Gary Coyle’s Grade 8 Humanities

Significant Items Covered:

• Final Socratic Seminars - The Outsiders
• Journal - What does the phrase necessity is the mother of invention mean?
• Schoolhouse Rock - Mother Necessity
• Adjectives
• Large Group Discussion - What is the most important invention ever?
• Showing vs Telling - The Roller Coaster and The Fruit Roll Up
• Factory Game

Reflection:

Commenting is a skill in blogging that I would like to address this week. When you comment to a BLOG you are really accomplishing three things:

1.) Letting the writer know they have an audience.
2.) Encouraging others to write
3.) Helping others think more deeply about an issue.

We can help other think more deeply by commenting thoughtfully. A thoughtful comment usually does one of the following:

A) Agrees and adds supporting information
B) Moves the topic in a new direction with new evidence or a new interpretation of evidence
C) Disagrees respectfully by adding contradictory evidence

Remember when responding to a BLOG posting challenging ideas is acceptable and encouraged, however singling out individuals for criticism is not.

In order to practice this skill, please spend the next ten minutes reading BLOG entries from the people whose names are above and below yours in the class BLOG list. Then respond thoughtfully to one posting of your choice from each of those two classmates.

Here are some possibilities of how you could start that entry:

• (Insert their name here)This made me think about…….
• (Insert their name here) I wonder why…….
• (Insert their name here)Your writing made me form an opinion about…….
• (Insert their name here) This post is relevant because…….
• (Insert their name here)Your writing made me think that we should…….
• (Insert their name here) I wish I understood why…….
• (Insert their name here) This is important because…….
• (Insert their name here) Another thing to consider is…….
• (Insert their name here) I can relate to this…….
• (Insert their name here) This makes me think of…….
• (Insert their name here) I discovered…….
• (Insert their name here) I don’t understand…….
• (Insert their name here) I was reminded that…….
• (Insert their name here) I found myself wondering…….

Happy Commenting!

Significant Items Covered:

• Feedback - Goal Setting Q1
• Lecture - Characterization
• Web - Pick a character and create semantic web using specific evidence from the book
• Socratic Seminar - Outsiders #3 (Why is Cherry so interested in Ponyboy and his family?) and #4 (Why is the book titled The Outsiders? To who does the title refer?
• Lecture - Theme in the Outsiders
• Listening Activity - Music and the Outsiders

Reflection - please answer the following in your BLOG

How do you learn best? Visually (watching videos or reading), Auditory (listening to lectures or discussions), Kinesthetic (simulations or making or doing something). What can I do help you learn most effectively in our classroom?

Major Points From Last Week:

• Course Overview
• Inference- Mr. Coyle, 5 items about classmates, and S.E. Hinton
• Bio Poem
• Introduce Socratic Seminar
• Socratic Seminar – Outsiders #1 All of our information comes from Ponyboy. Does he give us the full picture? What would we need to get the full picture? Explain. and #2 Does Two-Bit really think that fighting is good? Is there such thing as a fair fight?

Answer the following in your BLOG in complete sentences:

• What were two highlights from the first week of school?
• What was your first impression of Humanities?
• What are two goals you have for this quarter in Humanities? (Remember a goal needs to be specific, realistic, and measurable)

Significant Items Covered:

• Feedback-  Clean-up, catch-up, comment
• Prep for  class vs class debates –
• View – Excerpts of Roger and Me
• Class vs class debates
• View – Thomas Friedman on Globalization

 
Reflection –

Please follow the link below to a survey and take a few minutes to give me some honest feedback about both my teaching and Humanities 8. Your comments are especially valuable. Please complete only ONE survey.

Thanks!

Mr. Coyle’s Humanities 8 Survey

Significant Items Covered:

• Feedback-  What are the three most valuable things you have learned during the population project process?
• Intro to Globalization – Use NGS lesson – begin creating impact chart
• Impact of Globalization Chart and discussion
• Jigsaw -The World is Flat (10 Flatteners)
• Video- The Risks of Globalization (337 GLO)
• Finish Jigsaw -The World is Flat (10 Flatteners)

Reflection –

BLOG clean-up and catch-up and comment.

At this point you should have the following posts on your BLOG or on the class BLOG*.  As part of your Quarter 4 grade I will begin evaluating BLOGs on May 16 so please make sure you are up to date at that point. You will also need to select what you think is your best comment and e-mail it to me to evaluate by that date.

1. End of Q3 Feedback
2. What is Technology (Most and least useful)
3. Evaluating Vonnegut Quote
4. Blogging cartoon analysis
5. Population Project Work Plan
6. The Giver becoming an adult
7. The Giver precise language
8. Most valuable things learned from Population Project
9. Homework outsourcing cartoon analysis

Please take some time today to catch-up, clean-up and comment to others.