January 12

ELA 20: Jan 12 Roles and Responsibilities sub-unit…

  1. This Monday morning, the class did great by working through questions to help them analyze two poems that began a new sub-unit for us regarding the Roles and Responsibilities of young adults at their stage of life.
  2. The first poem, called “Paper Matches“, is narrated by a young woman who questions the stereotypical gender roles performed around her. She compares herself and the women to paper matches that are valuable only when needed and then are useless afterwards. It criticizes the old-fashioned gender roles.
  3. To contrast that they also read a poem titled “St. George” about a young girl with a wonderfully trained pet dragon. She describes in the poem how careful her dragon is and how safe she feels with him in her company, until she encounters a knight on a white horse who, before she can stop him, cuts off her dragon’s head to “save her” from the danger she must have been in. Traditionally speaking, the knight in the poem did as he was expected to do. It was the young girl who was acting outside the gender role, the damsel in distress who needed the young man’s help, who actually caused the conflict in the story.
  4. Students individually responded to poetry questions for each. We’ll discuss them tomorrow.
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January 9

ELA 20: Jan 9 Photo Essay assignment / pc time…

  1. I had explained to students there were only a few assignments left before our course is complete. This Photo Essay is one of them. They were given a handout (see attached) that explains what a photo essay does and the steps to creating one. We looked at pieces from several examples to get an idea of ideas for beginning. I also pointed out from these examples some of the positives and negatives and explained how each would be evaluated. (Ie: one used images that had a watermark on them saying “stockphoto” which reduced their mark because they were not as careful in choosing images as they could have been. Another used several transition effects on the same photograph creating quite a mood from it, which is one of the central components of a photo essay – to create a visual representation of a theme that draws a particular and strong emotion from the viewer. 
  2. They had the majority of today’s class time. Wednesday and Thursday next week we will also have computer time, as well as the following Tuesday. If they complete the essay, they can also use that computer access to fix up the blog entries they did in the last unit and work on the two others assigned for this current unit. We’ll get to that soon, though. 
  3. Here are some examples of photo essays to give you an idea of what they will be creating. Joys and Sorrow

 

This photo essay has a great description with it on the youtube page. The student who made it describes that the theme is Change because no matter what direction you’re taking your life you can always turn it around.

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January 8

ELA 20: Jan 8 Panel discussion on moral dilemas…

  1. In order to facilitate a bit more dialogue and discussion between students, I moved a round table from the library into our classroom and set up chairs around it. We listened to the “At Seventeen” song and then listened to the chorus of the Nickelback song that talks about valuing hope, caring, humility, life, freedom from suffering, etc. We discussed the reality that some values are temporary, such as teenage girls desiring to be popular or beautiful. With age and through the different stages of life, our values change and become more broad and other-centered. Appreciating the value of just living becomes something you’re more able to understand.
  2. To give us some topics of discussion, I used several examples from yourmorals.org, a website created by a Psychologist from a University doing an online study from the responses. We talked about the moral dilema whether it is better to sacrifice the life of a few to save the lives of thousands. We also discussed a scenario that had several different examples of what was “fair” but each student different in which one they thought most fair. The final question seemed to be a very bizzar question but came from the website and students were asked to write their responses down and hand them in.
  3. Because this was an assessed activity, I had given them the outline for how they would be marked prior to our beginning. The activity will be worth ten marks, with them deciding half of that through a self-assessment following the rubric.
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January 7

ELA 20: Jan 7 “The World is a Beautiful Place”…

  1. I reminded students the questions were due from the “Imprints” and “For The Man Who Finds His Son Has Become a Delinquent” poems before Christmas. I also handed back assignments, reflective journals, and gave them a current report card mark so they can see where they are two and a half weeks before the course is over. This will indicate the particular assignments they are missing. I explained on Monday that they can do these missing assignments still but have to see me about what the new assignment will be.
  2. We read through the poem “The World is a Beautiful Place”. I read it once all through and some students commented that the ending surprised them. We read through it again and discussed any terms or phrases that seemed unfamiliar to them. Then they were responsible to answer the nine questions on the handout independently. They did a great job of staying focused.
  3. I also handed out a poem called “At Seventeen” with a sheet that has two questions. They should come to class tomorrow having read the poem and filled in the responses on the question sheet.

The poem is actually a song that’s been sung by several artists. This is a video of Canadian singer Jann Arden singing the song.

 

 

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January 6

ELA 20: Jan 6 “The Most Important Day” essay…

  1. The essay “The Most Important Day” was written by a woman named Hellen Keller who is quite famous for having overcome several disabilities to become very successful. Because the students were unfamiliar with her or her story, we watched a portion of the video that makes it clear how poor a plight she would have had if things had not been changed for her. She basically lived as an animal, since she was unable to communicate to others or understand them. One person, though, was able to make an impact for her and that one particular day everything changed.
  2. After viewing the video segment, we discussed the reality that the adults in her life had very different opinions on what was best for her. This could be a reflection of differing values or the distinct goals they had for Hellen’s future. If all her father expected of her was to eat politely and be quietly present in a room with company, he would go about trying to help her with that in his own way. Miss Sullivan, though, her teacher, had a much more demanding goal for Hellen – that she would be able to live successfully as well as any other person without the disabilities. Achieving that goal for Hellen would be much more demanding than reaching Hellen’s father’s goals. This all reflects the sub-unit of our course that focuses on the reality that our future and what we may anticipate from it will be shaped by the values we hold and what goals we hope to achieve.
  3. Then students completed a question sheet and handed it in before the end of class.

See the video excerpt here.

 

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January 5

Jan 05: ELA 20 Morals and Values…

  1. We reviewed the first sub-unit of Perspectives and Passages that we’ve already discussed. I reminded them of the video we had recently watched and that three students have yet to complete the Introduction of Mr. Hundert, which we pegged Wednesday as being the day of their presentations.
  2. They were asked to brainstorm a list of ten values and ten goals they hold or could think of. They contributed a bunch  of their examples and I compiled them on the smartboard. We also discussed, briefly, an example of a moral dilema from current society – whether or not Canadian parents would have the legal right to refuse medical treatment for a terminally ill child on the basis of their religious or theological beliefs. On one hand, the child’s best interests are a concern and, at times, social welfare steps in because our society strongly values the protection of our youth. On the other hand, though, our Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects individuals from discrimination on the basis of religion or beliefs. Where is the moral right in a situation like this?
  3. Another moral dilema in current Canadian society is the issue of poverty, the topic of the personal essay we read together. The author (anonymous) wrote about the difficulty her family members face as a result of their low economic standing and the fear that it will have long-lasting affects.
  4. Once we had finished reading the essay, students were to assume some type of “perspective” and write a letter to the author, this mother. This was to be handed in at the end of class and they had just over fifteen minutes to complete it.
  5. I also reminded students that they still have the opportunity to hand in missing assignments. Instead of creating a list of new assignments, though, the owness is on them to see me about what the new topic should be. The deadline for any of these missing pieces is January 16, next Friday. We also will only have three more assignments, a small number in order to not overwhelm anyone and give them the opportunity to benefit from focusing on them and doing their best.
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