I cannot because I have no experience. But from what I’ve read, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Monroe were widely read, and deep thinkers. I suppose one could call them students also of the great ancients. Granted, many of his contemporaries borrowed ideas and thoughts to form their own opinions too, but those early writings also had their beginnings elsewhere and not alone in the minds and hearts of their authors. There were many who preceded him in this life, having had their roots and lives in and around Concord and environs who were indeed very deep thinkers and writers, with as much talent as any, I assume, from the recent or ancient past. I know that I am not in possession of all that I should be in the way of information and experience to really intelligently give my opinion, so...including the castigation I have given him. John Adams, among others, not to mention his son, John Quincy, were of the talent, ability, and intellect that he so touts in his “ancient” thinkers. It was to these new-age intellectual giants that the mission on earth was given to establish a nation, under God, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with rights....life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Show me any of the ancient intellectuals that was ever an equal to the Sons of the Revolution, the Patriots, and had the talent, courage, and tenacity to see it through to the end. They were saved for this time to come forth and achieve what they did. The ancients also had their day and did their part. If he wants to hang with his ancient friends and their so-called talent and wisdom, so be it. It was the more recent talent in men that gave Thoreau and others the freedom to live in this land, and choose as they might. The world passed him by, and apparently unnoticed, as he could only see or want himself to be associated with those “who were wiser...than this, our Concord soil has produced.” But, maybe that's not fair and maybe that's not what he meant at all.

2010-06-02T19:24:00.000-07:00

ONE WEEK -- AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Random thoughts on Adams (part 1)

2010-06-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Like most people on this blog, I love the reading. McCullough's writing style makes an already fascinating subject even more real, more vivid, and more interesting. Some random thoughts:
1. "He was a known talker," (pg. 17). This just made chuckle and think of the scene from 1776-The Musical where it is agreed that Adams should not propose independence because he's "obnoxious and disliked." Well, we like you now Adams.
2. Although we can remember John and Abigail as having a wonderful, loving relationship, I think it's important to remember her contribution to the discussion of the American experiment. She was WAY ahead of her time when she tells John in a letter to "remember the ladies." I get irritated when my students dismiss historical figures like Abigail as nothing more than a spouse of so and so. Her thoughts on the young Republic, slavery, and revolution are important to study as well.
3. Just to mess with my students, I teach the American Revolution from the British perspective. For example, I point out the citizens in the Mother country were paying considerably higher taxes than the colonists, and that Parliament actually LOWERED the tax on tea prompting the Boston Tea Party (which is why the modern Tea Party movement confuses me with their name) which would have meant cheaper tea for the colonists. McCullough's description of the Stamp Act, the violence in Boston, and the war itself (pg. 59) will give me added fodder for my discussion. I never knew that the phrase "No taxation without representation" had already been used by the Irish years before (pg. 61).
4. Adams' quote on pg. 101 will help my discussion on the birth of political parties and the Federalist Party: "I am more convinced that man is a dangerous creature, and that power whether vested in many or few is ever grasping."
5. Lastly, the one key concept I push on my American Government students more than any other is that we are a nation of rules, not rulers. I really emphasize to my kids that this had NEVER been done before, that every other civilization had been ruled by a king, queen, prince, pope, emperor, dictator, czar, or Sith Lord. I'm still not sure they appreciate that fact. Thank you James Harrington when he talks about creating "an empire of laws and not of men," (pg. 102).

Louisa May Alcott

2010-06-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

A true Utopian community of Transcendentalists was probably a rare thing even then. I was intrigued by the information regarding Timon Lion intending to found a colony of Latter Day Saints. Latter Day Saints(Mormons) are not and were never Transcendentalists in any sense of the word, in my opinion. How the two males, Lion and Lamb, ever thought they could take off into new territory, leasing? someone’s property, unskilled in farming, per se, and also uninitiated in hard manual labor, and succeed at an enterprise such as they had intended. I suppose Louisa May felt somewhat bitter about her experience, and I don’t blame her. But, I am unsure in that regard as I don’t know enough yet about her’s or other’s experiences to judge. Interesting how the mother was able to “hang in” there in spite of the conduct of the males in the company that found rather convenient times to be absent when important manual labor needed to be performed. And then at last, after the bottom had fallen out of the whole scheme and Abel is bent on seeing the adventure through to the end, including the extreme measure of committing suicide through starvation. He is able to see what in his world was truly most important: his wife and little girls. I have to hand it to his wife who prayed for him to live and shed honest tears over his rapturous decision to exit this world through his self-imposed starvation and just giving up. Perhaps it was her good natured commitment and her instinct to provide for family, and in this case, husband, that kept her going. Such pluck. I like the line: “Cheer up, dear heart, for while there is work and love in the world we shall not suffer.” Then, as the frostbitten apple falls to the earth after his comment on the failure of Fruitlands, “Don’t you think Apple Slump would be a better name for it, dear?” Alcott’s wisdom and humor in the story probably also helped her to survive as well as her own mother, through the “ordeal”, as it were, that they lived under themselves. The hand that rocks the cradle......women. Angels among us actually. I know from experience that I married an angel myself, but not before having been previously married to two devils. I’ve written a tune, and had intended it to be humorous, but it turned out quite serious, actually. The title: “When I Die, I’ll Go to Heaven (Cause I’ve Already Lived Through Hell), sums it up for me. Maybe Alcott's story is her way of dealing with the "Hell" she'd been through and was trying to just poke fun. "Crisis plus time equals humor." Sorry to get personal; hope no one is offended. Oh well.

2010-06-01T19:36:00.000-07:00

I'm not an English Lit. major and I'm not a history buff. But I have come to really appreciate the literature and history we've studied. It's been an eye-opener for me and has sparked a new interest in literature and history.

Some of you probably went right through the "Walking" portion of the assigned readings. I did not. In fact, I found myself "poring" over the words because I didn't want to misunderstand or miss anything. All of the readings, books included, are marked up and I found myself groping at first, then seeing all the connections, I became more at ease and delighted in the reading and logging and blogging

I appreciate the readings (Walking) that parallel the history reading. I don't know how else to say it. I started making connections in addition to other musings, like: "I didn't know that." "So that's why they did that!" After reading Errand Into the Wilderness, William Bradford & the History of the Plymouth Plantation, John Winthrop, and then Cotton Mather my understanding of why the Pilgrims came, the firm belief in the "errand" they had, the struggle they went through to establish themselves, the interaction with native Americans, etc., I can see why John and Abigail Adams were so very religious, and that a lot of those who attended university back then, as has been mentioned in another blog, started out to train for the ministry. It also makes sense why they founded this nation on Christian principles. Christians came here for religious freedom. Thomas Jefferson was a proponent of free exercise of religion.

There was a blog I read today where Nathaniel Hawthorne was mentioned and I wanted to relate a connection I'd made with that. Hawthorne's father was a sea captain, whose father was one of the judges at the Salem witch trials. The quote: "Not to be deficient in this particular, the author has provided himself with a moral - the truth, namely, that the wrong doing of one generation lives into successive ones." The whole idea of people coming here on an "errand" from God, and the Mayflower Compact the Pilgrims bound themselves to, and the "Hell, fire, and damnation" sermons that apparently were the norm back then, and then to fail in that errand, then the Salem witch trials and Cotton Mather, it makes sense that Hawthorne would make that statement in his book, The House of Seven Gables. Was he brooding over what his grandfather had participated in? Was he bothered by it? Did it haunt him? Don't know those answers. His writing is macabre. Very dark. His behavior was also abnormal, immature, like the girl not being asked to prom, as was mentioned. I am not a psychiatrist, but I was wondering if any of you had thought about these things and if you had any other notions or conclusions.

I am so grateful for the new insights and growth I've made as a learner/scholar and appreciate the path that has been laid out before us and the preparation we've received so that we might appreciate what we will go through soon. I've appreciated reading other blogs and the ideas that have come from that have also been helpful.

Random thoughts on Hawthorne

2010-06-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'll admit that the only real exposure of Nathaniel Hawthorne I've ever had was from my 11th grade English class in which we read 'The Scarlet Letter.' I was not too fond of him and his works back then, and I can't say that I'm any more so right now. But after the reading, here's what I've come to observe:
1. Most of his works have this theme that we can't outrun the sins of our fathers and that the mistakes one generation makes will always come back to haunt future ones. This just seems un-American to me! One of the things that makes this country great is that we are not beholden to the sins of our decendents (thankfully for me!) and that you can rise (or fall) on your own ambition and abilities. I like the transcendenetalists for believeing that people should not be stuck with tradition and past prejudices. This was a huge break from European thinking, yet Hawthorne perpetuates this idea with his works. Jerk.
2. Other themes Hawthorne likes: hypocrisy, witchcraft, and Puritan guilt. Gripping reading! It seems sad when there were so many other genres to write about: the American frontier (see James Fenimore Cooper), the blank slate of American politics and psyche (see Alexis deToqueville). Instead he gets bogged down with that stuff. Lame.
3. He was always burning his unsold manuscripts and copies. This sounds pretty petty to me. Either he was too concerned with commercial success or he was overly self-conscious. This sounds like the 16 year-old girl who trashes her room becasuse she wasn't asked to prom. Sorry if I've offended any Hawthorne fans out there. Or 16 year-old girls.
4. At the risk of sounding naive, 'Young Goodman Brown' was a bit confusing. Was it all a dream or what? What's the moral of the story? I think I need more practice at reading 19th century works. As for 'A Rill from a Town Pump' it made me very thirsty. It was very entertaining to read though. I think I like his stuff that doesn't involve soul-crushing guilt.

Traveling Far?

2010-06-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

If anyone is traveling from far distances to catch the plane the Courtyard Marriott by the SLC airport has a shuttle and allows you to leave your vehicle in their lot at no cost (except for the room of course). I have done this in the past for over 8 days and have never had a problem with anything happening to my vehicle. It just makes it convenient so no one has to drive you or come pick you up. Just an idea for anyone else who is far from the airport. Safe journey to all.

All learning logs are completed!

2010-05-31T21:27:00.000-07:00

I guess this is a crazy post but I am so excited to complete my final learning log. Was this hard for the rest of you to complete these? Some of the articles were really interesting and others were very hard to get through, but I did learn a lot through the process and am glad to be done. Many of these authors were great and very deep thinkers. Do we have as many authors who think so deeply today or are our authors just out to hit the best seller list?

Some of my favorites were "Paul Revere's Ride." "The Village Blacksmith," The Anne Bradstreet poetry, the history of William Bradford, Benjamin Franklin and Washington Irving. Maybe I liked the ones that I had more background knowledge, and connections for That is probably similar to our students. I guess in some areas we need to provide that to them to help them understand better.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quote

2010-05-31T17:29:00.001-07:00

ONE of the readings I finished this past weekend was Ralph Waldo Emerson. I really like this quote from him: “Reading must not be passive.” An active reader is one who engages fully with the text. “As we say translations are rare because to be a good reader needs the high qualities of a good writer.”
Isn’t this what we are trying to get our students to do? Be active readers?
Years ago I learned from a very good teacher, that to be a good reader you need to be a good writer!

2010-05-31T15:05:00.000-07:00

Walking. The art of Walking, with regard to man being a part of nature and not civil society. Man, to have four hours a day to just saunter, what kind of life would that be? Now, I can fly fish for four hours and never know where the time has passed to. I suspect that I have fallen into that group of the "faint hearted walkers," where my daily "expeditions" do take me eventually "back to my hearth" and half the journey is retraced. I do need to say that I do enjoy the "walk" that I take on the way to work, noticing things along the way. (I drive actually, and that is my "walk" for the time being.) I can't totally forget about the business of driving/walking as I might end up in the back end of some earth-hauling truck, or worse, create some new pathway after my vehicle left the road because my mind was "walking." One can't afford to walk that way. The truth is, my opinion, we really are a society (world) caught up in the business of getting, or going. We have become human doings instead of human beings. We do so that we might get, so that we might be happy, peaceful, whatever. I've learned that we need to "be" first, so that we might "do" right by who we are, and then we "have" the happiness and joy we were seeking. I liked this bit of humor from Thoreau: ". . . Mechanics and shop-keepers stay in their shops not only all the forenoon, but all the afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so many of them -- as if the legs were made to sit upon, and not to stand or walk upon -- I think they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago..." Perhaps walking is the panacea for all that ails society. If we walked, there would be no need for automobiles, gas, oil, tires, monthly payments, building and repairing roads, highway patrolmen, etc. That's just a short list. By the way, I am not a fan of Al Gore, and for those of you who are, more power to you. I believe we must take care of the world, but I believe that Mr. Gore and his friends are getting rich off of having stirred the "green" pot. So, I guess I am like the camel in that I find satisfaction in my ruminations while walking/driving. It is a time of peace for me; no music, no noise, no phone calls. Just silence, and the chance to slow my brain down and let it ruminate.

Learning Log Question

2010-05-31T12:45:00.001-07:00

I hate to even ask this because I want the answer to be "NO", but do we need to do learning logs on the Marzano book?

Marazno: The Frame Question, Giving it a Go

2010-05-30T10:04:00.000-07:00

Chapter 3 of Marzano is about Summarizing and Note Taking. This chapter caught my eye because my 5th graders and i were really struggling to produce a good quality summary paragraph using main ideas that were appropriate to what we read, followed by an example from the material/lesson. In this chapter there is a strategy called "The Frame Question" with variations for different applications. The Topic -Restriction-Illustration Frame (T-R-I) is the example that i tried. It was a tough concept to "get", but after we "got it" it became much easier to deal with, and the final product is a summary paragraph that has a main idea that is appropriate with an example that reveils understanding of the objective taught. The T-R-I was worth the trials, and could be effectively used as a evaluation tool.

There are three elements in the T-R-I strategy that were taught and used with my 5th graders in various subjects. The "T" stands for Topic and it is a general statement about the topic or subject to be discussed; "R" restricts or limits the information in some way; and "I" stands for the illustration or example that exemplifies the topic or restriction. The book describes the T-R-I and other variations really well, and i encourage you to give them a glance to see if you could use them in your class next year.

2010-05-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

I have a little reading left to do. Finished my paper last night on Thomas Jefferson and feel satisfied with the product. Hope I can be the novice "expert" I am told in the syllabus and emails I will need to be. We're probably all in the same boat anyway and it will be fun for us to lighten up and share. Actually can't wait until I get copies of everyone's papers and get to stick them in my binder for future reference. In addition to what was given to me at the beginning in way of books, I have purchased some more "stuff" -- the $100 was a terrific gesture and helpful, but has not even begun to cover what I have purchased and yet plan to purchase. I guess I got excited about the information, and my own enlightenment through reading and logging. I don't know if anyone else had the experience I did. The more I read and logged my thoughts, the more deeply I comprehended and appreciated the material we were given. It has changed my outlook, perception on reading/logging/learning. I want to incorporate these techniques, which, by the way, I also discovered were in the Marzano "bible". I don't feel like an expert yet. However, compared to where I was at in the beginning, I have come light years, in my own estimation. Hope everyone else is enjoying it and growing. Look forward to getting to know you and sharing the time together on the trip.

Vocabulary Lesson

2010-05-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

I know there are many vocab lessons out there. But here is one more. This particular lesson was from my Utah Studies class about World War II.

I gave the students a list of Vocabulary words from the chapter. Some words were places, some people, and others - other or misc. I asked the students to use their prior knowledge about the English language to put the words into three catergories. I didn't tell them at the beginning what three catergories. I heard. "A capital letter means a person." "I know a few countries, maybe we should have places". Students used their background knowledge to come up with three catergories. Once students had three sections, then the real work began. The students could work with a partner and discuss the words and what the meanings were.

The words were
FDR Germany Soviet Union Truman Great Britain opaque artillery
immerse Elbert D Thomas Japan ration processed food synthetic
Hawaii Tooele Clearfield Kearns surcharge newsreel Wendover
mess Hiroshima Delta transient Nagasaki Brigham City
ecstatic communism homogenous

After the students divided the words into three groups. I asked them to find them
in the book. We read some of the chapter out loud as a class. Whenever we found the
word, I was amazed at the students enthusiasm.

By using the words and putting them into groups, the students were able to make connections with the material. It allowed the students to make connections that I believe will be
longlasting.

Marzano, Teaching Specific Types of Knowledge

2010-05-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed this chapter on building vocabulary and my 5th grade class wanted to be involved with my homework so I chose to work with Sleepy Hollow in class. I passed out the first 3 pages and told them not to read the text but rather to skim the words and use a highlighter to find words they didn't know or were curious about. They had zero background knowledge about the piece and it might as well have been written in another language because the use was so foreign to them. Fun stuff!

I offered them the opportunity to learn 10 new words from this time period that they could add to their vocabulary. They were familiar with the Revolutionary time period so this sparked their interest. I also discussed the Marzano chapter and we talked about how many times a person must encounter a new word to really learn it. We next listed many words from the piece on the board, some were concerned that they may learn more than 10 words. We finally settled on 10 words that we were truly interested in. My class was divided into 5 pods so each group took two words to investigate and report back on. I did not use the phrase, "look it up in your dictionary"! I did give them until the next day to report back. They mostly gave brief verbal explanations after talking to parents and among themselves. We listed these words on a chart now with brief definitions.

Next I simply instructed them to find their favorite word from the list and draw a picture of what that meant to them. Since it was still early in our learning process and it is difficult to find the words in any other text for them to read, I had to remind them to risk. They could therefore choose any image that the word and definition could help them picture. We surrounded the word list with pictures many of which made us laugh. Word use was very limited but I did hear them try to add these words to their conversations or in a response to me and even that was rather funny.

The next day I brought in an old video tape of Sleepy Hollow. None of them had ever seen it so that was great, we were still in discovery mode! We popped some popcorn and popped in the tape an settled in. They were riveted, really total silence and then huge belly laughs. The video is Bing Crosby reading right from the text so as you go you see images and vocabulary link together. Repose, stripling, reverberated, lank, these lovely words began to come alive. They were quite enraptured throughout!

The next day I played an old cassette taped recording of the reading and allowed them to draw as they listened. My goal at this point was to allow them to hear the words as many times as possible since it was difficult to expect them to use the words with ease. I followed with a direct instruction lesson on how to find and define new words that they encounter in their reading and add them to their knowledge base. We did talk about how meanings for words had to make sense for them and they did need to use the words to build their own vocabulary. They actually drew the parallel that as a college student they may understand a piece like Sleepy Hollow because they had a larger vocabulary base. Yeah!

I read Sleepy Hollow aloud at their insistence in several different sittings, this kept sparking lively debate as to what horrors I might see at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. We did attempt to keep using the words till the end of the year but it was difficult because word usage is so different today. On the whole it was great fun and a valuable learning experience for my students with a great piece of literature that helped them connect with history!

Marzano Strategy, Part Deux

2010-05-25T21:27:00.001-07:00

Marzano Strategy

Think-Pair-Share

My AP Lit class wouldn't work without collaboration. We've studied the particulars of poetry and prose for the last nine months, but they seem to respond better when they don't feel like it's a solo pursuit. This strategy is simple, but effective. I use it with journal prompts, short texts, or poems. Most recently, we looked at the 2010 AP Lit test prompts--not the ones they used, but the alternate test prompts--and utilized this strategy.

With poetry, I give them the text, and they need to mark it up with notes--literary terms, comments--and look at title, tone, theme, etc. They know the drill, as we've done this often. Next, I have them pair up and share their information with a partner. With sophomore classes, I give them a time limit and have them switch, but with AP, they share, discuss and switch when they're ready. Then we bring it back to the class for whole class discussion.

I like this strategy because it gives students a chance to share their ideas and not feel like they have to fail in front of a group. Once they've shared with their partner, they're more likely to share with the rest of the class. We've had some of our best discussions this way.

Marzano Strategy

2010-05-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

Cooperative Learning
Marzano Strategy

Objective: Students will collaborate, address text, determine importance, and share their ideas.

I’ve used the “Book in an Hour” strategy since college. Basically, decide what text you want students to read, divide up a certain amount of pages for each group, require them to determine the most important information, create a product, and then teach the class.

Materials Needed:
Poster paper / butcher paper (You can also use the white board or an overhead)
Markers
Books

Set up your groups and assign a certain amount of pages per group. This can work for a short novel—I used it with The Five People You Meet in Heaven in my sophomore class recently, but I’ve used it with my juniors with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn this year—and it can also work for textbook chapters. Depending on your time frame, have students read the text silently (usually about a chapter or so) and take notes to share with the group. Working together, they are to distill the most important information and create a visual product to teach the class. As each group presents, students “read” the text with the class. It’s a great way to make text manageable, and allows them to work on other strategies at the same time.

Reflection: This strategy worked well with Five People. In the spirit of teaching until the end, this kept students engaged in text and allowed them to collaborate and create.

Marzano Lesson "Cause and Effect"

2010-05-25T21:12:00.001-07:00

Before CRTs, I introduced the concept of cause/effect with students by first showing them a necktie which I cut into shreds. I asked students what they thought could have happened to the tie. They came up with all sorts of wacky ideas (paper shredder, scissors, shark attack, etc.) After that, I gave the kids several different scenarios in which they were given an outcome (effect) such as a student walking out of shop class with a cut finger, or a cook running out of the kitchen with a burned hand. They then had to brainstorm possible causes. They came up with some good ideas. Finally I led them in a discussion of the effects of humans on the environment. We talked about global warming, deforestation, burning fossil fuels, etc. Then we completed a graphic organizer listing human causes and effects on the environment. They had to write an essay using the ideas listed on the graphic. After reading the essays, it was evident that they applied what they had learned about cause and effect in their writing.

Thoreau and Adams and Walking

2010-05-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

Thoreau obviously believed in the importance of walking and used it avidly. I was surprised by what I learned about Adams and walking. He also enjoyed being in open country and "thought nothing of walking five to ten miles per day to 'rouse the spirits'". Now of course these men lived in a different time but they both seemed to know and understand the power of walking, how it made them feel better and think clearer.

I had my 5th graders on a field trip today and we were walking around the USU campus and some of them had a hard time. We live in a very different world and in some ways not a better one. Does anyone walk just for fun or to rouse the spirits? We probably don't have the same open country and of course we have all types of exercise but maybe good old walking is better!

John Adams

2010-05-25T21:02:00.000-07:00

I have just finished the John Adams book and thoroughly enjoyed the reading. I was much surprised to find that one of my favorite books Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter, was a novel he had enjoyed. Made me feel a connection to a President. Goofy, I know. It is a great book and I highly recommend it if you like historical fiction.

I am thankful to have been enlightened by reading about such an undaunted figure who did much to shape the world we live in today.

Marzano Lesson K-W-L

2010-05-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

I don't know for sure if this is in Marzano, but it should be. He may call it something different. We're currently working on a research project in language arts based on Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire," which makes reference to several 20th century people, places, and events. Most of these people the kids have a vague reference for, but there are many they do not know. The KWL strategy (What I know, What I want to know, and What I learned) works well especially if they have little background knowledge of their subject. That way they can generate more questions in the W mode. After they started their research, it was fun to see the questions they came up with; definitely more than surface-level thinking. They really wanted to go deep. It'll be even more interesting to find out what they learned in the end.

Marzano Lesson- Cooperative Learning

2010-05-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

Combining Marzano with Kagan- I use cooperative learning structures for all subjects in my 5th grade classroom.

Part 1- Read any text- fiction or non-fiction. Do this whole class or in small groups. Whichever way you do this, students need to be seated in cooperative groups.

Part 2- When reading is completed pose a surface level question. Have the students do a Round Robin ( each student has to take a turn in the small group to share their thoughts). When all students in all groups have had a chance to speak, restate the question and then pull a stick to get individual student responses. ( They have already had a chance to form or hear an answer in their groups- so reluctant students or slow processors have something to draw on). I usually pull sticks for as many small groups as we have to get an overall feel for all students learning.

Part 3- Ask a higher order thinking question about the text and repeat as in Step 2. Repeat as much as needed to discuss the important details of the text.

Closure: Restate what has been shared and praise students for sharing their thinking.

Marzano Lesson- 3 Branches of Gov't Graphically

2010-05-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

I used our social studies text that outlined the 3 branches and their different duties for this lesson.

Day 1- I split the students into groups and assigned them each a branch of the gov't to become experts on using their text. We spent about 30 minutes with the readings. Next, I had them use the 20 words or less and a graphic representation of their branch. We presented these and I wrapped up the lesson with a closure on what had been learned.

Day 2- I gave each group a list of specific things to find in their research of the branches. The students needed to find the name of the branch, where they did their business, what their duties were, who did the duties, how many people comprised the branch, how the people were elected, and anything they felt important about the branch. Each group had a scribe that took notes on each branch ( the job rotated when one branch was completed). We were limited to the social studies book and found it inadequate at times- a computer would be great for each group.

Day 3- The students were given the makings of a pizza, each topping represented the different items they had researched. Pepperoni was the who, peppers were the duties, ham displayed the requirements, mushrooms represented balances of powers, and the crust listed the name of the branch and where they operated.
The students within the group worked together to use their notes and make their pizza. Before gluing they were to ask to be checked for accuracy ( this did not always happen).

Each group hung their pizza and presented their findings. We compared pizzas to see if there were errors, which allowed the students to share or defend their knowledge of the branches.

Closure- restate what each branch does and how it checks and balances the other branches.

Trial by what?

2010-05-25T18:36:00.001-07:00

Cotton Mather - It is a good thing one can no longer know who is on a jury nor write letters to them to encourage a verdict. I'm so glad to have the right to a fair trial.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

2010-05-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

Beware - the Devil is REAL!!!

Not all Christian faiths believe God and Satan to be actually, phsical beings. The firm belief that their is a physical God means there is also a physical Devil. Ewards talks of a Devil just as powerful and anxious as God. This creeps the hell out of me.

Formation of Ad Hoc Groups in Cooperative Learning

2010-05-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

If that snappy title doesn't draw you in, I don't know what will. I thought I would focus here on one particular aspect, the formation of groups for short duration activities (one period or less). Marzano addresses the need for using a variety of criteria for grouping students. Kagan directly comments on the need for variety. As my AP Literature students often use groups to give them an opportunity to express views on literary analysis with a frequency not possible in a whole class discussion, we have a need to vary groups constantly. Here is a strategy for achieving that along with the procedure to execute it.

I give the students a paper with an outline of a clock. The numbers appear normally on the face, but each number also has a line for a name. The students then circulate through the room, exchanging names for each of those lines. For example, Kylie crosses to another row and talks with Michael. They write each other's name for four o'clock. They each then continue on until they have a different name for each hour.

At the next opportunity for group work, I may call for every student to get together with his/her seven o'clock appointment. The next time, it may be the two o'clock appointment. This gives them a variety of partners with whom they can share and defend their ideas. If we want to work in groups of four, they can pair with another group.

This varied pairing is important for what they are doing because they are learning to develop approaches to the literature and they are always incorporating new skills or literary devices in their considerations. Preventing them from staying in a comfortable arrangement with the same partner or two keeps their idea development sharper and it keeps them more easily on task. Benefits occur when they defend their arguments with students who are less familiar to them.

The appointment clock can be redone later in the year, but it works best when they don't know what it is for. I find that small group work gives every student a voice. They need that voice when they take the test in the spring and must speak for themselves in the essays.

Episode Pattern Organizer - Assassination of Lincoln

2010-05-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

7th and 8th Grade Language Arts and History block class...

Background - students learned many aspects of the pre-Civil War era - sectionalism, slavery, currency, state/individual rights, constitutional amendment, primary documents, etc.

Student work - students read and studied many documents about Lincoln's death. Some included the testimonies given, prosecutor's and defense's arguments, as well as background information on the defendants. Students then created a Pattern Organizer about the assassination.

It starts with "Lincoln's Assassination" in the middle. To the left, students wrote the where, when, and time of death. Under causes, students wrote the connections they made to why someone would want to assassinate Lincoln. Some of the good answers were "Sectionalism, Lee's Surrender, Trial of Davis." Directly under "Lincoln's Assassination" they listed all the people involved. To the far right, under "Effects" students listed what the death would lead to. This was used to tie into the next unit on Reconstruction.

Descriptive Pattern Organizer

2010-05-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

7th and 8th Grade Language Arts and History block classes...

Background - students had learned the details of two battles of the Civil War, Gettysburg and Appomattox. They read and took notes on the primary accounts of Haskell and Chamberlin.

Student work - students created four pattern organizers to discern fact from opinion on the accounts. It starts with four circles on a page, one circle in each quarter of the paper. Two circles were labeled "Gettysburg" and two were labeled "Appomattox." Around one circle of Gettysburg and one circle of Appomattox, students webbed as many facts as they could find from the accounts. Around the other two circles, students webbed as many opinions as they could find.

Help!

2010-05-25T16:36:00.000-07:00

I hope I'm not the only dense one out there, but honestly, I can't seem to write enough. I've got the reading done, and I kept my log as I read the books. Now I'm in trouble with all of the articles. I've finished reading the articles, but don't know how much I should be writing on each article. I'm averaging about half of a typed page per article. Is that reasonable? I hate to be like a little kid who wants someone to tell me I've got it right, but after all of the reading, I would like to do it like I should.

Reflective Blog about my lessons

2010-05-25T16:15:00.000-07:00

My first lesson plan with the students went alright, but not as well as I was hoping. There was more of the students trying to make their construction paper decorative, instead of working on their poem and facts. The map on the white board was very helpful, and was a great opening and closing factor. The students were successful when they were asked to find facts and information about their explorer, but they did not find as much information as I was expecting them to find. I would do this differently next time.

My second lesson plan with my students went better than the first lesson plan, and I really loved the cooperative learning aspect of it. I really liked how the students were able to use the graphic organizer to sort out their thoughts. The students were able to use the graphic organizer to find topics and write details out for that. The thing that I liked the best, was that at the end the students were about to get up in front of the class to describe their group to the rest of the students. I and most of the students enjoyed the note-taking process.

Marzano lessons one and two. (Sorry, this is a long one.)

2010-05-25T14:55:00.001-07:00

Recently my sophomore English students have been practicing inferences. We talked about the differences between inferring and guessing, and we practiced looking at texts and inferring ideas among the words provided. For my first lesson using a Marzano strategy, I thought I would combine our topic with his ideas on cooperative learning (chapter seven). In this chapter, Marzano quoted the ideas of David Johnson and Roger Johnson on the five defining elements of cooperative learning:
1. Positive interdependence—sink or swim together
2. Face-to-face promotive interaction—helping each other learn
3. Individual and group accountability—each member contributes to the group
4. Interpersonal and small group skills—communication, trust, leadership, decision making, conflict resolution
5. Group processing—reflecting on how well the team functions
I started the lesson by reviewing the definition of inference and by practicing inferences as a whole group. I put a few different pictures on the overhead and asked the class to tell me about the pictures. They came up with great inferences about the relationships of characters within the pictures, the moods, the time periods, the social/ economic statuses… and the list went on. Once I figured they all knew the idea, I started to employ the cooperative learning. The assignment was to work with a group to come up with a story to fit a picture I would give them. This time I let them choose their groups because we like to rotate how groups are picked. They got into groups of three with one paper for the entire group (element of cooperative learning step one). One student came up to me to randomly pick their assigned picture from a bowl. Another student was in charge of writing the outline for the story they would create together. The last student actually wrote the story based on the comments of group members (steps two, three, and four). Lastly, students were given the opportunity to comment on the effectiveness of the group by writing their opinions and turning them into me (step five.) The kids enjoyed the group work and stayed on top of the assignment. I think the key to successful cooperative learning is working with manageable group sizes, having clear objectives, and setting a time limit.
In my second lesson plan using the Marzano strategy, I looked at what I was teaching in my junior English class. During this year, we have been looking at a variety of American authors, and we end the year with students working in groups (yay, more cooperative learning) to present a well planned fifteen minute presentation about the author of their choice. The students don’t turn in any research, bibliography, or notes. The entire presentation is graded while they are presenting. Since this grading process could be very subjective, I follow a rubric carefully and give detailed feedback so the students know exactly why they got the grades they did. Marzano discusses appropriate feedback in chapter eight. According to the chapter, feedback should be criterion-referenced, specific, timely, and corrective in nature. As the juniors where presenting, I was taking notes and in the following areas: length of time, creative biography of the author, texts examined, literary time period of author’s life, historical time period of author’s life, visual aids, and other aspects of creativity in the presentation. Before any of the presentations started, I reviewed each of the areas with the students and gave them each a copy of how I would be grading the presentation. This method of grading is criterion-referenced as it is based on the information they have learned about the particular author. It is specific because all the parts of the grade (this assignment was worth 200 points) have been broken down into sections, so students can see the strengths and weaknesses of the presentation. It is a timely method of grading because I can grade their work while they present and have the results back in the same period. It is also corrective in nature because of the specific feedback. Of course there are some students who do not take the assignment seriously, but most work hard to create an informative, entertaining, and memorable project. The students stress a bit about their own presentations, but they generally meet the expectations, and they enjoy the presentations of their classmates. To make this project more successful I think it is important to give the students ample time (outside of class time) to work on their ideas. I also give students many examples of past presentations to help them catch the vision of how much I expect of them. After working so long on the presentation, students really appreciate the specific and timely feedback I can offer through this method of grading.

Marzano Lessons

2010-05-25T14:03:00.001-07:00

I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that we'll see quite a few of these lessons today. I worked with my AP Literature students on Summarizing and Note-taking. They consider themselves done with high school and they don't realize yet what lies in wait for them in college. We talked generally about the sheer volume of information that they must process and absorb in their college classes. We also talked about strategies they have employed in high school and how they might cope with the speed of presentation that they'll encounter. High school students like to ask teachers to repeat things. That's not going to happen.

Anderson and Hidi make three generalizations on summarizing based on the available research. 1. Students must delete, substitute, and keep certain information 2. To do this effectively, they must analyze the information at a fairly deep level. 3. Being aware of the explicit structure of informaiton is an aid to summarizing.

I asked my students to organize their notes in a two-column system where they take lecture notes in the left column and leave the right side clear for re-processing. We talked through examples of information that one might delete, substitute, or keep. We also practiced applying background information to do effective screening of new material. Then the students utilized their skills in note-taking.

We embarked on a lecture-discussion considering a segment of Emerson's "Nature" essay where he defines Art, Beauty, and Nature. I asked the students to use those views as a lens through which they would view twelve poems from British masters who deal with time, beauty, and the transitory nature of life. Among them were "To an Athlete Dying Young," "To His Coy Mistress," "When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be," and "Ode on a Grecian Urn." The students were required to listen to teacher comments, respond to them verbally, engage each other in discussion, and take notes at the same time. Their notes were to effectively record key material while screening other information. The students were then asked to revisit those notes before the next class and reprocess their information, adding pieces of a discussion that might now seem relevant, but they had no time then to record or even add their own reflections that tie together material in a relevant way.

The purpose of reprocessing the material is to give the students opportunity to identify the structure of the information, see connections, and identify ongoing themes that would be important in mastering the information. They were also asked to do online searches of references that they did not understand, but that appeared to be important.

The students handed in their notes after two sessions of process and reprocess. I then identified where they had successfully made substitutions, grouping, and structural identification. Some of the students did very well in screening and articulating information, while others seem to be on their way to being typical college freshmen (skill not yet acquired). Plain effort also was a factor in how succesfully they processed and summarized.

I've reached the moral limit for length of a blog. I'll include the other lesson in another blog.

Please review my strategies - Post a comment.

2010-05-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody, thank you so much for the inputs. I would love to receive some feedback in my strategies once I teach first grade and the approach is a little different than if I would have taught upper grades, middle school, or high school. I am really excited about your feedback and view on the lesson plan. Thank you for all your blogs, it is amazing to read it and follow it. I had to hold on to all my publishing because of computer issues at home and new computers at school with no rights to assess this blog. It has been very frustating to me. Just so you all know, I ended up buying a laptop for the sake of my grades in this amazing journey that we are all embracing.

Lesson 2 - Using Other Non-linguistic Representations

2010-05-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Strategy Template for Foundations of American History and Literacy
Name: Helama Pereira
1st Grade

Strategy: Non-Written Response/ Non-Linguistic Representation (Mathematics operations)

Materials needed:
“My family worksheet”
Drawing tools
Large numbers from 2-10

Content area: (Non-Written Response) Content 2-1; Relationship with families (Social Studies).

USOE Core Standard and Objective: Standard 1: Students will acquire number sense and perform simple operations with whole numbers. Object 3: Model describe, and illustrate the meanings of addition and subtraction and us these operations to solve problems. Students will demonstrate a positive learning attitude.

Procedure for using strategy: (Use bullets)
• Give each student a copy of the My Family worksheet.
• Instruct students to draw their family using their markers, crayons or colored pencils.
• In the upper right hand corner of the paper, the students will write how many are in their family. They also write how many boys and how many girls.
• On the board, place large numbers from two-ten (Place numbers according to sizes of families. If you know your students do not have ten in their family, or if there are families with more, place that amount of numbers on the board.).
• Students will take turns bringing their family pictures to the board and placing them under the number that they have in their family.
• Explain to students that we have many different sizes of families
• Point out that a family of five might have two girls, and three boys, or four boys and one girl, but it is still a family of five.
• Go through the other numbers and point out the different combinations of boys and girls in a family.

Assessment:

• Dictate number sentences in math. Check for the correct use of signs and operations, equal signs, number sense, and possible ways of writing it.

The Non-written response or non-linguistic representation is to associate the number with the number of people in your family by gluing you’re the family templates on the board according with the number of boys and girls in your family. The result is also non-linguistic.

Summarizing and Note Taking (Oral added) Lesson 1

2010-05-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

Strategy Template for Foundations of American History and Literature
Name: Helama Pereira
1st Grade – Language Arts

Strategy: Summarizing Rope

Materials needed:
Word wall laminated and colored coded white, red, green, and blue.
Colored pencils
Retelling rope
Book: “Do Like a Duck Does”, by Judy Hindley and Ivan Bates.
White paper
Crayons
Content area: (Comprehension) the students will summarize retelling the story and using the necessary vocabulary to develop fluency.

USOE Core Standard and Objective: Standard 7 (Comprehension): Students will be able to understand, interpret, and analyze grade level text. Object 2: Apply strategies to comprehend text by retelling using important ideas/events and supporting details in sequence, compile information from the text).

Procedure for using strategy:
• Review colored coded word wall to help the students review vocabulary for the summary).
• Show the book “Do like a duck does” by Judy Hindley and Ivan Bates. Having the students showing the signals for each word read and acting the action verbs.
• Review the summary map and the sneak and peak after reading the book, so the children can initiate the process of retelling summary. Give the students the sneak and peak material to help with the summary rope.
• Explain the students that today we will use another strategy to summarize and move to written summary using the rope summary.
• Have students create 4 colored coded sentences to summarize the book.
• Once all the students have a summary ropes, just retell the story orally using: Where, When, Who, Problem, First, Next, Then, At the end.
• Divide the class in pairs and have the students retell using the rope to remember what to say according to the knots.

Assessment:

• Once the students are done with the entire oral retelling summary they will transfer the sentences into this 4 square graphic organizer and turn the paper in. Illustration is allowed. Evaluation will be followed used the 6 traits of writing.

PS note - Just as an information on my lesson plan it is true that when children in young grades learn how to orally summarize they master faster the concept of note taking and summary skills, one of the hardest concepts in language arts to be acquired among all grades.

Retelling Rope Nonfiction

Who?

Where?

When?

First...

Second...

Third...

At the end...

Have a rope with laminated squares with a drawing in each one of the retelling notification. You as a teacher with make a hole punch and with a strong tape you will tie this to the thicker rope a not is supposed to be there attached with your rope (the students are supposed to see to remember where they are in the retelling sequence, and in the future they are supposed to remember without seeing making the use of just the not, later on moving to independent retelling strategy without the rope). Practice and model to students the use of it. It is very tactile and very effective in general instruction. Teachers are able to reach students with special needs, and low achievers as they are very tactile.

Use rubrics to grade student experience in retelling as well.

Walden and Clothing

2010-05-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

I have three daughters who love to shop, particularly for clothing. I think they need to read this book (at least the part on clothing) but I don't think they will appreciate it or come to Thoreau's way of thinking but here are some quotes they should read:

"we are led oftener by the love of novelty and a regard for the opinions of men, in procurring it, than by a true utility."
Do we buy clothing we don't need? Do we buy clothes to impress others? Do we just love to shop? (I think Thoreau would be appalled by just a small peak into many of our closets!)

"No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes..."
Does anyone even patch clothing any more?

"I am sure that there is greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience."
I do agree that most of us think more of what we look like on the outside as we leave our homes each day than how clean our consciences are? Of course being a good true person is more important than clothing but I still don't don't want to wear clean patched stuff.

"old shoes will serve a hero longer they have served his valet." "......bare feet are older than shoes, and he can make them do."
I love to go bare foot in the summer but it is not because I don't have plenty of shoes!

"who ever saw old clothes....actually worn out,"
Do we get rid of clothing because it is worn out or because it is out of style, we are tired of it, or it does not fit in our closets anymore?

"We don garment after garment, as if we grew like exogenous plants by additon without. "
This quote is perfect for one of my daughters who lives in SLC and seems to have something new on everytime I see her.

Thoreau also talks of our dwellings and shelters and do we have what we need or do we have showplaces? This point was brought home to me as I traveled out of the country this past fall. I had a daughter living in the Ukraine and I went to visit her. After living in one of the old Communist block cement apartment houses for a week and meeting and associating with the family she was living with, I felt like a very spoiled American. We do place a lot of value on STUFF! The families I met in the Ukraine did not seem any less happy with less stuff. ( including clothing) . In fact in many ways their lives seemed simplier and better, but sadly I did not come home and get rid of all my stuff and move to a smaller dwelling. I do try to put less value on it and I really do see Thoreaus point. I don't want to wear patched clothing but in many respects we are spoiled Americans that place a lot of value on things that probably have little worth.

John Adams

2010-05-24T20:28:00.001-07:00

I finished John Adams a long time ago but have had trouble getting onto this site. I really enjoyed the book and am so glad that I learned much more about this great man. In DC he does not have a big memorial like many other founding fathers but he was so important in the history of this country. I was impressed with his moral character and the character of his family. ( a line of virtuous and independent farmers) I loved some of the advice he gave Abigail in raising their children. ("Fire them with ambition to be useful." ) If only we could do that with our students. When he was teaching he discovered that a teacher should be an encourager. I think all good teachers need to do this!

I had known of his defending the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre but it was really interesting to learn more about that event. Again I was impressed with the depth of his character. I loved his statement, " Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." He was willing to defend the facts, even though it was unpopular and maybe even against his own wishes.

During the section about the part he played in bringing about the Declaration of Independence I wondered if the vote would have ever been successful without him. To him American independence was the only way!

I also liked his ideas on the purpose of government - to provide happiness to the people. He was also very adamant about government supporting education and getting education to be available to all. Don't we wish our students had his love of books and education?

What an Experience!

2010-05-24T18:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally did it; I finished John Adam's biography. I was absolutely surprised how hard it was for me to stop reading it. Night after night, when I should have been getting some sleep for my students' sake at school the next day, I was reading, marking, and reviewing ideas found in that book. I enjoyed Heleman's comments about the book and John Adams. However, I recognized true Christian principles and beliefs in Adam's words, teachings, practice, and ideals. He spoke of this life meaning nothing were it not for a life beyond this and of his and Abigail one day looking down together on this earth from the battlement of heaven. He found himself in church regularly to help him keep his purposes in life in order. He taught his family the meaning of religion, and he even mentioned religion in his later letters to Thomas Jefferson. "The love of God and His creation, delight, joy, triumph, exultation in my own existence...are my religion."
Although not meant as such, what a compliment it should have been to John Adams to have it said of him when other politicans were found in wrongdoing, "That Adams was never known to be involved in such activity struck some as a sign of how naive and behind the times he was."
That the great leaders discussed in McCullough's biography had their flaws is a fact that has been mentioned by others in their blogs. Even with their flaws, they were great men; I can't help but wonder if we would be living in a democracy today had we not had these great men and their devotion and dedication to this great land.
What a wonderful experience to have been able to read and share my thoughts about this book. I would probably not have ever taken the time to read it had it not been for this class. While I felt at times that I was never going to be able to finish all that was expected for this class and still be prepared for school, I am glad now that I accepted the challenge.

Lesson Plan #2

2010-05-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

Intended Target: 5th grade students

Objective:

Students will identify the important events of the revolutionary war, by filling out the provided graphic organizer.

Materials Needed:

* Two column graphic organizer

* Pencils

* Books on each of these groups (American Indians, landowners, women, indentured servants, and enslaved people)

Anticipatory Set:

Have these groups listed on the board: (American Indians, landowners, women, indentured servants, and enslaved people). Give students 5 minutes to talk with their tables to see if they can figure out some information about those groups.

Instructional Strategies:

Tell the students that they are going to be getting into groups to learn about each of those specific groups.

Assign a group of 6 students to each group, pass out the two column detailed paper per group, and have the students read the book and answer the information on the paper provided.

Students will fill out the Topic/Supporting Facts and Ideas worksheet. They will be given 15- 20 minutes to work as a group.

Closure:

Review the groups that were posted on the white board. Have each group get up in front of the class and explain the information that they found.

Assessment:

The teacher will check the assignment that the group finished together.

2010-05-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

Marzano Lesson Plan
For my pre-seminar lesson from Marzano’s Classroom Instruction that Works, I decided to do a lesson on using collaborative learning all outlined in chapter 8. I decided to use this chapter for two reasons. First, although I employ cooperative learning often, I’ve gotten kind of lazy at judging its effectiveness. I’ll fully admit it at this point of my career I take a lot of my lessons and techniques for granted. This was a perfect opportunity to critically look at a method I employ often. Secondly, I needed to cover a lot of material quickly n my A.P U.S History class all the AP exam was looming only a few weeks away.
I separated my AP class into 5 groups where they would read about, study, and report back to other groups about their findings.
The groups were:
1. women and the feminist movement
2. Latinos
3. Asian-Americans and Native Americans
4. The counterculture of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s and
5. The environmental movement and consumer protection.
I personally picked the groups myself. Though I didn’t spend much thought forming the groups, I did try to separate my better readers and more driven students into different groups. I usually try to do that hoping they will bring students up in terms of reading and even attitude towards the content. I was glad to read that Marzano’s research contains the idea that students of low ability perform worse when they are placed in homogeneous groups with students of low ability. This confirmed my suspicion on the importance of heterogeneous groups. I asked each group to answer the basic questions who, what, where, when, and why while conducting their readings. For example, I had them answer questions like:
-who lead the feminist movement?
-what was the American Indian movement?
-where was the countercultural concentrated?
-why did Latinos employ the tactics that they did?
-where did the feminist movement take place?
Once all the groups met together and decided which information was important to share and what to leave out, they quickly formed an ad-hoc jigsaw group in which they presented their information. Although I always get worried about lower-ability students presenting vital information on their own, they have their groups’ script they can use, and they usually do a good job, as was the case with this lesson. Almost no information was left out and everyone felt like somewhat of an expert on their particular topic in their ad-hoc groups. Overall, the lesson was a tremendous success. In my opinion these groups had most of the defining elements of cooperative learning (pg. 85). They encouraged positive interdependence, they promoted face-to-face interactions, there was both individual and group accountability, and there was interpersonal and small group skills used (although this could have been developed somewhat). I have to admit there was little time for group processing because of our time constraints and I didn’t really find it necessary.
Brett Boberg, Bingham High School

Marzano Lesson

2010-05-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

I'm lucky enough to teach 11th grade American Literature, so I'm able to spend a few weeks on Emerson and Thoreau's Transcendentalism. This has always been one of my favorite units, but this year I added a new assignment. Marzano's main focus is helping students relate to a subject or idea, so I thought I'd give my students the assignment of finding Transcendentalism in their every day lives--and their lives revolve around music.

Objective:
Students will be able identify the fundamentals of Transcendentalism in today's music.

Items needed:

A few excerpts from Thoreau: "Intro to Walden" and "Civil Disobedience"
A few excerpts from Emerson: "Self-Reliance" and "Nature"
Dierks Bentley's "Free And Easy Down the Road I Go"
Paper, pencil

Lesson Plan:

Day 1: Read intro to Emerson and Thoreau. Read Emerson excerpts and have them answer questions on handouts.

Day 2: Continue excerpts with Thoreau, and answer questions on handout. Discuss the ideas of Trans. throughout, and have students share what they agree and disagree with. Ask them where they see some of these ideas today. Share "Free and Easy Down the Road I Go." As they listen, have them write down how this song exemplifies the philosophy of Trans. Discuss. Explain that they will be sharing a song, as well as typed-up lyrics, in class next time that do the same. They will only need to share the part of the song that they feel best exemplifies the idea.

Day 3: Students share their songs and their lyrics. Students discuss after each song as to whether or not they agree that the song does, indeed, apply to Trans.

Conclusion: Students can independently identify Trans. philosophy in literature and music. Added bonus: they better understand the views of Transcendentalists and realize that they perhaps have something in common with "crazy" Thoreau and Emerson.

Genealogical Conference

2010-05-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

I also attended the David McCullough address that Marianne wrote about. I thought I'd post a new blog rather than comment on hers because who knows how long this could end up being. McCullough is a great historian because he writes in such an approachable style while not sacrificing accuracy. That is a rare gift. He made some great points in his address at the Conference Center that evening and I thought I might include a few things from my notes.

McCullough said that he never knew much about any of the subjects upon which he'd embarked. "Curiosity," he said, "is what distinguishes us from the cabbages." When he started to research the Johnstown Flood, he had only known it from his childhood as what they (the children) called it when they let the gravy flood over the mashed potatoes into the peas.

He emphasized how important journals are in learning about people in the past. In fact, at one point, he noted that diaries could bring people back to life. He said that he knew these people better than he knows people in real life because "I don't get to read other people's mail."

McCullough also talked about how important teachers are for society and the vital role that history plays in shaping us as people. "How can we profess to love our country and not know the history? History is vibrant. It is about human beings and life and time...What matters most is the attitude of the teacher." "Attitudes aren't taught. They're caught."

He also underscored the importance of the foundations that great men like John Adams laid. He talked about how significant he found it that Adams would say that he studied politics and war so that his sons could study language and literature. His sons would study those pursuits so that their children could study art. He saw the progression of culture and society as being based in an appreciation of the beautiful aspects of life as well as necessary applications of political groundwork and wealth-building. McCullough added that Thomas Jefferson exhibited similar values with his epitaph where he mentioned being author of the Declaration of Independence, writing Virginia's statute of religious freedom, and founding the University of Virginia, but excluding that he served as president of the United States.

McCullough concluded by saying that history is an art form like music, literature, painting, and the discovery of science. When we neglect history, we take away the joy of discovery. Why limit our knowledge to right now? It's all open to us. He shared how moved he was in a trip to Normandy with some friends, one of whom was a Holocaust survivor. His friend's act of putting pebbles on a grave marker signified that someone had been there and that they were staying in touch. History helps us stay in touch. It reveals who we are and why we are the way we are. It transcends time, generations, and geography. Obviously, it was a good evening.

John Adams book

2010-05-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

John Adams really loved life and sought to truly enjoy it. I felt heart broken knowing about his final days when he was ill and suffering from his eyesight. I love the fact that he shared life with others. He lived a simple life and worked very hard. He loved his books and his family, specially his wife, and his children, and friends. I felt his life was very difficult and he was often subject of vicious attacks. He did not waist one day in his life. I was really inspired by his desire to be happy with his life, even through hard times.
I think he loved his wife so much and the separation was a killer to him. He faced his greatest challenges without his sweet heart. His marriage was long, I loved the way he lived a life free from scandal, at least the moral ones compared to Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. His wife was his strength and support.
I learned a lot from his book. I really felt sorry when I read two of his children became alcoholics and essentially wasted their lives. I learned that a father's involvement in the raising of a family is essential. John Quincy went on to fame and became the nation's sixth President, both Thomas and Charles struggled through life. I believe that he blamed himself for their ways in life as a father by acknowledging that his long absences from the family deprived them of the father they needed.
I still think that religion was weird in Adam's mind. I had the feeling that he was more deist than a Christian. Mccullough is a very good communicator. It was one of the best biography I had ever read. Reading this book was pleasurable.

The rest of the book...

2010-05-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

In the other chapters he begins to discuss about buying a place to live and I think he introduces the Thoreau's alternative to property ownership. I love the introduction of the Walden Pond along with the description of Thoreau's day and his purpose in life. I love the challenge to make something better of our own lives. He moves on talking about his feeling on the importance of reading and discuss about the books. Thoreau continues his colorful description of his life in the woods, including the sounds of nature around his home and also talks about the railroad and commerce.
He moves on talking about the entertainment of visitors, the woodchopper who visited with him several times, a simpleton that Throreau talked with, various other visitors are mentioned including an escaped slave, the uniqueness of some of them, and the ones he welcome the most.
The suggestion of alternatives when he talks about the beanfield in a greater detail including the figures on his costs. The way he describes the village as if he were an anthropologist. It is interesting to hear about his arrest for not paying his poll tax. it is also nice to read about his trips.
The description of the Walden Pond is so interesting. I love the details which provides information from years after he left the pond, and also describes Flint's Pond and White Pond, ranting about the selfish owner of the first.
Remember when he talks about the fish trip and when he seeks shelter at Baker Farm? He finally meet John Field and tries to persuade him that a simple life would be better. How are your thought about this part of the book? I felt so different inside when I read this. I felt attracted to his speech.
The description of the animals living around the pond. The most noticed animal being the ant which were fighting a war. That was described after he provides a short spoof of his and Channing's behavior. He goes discussing hunting, the eating of meat, and the need of purity. I love his idea of true hospitality, the description about the coming of the fall, and the building of the chimney. The description of the the seasons is very interesting as he is always referring to his own experiences about, for instance when he lived in Walden Woods before moved, the visitors from Channing, Alcott, and Emerson. He includes the winter animals that he observed during the winter and ways of attracting them with food. The winter fishermen, his survey of the pond, and the harvest of ice on the pond.
Description finally comes for the spring to Walden Pond with the details suggestive of creation on his hand. I believe that the rest of the book he summarizes his most important messages to us, the readers. the use of colorful metaphors to good effect.
In conclusion, I think if you want to live a conventional one, devoting your days working for someone else, and watching TV, working around your home, collecting experiences through a regular routine from life, and consuming products after products with the use of your money this book will not be so suitable. It is all about getting out of bubbles according to this beautiful book.

Walden Chapter I only

2010-05-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys but this is a complex book. I believe this chapter is an attack on the American Lifestyle along with Thoreau's alternative solution. I know that in this chapter he is introducing himself and going on in describing the self-defence behaviour of his town.
The freedom that he pursue in the book about living the life we want to live is evident. I love the four necessities of life that is suggested by him in the book. I also found interesting that he says that it is easy to acquire them but the most important point is to focus on the personal growth after that. I love the benefit from his advice as explained in the book. Very well described and persuasive.
Clothing and shelter seam to be very important in the book, he talks about the fact that the civilization ought to be making better people out of us, but it enslaves the successful people and degrades the poor. Isn't this interesting? I love the emphasis put on the spiritual growth instead.
The discussion of the cabin wich eventually leads to the discussion of architecture. This is so interesting the way he approaches the college students by saying that they should build their own residences more easily than they could rent them. I believe this is an attack to the division of labor, and he goes on criticizing the modern improvements, specially the railroad. Comparing and contrasting is so alive in this part of the book.
Did you folks noticed the way he criticizes the farmers' methods? He is so interesting when he looks to his own diet and discusses food, then his furniture, and property in general. He also talks about his economic system and how it benefits him and it could benefit others. I love the criticism of the poor imposed on us and the fact that he explains why he doesn't devote to charity. What a vision.

Walden experience.

2010-05-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys I have been so busy trying to read all the materials and getting acquainted with all the history and events from that time.
I want to write about my experience with Walden. I am so new to all this and I have been looking to these materials with an English view as well as with a little of the historical background that possess.
Henry David Thoreau moved into a cabin at Walden Pond. Nice years later Thoreau published Walden about his life at the pond, a document that is just as revolutionary as Karls Marx's Communist Manifesto, which was published in 1848.
The interesting thing in my mind is that in 1862, Thoreau was little known outside the Concord, Massachussetts. He had just published two books with unsatisfactory sales.
To summarize my experience I think Walden was a very hard book to read for a couple of reasons. One of them is the fact that it was written by a somebody that was a very good writer. The use of accurate use of language, allegorical metaphors, and long complex paragraphs and sentences, and a vivid, detailed, and insightful descriptions. It is a great book to review metaphors, hyperbole, personification, irony, satire, metonymy, synecdocho, and oxymorons, and the logic of the book, is based on a different perspective of life, quite contrary to what most people believe. I really thought that he liked to tease and challenge , if not fool me as reader.
I think that the purpose of the book is to argue for, explain, and demonstrate a new philosophy of life, something that is poetic, personal, and universal.
A Thoreauvian lifestyle is almost exactly the opposit of the consumer treadmill that most people find themselves running on today "Does wisdom work on a tread-mil?" asked Thoreau. Invisible wealth cannot be bought, sold, or stolen according to the book.
I am certain that it is not easy to be a Thoreauvian. Throreau wrote: "I learned this, at least, by my experiement: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, whe will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost that is where they should be. Now put the foundation under them." Is that easy to be Thoreauvian? I do not think so...I will try to write my notes from my reading now.
I will ask you all to be patient with me as I do this today. I do not have English as a first language and it was super challenging to me to appreciate in full the reading. I had to read the book 3 times. I also bought the book on tape and listen on my way to my job could be thought in a different way and do not concentrate in the meaning of all the words, metaphors, and etc.
I will post my journey of reflections from chapter on to the last one here. Sorry to be a little late one this but I am so excited about this that I need to let it out.

Lesson Plan #1

2010-05-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

This lesson plan is for 5th grade

Objective: Students will be able to construct a poem about the explorer that they were given.

Materials Needed:
* A hat
* Explorer Names
* Pieces of paper ripped into 3" by 2" pieces
* Writing Paper for each student
* Construction Paper for each student
* Markers/Crayons/Colored Pencils/ Etc. for each student\
* Class set of Encyclopedias
* Their own decorating items they brought from home

Setting:
Put a map of the routes that the Explorers have taken up on the board. Remind students that we have been talking about explorers. There will be a poem up on the board, and students will learn that poems can explain things/people.

Activity:
Talk to the students about explorers, what they did, and why they were trying to find new places or things. Write down the name of specific explorers, put them in a hat, and then have the students pick out a name.
Tell them that they are going to create a poem about the explorer they were given. They need to add some information to their poem, at least 3-5 facts. (encyclopedias can be used if needed)
Students will decorate their construction paper to make it look exciting and fancy.
After their poem is finished , students will get into groups of students with the same explorer, and talk about their explorer. Each student will also read their own poem to their group.
After the individual work and group work is finished, the teacher will review the explorers. The route that each explorer took will also be shown on the map that was posted on the board in the beginning.

Assessment:
Check their poems to make sure they included the information needed.

Many Opportunities

2010-05-23T17:22:00.001-07:00

So while I've been reading all about these different articles we were given, I have come to one main conclusion, that those individuals had MANY MANY MANY opportunities.

Most lives that I have been able to observe, have had a simple timeline.

1. Go to school

2. Graduate

3. Find a job

4. Stay at that job for the required years until retirement.

5. Retire

6. Travel and do all the activities that they've been saving for, or relax and enjoy the time off

Right now I have taught for 4 years, and know that I will be teaching for another 26 years until I retire. The thing that I find impressive is that all these other individuals have done so much, and have done so many different jobs in the span of their lifetime.

For example, James Fenimore Cooper, Phillip Freneau, and William Cullen Bryant. I am also surprised at how often the individuals traveled.

Road to Independence the Nonlinguistic Way

2010-05-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

This is 1 of 2 lessons that i used in my class this Spring from the Marzano book. I have enjoyed reviewing this book and refreshing some strategies that i incorporate as a 5th grade teacher. :) The first one that i used was a nonlinguistic model.
In studying the American Revolution i wanted my students to remember the causes and effects of those causes of the revolution, and for them to be able to draw some parallels to todays political situation. To accomplish this i would assign a four part nonlinguistic assignment called the"Road to Independence" . This would be independently done with each part being completed within a time line. Part I: Researching. As we read through our United States History textbook, i gave the students a gridded graphic organizer that had spaces for: Event, Date, Main Ideas of Event, People and asked them to come up with 12 different events that led to the American Revolution. Part II: Summarizing. Using the graphic organizer from Part I, the students now needed to select any 10 events and list them in sequential order complete with Event, Date, and a two sentence summary of the event including any people recorded. Part III: Designing. Using a 14'' x 20" piece of white paper the students literally design a wide road called the "Road to Independence". This road when finished will look similar to a game board complete with a colorful background, exits, turns, detours, road side rest stops etc. The road squares themselves are created with a Title (event), date, the students 2 sentence summary, and a small illustration of that event for each square. The events are placed in order ending with the Declaration of Independence. Part IV: Presenting. This part is exciting as the students present their "Road to Independence" to the class and we discuss the causes and the effects of the events they chose, and we draw any parallels to what is happening in the political world that they may have heard over the news or their family talking about. Finally, the students using a rubric evaluate their own work and hand it in for my final assessment. The varied "roads" end up on display for all to see and enjoy.

Classroom Strategies-Vocabulary Words

2010-05-23T06:07:00.000-07:00

I really like Chapter 11 A Process for Teaching New Terms and Phrases. It reinforces what I am already doing in my classroom but it also gave me some great ideas. I agree that vocabulary words need to be words that the students will encounter in their reading. The vocabulary program I use introduces the words in a story or reading. First, we read the story together and the students highlight their new vocabulary words. Then they read it again and look for and underline context clues to help them understand their new word. Next, we go through the story as a class and stop/discuss and write each vocabulary word, syllables, what they think it means looking at context clues, and then write what it actually means. I then show a picture as we discuss each new word with the vocabulary word displayed in large font below the picture. It is displayed in the front of the room for the next 7 to 8 days . Studies show that students need more than 5 days for the dendrites in their brains to make the connection to learn new words. For the next 7 days the students have different activities to learn their new words. One activity is to use the word in a sentence and then draw a picture of the word to help them associate it with an image.(p126 imagery techniques) We also might make a brochure and different writing activities. This has helped my students learn new vocabulary words and also learn how to understand what a word means by looking for the context clues. They become more independent readers as they learn to master new words instead of skipping difficult words as they read.

John Adams

2010-05-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading John Adams and I came away from it with respect for both John and Abigail. Two words keep coming to mind: integrity and endurance. I think that the comments that have been made about recognizing the positives in each of the founding fathers is very true - you cannot judge because you were not in the midst of these events, along with the turmoil and pressures that each of them had to endure. But it is very revealing to me that, although he was not perfect, John Adams stayed true to his morals and values through every assignment he undertook. He lost his temper at times, but he never resorted to lying or dishonesty to get what he wanted. I don't know that I wouldn't have succumbed to the pressures and justified some back street negotiating when everyone around me was engaging in such behavior. He was at peace in his retirement for a reason; a clear conscience. He endured through many hardships and sacrifices, but in the end he knew he had come through all with his values intact. That I could learn from such an example and always act in accordance with my professed beliefs.

Anne Bradstreet and Phyllis Wheatley

2010-05-22T21:36:00.000-07:00

I just read the Anne Bradstreet and Phyllis Wheatley articles this weekend. They were both respected writers in America. Anne Bradstreet was also the first published poet in the New World. Phyllis Wheatley, an African slave, was the third published poet in America. Both women not only overcame the difficulties of writing and publishing quality work-they also overcame gender and racial difficulties as well. In both cases, the women were educated and successful in writing poetry, while testing the boundaries of what was acceptable.

Shadows of Patriotism

2010-05-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

The Tea Party Movement is an intriguing multicultural, nonpartison wave of momentum in our Country that is building with Americans passion for reignition of Patriotism. Americans willing to make a stand for our Country, some "no matter what" the cost is, to preserve our Constitutional inheritance for our children and their children. Patriotism a profound word with a deep shadow in history (as we all have been studying hard for the last few months) has been lost over the years in the "socially correct agenda of the Socialistic minded politicians" in the hopes of "whitewashing" the people with the idea that "the Government knows what is best for them,...don't worry...just be a puppet on our string". Ha!! Think again! There is a new current paralleling that of the original Patriots of the 1770's-1780's arising and just like then, we won't shut up! It is exciting to see that not all have bought into this concept, and that across the country Americans are demanding that their voices be heard! Americans are blooming in Patriotism and it is beautiful! There are parts of the Constitution that are very threatened and there have been parts that have been ripped out. However,with leaders who are willing to uphold the Constitution and make a stand on what the Founding Fathers and soldiers sacrificed for, we can and will uphold the Constitution. This still is, though strained indeed,a government for the people by the people and we are "taking our country back!" Let Freedom Ring ...not oppression and socialism.
The parallel here is, that now, just as then, people are gathering in all sorts of grassroot places in cities and towns, churches and markets, fields and barns across our great Country and talking about the "Intolerable Acts"of the government and how our voices need to be heard and what we need to do about it. It is sad and disheartening to see these same issues arise again in our history of just 234 years, is it because we didn't guard our liberties as the Founding Fathers' warned us to? There are still Americans standing in the courageous, enduring shadow of our Founding Partiots. Are you making a stand? Is your voice being heard?

Pondering the Commitments of a Vision

2010-05-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

The personal sacrifices that John and Abigail gave for this country's birth are so great a measure that it is hard to fathom. The cost of seeing a vision and holding on to that vision requires ones total devotion to it "no matter what". The "no matter what" part is often times easier said than done. What would i do under the same circumstances. What would i expect my husband to do? Would i support him as she did "no matter what?" "No matter what " the cost would be to me? When i read that John and Abigail had been married 14 years, but only 7 of those years had they been together, i suddenly realized the personal cost of their commitment to the vision they both held so dear. A vision of birthing a new country, not any ordinary country, but a free country with free people, with a government designed for the people by the people. Unlike any other country in the world. That is quite a vision.
I remember reading of many hardships that John and Abigail went through, most of which were on their own, separated from each other. I recall each of them leaning on their commitment and faith in God by quoting verses from the Bible that gave them strength, their commitment to each other and their children knowing that the freedom obtained would ensure their children to walk and grow in liberty; and of course their commitment to their vision. A few examples of extreme hardships that they endured were: when Abigail took the family to Boston to be immunized for small pox while John was at his post in Philadelphia; having a baby on her own, then a few years later giving birth to a still born baby, neither of which John was able to assist despite his personal pain and want; spending winters alone with all the responsibilities of taking care of family, house, and animals; John getting deathly ill in the Netherlands; not to mention the severity of everyday life as a result of the Revolution. The depth of commitment to the vision that John and Abigail exhibited continuously causes me to ponder my own life commitments to God, family and country.

2010-05-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

Thank you, JWoody for clarifying how we are to report our lesson plan(s). (I put the 's' there because I get easily confused between blogs, lesson plans, comments on blogs, and so forth that I am not even sure whether we are to report on one lesson plan or two.) Back to the lesson plans. I made a SIOP unit I titled "From Washington to Irving to Van Winkle and Beyond." It may sound like a crazy title, but it got the kids' attention and as we went through the unit (it took about two weeks), they came to understand the connections. I believe I already mentioned in another blog that I used the analogy boxes to review the figures of speech. To introduce the unit, I listed my seven objectives and then, using another idea from our strategies book, I wrote the following under my objectives: "As a result of this unit, I, _____(student's name), will [and here I renumbered to seven preceding seven double writing lines for the student to list what they were willing to commit to accomplish and/or what "take-off" ideas they would like to learn. If my objective was, for example, "1. the students will review and use with greater understanding the various figures of speech," a student might respond, "1. I will be more creative by using more metaphors in my writing." Once I modeled what they were to do, the students seemed to enjoy coming up with their own take on the objectives. Additionally, I grouped the students (3-4 per group) to research the specific areas we would be covering. Some students researched the causes of the Revolutionary War, some researched Washington Irving--birth and family facts. Others made a timeline of Irvings travels. There were eight groups; students chose the area that most interested them. I was really impressed by their powerpoint presentations. The students were given the presentation rubric I would be using for grading, so they knew exactly what was expected in their research and presentations. They also knew that they would be given an assessment on the information from all of the groups, so they took notes and paid attention to all of the presentations. After reading Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," we read a poetic version of the story, and watched a clay antimation DVD of it. Then, I got posterboard size paper and had the groups position themselves around the room to create a three circle venn diagram. This went really well. I had told them before any of the reading this would happen, so they were prepared. Trying to write the general ideas of a two week unit that contains ten lesson plans probably in a paragraph has not been easy and has probably been a pain for you to follow. If you're interested in the entire plan with a day by day breakdown of expectations, let me know.

Longfellow

2010-05-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

WOW!!! What a treat to read some of Lonfellow's work. He has such a gift of rhyme and creates such a visual image through his poetry. He is such an upbeat author and fun to read. I use his poem 'The Children's Hour' in class and students really like his poetry. He is able to encourage growth, endurance and committment for higher goals through his writting. What an exceptional individual, staying positive through adversity. I was so impressed by his poetry, I researched more about him and his life, and shared some of his poetry with a few students (Village Blacksmith, and Excelsior) they really enjoyed them and even asked if they could read more. I was impressed that when he went to Europe to gain more knowledge, he actually "walked."

Time Eras

2010-05-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

In social studies I gave my students four eras to choose from. The could choose: The Roaring Twenties, World War 1, Dust Bowl, or World War 2. After they listed their choices in the order that they wanted to learn about, I put them into groups. Each group had high and low readers in it. Each group was then given a book about their era. They were supposed to read the book, list six events that happened during their time period, write a paragraph about two of the events they listed, state their favorite thing they learned about during this time period, and write down something they did during the time period that they wished we still did. When they were done with this they were supposed to make poster depicting what happened during their era and present it to the class. The presentation could only take five minutes, everyone in the group had to take a part, and no one could read their part.
As the students were reading their books it was fun to hear some of their comments. Some of the comments were: Hilter was a dictator, which is one of our vocabulary words.
He was even notorious, another vocabulary word. Roosevelt was the President during the dust bowl, I wonder if that was the same Roosevelt I did my President report on. I enjoyed students relating their current learning with their past learning.
Some groups got right to work and other groups had a hard time getting started, but everyone got the assignment done.
Every group's poster was different. Some groups did a timeline. Other groups drew a variety of pictures that took place during their era. Some had a mixture of words and pictures to describe their time period. All and all I think the groups learn a lot about their time period and learned a little about the other periods. The students used the following stategies: cooperative groups, summarizing, and note taking. It added a little variety to the usual social studies instruction.

LAST CALL BOSTON RED SOX

2010-05-20T18:37:00.000-07:00

I am sorry to repost this. I am getting nervous of getting stuck with this
ticket. Last call. 10 of us are attending the RED SOX v PHILLIES
friday night. I have one extra ticket that someone didn't pay for.

STEP UP RIGHT NOW AND BE MY HERO>

COME TO THE GAME WITH US>

If I don't hear from you- I am going to try to list it on EBAY

Emerson revisited

2010-05-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

I wrote the little article the other night, because I was so frustrated with all of the information that was given to us about Ralph Waldo Emerson in all of those pages we were required to read about him before we could really enjoy his reading! Once I got through that stuff, I found that I really liked (or at least liked) his writing. I loved how he described beauty, and linked it to nature. I have found many of those feelings as I drive to school each morning coming from Herriman to West Valley City. The beauty of the mountains and the first light coming over them in the morning, or the clouds and fog lighting up during the first dawn light as you come over a hill and see Antalope Island.
Anyway, I just wanted to apologize for giving poor Ralph such a hard time in my last blog.

2010-05-20T16:03:00.000-07:00

I had my students write an essay for me listing three things they had learned this year. One student wrote, "I didn't think I could ever write and I was always nervous about doing it. But every time you gave us the story map before writing I knew that if I just filled that out and followed it I could write. And now it's easy!"
I agree that graphic organizers help students generate nonliguistic representations. They combine the linguistic mode with the use of words and the nonlinguistic mode because they use symbols to respresent relationships. These tools really do give students confidence in writing. Although in the beginning most students think graphic organizers are not necessary. But in most cases they rely on the maps as they mature into greater writers.

John and David - Wow!!

2010-05-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

I have a much greater apprication of John Adams and David McCullough. I wrote a long paragraph on this in Word and tried to paste it into this blog but it did not work so I give up.

Walden - The Good, Bad and the ?

2010-05-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

I keep vacillating between thinking this is great stuff, this is crap. I have talked with two English teachers and one loves Walden and one hates it. So I am not the only one with ambivalent feelings. The first two chapters seemed like it was the Hippie bible. It said in the 1840’s what the Hippies were chanting in the 1960’s. Part of me thought that Thoreau was a prophet in foreshadowing the future. Part of me said the Hippies were not as great as they thought that they were in discovering the “Truth” that Thoreau had known and practiced a hundred years before.

Later in book I thought that Thoreau was selfish and self absorbed. He did what he wanted to do and rather than being the noble independent person, he was just doing his own thing with no contribution to the greater society, and he could not have done it without that greater society around him supporting him by supplying an ax to build his cabin and buying his vegetables.

There is room in our society for all kinds, even the Thoreau’s, but society could not survive and the Thoreau’s could not survive if all were like Thoreau.

Neophyte post

2010-05-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

I am somewhat ashamed to admit that, prior to reading John Adams, I knew little about this great man. I was impressed, as I'm sure you were, by many attributes, but mostly by his love of family, country, and learning.

In the first section, one of my favorite moments is where after returning home, he wants to see his land, followed by his family and his books. BOOKS! "But above all, except the wife and children, I want to see my books." I'm such an English teacher, I know, but I loved reading that one of our founding fathers had such dedication to the written word.

Happy or Lonely?

2010-05-18T18:24:00.000-07:00

So I have been reading Walden, and keep thinking about if I was in that situation what would I do. I personally am not someone that can't sit around and do nothing. I start going stir crazy when 2 weeks of my off track has gone by, so if I were to spend 2 years and 2 months in a secluded location, WOW!!!

On the other hand I believe that I would be able to find a lot out about myself, what I believe, what I appreciate, and see how the simple life would be. It would sure be a wake up call.

I know his whole reason was to isolate himself from the rest of society, but with reading his books I have a hard time about how his ideas come off about the economy. It seems as though he thought that if you had a stable job, then you lost who you were. You lose all the beliefs, joys, and dreams that you had for yourself. He also mentioned that without having to work, you can be true to yourself. I have a hard time believing that. Yes, when you have a 9-5 job Monday through Friday, it is hard to do everything you always immediately want to do. People still have dreams and joys in what they do.

Anyway, just wanted to share.

What do you think? Do you believe you have lost some of your dreams?

Need help with Emerson

2010-05-18T18:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Blogger Friends,

I was wondering if any of you are having any trouble with the reading and understanding of the Emerson article. Possibly some of you can help give me some insight to what in the world he is talking about. In some ways it seems that he just keeps saying the same thing over and over. If any of you have any insight to this writer, and could help me to understand what in the world he is trying to say, I would appreciate your help. Perhaps, some of you that teach literature may have a better understanding of his work. I hope I am not the only individual in this group that is struggling with this article.

Thanks for any help.
Louise Isham

Non Linguistic/Kinesthetic Activity

2010-05-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

I have found that using non linguistic and kinesthetic activities in classroom instruction helps to make history come alive for my students. When I taught my students about slave life on plantation. I gave each student a cotton bole. They had to remove the seeds from the cotton. I showed them pictures of slaves filling boots, barrels,and baskets with the cotton. They could imagine what life would have been like having to pick enough cotton and remove enough seeds to fill the baskets each day. As they worked on their cotton, I read some excerpts to them from the book, To Be a Slave, where it described cotton picking. I also had them listen to some spirituals. Because it was a hands-on activity, students realized a little better what the life of a slave was like and remember it better than if they had simply read it from a book and done a worksheet.

Republican Party Venn Diagram

2010-05-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

The Republican Party was formed in the 1850s. Abraham Lincoln was the first president elected from the party. In my 8th grade US History classes I have my students do a venn diagram comparing the platforms of the Republican Party with the platforms of the Republican Party today. My students are always surprised to find out after completing the diagram that the Republican party has evolved quite a bit so much since the 1850s until today that if Abraham Lincoln were running today, he likely would not be in the party. It led to a good discussion of how political parties are always evolving and the platforms that they hold today, could change quite a bit in the next several years. Students were able to see how the tea party movement going on right now is an example of how the republican party could potentially be evolving.

Poetry a la carte....

2010-05-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

William Cullen Bryant; (Biography of William Cullen Bryant) “To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language;.... Yet a few days, and thee The all-beholding sun shall see no more In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, Where thy pale form was laid with many tears, Nor in the embrace of ocean shall exist Thy image. Earth, that nourish’d thee, shall claim Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again, And, lost each human trace, surrendering up Thine individual being, shalt thou go To mix for ever with the elements, To be a brother to the insensible rock, And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce they mould.....” For the first time since starting the Walking part of the required reading, I am starting to appreciate poetry; not that I hated it before, or hadn’t read any poetry, but I don’t think that I really had acquired much of a “taste” for it the way that I recently have. It has come upon me, quietly, gently, but has gripped my heart through the words of this great poet: William Cullen Bryant, of whom I knew nothing before the reading. I want to “own” or acquire some of his poetry to peruse and enjoy at a time when I am not so rushed. His words have so moved me, that I find myself musing on the images his choice of words have painted in my conscious mind. The first part of Thanatopsis, which I’ve quoted herein, reminds me of the tranquil solitude that I find when I am out in nature, away from the pressing demands of life, weilding my fly rod, armed with one of my creations, a substitute for real food, to tempt a fish or two, and enjoy the experience. It is more than seeing, hearing, smelling or feeling. Indeed, for me, it is to mingle with the very spirit of the Earth, in its raw form, and feel the healing that comes to my soul every time I veture to a favorite stream or lake, or, even to a new one. It is all the same: I return to mother Earth, to partake of a renewal or rebirth, and revel in my choice of that day’s activity, feeling that I have done so almost selfishly, hiding the “secret” of my experience of spending time "fooling" each time I go “a-fishing.” Thank you for showing us a “path” that now beckons all the more to me. (I inherited a set of books of poetry, and found Bryant therein; I was pleased with myself. Too bad I hadn’t found a place for them in my readings prior to this time. I suppose we all “wake up” in our own time to new and wonderful things, such as poetry.) I was just wondering if anyone else was enjoying any of the poetry also.....

Civil War Battles Comparison

2010-05-17T11:12:00.001-07:00

Intended Target: 5th grade students

Objective:
Students will be able to identify the major events and battles in the Civil War, and their significance to the War by comparing the battles.

Materials Needed:
o Class size timeline
o Paper timelines for each group
o Battle Information Sheets (5 total)
o Clear Plastic Stands/Frames
o Civil War Battle Spreadsheet (one for each student)

Anticipatory Set:
Place the dates and events up on the board. Give the groups about 5 minutes to see how fast the students can put the timeline in order of the events and dates correctly. Afterwards put your timeline in order and have the students see how closely they got it right.

Instructional Strategies:
Discuss the order of the timeline and tell them that today they will learn about the major battles and events in the civil war. Also, review the North (Union or United States) and the South (Confederate or Confederate States.) Tell them today that they will see some of those words abbreviated – US and CS.

Divide the class into 5 groups and state your expectations for working in groups around the classroom. Set-up the plastic stands with the different battles around the classroom. Hand out the Battle Spreadsheet to each student and give them instructions. They are to start at their own stand and they have approximately 5 minutes to fill in the spreadsheet boxes that deal with that battle. After the five minutes are up (timer goes off) the students rotate clockwise to the next information sheet and fill in the boxes about that battle. So on and so forth, until all battles are completed.

Closure:
Afterwards, review the battles with the students and discuss the casualties, the outcomes, and important things that happened at these battles. Have the students turn in their comparison spreadsheets completed.

Assessment:
Check their assignments looking for accuracy in each of the battles and their descriptions of important information.
Civil War Timeline
Battle Comparison Sheet
Battle Information Sheets

Marzano Lesson

2010-05-17T10:52:00.001-07:00

We are right in the middle of the Civil War. Leading up to this discussion, we need to organize lots of information. We need to compare and contrast the North and the South. We need to learn about the different movements happening in the 1850's. (women's rights, abolition etc)

I have found that using graphic organizers is vital in helping my little 8th graders to understand.

A nice "T" chart to look at the similarities and differences of the North and South.

A "venn diagram" to help see the strengths and weaknesses of both sides.

Another graphic organizer to keep track of leaders in the Women's movement, abolition movement and Art/Literature Movement.

Graphic Organizers allow students to visually see the connection between different topics.

This helps the visual learners- great tool for your ESL students and needs with special needs.

GO- G.O.

Summarizing Lesson Ch. 3 Marzano's

2010-05-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

Intended target: 5^th grade students

Objective: Students will be able to summarize a one-page passage of non-fiction text using the strategy of keep, delete, and substitute.

Anticipatory Set: Who knows about how long a movie is? For example, how long is “How to Train a Dragon”? (aprox. an hour and a half or more) After getting answers, ask students how long it would take them to retell the movie to a friend. (aprox. 5-10 minutes—about 1/10 of the time)

Procedure:

1. “We are going to leave to summarize an informational piece of text today using keep, delete, and substitute.”

2. Do a shared reading of the intended text. It should be a piece that is a low level for the average student. Look for the main ideas of the selection.

3. KEEP: Together as a class circle the key words. Suggested number of words is 1/10 of the entire selection. You are “keeping” 1/10 of the words.

4. Next, DELETE about ¼ of the circled words. Use a colored pencil or marker to cross them out. Look for words that are redundant.

5. Go through the selection again and DELETE ¼ of the original kept words to get about half the number of words circled. Leave only the words that really capture the essence of the text.

6. Then have students find any words lists where subordinate terms can be used, such as fish for salmon, halibut, and perch. SUBSTITUTE the words for more general terms where appropriate.

7. Last, either write the topic sentence found in the original text or create one. Use the circled key words remaining and subordinate terms to express the main ideas of the selection in a few sentences. Final summary should be approximately 1/10 the length of the original text.

Follow this plan as a shared reading activity a few times before asking students to complete this independently. Students can use any non-fiction text to practice summarizing effectively.

This lesson comes from Classroom Instruction That Works by Marzano page 32-33 and adapted from an identifiable paper in my files. :)

Benjamin Franklin

2010-05-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

I think John Adams would have been truly unhappy with this article.

"Early bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise."

He was so upset with Franklin in France. Adams would get up and do his normal routine. He would finally see Franklin come waltzing about mid day. I just have to laugh.

"The Continental Congress sent Franklin and others to France to secure an alliance."

And others. And others. This would have sent Adams into a frustration fit. And others.

It sure is nice to have historians and authors that will look into the lives of these men and help us see the true patriots. I am not saying Franklin wasn't a patriot. I just think this short article paints a picture of Franklin that is very glorious.

When I did my learning log about this article, my question for the right column was this.

"Which Franklin is the real?" Some historians really blast Franklin. Some historians paint a nice picture of Franklin? Will the real Benjamin Franklin please stand up?

2010-05-15T23:15:00.000-07:00

LESSON: Using Analogies and Comparisons

I teach 5th grade this year and part of the curriculum in Mathematics involves ratios. Ratios, they learned, can be written as a fraction: 2/5, with a colon: 2:5, and in words: 2 to 5. Comparing two sets of ratios might look like: 2:5::4:10. (2 is to 5 as 4 is to 10, etc.) This helped students to see relationships with numbers, and to also understand that before a fraction is reduced, it looks different: 4:10::2:5. (4 is to 10 as 2 is to 5).

As I read in Marzano’s Classroom Instruction that Works, I was intrigued by the information there on analogies and how they help us see how seemingly dissimilar things are similar, thereby increasing our understanding of new information, and understanding how new information relates to “older” information, thus making new connections and deeper understandings and applications.

Well, I reviewed with the students the idea of ratios in numbers, and then went a step further and began to share the idea of analogies, and showed them how analogies are expressed in a similar fashion: hot:cold::night:day, (1:2::5:10). Hot is to cold as night is to day (opposites) and 1 is to 2 as 5 is to 10; a different way of expressing the idea of one-half, etc. I shared many of the good examples in the book, trying to get them to understand and it was interesting to experience with them their discovery of the relationship that exists between ratios and analogies. Comments of “Oh!”, or “I get it!” were very common. Okay, so now things were starting to heat up a bit and accelerate.

Next, I shared some more examples out of the text such as: oxygen:humans::_______:________, (carbon dioxide is to plants). I let them come up with some of their own analogies, many of which I hadn’t thought of myself. Their minds are quick to make connections. Tsunami:wave::__________:__________, (earthquake is to tremor), another example out of the book.

To extend the lesson, now that they were starting to understand, their faces smiling and eyes brightening up, I took a U-turn and returned to some elements of our study of the Civil War. North:South:: ________:_______, (Union, Confederacy; blue, gray; free, slaves, etc.) We played with some of these for a few minutes, and now they were really getting excited. Slaves:plantation owners::_________:________. (One of the young girls in class said: Mr. Nielson: his wife! This threw the class into hysterics and we rolled with that one for a bit. We were out of time, ending on a very good note, setting up the next day’s lesson with a great experience).

Next day, with a quick review of the territory we’d covered the day before with ratios and analogies, etc., I moved forward once again. Which brings me to the second lesson of Compare and Contrast.

I found Mrs. D’s modified version of the compare and contrast chart from page 19, 2.4, in Marzano’s, and asked her to send me a copy, if she would, because I was interested in using it to extend my lesson. She graciously shared, and I copied it for my class to use in culminating our study of the Civil War.

During the study of the Civil War, the students participated in a simulation for about 7 days where they each were either on the Union side or the Confederate side. All through the experience and study, they were continually pitted against each other in very realistic ways. They learned that the North had more men, better food, clothing, guns and other munitions, than the south. The south were better marksmen, and they fought like dragons for their “states’ rights” and to choose how they would live and deal with slavery. There were daily scenarios, (at least 3 per day), of real battle/life situations and depending on how students rolled the dice, it was determined whether they were victorious or not, wounded seriously or not, whether they got infection and died, whether their morale was up or down (there were some defections), their general health, clothing, food, camping situations, etc. They experienced many insights into the war itself, and experienced real thoughts and soldier’s experiences by reading real diary entries. The students had to march everywhere we went. (For the end of the year, this was an excellent experience to keep them focused on school, giving them something different and exciting to do. They also had to make daily journal entries, which were read and graded according to a rubric. Their answers in the journal had to coincide with the daily experience they’d had. If one of their comrades died in battle or they received wounds, they needed to include those things in their journal. What they read and experienced, helped them to feel, empathize, and internalize the experience. So, after utilizing the compare and contrast chart as “platoons”, they had to then “write together”, creating a final writing experience summarizing their experience in the “war” as “real” soldiers, recalling their feelings and thoughts in their responses. Every “soldier” had to write as part of the group, adding to what had been “experienced” by others also. They had to respond as platoons, recalling their experiences, thoughts, feelings, etc. They really got into this and created some writing that sounded not unlike the journal entries they’d read from authentic Civil War era soldiers. It was a very beneficial and exciting experience to see the students grab hold of the experience and learn on a really deep, basic level, which I think has impacted their lives. For me as an educator, it was enlightening and very gratifying to see them learn and grasp the concepts through analogies and comparing and contrasting.

Below is one experience of a “female” soldier. (We compared soldiers nowadays to soldiers in the Civil War and it was commonly believed by the students that there probably were few if any female soldiers then. However, inasmuch as there are female soldiers today, I stressed that they experience the Civil War anyway as a female, if they were indeed a female, and note their experiences accordingly in their journals.

David McCullough and John Adams

2010-05-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I attended a two hour program in the LDS Conference Center in SLC which was a part of a week long genealogical conference. One of the speakers was David McCullough. I heard him speak last April at the Tabernacle when he spoke to Utah teachers, and he was so wonderful. This time I didn't know what to expect, but it blew me away. He talked about the importance of understanding historical figures from the past by first understanding the time from which they came. He talked about his ability to come to know and understand someone from the journal entries and letters that they wrote. McCullough talked about John Adams and quoted several times from the book. He talked about how Abigail's letters to John were her way of working out what she felt and thought about a topic, not just communication to her husband. That is the importance of journal keeping or blogging or completing an essay; until we express what we think about an issue or a piece of literature, we have not fully thought it out. He talked about the founding fathers and the fact that they had all read the same books and quoted them, knowing that others would recognize the quote. They had that common framework of ideas from which they drew. I wonder if we are giving our students that resource? He quoted the inscription that John Adams had put on his ancestor's sarcophagus lid (p.649)to show that the values such as industry, prudence, and frugality that his ancestors had demonstrated were ones that he would recommend to his posterity. His life was an affirmation of the virtues he believed in and wanted to pass on to his countrymen as well as his own family. I don't think John Adams was perfect, but he is a truly inspirational example of someone who stood by his principles and sacrificed to preserve them. Understanding and learning about men and women who shaped our country helps us to understand what our principles are (or ought to be) and to examine what we are willing to sacrifice in order to uphold them. THAT IS THE REASON TO TEACH HISTORY TO OUR STUDENTS!

G.O. and Beyond!

2010-05-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

I like the graphic organizer displayed by "Mrs. D." that she used for her Holocaust unit. I took my students to the Anne Frank Exhibit as well. The movie was good for the students. I visited Dachau (concentration camp) and used pictures I took there together with interviews I had with survivors. The kids had more questions to ask our guides than they knew how to answer. I would really appreciate a copy of your graphic organizer. It does look very useful.
Also, I am totally uncertain about the lesson plans. Am I to include them here, or am I to give them to Judy as we board? I would like copies of the others' lesson plans that could be tweeked and used by a Language Arts teacher. Will someone please advise me. I have them ready and, having just finished using them, have them accessible.
To the person who wrote recently about the importance of Adams in writing the Declaration of Independence and the animosity others had toward him, thanks for sharing. It really sounds like many, if not all, of us have had our knowledge and understanding of our founding fathers altered.

John Adams bio

2010-05-14T12:49:00.000-07:00

I am finally finished reading this book and now am experiencing some sadness that is it over. This is a marvelous account of a very distinguished man that I enjoyed learning about. Many of the things he did/accomplished/was involved with, I already knew; however, learning about his fatherly/grandfatherly side was delightful. He was a true gentleman and I loved reading about his correspondence with his family, friends and grandchildren. I would have loved to receive letters like he wrote - words that could be savored for ever. I'm not sure that many of us have letters from any relatives from when we were younger or appreciated them like John Adams' friends and family.

I disagree to some extent with the comments that some have made about Jefferson and the others. In my humble, unofficial opinion, men like Jefferson did have good qualities and John Adams indicated this fact in his later life and letters. I'm not sure how all of us would have dealt with the politics of the time nor the criticisms, and/or reports of what we did in our private or public lives, etc. What would have been the outcome of their disagreements if the communication they had with each other had been quicker instead of weeks or months?

I would love to read biographies of this caliber concerning Jefferson, Hamilton, and others involved with John Adams before, during, and after his presidency. Had these men kept the collection of correspondence that Adams did, would we learn something new? I would like to think so. My thoughts for the day.

Pat Drussel

Anne Bradstreet Poetry

2010-05-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

I loved these poems, mostly because I love poetry in general, but when I did some research on Anne's life, I gained a greater appreciation and understanding of her as an author. I realize it was almost unheard of for women to get published during that time period, and if it weren't for her brother-in-law John, her poems never would have been published. Maybe she didn't want anyone to read her work, but this type of writing is timeless and important. With all the hardships Anne and her family endured, what else could she have done but write poetry. It obviously gave her life more meaning.