These are kind of stacking objectives for English/Language Arts. The focus is on character traits. It is best done with a book with more ambiguous actors--no good and bad guys--and full of strong characters. Recommended texts include Curious George, Where the Wild Things Are, Despereaux, The Magician's Elephant, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (basically, any book by Kate DiCamillo), Flowers for Algernon, Hamlet, Othello, The Great Gatsby (who am I kidding, you can use the Great Gatsby for everything!), The Percy Jackson Books, Harry Potter, etc. (Basically, it can be taught in any grade).
Remembering
The student will be able to, given a narrative text, identify and list the main characters in the story with 95% accuracy.
Understanding
The student will be able to, given a list of main characters from the story, infer character traits, compare character's traits, and group characters by like traits, with 90% accuracy.
Applying
The student will be able to, given a character from the story, demonstrate an understanding of the character's traits by writing a journal for that character that parallels the events in the story, with 85% accuracy.
Analyzing
The student will be able to, given a character from the story, outline changes in character traits throughout the story and attribute in a report, changes to events in the story, with 90% accuracy.
Evaluating
The student will be able to, given characters in a story, hypothesize the character with the best traits and debate their decision with their classmates, focusing on quality of character traits, with 85% accuracy.
Creating
The student will be able to, given a well developed character, create a new story in which the characters traits play a key role, including a central character change, with 85% accuracy.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Over the Wall
Believe it or not, this blog post is not about Orion or anything like that. I just thought the metaphor was dually applicable to the idea of language barriers.
Someone mentioned earlier today about the idea of how difficult it would be to be in a place where no one understood you. I decided to comment on this by providing a frustrating story. As most know, I'm Sign fluent and that I have some friends that are Deaf, as well as having some students that I work with as a tutor at SAC that are Deaf. The single most frustrating experience for me is when my bosses (well meaning, I am sure) and other peripheral individuals (those people that just seem to always be around, but don't necessarily work with me) ask me why students who are Deaf do not make more use of the interpreter services available to them. I can think of no more isolating interaction than the interpreter interaction. I know most Deaf people try very hard to meet a hearing person--writing on a notepad, gesturing, etc. This is not an attempt to be a part of the hearing community, but rather an attempt to make a connection with the hearing community. I can also assuredly say that most Deaf people would like to see the same kinds of investments from the Hearing community.
And that leads me to the questions of today. Is Captain Dathon's sacrifice worth it? I wish I could say yes. I mean, in the end, The two societies are able to find a peaceable agreement and live with each other. But it is Picard's first interaction with Dathon's people that reveals the smugness of the primary society and it's view of the secondary, and hints at the tragic conclusion. I wonder if this is very much different from the way the Europeans came upon the Natives--an awkward language, weird rituals, and bold threatening stances. Ceremony. I wonder if these people didn't spend so much time posturing, if Picard had not assumed about Dathon's intentions, but had sought to understand them, if things would have ended sooner, and more positively. You could write a book on 'ifs.'
Dathon died. It reveals some tragic truth about our social structure: bodies bridge gaps more readily than minds build bridges. Pragmatics says, yes, it was worth it, because the end he desired from the experience was reached.
As for Picard, one hopes he came away with a better understanding not of language and people, but of himself, and his assumptions about other, alien, people. It's destructive to interpret any other culture through the lens we interpret ours--to the culture, its people, and to ourselves.
If only if only...
Someone mentioned earlier today about the idea of how difficult it would be to be in a place where no one understood you. I decided to comment on this by providing a frustrating story. As most know, I'm Sign fluent and that I have some friends that are Deaf, as well as having some students that I work with as a tutor at SAC that are Deaf. The single most frustrating experience for me is when my bosses (well meaning, I am sure) and other peripheral individuals (those people that just seem to always be around, but don't necessarily work with me) ask me why students who are Deaf do not make more use of the interpreter services available to them. I can think of no more isolating interaction than the interpreter interaction. I know most Deaf people try very hard to meet a hearing person--writing on a notepad, gesturing, etc. This is not an attempt to be a part of the hearing community, but rather an attempt to make a connection with the hearing community. I can also assuredly say that most Deaf people would like to see the same kinds of investments from the Hearing community.
And that leads me to the questions of today. Is Captain Dathon's sacrifice worth it? I wish I could say yes. I mean, in the end, The two societies are able to find a peaceable agreement and live with each other. But it is Picard's first interaction with Dathon's people that reveals the smugness of the primary society and it's view of the secondary, and hints at the tragic conclusion. I wonder if this is very much different from the way the Europeans came upon the Natives--an awkward language, weird rituals, and bold threatening stances. Ceremony. I wonder if these people didn't spend so much time posturing, if Picard had not assumed about Dathon's intentions, but had sought to understand them, if things would have ended sooner, and more positively. You could write a book on 'ifs.'
Dathon died. It reveals some tragic truth about our social structure: bodies bridge gaps more readily than minds build bridges. Pragmatics says, yes, it was worth it, because the end he desired from the experience was reached.
As for Picard, one hopes he came away with a better understanding not of language and people, but of himself, and his assumptions about other, alien, people. It's destructive to interpret any other culture through the lens we interpret ours--to the culture, its people, and to ourselves.
If only if only...
Orion and the Scorpion
My descriptive piece! Yay! It was hiding out under my coffee table, probably afraid of the dog. :-/
Orion climbs over the horizon
a leg and an arm first--a hunter mounting a wall,
with new stars--a trophy--in his belt
and a witch on his shoulder.
He passes the winter here, scanning
the sleeping earth for the last living creatures
and then slips away,
us leaving him behind as he looks elsewhere for life;
then:
the scorpion comes;
hunting for him.
I'm going to have to play with format some more, but that's the basic idea.
Orion climbs over the horizon
a leg and an arm first--a hunter mounting a wall,
with new stars--a trophy--in his belt
and a witch on his shoulder.
He passes the winter here, scanning
the sleeping earth for the last living creatures
and then slips away,
us leaving him behind as he looks elsewhere for life;
then:
the scorpion comes;
hunting for him.
I'm going to have to play with format some more, but that's the basic idea.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
About My Missing Descriptive Piece
I totally and completely lost it. :( I am still looking for it. I know I showed it to some of my people on Friday, but then it got eaten by the massive stack of things to do that is my desk. Sad day.
Randy
Randy
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