Activities: Week 10

organized according to the 5 Uses of Advisory

Literacy (New)

From PD – Here are the materials about Argument Writing.

  1. Separate Argument Thinking from Argument Writing. Support students first in thinking in arguments – Identifying an author’s claim, citing textual evidence, formulating your own claim (opinion) and supporting with evidence (reasons). Students can demonstrate this in many ways – orally, on a T-Chart, in a top down web, matching exercises. Writing an arugument is step 2. The group at PD started working on materials to make them more accessible virtually. We have a lot of materials (folder)- here are some curated:
  2. For Argument Thinking: (start here)
    1. Short Text and Video to Assess and Interpret Claims and Evidence (from PD) (Activities)
    2. Have students explore controversial topics in their Career Area (Activity)
    1. Two Column Notes Form (Claim Evidence)
    2. Jamboard for Identifying Evidence for a Claim
  3. For Argument Writing: (Once Argument thinking is solid)
    1. Keys Argument Writing Template (PDF)
    2. Elements of an Argument
      1. 8 Minute Video from Keys
      2. How to Write an Argument (one Pager)
      3. Anatomy and Structure of an Argument
    3. Advsisory Activity – Writing Response to Procon (Milk)
    4. Advisory Activity – Writing Response to Art
    5. Keys Argument Writing Rubric

Culture, Relationships, &Group Dynamics (New)

  • PeaceLove Workshops: 6 Great workshops to help students connect with themselves and others artistically.  Advisors run these (they do not pass on the code to students).  There are additional materials on the site to explain how to do this.  

RWL & Service Learning

  • (Continuing) Virtual Mentor Initiative: I’ve started to reach out to people I know and on social media to get folks to be virtual interivews or mentors to kids. Please pass on to your social networks. I will connect people with anyone who signs up and is your connection. I’ll host a zoom for interested people twice a week m (Monday at 1pm and Tuesday at noon) and keep trying to find new people. If you can send out information to them and send out the sign up form -I’ll take care of the rest.

Academic Exploration and Advising

Community Conversation & Reflections (New)

Classroom Conversation:

Additional Links: 

Activities: Week 9

….For Asynchronous Work for the PD Day coming up….

1) Justin Mathew’s Nearpod – (Past) Justin Mathew’s Nearpod Lesson – Fully written and supported – an exploration in monuments and what we choose to memorialize. It has extensions and fully supported, scaffolded actions. Highly recommended! He has added a resource here and suggests to break it into two sessions.

2) (Past) Four Tendencies Assessment – You may be at the point with your advisory to notice how positive habits are not being formed well and wonder why.  This framework, the four tendencies, helps people see which of four types of personality they are in approaching habit formation.  It is a simple personality assessment called the Four Tendencies test.
This test helps people figure out if they are Upholders, Obligers, Rebels, or Questioners. It gives you a chance as a team leader to see how your team best responds to your expectations and what might help students create new habits for themselves.  It can also help them work with each other in more effective ways. 
3) Newsela Text Set on Native American History Month – Choose form 8 articles for students to review. https://newsela.com/subject/other/2000365189/

4) Future Me/Homework: Based on the activity, have the students write a letter (or email) of intent to yourself for the next 6months. What traits do they want to maximize? Explore? Minimize? What goal do they have?  If you use the site (Future Me.org) they can write this letter or email and have it automatically sent to themselves.  What do they want to check in on for their work and development later in the year (by the end of the school year).  Write the letter and schedule a send.  (You may want students to have it come back on the same day so you can plan a follow up activity).

5) (Past) Doug’s connection with Junior Achievement Brings us a great resource- the JA Career Speaker Videos. You might have students use this form to record their reactions.
6) Poem: “Those Winter Sundays” -the goal is to read a poem that has a particular view of paternal love.

7) (Past) Watch and Review: I’d mentioned last week a new 12 minute video called The Forgotten Slavery of our Ancestors – about Native American Servitude. It is a sobering intial look at our history of early Colonialism in the US. They prepare a handout as well.


8) (New) Read:  (choose an personally interesting article and respond with a summary or do the quiz. Newsela Pfizer Vaccine – https://newsela.com/read/pfizer-effective-covid19-vaccine/id/2001015930/ or AOC and Omar set Twitch Record https://newsela.com/read/aoc-omar-twitch/id/2001015233/

9 and 10) (New) Other Nearpod: offering – Share with them one of these Nearpod lessons with students to complete that day: The Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg https://nearpod.com/t/social-studies/8th/the-legacy-of-ruth-bader-ginsburg-L61824694

Chadwich Boseman’s Legacy https://nearpod.com/t/life-skills/8th/chadwick-bosemans-legacy-L59031697

To do this: 

  • Go to the Nearpod- to our School Library. Select the lesson you want to use and add it to your own library. 
  • Go back to your library and select it for “Student Paced”.  
  • You can then share it directly to your Google Classroom or send the link by email.  
  • You can select to require for answers to be submitted or turn that off and ask students a couple follow up questions for reflection.  

RWL & Service Learning

  • (Continuing) Virtual Mentor Initiative: I’ve started to reach out to people I know and on social media to get folks to be virtual interivews or mentors to kids. Please pass on to your social networks. I will connect people with anyone who signs up and is your connection. I’ll host a zoom for interested people twice a week m (Monday at 1pm and Tuesday at noon) and keep trying to find new people. If you can send out information to them and send out the sign up form -I’ll take care of the rest.

Academic Exploration and Advising

Literacy 

Additional Links: 

Activities: Week 8

organized according to the 5 Uses of Advisory

RWL & Service Learning

  • (New) Virtual Mentor Initiative: I’ve started to reach out to people I know and on social media to get folks to be virtual interivews or mentors to kids. Please pass on to your social networks. I will connect people with anyone who signs up and is your connection. I’ll host a zoom for interested people twice a week m (Monday at 1pm and Tuesday at noon) and keep trying to find new people. If you can send out information to them and send out the sign up form -I’ll take care of the rest.

Academic Exploration and Advising

  • (New) Media Manipulation – This high level resource (Media Manipulation Casebook) outlines three cases where extremist groups intentionally and systematically manipulated the media to get their messages of hate and bias in the system. – great resource for students who’s interest lies in media bias (pun intended).
  • (Continuing) AntiRacist Ed @ the Met: Website (See Pre-Stamped Work) They sent out a very thorough Newsletter this week with more direction and information. Here is a direct link to the very helpful Anti Racism Toolkit by Trimester with links.

Literacy 

Community Conversation & Reflections

Classroom Conversation:

Culture, Relationships, &Group Dynamics

  • (New) Four Tendencies Assessment
    You may be at the point with your advisory to notice how positive habits are not being formed well and wonder why.  This framework, the four tendencies, helps people see which of four types of personality they are in approaching habit formation.  It is a simple personality assessment called the Four Tendencies test.
     
    This test helps people figure out if they are Upholders, Obligers, Rebels, or Questioners. It gives you a chance as a team leader to see how your team best responds to your expectations and what might help students create new habits for themselves.  It can also help them work with each other in more effective ways. 

Additional Links: 

Activities: Week 7

organized according to the 5 Uses of Advisory

RWL & Service Learning

  • (New) Supporting RWL Investigations in Various Ways. At PD, we reviewed matarials to explore RWL in ways other than a full LTI. Khalie took this work and personalized it in this Slideshow – prompting different students, particularly those whose parents will not allow an in person LTI to start their RWL in various ways.
  • (New) The Virtual Mentor Initiative is about to go live. I’ve been working on materials to recruit volunteers from across the country to work with our students. I’ll send them out separately, but if you have a large network, please share and we will try to build a massive group of experts to connect with out kids.

Academic Exploration and Advising

  • (New) Justin Mathew’s Nearpod Lesson – Fully written and supported – an exploration in monuments and what we choose to memorialize. It has extensions and fully supported, scaffolded actions. Highly recommended! He has added a resource here and suggests to break it into two sessions.
  • (New) Graphing Masks – With this exercise students for 3-4 days collect data about mask wearing in their community and travels and graph it as a bar chart. While Note Sheet. Sheet Template. Instructions to create a bar graph on sheets. Advisors can use roll this data up as an advisory to review. Talk about observation, and then making inferences from your observations. Is there a pattern to the data? What other data might be interesting to take if it was done again (gender, location, time of day, etc.)
  • (New) Election Curriculum:  (Consider: Lesson 6: Voting Rights and Voter Suppression).
  • AntiRacist Ed @ the Met: Website (See Pre-Stamped Work) They sent out a very thorough Newsletter this week with more direction and information. Here is a direct link to the very helpful Anti Racism Toolkit by Trimester with links.

Literacy 

Community Conversation & Reflections

Classroom Conversation:

  • (New) See Justin’s lesson above. A conversation about monuments and memorials with the students – present and historical, could be moved into a discussion of values of this group.

Culture, Relationships, &Group Dynamics

  • No Activity – just a plea that we all can support a civil and constructive debrief of whatever transpires politically.  

Additional Links: 

Activities: Week 6

organized according to the 5 Uses of Advisory

RWL & Service Learning

Academic Exploration and Advising

Literacy 

Community Conversation & Reflections

Classroom Conversation:

  • Gratitude: If you wanted to help prep for the writing exercise above or if you just wanted to help your group with feeling more grateful.
    • Small Group Share or FreeWrite – Here are a few questions that can help reflect on areas of gratitude. Here it is in a spinner format.
    • Then Share out- maybe on a Jamboard- what are the areas that the group is feeling grateful about? Can these be clustered and grouped and titled?

Culture, Relationships, &Group Dynamics

  • (New) Play with Song-Maker., Google’s free simiple Midi Machine.
  • Provide groups a challenge to make a short tune or riff that can “score” a scene, character or even create a mood.  (Curiosity, Excitement, Fear, Sadness, 
  • The fun would be in the play and then the explanation to the other groups. They should title it, and describe the reasons why they made thier musical choices. 

Additional Links: 

Activities: Week 5

organized according to the 5 Uses of Advisory

RWL & Service Learning

Academic Exploration and Advising

Literacy 

  • (New) Poem: “Those Winter Sundays” -the goal is to read a poem that has a particular view of paternal love.
  • (Old) Writing Process:

Community Conversation & Reflections

Classroom Conversation:

  • This is more for fun, than for Conversation. Google Art Puzzle – Art Puzzle in Pairs. Pairs of students in breakout rooms can go to the link and look through all of the paintings to find one they mutually agree to work on as a puzzle.
  • Spend time choosing a piece of art to do as a puzzle? What paiting are you gravitating toward? Why? What impact does it have on how you feel? What do you like and not like about it?
  • Once you select one – One person can send the link to invite the other to work together to solve the puzzle.
  • Extension – Research the artist of that painting – what makes it special or unique? What is something intersting about the artist?

Culture, Relationships, &Group Dynamics

  • (New) 20 Questions – This classic road trip game is perfect for online learning. Choose any topic that would be of interest to your students—an animal, an event, something you’re studying. Each student can ask only one question and take one guess per turn. Don’t let students blurt out the answer—they must wait until it’s their turn. To help you keep track, ask one student to keep track of how many questions have been asked.

Additional Links: 

Activities: Week 4

organized according to the 5 Uses of Advisory

(Note: I will mark resources as “New” if they are new to this week’s blog and “OLD” if they are being repeated from a past blog entry.)

RWL & Service Learning

Academic Exploration and Advising

Literacy 

  • Writing Idea: (New)
    • Story: One way to approach writing instruction is to help students produce language on computer or paper and express ideas. A way to engage students in creative writing is to provide a Story Starter– A first line and a guideline for what you want to see (a length, a type of writing – dialogue, exposition, or use of description. It could be a good time to (re)introduce the pre-writing portion of the writing process. Here are a few different Pre-Writing strategies and scaffolds (clustering, freewrite, brainstorm, questioning) and top down web (writeable and PDF) and QFT.

Community Conversation & Reflections

Classroom Conversation: (New)

  • NPR: Indigenous People’s Day or Columbus Day? This article and 3 min audio story from last year explains the history and purpose of many cities and states adopting Indigeneous People’s Day.
  • As an activity, one could have students read this article and/or listen to the audio with the goal of understanding the reasons for the shift from Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. In small groups (on Zoom breakout rooms) discuss and note: What are the reasons or claims that advocates of changing the holiday articultate for this change? Cite from the text.
  • Extension: Construct a claim to “Do you think the US Federal Government should officially change the holiday of Columbus Day to Indigeous People’s Day?” What specific reasons and evidence would you cite to support your argument? What else would you want to or need to research to better understand the issue?

Culture, Relationships, &Group Dynamics

  • First Letter, Last Letter  – Advisory picks a topic category (countries, cities, animals, vehicles, flowers, etc). The first player will name an element of this category.  If it was anima, for example, “elephant”. The next player must name an animal that starts with the last letter of “elephant” —like “turtle”. The next player must name an animal that begins with the last letter of “turtle” and so on. On Zoom, you may want to have the ordered list of students handy. (New)

Additional Links: 

Activities: Week 3

organized according to the 5 Uses of Advisory

RWL & Service Learning

Academic Exploration and Advising

  • Election Curriculum:  (Consider: Lesson 3: Verifying Social Media Claims)
  • AntiRacist Ed @ the Met: Website (See Pre-Stamped Work) They sent out a very thorough Newsletter this week with more direction and information.
  • Political Cartoons – There can be great discussions, and opportunites to talk about current issues quickly by dissecting and interrogating political cartoons. You can post one on a slide and have students comment on a padlet or jamboard. If you need an overview, try this slide deck. Here is another lesson plan overview for introducing how to interpret pcs and here is a 9 min Youtube introduction. Once you have the basics, you might review one a week or every couple weeks. This practice coincides with the election lesson on social media literacy.

Literacy 

  • Books with Brothers –
  • Teaching Tolerance is releasing a 12 min film on Monday October 5th for streaming called The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors offers a critical contribution to the unfolding conversation about what our children need to learn about American history. The 12-minute film for grades 6-12 introduces students to the history of Indigenous enslavement on land that is now the United States.

Community Conversation & Reflections

  • Check in on Classroom Norms: A Norms Review Process. Many groups set time in a meeting agenda to review their norms. Questions that encourage “tending to” group norms include:
    • In what ways are our norms helping us “grow” our thinking?
    • Should we change our norms in some way in order to help us better meet our goals?
    • What norm(s) are we using well?
    • What norm(s) seems difficult for us?
    • What norm will I/we work on today?

Culture, Relationships, &Group Dynamics

Additional Links: 

Activities: Week 2

organized according to the 5 Uses of Advisory

RWL & Service Learning

  • Review process of ImBlaze with students pursuing opportunities
  • For Skills and Competencies – more experienced students, review the LTI Needs Assessment
  • Precision Exams – we also have – Please read this if you are interested in using this resource (RI Exam List)
  • Continue Last Weeks – RWL: Inventing Heron  or CareerWise Videos (Use this form for students to go in and research 2-4 interesting careers, choose one, watch the video and report out on this sheet). 

Academic Exploration and Advising

Literacy 

Community Conversation & Reflections

      • Next week

Culture, Relationships, &Group Dynamics

  • Paseo -Circles of Identity – one way to continue conversations with students and have them share with one another, is to identify and share the elements of their identity with one another.  This SRI protocol may help you create that process. 

Additional Links: 

Activities: Week 1

organized according to the 5 Uses of Advisory

RWL & Service Learning

Academic Exploration and Advising

Literacy 

Community Conversation & Reflections

One concept in exploring identity and community is that of Universe of Obligation. It is a particularly helpful frame for people to explore what the roles and responsibilities are of a society and people in it.  What should they be in your school?  Your advisory? Should they mirror that of our society?  Be a laboratory for change or exploration? http://www.facinghistory.org/video/teaching-universe-obligationThese can both be done in some great depth exploring this concept in history as well, but it can also  start with an initial series of conversations.

Culture, Relationships, &Group Dynamics

Box of Lies

The game “Box of Lies” was made popular by Jimmy Fallon (video below) and could be a fun way to engage students, use language and have fun. An advisor or a student would identify an object out of camera view and then has to describe the object. Others could guess if that was a “lie” – a made up description or the truth. (In the chat or verballly). You could do this with all sorts of other ideas from historical figures to using descriptive words in another language.

Additional Links: 

Bullied to Death

If you’ve read this blog before you know that I’ve had more than a few stories about bullying, bystander behavior, acts of violence and agression toward a particular person or group.  It seems, though, that there is no dearth of news about this at its core, and I feel that advisory should be a place to discuss many of these issues.  It has the power to provide a safe space from this kind of behavior.

A couple of weeks ago, bullying led to a suicide.  Phoebe Prince, a 14 year old high school student new to the school, committed the crime of being new, different, and threatening to social life of an older girl.  She was chased in the hall and called and “Irish Slut”; phone messages, texts, and Facebook pages haunted her.  (Even after she died, bullies posted terrible messages on her page). It is another chance to learn something, to change what is sadly a common response to fear and jealousy.

Activities: With any of these activities, you will probably want to have students understand what happened in South Hadley to Phoebe (using the articles below and the news piece), and allow them to ask questions to learn more about it.

  1. Read the poem: “What do we do with a Variation?”
    1. What are the different ways that poet James Berry says that we (humans) deal with difference?
    2. Which seems to have been in place for the bullies at South Hadley High School?  Why?
    3. What is your favorite metaphor in the poem? Why?
    4. Berry shows us the range of responses we have – some of us have all these responses in different settings – what response to dealing with difference represents how you respond most often? Give a couple examples.
  2. Read the editorial by Kevin Cullen “The Untouchable Mean Girls“.
    1. Talk with students about what an editorial is and how the rules of journalistic objectivity do not apply.  This might be a good time to review fact vs. opinion with them.  (You can use a T-Chart graphic organizer to have them write words and phrases that are facts from the stories and then opinions he derives from those facts). Have students discuss what the tone of his editorial is. How can you tell?  Do you find his editorial persuasive?  Why?
  3. Discuss as a group, based on what you know, where does the responsibility of this type of death lie?  (I would only do this activity if you have built a group with strong norms to listen and respect one another and the topic.  This could be trivialized in an immature setting. We do not have all the information and it would be irresponsible to dole out blame in this case.  Encourage them to think more abstractly.)  Have students discuss where the responsibility lies in these cases.  (One way to frame this could be – if we were going to make changes so this didn’t happen in the future, where would we have to spend most of the energy).  Have them in small groups discuss:
    1. What is the responsibility of the School?
    2. What is the responsibility of the (the bullies’) Parents?
    3. What is the responsibility of the bullies?
    4. What is the responsibility of the bullied?
    5. Other: ______________
    6. The using the Pie Chart graphic organizer have each student dole out the responsibility for this event to any or all of the four groups/people above – it must add up to 100%.  On the back or in the margins explain the “why” you have given the percent of responsibility (not blame) to.  If you have time, have each group member present to the small group and, if possible, come to some agreement on a group pie chart. After looking at it, discuss, what does this assignment of responsibility suggest about how we should move forward to impact the future?
  4. Have students respond in quiet journaling: Does learning about these stories cause you to think differently about acting with others?  What did you learn from Phoebe’s situation and her choice? What is it that can and should be done about these incidents? Why?

Resources:

Extensions:

  • Research the increasing incidents and any current thinking about how to combat Cyber Bullying.  How is it different from bullying in person?  Is it more pervasive or less?  How do bullies experience this?
  • Is there a difference between when and how boys bully and when and how girls bully?  Look into research to see if gender plays a role in this.
  • You might choose to have students create an ad, write a persuasive essay, or creatively express their feelings on and solutions to this chronic bullying.

Enciendalo! Please People, Light that Spark!

The Game of Death

Well you might have heard the ruckus all the way from France, but a live French TV show (“The Game of Death”) just used the basis of the Milgram experiment for a reality show.  They asked members of the audience to flip switches to pulse electricity through a man who needed to be “punished” until the actor (though no one knew this) appeared dead.  This has started a hot debate – are humans programed to listen to “experts” and act out on others or do they understand the artifice of the tv context and they are playing out fantasies because they must know it can’t be real?

Activity:

  1. Ask students to read one of the articles (and or listen to the NPR story) and after reviewing the comprehension around the story, have them do a four corner exercise (put a label at each of the four corners of the room – in this case “Strongly agree” “agree” “disagree” and “strongly disagree” – and present a question to them such as “How would you rate your reaction to the statement – I believe that this television show confirms that human beings are morally flawed.” After the class divides up and comes back together (I would tally it on the board) and then begin a conversation/debate defending their positions.  (I might also have students write the “why” their position before entering into the debate.

Resources:

The WonderYou Blog Overview of the Milgram Experiment

Enciendalo!

Two Great Math Blogs

Ok, so I hate to be too postmodern – a blog about blogs, but I found two resources that would be good subscriptions for advisors who are looking to help students expand their critical thinking skills. These resources are for you – the adult – to keep creative and focusing on interesing

The Opinionat0r – Steve Strogatz

The “Opinionator” Blog at the New York times provides a lot of interesting info an mathematical thinking.  He writes about interesting and challenging topics – and just reading a few has helped me connect ideas for investigations for student projects (when I can follow it).

The Math Mom

The Math Mom has a great way of framing experience through the lens of math.  Her site is filled with reflections and activities from looking at the world daily as a quantitative mind.

There are also activities to use that are framed around daily life experience. They are divided into “easy”, “medium”, and “hard”.  Give them a try and sign up for the newsletter.

Enciendalo! (x2)

Pi Day

As if you needed a reason to celebrate a mathematical concept, today is Pi Day (3/14 – get it?).  So why is this important?  (I have to use the Greek Pi, as opposed to the symbol in the blog).  There aren’t many activities here, but mostly a shout out to Pi (and those who shout out for it).

  • Pi shows the relationship between diameter and circumference of a circle.
  • Pi is a constant – no matter what size the circle, as a ratio, its value remains the same.
  • Pi is known mostly as 3.14, but it has been calculated out to over a trillion digits.
  • Pi has a long history: it comes from the Greek letters and the Egyptians used the equivalent of Pi/2 for their proportions of the pyramids – this seems to have been a good choice, if longevity plays into architecture….
  • It is central in equations for area of a circle and volume of a cylinder (central to those of us who like curling and cans of soup).
  • Is Pi a normal number?
  • Are people who wear a Pi t-shirt normal?  Lots to think about.
  • Are there any other constants that have (or should have) a day?

Resources:

  1. Pi Day Website – Learn about Pi
  2. Wikipedia explanation with cool animation that actually makes the concept understandable! (This would be a great experiment to recreate.  Give students four or five circles (lids, etc) of different diameters.  Measure the diameter of each, mark a spot on the circle and roll it out, then measure the circumference (or use measuring tape).  Is the circumference 3.14 x the diameter?  Have them record their findings on a chart.

Enciendalo!

All Summer in a Day

“A thousand forests had been crushed under the rain and grown up a thousand times to be crushed again.  And this was the way life was forever on the planet Venus, and this was the schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and women who had come to a raining world to set up civilization and live out their lives.”

“All Summer in a Day” is one of my favorite short stories that I had a chance to teach recently.  It is short (less than four pages), has 9 years olds as the central characters, creates vivid characters and a poignant scene, and a deals with issues of group membership, how groups deal with difference, prejudice, and bullying. The characters, setting and theme create an safe topic for conversations of behaviors that may be common to students.

Activities:

  • Have students do a quickwrite activity framed in the discussion you want to explore: (This one is to look at how groups treat difference.) “Have you ever been in the company of a group of which you were clearly not a member?  What was the circumstance?  How did you act?  How were you treated?”  Pair share, then report out.
  • Read aloud with students – check for understanding and have students pick out words they are not familiar with.
  • There are many activities to do with this story (and a few guiding sheets in the resources section).  One interesting discussion might be to have students discuss who should be held responsible for Margot’s treatment and then discuss what those people might have chosen to do which would have led to a positive outcome.

Resources:

Enciendalo!