Wherein, we argue about collaboration and we look at all those chickens. 

So, in case you haven't noticed, I'm running a day behind in writing/posting these. I may catch up this evening; maybe not. Turns out that actual teaching gets in the way of writing about teaching. :-)

Anyway:

Day 3, 10/29/14

1st period, AP English Language
We began class with the vlogbrothers' video "I Kind of Hate Batman." As I mentioned before, I recognized on Tuesday that students were having a lot of difficulty with understanding speaker (as it pertained to the rhetorical triangle) and finding the nuance in a speaker's argument. Unfortunately, it's really hard to analyze how speaker/purpose/audience affect argument until you kind of have a good grasp on what the argument is. Often, my process for figuring out the argument + rhetorical triangle is (ironically) circular: first, I speculate on what the argument is; then I cycle through speaker/purpose/audience; and finally, I modify my initial argumentative claim based on the evidence I discovered via the triangle. 

This week, I'm writing about what we did in every class period, every day, in the hopes that it'll help jar some ideas loose for both me and readers of this blog, and so you can see what a real day in the life of my students and me looks like. 

Day 2, 10/28/14

1st period, AP English Language
I talked yesterday about all of the projects we were in the middle of-- today, we took some steps towards completion for some of them. First, we watched my bleeped version of Ze Frank's "Make Believe" video (NSFW in its unedited form) and discussed the argument he was making, as well as what we could tell about the speaker from the argument he made. Students struggled with the concept of "speaker"; they really wanted to describe his physical characteristics (he doesn't ever blink!) instead of making inferences about his personality and history based on the argument he makes. This is something we're going to revise for tomorrow-- the Rhetorical Triangle Lights haven't come on yet for most of them, and I need to try something different. 

After that, they started filming their Puppet Grammar videos (in which they/their puppets teach a grammatical concept in 90 seconds or less). Some students also took the opportunity to finish up the OMAM Puppet Video Sparknotes we've been working on.  A few examples of these to come later--they need work with the puppeting and video production elements, but for a first try at this kind of thing? Kinda excited.

2nd period, planning
During this period, I went out to our "data room," where we (as a faculty) keep track of the struggling/at-risk students by documenting their grades, absences, behaviors, etc. We color red, yellow, or green beside their names, and it gives admins a quick-glance look at how these kids are doing and with whom they need to immediately intervene. During this time, I checked on my students (probably 20 of them) who are on this list, and highlighted/made comments by their names. 

Then, Cheryl and I made sure all our stuff was ready for my afternoon/her morning classes. 

3rd period, Desktop Publishing
Nothing complex to report here- students began filming their brief "what it feels like to be a student during the day" videos. This may eventually turn into a longer-form documentary type thing, but that idea is still in its infancy. I also have a couple students who are html-coding a puppet website for Cheryl's students. They made proposals, won the design challenge, and are doing incredible work trying to put the site together. 

4th period, English 11
Students in this class worked primarily on academic vocabulary and etymology. We just started this, and the kids seem to be taking to it well. It helps them to have more concrete types of assignments; below is the actual writeup from Google Classroom.

Then, they got the opportunity to stand outside for a fire drill for 20 minutes. Perfect ending to the day, really.