Visible Thinking Routines for Blogging Our school‘s fabulous PE teacher, Claire Arcenas, is bringing blogging to her PE classes. She is incorporating Visual Thinking Routines to help her students become reflective commenters. In a recent planning session, she reminded me of the book Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchard, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison, that I had download but not read yet. The core routines are a set of seven or so routines that target different types of thinking from across the modules. Each one of these routines seemed well suited to help guide students in quality blog post writing as well as commenting. Here is our first attempt: Blogging as Information/Research Research- What have you read that has informed your position? Purpose– What kind of thinking is involved- To make sense of a concept that I am trying to understand or wrapping my mind around. Blogging as Reflection Blogging as Documentation Blog Commenting- Feedback- through strategic and thoughtful commenting routine.
Plot, Theme, the Narrative Arc, and Narrative Patterns In the world of fiction, just as in the world of your life, events occur. In life, people often try to determine what events mean in their own life and in the life of others. In fiction, authors will create meaning by introducing conflicts in the life of a character. The way a character responds to these conflicts is part of what gives a story meaning. Understanding plot, conflicts, structure, and their relationship will help a reader understand the meaning in a story. Plot is not just what happens in a story. Similarly, the plot in a film is not just what happens. The pattern for narrative was largely handed down from the Greek tradition in drama. Exposition In section one of a narrative, viewers are exposed to information that will later be necessary for them to have if they are to understand the unfolding story. Characters: The lead character in the narrative — the character who faces the conflict — is called the protagonist. Rising Action Resolution
Using Weather Symbols in Fiction Post and Artwork by Sylvia Nica, Age 14, USA Symbols. They may bring back memories of boring literature lectures, but they can be a great way to add meaning and depth to your writing. Like clues scattered around you writing, symbols can hint to your reader the meaning of an event or alter the mood of your story. So, let’s take a closer look at some of these weather symbols: Rain. Fog. Rainbow. While there are other weather symbols you can use in your writing, such as sun and snow, the ones above are common symbols many people will recognize. So how do you add these weather symbols into your writing? One way of incorporating these devices is to use a weather symbol to represent a certain event. You want to be careful that you don’t get too heavy with symbolism, or else your story will feel muddled and heavy. Sylvia is a writer who “draws inspiration from the world around her.”
Resources and Downloads for Teaching Critical Thinking Tips for downloading: PDF files can be viewed on a wide variety of platforms -- both as a browser plug-in or a stand-alone application -- with Adobe's free Acrobat Reader program. Click here to download the latest version of Adobe Reader. Click on any title link below to view or download that file. Resources On This Page: Lesson Plans & Rubrics KIPP King Curriculum Planning Guide <img height="12" width="11" class="media-image media-element file-content-image" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content_image_breakpoints_theme_edutopia_desktop_1x/public/content/08/pdficon.gif? Back to Top Tools for Critical Thinking Scope and Sequence, Speech and Composition <img alt="" title="" class="media-image" width="11" height="12" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content_image_breakpoints_theme_edutopia_desktop_1x/public/content/08/pdficon.gif? Culture at KIPP
Greek and Roman Mythology About the Course Myths are traditional stories that have endured over a long time. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? Course Syllabus Week 1: Homer, epic poetry, and Trojan legends Week 2: Heroes and suffering Week 3: This World and other ones Week 4: Identity and signs Week 5: Gods and humans Week 6: Religion and ritual Week 7: Justice Week 8: Unstable selves Week 9: Writing myth in history Week 10: From myths to mythology Recommended Background No special background is needed other than the willingness and ability to synthesize complex texts and theoretical material. In-course Textbooks Suggested Readings Greek Tragedies, Vol.
Color Symbolism - What Do Colors Symbolize? Since times immemorial, color symbolism has been used to depict beliefs, traditions, and behavior. Colors are used to represent life, death, fear, hatred, anger and joy. Most of the color symbolism represented today is handed down from generation to generation. Due to this fact, we often find that there is no uniformity in such color associations. People’s traditions, beliefs and values all play a role in these connections and associations. Take the example of weddings. Using Color Symbolism In many English speaking nations, commonly used phrases also depict color symbolism. Experts thus caution color symbolism to be used very carefully by firmly establishing the context. Color symbolism: Then and Now We take colors for granted. Today, there is a great deal of research being carried out on color symbolism and color associations. Color symbolism thus forms a huge part of our daily lives.
Critical Reading of an Essay's Argument Critical Reading of An Essay's Argument: Some logicians call it "critical reading." Others call it "close reading," or "active reading," or a host of other terms. All these labels refer to the same general process. Educated adults exist in a delusional state, thinking we can read. Mortimer Adler speaks of an experience while teaching an honors course that illustrates the problem perfectly: What I am going to report happened in a class in which we were reading Thomas Aquinas's treatise on the passions, but the same thing has happened in countless other classes with many different sorts of material. It was clear from context that the student above had read the entire work, and the student clearly understood the conclusion of Saint Thomas's argument. The act of reading to extract information and reading critically are vastly different. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. They have different goals. I. II. I know what your initial response is: "Five stages! I. A. B. C. II. A.
The Art of Being Right The Art of Being Right: 38 Ways to Win an Argument (1831) (Eristische Dialektik: Die Kunst, Recht zu Behalten) is an acidulous and sarcastic treatise written by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in sarcastic deadpan.[1] In it, Schopenhauer examines a total of thirty-eight methods of showing up one's opponent in a debate. He introduces his essay with the idea that philosophers have concentrated in ample measure on the rules of logic, but have not (especially since the time of Immanuel Kant) engaged with the darker art of the dialectic, of controversy. Whereas the purpose of logic is classically said to be a method of arriving at the truth, dialectic, says Schopenhauer, "...on the other hand, would treat of the intercourse between two rational beings who, because they are rational, ought to think in common, but who, as soon as they cease to agree like two clocks keeping exactly the same time, create a disputation, or intellectual contest." Publication[edit] A. Synopsis[edit]
Color Symbolism in Literature: What Do Colors Mean in Literature and Poetry? Colors have been used in stories since as early as the first story was told. Writers and poets use colors to create concrete images of their characters, scenes and events.Language itself uses a system of symbols, either verbal or written. Therefore, color symbolism in literature imparts a deeper meaning to the words which, in turn, help transform the written content into a more powerful instrument. Naturally, the reader must also have prior experience with the color in order to interpret the symbolism (that the creator has in mind) correctly. This is the main reason why poems and books mean different things to different readers. Let us study different colors and what they mean in different forms of literature across the world. Color symbolism in French literature As early as the 12th century, French writers and poets used only 7 colors to depict romance, characters and emotions. Color symbolism in fairy tales Color symbolism in Gothic literature Symbolism of the color yellow in literature
The Passion of Flannery O’Connor - James Parker A prayer journal kept by the writer in her early 20s sheds new light on her biblical ironies. Kevin Christy How was the crowd at the Sermon on the Mount? When the son of God did stand-up for the multitudes, were there hecklers? Had Flannery O’Connor been on the scene, we can be sure, she would have reported it as some kind of freak-out, a dusty near-riot, not Woodstock but Altamont—scuffles, bad vibes, mic feedback. In O’Connor’s story “Revelation,” for instance, the pious Mrs. This month FSG publishes A Prayer Journal, the contents of a devotional notebook that O’Connor—a turbocharged Catholic—kept from January 1946 to September 1947, while she was a student at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Iowa was where spiky, brainy Mary Flannery O’Connor from Milledgeville, Georgia, became Flannery O’Connor, writer. “Smash the ego,” wrote Peter Schjeldahl in a 1979 poem called “I Missed Punk,” “which always reconstitutes / (and if it doesn’t, well, / your worries are over).” “A Circle in the Fire”
Teaching Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: Common Core-Style For the first eight years of my teaching career, my Shakespare daily lesson plans went something like this: "Good morning! Turn to Act II Scene 1 on page 234. I'm going to push play on the CD, let's listen to a few lines..." Once in awhile, I would have the students act out a scene or two... but that usually led to monotone recitations and awkward moments helping students pronounce words. I think many people would relate to these methods. We were studying the play a mile wide and an inch deep. This year, my English II colleague Blake Revelle and I decided to try something completely different when we taught Julius Caesar. We felt like the answer was clear: In 10 years, it will be far more important for our students to know how to annotate, analyze and explain a complex text they have to read for work or college, rather than be able to answer plot questions or create a poster with all of the characters. Our mantra became, "We will teach an inch-wide and a mile-deep." Monday 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.