Monday, June 8, 2015

Israel and Palestine, Day 7 - Class Recap


Mt. Hood. We are almost to the end of the school year, everyone! Selected for today because I enjoyed part of the weekend up at the mountain with my girlfriend and her family!

Hi everyone,

We made it to the last weekend of the school year! Hooray! There is plenty to prepare for this week with finals, so keep working hard, please. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Communication LT 2: I can use language and style that is appropriate to the content area.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.
Knowledge LT 10: I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Knowledge LT 20: I can explain the impacts of nationalism and revolutionary movements. Knowledge LT 22: I can explain how religious ideas impact the shaping of societies.

Soundtrack: "Open Your Heart" by Madonna. Selected for today because opening hearts and minds to peace is really important to helping solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 6/8/15:
News Brief – Soo
Finish TMEE
Work Time
Questions for Commissioner Fritz

Homework: Read the blog! Keep working on your final project for the year (specific guide for what to do here). Due at the start of next class - our final class together. Next news brief: Kendall.
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News Brief: Soo had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - South Korea MERS outbreak: 6 dead; 2,500 quarantined; 1,800 schools closed. We talked about what Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus is and why is is causing such concern. Thanks, Soo.

I showed a recent comment on the blog, from a teacher who had a conversation with the director of Promises, too! Here's the interview if you want to read more about the making of the film and what is currently going on.

We also watched VICE News for the day and talked about our weekends, before moving on.

The next news brief was assigned to  Kendall.

Finish Through Middle Eastern Eyes: This was an excerpt from a book, which I made a class set of. The two characters are representing the perspectives of Israel and Palestine. Here's the online version if you want to keep working on this at home:


There is a few pages of timeline and introduction in that, and then the characters start talking on page 229. The two characters in the reading were David (representing Israel) and Daud (representing Palestine). I wanted students to partner up and go through the reading together. Here is the assignment that goes with the reading, to note each perspective and help you prepare for your final assignment:


Work Time: The rest of class was set aside for the final project. I was checking in with every student as to which learning targets they wanted to be graded on for the final. Speaking of the final project, this form clarifies what the expectation is going to be on the day of the final, as well as what students should be writing/talking about:


I'm going to keep it simple and have students just focus on this. You should already know what learning targets you need to work on. Use the chart at the top of the second page to focus your writing/speech notes on the specific issues in the conflict. I know there were a lot of questions on this - please let me know if I can continue clearing this up

Questions for Commissioner Fritz: My mom and the Mayor of Beaverton will be coming to visit our class on Tuesday! They are mostly coming for the Government class before, but I figured they should stick around and meet you guys, too! If you are in Period 3 for Mr. Lathrop, we are going to open the walls so they can talk to both classes at once. If you want to learn a little bit more about who they are, here is my mom's bio on her website, and here is the Mayor Denny Doyle's bio. I'm excited for you to meet them!

Thanks, everyone! Keep working hard! We are almost there! :-)

10 comments:

  1. If you're giving a speech, you should have it mostly memorized and you can have a copy in front of you during?

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    Replies
    1. You can have a copy with you, but it would obviously help your communication score out a lot if you are not just looking down and reading from it.

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  2. If you aren't going for the communication learning target but just the critical thinking and you are doing the speech, how many talking points or notes should you have on your paper for a 4?

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    Replies
    1. That's an impossible question to answer. You need to do as best a job as you possibly can in talking about the different issues. Any notes/writing that goes with that would be helpful to see so I can assess your work.

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    2. But how much isn't enough?

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    3. Hi again, it is hard to say how much would be enough. If you have a very thorough speech that covers all of the main points, connects them and proposes a solution to the conflict, that would be good. You will also need to include notes that makes sense so that I can see you have prepared and that you know what you're talking about. It would be hard to do that in a paragraph or so. You need detailed notes.

      Delete
  3. so basically if you read it then the highest grade you could get is a 3?

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    Replies
    1. If you read it, that is not engaging your audience, which is a key point in the
      score. If you were just reading it from your paper, that does not demonstrate highly proficient status.

      Delete
  4. can the essay be double spaced?

    ReplyDelete

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