Child's Play

Armed with their notes on the S.T.E.A.L. framework for character evaluation, students worked in small groups applying this to the main characters of 6 veeerrryyyy short novels.

The groups focused on one of following stories:

• [Placeholder.jpg]

Their singular task, within their groups, was to read their selection, and complete a S.T.E.A.L. character analysis chart.

While I didn't collect this document, what I did do was scan one completed chart from each group. If you missed today, I'll be able to put you in a group tomorrow, and they'll catch you up.

S.T.E.A.L.ing Characters

Aw, snap.

Turns out, R/F/D/S isn't enough. It's a good starting place, but we need to go deeper.

Today, students skipped over writing a personal response to Speak, and instead, took a serious note on Character Analysis.

"But, Tidyman, why do we even have to do this?

Didn't we just do character analysis the other day?

Wasn't that the R/F/D/S thing?"

No. Don't be silly. That's Character Classification. It's basic. It's a good first step.

But that just means you know something about a character. And knowing, if you recall, is quite low on Bloom's Taxonomy. You deserve better.

We must seek to understand.

And so, students took notes on this powerpoint. 

We then looked at S.T.E.A.L. as applied to Theodor Geisel's seminal work, The Cat in The Hat.

Due to copyright law, I cannot link to my copy of The Cat in the Hat.

I paid 6 dollars for it.

You're welcome.

To see the framework, as well as the applied example, I present this .pdf file.

It's got a little more info than we worked with today in class, but hey, whatever.

Tomorrow, students are going to practice applying this framework to other stories. They'll work in groups.

HW:

• Bring Notes notebook to class
• YOU MUST BRING BACK THOSE 2 FORMS YOUR 7TH PERIOD TEACHER GAVE YOU. #FRFR.

"Awww nawwww! He didn't!

He didn't just embed a whole powerpoint

into his blog!"

I totally did.

Belonging; Applied Kinetics

Today, students took a gander at this opening powerpoint right here, and completed Journal Response #5: "Belonging". It was tied to Speak, but invited personal reflection.

This was, of course, after I had returned students' Classwork Composition Notebooks, which I had collected and checked on Friday.

• If you missed Friday, I need your notebook.
• If you missed today, Monday, I have your notebook to give back to you. Please complete Journal #5, available above.

Next, we moved to Applied Kinetics. For this activity, students moved to different quadrants of my classroom to indicate their understanding of whether characters from Speak were R/F/D/S.*

*Looking back on this, I wish I had portioned more class time for this activity.

Tomorrow, students will expand their breadth of character understanding by familiarizing themselves with S.T.E.A.L.

I would tell you what that means, but hey, that's tomorrow's class.

Character Classification & Speak

Students began class with a journal response to Speak

Here is a link to the .pptx that contains the prompt!

After responding to the Journal Prompt, students set up their Tables of Contents in their Classwork composition notebooks, which I then collected. I will return them on Monday.

And then we not-seamlessly transitioned to Bloom's Level III: Applying.
Students were asked to evaluate several characters (both major and minor) from Speak using the 4 character-classification terms we covered yesterday:

• Round
• Flat
• Dynamic
• Static

Here is a link to the document that was our handout in class!

HW for weekend:

• Finish character classifications (if not completed in class)
• Continue to review Speak

Open House!

Hey! It was awesome! Thanks for coming by to my room, and all of MLK tonight.

If you need/want/missed the Powerpoint I showed this evening, it's right

Here

if you'd like to download it.

Thanks again, from all of us here at MLK!

Round, Flat, Dynamic, Static

Today, students began by responding to yet another Speak-related journal entry prompt. This, as well as the notes on Character Classification, are contained on:

This Powerpoint!

After responding to this journal prompt (and having a little time to share some very interesting feedback -- looking at you, 3rd period --) students received this note-taking skeleton that accompanies the explanatory powerpoint.

Their task was to complete it as we went over the notes in class.

Tomorrow, we'll be using these words to look at numerous characters in Speak.

Setting: Contrasting Analysis

We began with this brief powerpoint presentation, which included Journal Response #2: Cover Analysis.

Sidenote: Here is a link to the full-size scan of the cover we examined.

After allowing for some discussion of the cover's artistic elements, we transitioned to an analysis of a 3rd key environment in Speak: The Janitor's Closet.

Here is the exact document I gave out in class.

By the end of class, the time had come to apply (Bloom's Level III) our practice of analyzing settings' effects on people to students' own lives.

Here is the document I gave out for HW.

HW & Announcements:

• Finish the Closet Setting Analysis
• Complete the Speak: Setting Application (personal)
• 8/21: MLK Open House
• 8/29: Picture day!