The Strange & Curious Tale of The Last True Hermit

Michael Finkel's story in GQ The Strange & Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit is a great read. Finkel tells the story of Christopher Knight - a recluse who managed to craft a life of isolation living in the woods of Maine for nearly thirty years. Knight opens up to Finkel -- to a point and reveals a complicated set of interests and tastes. Knight describes his difficulty returning to society and his experience in prison, "I am retreating into silence as a defensive move," he wrote. Soon he was down to uttering just five words, and only to guards: yes; no; please; thank you. "I am surprised by the amount of respect this garners me. That silence intimidates, puzzles me. Silence is to me normal, comfortable".
The article connects with Into the Wild, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Glass Castle and any other text about escape, independence, mental illness or isolation.
Here's a version of the article with a few study questions added at the end:  The Strange & Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit.

Sarah Kay & Phil Kaye "An Origin Story"

A great story about friendship, a terrific performance and a fun two person poetry form. A poem as a point / counterpoint. Great model for students to try emulating.

Wanderers - spectacular / poetic short film narrated by Carl Sagan

Wanderers

Erik Wernquist edited excerpts of Carl Sagan’s audio recording of his book, Pale Blue Dot to create the narration of his short film “Wanders”.

Last year, the film Gravity and the novel The Martian highlighted the depressingly real dangers and loneliness inherent in the exploration of space. This year, the film Interstellar jumps beyond the possible into the fantastic. Space exploration becomes a desperate act only made possible by mystical intervention. Now, as a counterpoint to both, Erik Wernquist depicts the beauty and excitement of human space exploration with a look at what life on our nearest neighbours could realistically look like. 

Using Carl Sagan's poetic musings on the forces that drive us to wander as his narration, Wernquist illustrates scientifically accurate worlds from our solar system and imagines how human occupants might work and play on these worlds. The result is spectacular.

Narration from “Wanders”

For all its material advantages, the sedentary life has left us edgy, unfulfilled. Even after 400 generations in villages and cities, we haven’t forgotten. The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood. 

We invest far-off places with a certain romance. This appeal, I suspect, has been meticulously crafted by natural selection as an essential element in our survival. Long summers, mild winters, rich harvests, plentiful game—none of them lasts forever. 

It is beyond our powers to predict the future. Catastrophic events have a way of sneaking up on us, of catching us unaware. Your own life, or your band’s, or even your species’ might be owed to a restless few—drawn, by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds.

Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, spoke for wanderers in all epochs and meridians: “I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas …”

Maybe it’s a little early. Maybe the time is not quite yet. But those other worlds—promising untold opportunities—beckon.

Silently, they orbit the Sun, waiting.

Wanderers - a short film by Erik Wernquist from Erik Wernquist on Vimeo.

Possible Tasks / Lessons

Making Connections
1. Review the images from "Wanderers" in the gallery (http://www.erikwernquist.com/wanderers/gallery.html). Explain which of the images best connect with the following terms: "wanderers" / "adventurers" / "colonists".

2. Read the narration for "Wanderers". Find earth based images to illustrate Carl Sagan's words. Find six images and justify how they connect to Sagan's ideas.

3. Bring to life one of the moments illustrated in the film. Using the text form of your choice (short story, news report, blog entry, narrative poem) tell the story of one of the adventures depicted in the film. Use a phrase from the film's narration as the title of your text.

Literary Elements
1. Carl Sagan was a scientist who wrote beautifully. Identify the most effective passage in text of his narration and explain how Sagan made use of figurative language to convey his ideas.

Media Literacy
1. Listen closely to Carl Sagan's performance of his text. Identify three moments in the recording that demonstrate effective speaking techniques. Explain why they are effective.

Fixed vs Growth Mindsets

From: http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/growth-mindset-gobrain-and-making-a-splash/ 

Unintended Consequences

The European Space Agency landed a robot on a comet only 4 km in diameter after a 10 year journey covering 6.4 billion kilometers. It’s like shooting a bullet in Toronto to land on a balloon in Tokyo. Magic. 

Sadly, at the press conference to discuss the landing of the spacecraft, the lead scientist made a wardrobe choice that distracted much of the Internet's attention away from his team’s accomplishments.  Mika McKinnon has written a very thoughtful, clever personal essay about the issue:  Thanks To That Shirt, We May Get a Shirt Celebrating Women In Science.

Unintended Consequences Assignment: McKinnon's essay is a great opportunity to examine the idea of unintended consequences. This assignment challenges students to read and understand her text and to consider how she maintained a wonderful balance of anger, frustration, humour and purpose in her word choice and ideas to create just the right voice for her text.

Beyond that, students could explore other examples of unintended consequences and create their own blog entries detailing cautionary tales telling the story of a small decision that led to unexpected consequences with interesting links for further exploration.

Information vs Emotion in News Headlines

Much has been made in the last few days contrasting how the Canadian media reported on the shootings in Ottawa vs the coverage by the American media.  These two articles do a particularly good job of describing the difference between reporting with an agenda of providing information and reporting focused on creating an emotional response:

Canada Just Showed the US the Exact Right Way to Cover a Shooting

To US media Canadian Shooter Being Muslim Ends Investigation



Thinking beyond how the media has covered violent sensational news to consider the underlying reasons for the decisions news reports and organizations make can be a great opportunity to provide instruction in inference, critical literacy and build a recognition of how the economics of the media influence the content of reporting. This assignment attempts to challenge students to think along these lines: Information vs Emotion in News Reporting.

Our Man in Tehran vs Argo

The films "Our Man in Tehran" and "Argo" both tell the story behind the smuggling of six American diplomats out of Iran in 1980.  One is a documentary that was featured at the Toronto International Film Festival and played on pay television, the other was also featured at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to win the Academy awards for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and editing.

It would be great to read the books these films are based and watch the resulting films with students and analyze the choices the filmmakers made in adapting them, but that would require a significant time investment... instead we could accomplish many of the same curriculum outcomes with the study of the trailers for the two films.  

For close reading, Slate article about the accuracy of "Argo": "How Accurate is Argo?"

Some key questions we could consider with students:

1. Referring to specific details in the two trailers thoughtfully explain how the fictional version of the story (Argo) differs from the documentary version of the story (Our Man in Tehran).
2. How might a Canadian audience respond differently from an American audience when watching these two versions of the events in Tehran? Refer to specific details in how the films are being promoted that you think might be perceived differently from the points of view of Canadians and Americans.
3. The film Argo was a huge financial success. Identify the elements apparent in the trailer that you believe may have contributed to the film’s popularity?
4. Why do you think documentary films are rarely presented at the local Cineplex?

And finally...

One of the most commercially successful documentaries was Bowling for Columbine.  It earned nearly $21 million.  Watch the trailer for it and explain why you think it was more popular than Our Man in Tehran.

Keeping Book Club Discussions Fresh

Books clubs, novel discussion groups, literary analysis seminars, literature circles or whatever we call sitting down with students to thoughtfully and purposefully discuss a text they're reading is my preferred way to study a novel, but like any instructional approach repetition can feel monotonous. One way to maintain student interest in the conversations is through the introduction of a second short text to the discussion. Provide the short text to the students just prior to the discussion and challenge them to interpret their novel in response to the new text.

Here are a few short articles / poems that might help:

1. Character Analysis: Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset
2. Character Analysis: How To Get Out of A Bad Mood
3. Character Analysis: The Difference Between External and Internal Focus
4. Plot Analysis: The Storytelling Animal
5. Figurative Language Analysis: author John Green on his novel Fault in our Stars
6. Thematic Analysis: Ozymandias and Arrogance 
7. Thematic Analysis: A Dream Deferred

Fingerprint Words

Matthew J.X. Malady has written a terrific essay about word choice for Slate. It's a great exploration of how our vocabulary defines us. It's a thoughtful and complicated text that would be a great close read for a senior class... or could be cut down for a junior class.  You might consider using it as a prompt prior to a novel discussion group meeting. Senior students could read the article and then apply the thinking to the choices the author of their book made in creating the text's characters. Junior students could read an edited version of the article and identify the "fingerprint words" of some of the main characters in the text.

In a Writer's Craft class, I think this article could be a great launching pad for some narrative writing.

Fingerprint Words from Slate.com

P.S. - Isn't J.X. Malady a great name for a fictional villain?  Students could create a list of great character names and the "fingerprint words" that would define them.

English is Crazy

Perhaps follow with a dose of Jaberwocky as an introduction to a focus on sentence fluency or perhaps followed with this interesting article about perception and spelling as part of a lesson about writing conventions.

Media Literacy: Evolution of a Web Post

There's a beautiful room in the British Museum that once upon a time contained the library of King George III. But, of course, owning a book is not the same thing as reading a book. King George III was no wiser for owning all of these texts.

I think there's some parallel to how we use information on the web today. Retweeting, "liking", "pinning" or re-blogging about an idea do not necessarily indicate an understanding of an idea.

For example:  I just posted a list of seven ways to promote student engagement in our classrooms. I discovered the list on a blog entry on Edutopia.com. Edutopia sourced the list from a blog entry by Stacy Hurst on ReadingHorizons.com.  Stacy Hurst references four texts in her blog.

What I find interesting, is that each of the repostings deleted information. The original article explains the importance of student engagement and provides ideas on tracking it in the classroom. Edutopia omitted that aspect of the original post and highlighted the inclusion of an infographic listing of the tips. My reposting further edited the information down to just the list of tips -- assuming that the value of these ideas was self-evident. I omitted the infographic that Edutopia highlighted (I think it's an example of an infographic that doesn't add value -- I don't learn or understand the content any better by viewing it in graphical form as opposed to the original list). A reader's understanding of the list of tips could vary considerably depending on where he/she encountered them, and the reader's interest in pursuing the ideas to their source.

Media Issue:

All media texts are the result of choices made by publishers.  Challenge your students to find an article on the web that they're interested in and map the trail of its sources and any other postings it spawned. Ask the students to consider how details included or omitted and how different readers could have different understandings of the topic depending on how determinedly they pursued the details of the story. The story of the depiction of the topic might make an interesting infographic or concept map.

7 Tips for Improving Student Engagement

1. Use the 10:2 method. For every 10 minutes of instruction allow the students 2 minutes to process and respond to the instruction. This can be done in various ways by having them write what they have learned, questions they may have, or by discussing the content with a fellow student.
2. Incorporate movement into your lessons. Require students to respond to a question by moving to a certain spot in the room, writing on whiteboards, or standing (or sitting) when they are done thinking about the question, etc.
3. Pick up the pace. One misconception is that we must go slow for students to really understand and engage in a lesson. There is a lot of evidence that shows that when teaching is at a brisk instructional pace, students have more opportunities to engage, respond, and move on to the next concept (Carnine & Fink, 1978; Williams, 1993; Ernsbarger et al., 2001).
4. Provide frequent and effective feedback.
5. Allow students 5-7 seconds of ‘think time’ when asking a question. At the end of the time draw a random name to answer the question.
6. At the end of a lesson have students use the 3-2-1 method of summarizing by having students record three things they learned, two interesting things, and one question they have about what was taught. Allow time to share their findings with a peer.
7. Periodically pause mid-sentence when teaching requiring students to fill in the blanks

Source:  ReadingHorizons.com -  Seven Ways to Increase Student Engagement in the Classroom

Pivot on Self-Interest and Learning

Adolescents are wonderfully self-involved.

Their universes have space for their interests and little else. Many are driven by a degree of academic engagement that motivates them to do what's necessary to succeed in school -- not because of any enthusiasm for learning or curiosity in the subject matter, but solely due to the expectation of their parents or peer group or some other external focus that tells them that success in school is important. These students do their work, raise their hands, and complain about their grades, but they are not interested. How can we intellectually engage these teenagers? How can we nurture their curiosity? How can we hasten the "big bang" of their social and emotional maturity that seemingly overnight turns a purely self-involved teenager into a crusading young adult ready to change the world?  -- Too much?

Alright, then perhaps a more reasonable goal might be, how can we pivot in our work to use our students' very normal degree of self-involvement to help us achieve academic goals?

Self-Help & Learning Skills

The self-help industry pulls billions of dollars from people seeking to achieve personal goals. Lets challenge our students to consider the learning skills and work habits we expect from them as opportunities for personal growth. We can use our students self-interest as the prompt for a research project:  "Think about how one of the learning skills or work habits could help you to be more successful in your personal, school or future life.  Find out as much as you can about the relationship between the learning skill or work habit and success, and learn how a person could develop the learning skill or work habit you've chosen".

When the students are investigating responsibility, self-regulation, independent work, initiative, organization or collaboration - they will be using our curriculum of reading, writing and critical thinking to explore topics that will feel relevant to their needs.

Extension Questions:

• Which careers require particular strength in the learning skill or work habit you've researched?
• How do adults who feel they need to improve the learning skill or work habit you've researched try to change their behaviours?
• How easy do experts on human behaviour say it is to change a habit or develop a new skill?
• How will you monitor your progress in improving your skill or changing your work habit? 

Sample Task: Your Personal Self-Help Program

Emaze.com - web based presentations

Emaze is a very artfully designed web based presentation tool. It features a variety of stylish and original templates particularly for presentations that are designed to be shared individually and viewed on a computer rather than as a backdrop to a speech to a large group.

It also has tools to create very effective infographics.

As a starting point, you might as students to create a five or six slide autobiography as a way to introduce themselves to you and their classmates.  They could post the links to their creations on a shared Google Doc for everyone to see.

The Emaze.com tools are free for a basic account.

Here's one I threw together quickly...

What Are The Four Words?

I'm late to the game reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian... and now I know what all the fuss is about. It's wonderful.  This passage will put a lump in the throat of any teacher...

“Do you understand how amazing it is to hear that from an adult? Do you know how amazing it is to hear that from anybody? It's one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they're the four hugest words in the world when they're put together."

I'm sure you guessed.  The four words are: "you can do it". Despite sentiment like this, the book's been banned in a few places in the U.S. -- probably for laugh out loud moments like this one when the narrator says to one of his teachers:

“I used to think the world was broken down by tribes,' I said. 'By Black and White. By Indian and White. But I know this isn't true. The world is only broken into two tribes: the people who are assholes and the people who are not.” 

There is also some sexual content that might offend some readers. Don't be put off. As a story of resilience, bravery, and loyalty The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian can't be beat. In the place of or alongside Catcher in the Rye or Lord of the Flies the novel would be a great addition to a group novel study unit. 

Truth - Trust - Embarrasment

Is being perceived as a "sucker" worse than losing?  The British game show "Golden Balls" turned the psychological experiment "The Prisoners Dilemma" into 5 minutes of compelling television.  This Radiolab podcast ( http://www.radiolab.org/story/golden-rule/ )tells the story of an honest man who used dishonesty to trick an untrustworthy man into trusting.

This assignment page leads students into thinking about their perceptions of trust, honesty and shame and asks them to apply their thinking to texts they've read.

Soundtracks for books

This is clever:  Booktrack.com.  Whether using the website or not, creating a soundtrack for a chapter or sequence in a text and explaining / justifying your choice is an engaging way to demonstrate comprehension and an understanding of the author's purpose and audience.

Promotional video:

Courage - First Person Narrative

Flight Attendant Nicole Foran tells the story of protecting her passengers when trapped on plane with hijacker

From CBC Radio's "DNTO" on Saturday an amazing first person narrative from Governor General's Star of Courage medal recipient Nicole Foran.  

"A few years ago, 173 passengers and airline staff had a truly terrifying experience. After they boarded their Halifax-bound plane in Montego Bay, a lone gunman forced his way in to the cabin and held them hostage. Nicole Foran, one of the plane's flight attendants, shares the amazing story of how they made it home alive." 
-- CBC Radio's "DNTO" May 3, 2014

"To This Day" TED Talk by Shane Koyczan

Spoken word poetry about bullying and self-image.  Strong language, stronger imagery, powerful message...

More at: http://www.shanekoyczan.com/

Storify.com -- a different way to tell a story

I've been experimenting using Storify.com to collect, currate and publish weblinks to tell a story.  I created a Storyify page to tell my story of trying to memorize the poem "The World is Too Much With Us" by Wordsworth.

Here's the Storify.com page: https://storify.com/PhilDavison/memory-and-poetry?utm_source=embed_header

Why teens love dystopian stories...

Divergent won the box office race last weekend as teens raced to see the popular YA novel brought to life (my daughter saw it twice in three days).  Slate.com film critic Dana Stevens has a slightly snarky take on why teens find dystopian stories so appealing.

"Why teens love dystopias" - article with study questions.

Her article is not an easy read, but might provide an example of how an engaging topic and strong prior knowledge can help students bridge vocabulary challenges.  The final paragraph of the article includes the words:  “realpolitik”, “allegorical”, “multitiered”, “affiliation”, “constrictively”, and “malevolent”. Rather than pre-teach the vocabulary, consider challenging the students to closely read the final paragraph and construct meaning using strategies they devise.

Effective Presentations - Consider Purpose and Audience

From Harvard Business Review:  A Presentation Isn't Always the Right Way to Communicate

Author Nancy Durante makes the case for considering the purpose of your presentation and the nature of your audience prior to designing a presentation.  She writes,

"Ask yourself what you want to get out of the time you have with the group. Do you need to simultaneously inform, entertain, and persuade your audience to adopt a line of thinking or to take action? Or do you need to gather more information, have a discussion, or drive the group toward consensus to get to your desired next step?"

Creating opportunities for students to demonstrate their presentation skills, and their knowledge of content in a variety of contexts gives us the opportunity to teach students the importance of considering their purpose and audience prior to creating a presentation.  Whether its a pitch, a rant, a lesson, a research report, a TED talk, a formal debate, a trial or a sales presentation -- we can help students to understand how what they're trying to achieve and for what audience should inform the ideas they focus on, how they organize their ideas, and how they choose to present their content.

Giving students multiple opportunities to practice "quick" presentations with their peers builds relationships and trust in the classroom that can help students perform better with less anxiety.

Project Daniel - 3D Printing Arms for Children of War

Watch for the moment when Daniel feeds himself for the first time in a long long time.  Powerful. Moving. Horrifying.  Great launching point for research into war, disability, and/or development. Great connections to texts about struggle, determination or arrogance.

"Hands down the best decision my parents ever forced me to make!"

This funny parody of University promotional videos provides a provocative challenge to the value of a degree.

A number of articles recently have added fuel to this issue.  It might make a timely and relevant research task.  Particularly when tied to some explorations using MyBluePrint.ca 

"The value of education is dropping fast for university graduates" - Financial Post

"Evaluating the Worth of A University Degree" - Globe and Mail

"Why Google Doesn't Care About Hiring Top College Graduates"

ISU - 2014 version

Independent Study

Does what we know about co-constructing criteria, assessment for learning and student engagement invalidate the utility of "Independent Study Units"?  I don't think so.

Literacy guru Kelly Gallagher advocates for more reading in English classes. In his classes he challenges students with a short instructional text every week (a text that requires support and teaching). While using this short text for teaching particular skills or content, Gallagher also has students working on longer group texts (novels or long non-fiction texts that the students select from a limited teacher created list) these texts are studied through a seminar format. Finally, Gallagher asks his students to always have an individually chosen text on the go.  An independent novel or non-fiction book. That last element sounds like an ISU to me.

I think it's perfectly appropriate to ask our students to be reading on their own.  A change in my practice from the ISU tasks of ten years ago, would include providing clear exemplars of the tasks I'm asking the students to complete and check-ins throughout the process to monitor the students progress and address problems.  The "i" in ISU should stand for "independent" not "isolated". By monitoring the students' progress I can intervene as necessary and provide appropriate lessons in organization or initiative or independent work as required.  The monitoring in a grade 10 class would look different from the monitoring in a grade 12 class.

This Biography Assignment might lend itself to an ISU approach.  Instruction up-front to clarify the nature of the task and my expectations, then the occasional check-in to monitor progress.  See what you think.

VideoNot.es: The easiest way to take notes synchronized with videos!

A great Google Drive App (that connects to our HDSB Halton Cloud accounts) for taking notes while watching YouTube videos.  While watching videos, students can take notes that are synchronized with the video.  When you click on an item in your notes the video jumps to the point being referenced.  Great for annotating TED Talks or providing peer assessment or self-assessment on a student produced video or recorded presentation.



Best app, I've seen for doing a "close reading" of a media text.



VideoNot.es: The easiest way to take notes synchronized with videos! -- just click on the "Connect with Google Drive" button and the App will be added to your Halton Cloud account.  Find it listed as a choice when you "Create" a document in Google Drive.

Close Reading, Allusion and Blissful Ignorance

The media depictions of Dunn and Davis can be very
interesting and revealing of point of view.

I had somehow remained ignorant of the story of the death of Jordan Davis until I saw this brief article by Ta-Nehisi Coates on The Atlantic's website: "On the Killing of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn". Coates' first person response to the verdict in the trial of Davis' killer is powerful, poetic and was for me impenetrable -- until I did some research.  It's a great example of the power of allusion.

The more research I did the more I appreciated Coates' writing. 10 years ago I would have turned the page and moved on. This morning I started Googling.  Reading has changed.

This is a great resource for teaching our students persistence and close reading skills.

Overview of the case from The Christian Science Monitor website: "The Loud Music Murder Case"

The Martian by Andy Weir

Hard science fiction -- science based fiction that takes science seriously.  No phasers / no warp drive / no magical fish that translate your thoughts (sorry Douglas Adams).  Andy Weir's The Martian takes science seriously without skimping on drama, pathos and adventure. The martian in The Martian is an astronaut accidentally marooned on Mars who must use his ingenuity to stay alive -- Robinson Crusoe on a much less hospitable desert island. It's a great story with likable characters. Excellent read for students skeptical of the excesses of fiction... students who might be interested in the opposite of The Life of Pi.

UPDATE: Ridley Scott will be adapting the novel for film 

Spencer O’Brien distraught over her 12th place finish in slopestyle

Spencer O'Brien's tearfully apologizes for her performance in the Olympic slopestyle event:

From CTV.ca:  Spencer O'Brien

"Sorry I'm just really disappointed right now," she told reporters as tears rolled down her cheeks. "I had a really hard year coming back from some injuries. I was really happy to be riding the way I was here. 

I was just really excited to be a part of Team Canada. Just after watching Mark yesterday, I was really inspired to just try really hard to bring home a medal.

"I went for my hardest run and it didn't work out today. So I'm really disappointed and really sad that I let Canada down."

Questions:

1. How should a friend respond to Spencer O'Brien feelings about letting down her country?  
2. Do you feel that the members of Team Canada are competing on your behalf?
3. Review some of the profiles of members of Team Canada on the Olympics.ca website or CBC.ca "The Olympians" website - how do the profiles try to create an emotional connection between the audience and the athletes. Refer to specific details in the articles or videos to demonstrate your analysis.

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/sochi/o-no-o-brien-finishes-last-in-women-s-slopestyle-final-1.1677700#ixzz2ssKh9ie9

Snow day activity...

Let's not get our hopes up, but just in case...

An open ended inquiry challenge for students who brave the elements and make it to school:

Prompt:  A few schools in Halton have had fire alarms go off this winter on really really cold days. Imagine you're the safety officer for the Halton District School Board.  Research and develop a safety protocol for schools to follow on days with dangerously cold temperatures when a fire alarm goes off  Convince the school board and the fire department that your plan is well thought out and will improve the safety of HDSB students.

Hints: Is it ever a good idea to get a coat rather than immediately evacuating? 

What nearby shelters could students be directed to? At what point do cold temperatures become dangerous?  Let the Googling begin...

Canadian Identity - Promoting Toronto - Olympic Opening Ceremonies

The Olympics are a great opportunity to think about point of view, national identity and culture, and the media texts that demonstrate these concepts.

Media Task

This assignment is designed to challenge students to reflect on how countries have presented themselves at past Olympic games and to consider how they might promote Toronto during the Pan Am games next summer:  Promoting Canada.

A Writer's Thoughts About Editors and Online Publishing

An interesting reflection on the relationship between an editor and a writer and how online publishing has changed the nature writing.

Great for a Writer's Craft or senior English class.

What The Longform Backlash Is All About — Medium

Critical Literacy: Point / Counter Point

3 Myths That Block Progress for the Poor

Bill Gates annual report on the Gates Foundation -
2014 Gates Annual Letter: Myths About Foreign Aid - Gates Foundation is a great example of digital publishing techniques combining text, graphics and video.  It has also prompted discussions on Gate's predictions, particularly from Joshua Keating at Slate.com:  "Incomes in Africa Have Barely Budged for the Last 15 Years"

Students could read and evaluate Gate's claims and evaluate Keating's criticisms.  Excellent opportunity for rich discussions and further research.

Resilience / Learning Styles / Learning Skills

Resilience and Self-Regulation

I think a case can be made that self-regulation is the most important learning skill with the least useful title.  I wish the Ministry of Education had chosen the term "resilience" to describe these attributes.  Here's what we're trying to teach our students to demonstrate when we focus on a student's self-regulation skills: 

• sets own individual goals and monitors progress towards achieving them;
• seeks clarification or assistance when needed;
• assesses and reflects critically on own strengths, needs, and interests;
• identifies learning opportunities, choices, and strategies to meet personal needs and achieve goals;
• perseveres and makes an effort when responding to challenges.

I'd describe much of that as resilience. To be resilient is to believe you have control over your success. I fear that at times when we discuss learning styles or preferences with our students we leave them with the impression that they don't fully control their own success. So to put the teaching of learning skills and thinking about learning styles in context, I'd suggest these three important goals for the discussion:

1. I'm interested in you and interested in understanding your strengths and preferences, to help me be a more effective teacher;
2. I'd like to help you to recognize your interests and strengths so that you can use them to build on your weaknesses;
3. I want you to understand that your learning styles are not a trap, they do not mean a you are only capable of learning in one way.

These three documents try to present these ideas to students. The first is more concrete in its presentation, the last is more abstract:

1. List of learning styles and self-regulation skills: List of Personality Traits / Learning Styles

2. List of learning styles and self-regulation with some analysis: Personality Traits and Learning Styles

3. Scholarly article questioning the research on Learning Styles with discussion questions: Are Learning Styles a Myth?

The Rosie Project

 

A fast read, and a great companion / counterpoint to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, or The Reason I Jump or as a great contrast to Sisters Brothers, Romeo and Juliet or The Great Gatsby. Chapter 2 stands alone as a charming character study of a man on the Asperger's spectrum: Chapter 2 of The Rosie Project.

From GoodReads.com: Narrator Don Tillman 39, Melbourne genetics prof and Gregory Peck lookalike, sets a 16-page questionnaire The Wife Project to find a non-smoker, non-drinker ideal match. But Rosie and her Father Projectsupersede. The spontaneous always-late smoker-drinker wants to find her biological father. She resets his clock, throws off his schedule, and turns his life topsy-turvy.

"Ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa"

Ben Stiller has published a recording of the classic Thurber story, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" to promote his feature film interpretation of the story.  You can find the original short story here:  pdf and the recording here: audio version


Students who've seen the movie might be interested in hearing the source material.  The episodic nature of the story invites "fan fiction" versions.  Students could try to capture Thurber's voice and write an additional scene.

Update:  Google Forms Quiz comparing the film trailer and the short story - with embedded video.