I'm starting the summer school blog on Day 14 because I wasn't building it in until now. Last year, I used the blog to show students my thinking about class and have them communicate their thoughts to me, but I didn't know if I'd have laptops until 2 days in. By then, it was so chaotic to get the new curriculum running that I just didn't do the blog piece until now.
What I've done for the past 3 weeks is have students practice reading, writing, and research skills by looking at policing and incarceration in America. I've given the students:
I've been really impressed with students' reactions to these sources, open-mindedness in learning new perspectives, and effort in articulating and explaining their ideas clearly. Many who have gone through the multiple draft process have also learned to give and receive criticism in mature and reflective ways. It's been awesome to watch.
And now we begin ten days all about music. Mostly it's trying to explore and explain an artists intent with the meaning of a song and then how you (each student) makes meaning from the song. And while 6 of the songs the students analyze are of their own choosing, another 12 are the songs from Beyonce's new album Lemonade. I'm super excited for this.
We set up our blogs yesterday (Day 13) while I showed the students how I analyzed "Sir Duke" by Stevie Wonder. I was really happy when so many people liked Sir Duke, I hope they check out more Stevie Wonder songs, because his music is AMAZING and will blow you away. He is one of the best musicians ever.
Today, Day 14, students will need to make 5 new Blog Posts. Each post will be about a different song that falls into each of these five categories:
So 5 posts. For each song you choose, your post should include at least 2 paragraphs
I'm so excited to see the different songs students choose AND how they explain the meaning! Under this blog post, write a comment that includes the name of your weebly site so I can easily find and read your blogs.
What I've done for the past 3 weeks is have students practice reading, writing, and research skills by looking at policing and incarceration in America. I've given the students:
- 3 data sets to analyze: police shooting data from 2015, mass incarceration data from 2015, and recidivism data from 2005 (thanks to this baller-ass website from the Federal Government: http://www.bjs.gov/recidivism_2005_arrest/#)
- An excerpt from the New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander on the causes of recidivism
- Excerpts from the NYPD Patrol Guide on shooting guidelines
- Lists of their rights when being confronted by the police from the NYCLU
- 7 articles on policing from perspectives of victims, police, and de-escalation advocates
- 3 videos: 1 about Stop and Frisk and 2 about Community Policing (in Camden, NJ and NYC)
- 3 drafts of a personal story where they've had an interaction with the police, the prison system, or guns
- 3 drafts of a dialogue written between two fictional people who believe opposite opinions on policing or the prison system
- A letter to the NYPD advocating for de-escalation
- A ten point guide for middle schoolers about life as a former felon
- An analysis of five different emotions that police feel while doing their jobs
- 2 paragraphs using data to prove the claim that policing has become less violent and racist over the past few decades (but still has a ways to go)
- A 3 paragraph response (agree, disagree, questions) to a police officer that blames most poor police encounters on the civilians.
- Questions and comments as annotations for everything they've read
- Peer editing other students' stories and dialogues
I've been really impressed with students' reactions to these sources, open-mindedness in learning new perspectives, and effort in articulating and explaining their ideas clearly. Many who have gone through the multiple draft process have also learned to give and receive criticism in mature and reflective ways. It's been awesome to watch.
And now we begin ten days all about music. Mostly it's trying to explore and explain an artists intent with the meaning of a song and then how you (each student) makes meaning from the song. And while 6 of the songs the students analyze are of their own choosing, another 12 are the songs from Beyonce's new album Lemonade. I'm super excited for this.
We set up our blogs yesterday (Day 13) while I showed the students how I analyzed "Sir Duke" by Stevie Wonder. I was really happy when so many people liked Sir Duke, I hope they check out more Stevie Wonder songs, because his music is AMAZING and will blow you away. He is one of the best musicians ever.
Today, Day 14, students will need to make 5 new Blog Posts. Each post will be about a different song that falls into each of these five categories:
- A happy song (or a song that makes you feel happy)
- An inspirational song (or a song that inspires you)
- A sad song (or a song that explains being sad in a way you can relate to)
- A song that reminds you of your family, boyfriend, or girlfriend
- A song that makes you think about big ideas about life or the world
So 5 posts. For each song you choose, your post should include at least 2 paragraphs
- what you think the song means for the artist who wrote it
- what the song means for you
I'm so excited to see the different songs students choose AND how they explain the meaning! Under this blog post, write a comment that includes the name of your weebly site so I can easily find and read your blogs.