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?
Itok=km1Httb_" alt="" /> A general guide to help teachers plan curriculum for the year and set clear expectations about course goals Leadership Student Individual Learning Plan <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. Famous Novelists on Symbolism in Their Work and Whether It Was Intentional. Eric Carle's bright, beloved children's classic about an insatiable caterpillar has been collecting awards—and fans—since it was first published in 1969. Here are a few things you might not know about The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar's bright colors contrast a dark period in Eric Carle's childhood. Eric Carle was born in Syracuse, New York, on June 25, 1929. But when Carle was 6, his father relocated the family back to his native Stuttgart, Germany.
The author has since speculated that he was drawn to the chunky, vibrant colors of painted tissue paper collage in part as reaction to the grimness of his childhood. 2. Herr Kraus, Carle’s high school art teacher, recognized his young pupil’s potential and risked his livelihood for the opportunity to foster it. "I didn't have the slightest idea that something like that existed, because I was used to art being flag-waving, gun-toting Aryans—super-realistic Aryan farmers, the women with their brute arms,” Carle said. 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. This website attempts to define more clearly what it is, and to outline a strategy for it. I expect such readings from the class, so it behooves students to give this website itself a close reading. Print out a copy if you want one for reference. 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.
The act of reading to extract information and reading critically are vastly different. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I. II. I. A. B. C. II. A. Aphoristic advice from famous writers for would-be writers [15 pictures] 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.
We then started diving into the core routines outlined on Visible Thinking from Harvard University. The core routines are a set of seven or so routines that target different types of thinking from across the modules. These routines are easy to get started with and are commonly found in Visible Thinking teachers’ toolkits. 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? Blogging as Reflection Blogging as Documentation. Slow Writing. Using Google Docs for Rubrics. At last year’s annual MassCUE conference, I went to a session presented by Katrina Kennett (@katrinakennett). Her presentation focused on how to use Google Docs to create rubrics, and she outlines the process in this video: She further explains her process and goals in this blog post.
I was energized by the presentation and immediately implemented Google Spreadsheets to create my own rubrics. You can create self-grading rubrics if you like, or you can create rubrics that tally the number of rubric points and convert it to a grade. I had a little trouble figuring out what formula to use to convert total rubric points to grade. What I can’t seem to do with my rubric is determine what formula to put in one of the cells that will convert, say, 25 points to a 90 on an essay. I am sharing a link to a Google rubric I have created combining Katrina’s method with the Greece Schools’ rubric.
Feel free to ask questions (or help me out with my spreadsheet formula) in the comments. Related posts: 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? The Bible, in its reader-unfriendly way, disdains to tell us. Jesus rips through that sequence of world-reversing one-liners, the Beatitudes—“immense sarcasms,” Mark Twain called them, missing the point narrowly but completely—and of the people’s reaction, we hear nothing at all. He wraps up his set, and they are “astonished at His doctrine.”
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. Iowa was where spiky, brainy Mary Flannery O’Connor from Milledgeville, Georgia, became Flannery O’Connor, writer. Not much of everyday life finds its way into the journal. PARCCGlossary_7-01-13.pdf. How_to_argue_with_studies1. Reading & Reacting: 10 Ways Literacy Narratives Will Rock Your World (or at least your writing classroom) | Haas | Learning. By Deanna Mascle @ Metawriting It is not often that I respond to posts from individual blogs, usually opting for more mainstream, published current educational fair instead. In an effort to branch out a bit more and look for some more positive material, I love this piece about literacy narratives. Anyone not checking on Deanna Mascle’s Metawriting should consider dropping by from time to time – good stuff.
In this post, she glowingly praises the benefits of the literacy narrative as a writing task. She articulates a compelling list of why they should be considered. Literacy narratives are powerful tools that can help students learn about themselves as literate people, as both consumers and producers of the written word in all its forms, and as such provides a key intervention tool for students struggling with literacy demons. This last sentence is quite beautiful and a definite factor in the likelihood that I will be asking students to write a literacy narrative in the near future.
Non-fiction - gaby's books. Masterpiece_film_in_the_classroom. In Common: Effective Writing for All Students. What this is: Hundreds of samples of Common Core-aligned student work from K-12 classrooms around the country. Why it matters: The shifts require that teachers gain fluency in identifying Common Core-aligned writing techniques at every grade level. In Common provides a range of examples of Common Core-aligned student work, drawn directly from K-12 classrooms across the country.
These student writing samples demonstrate how a student’s writing skills can progress as they gain fluency across the three major types of Common Core writing: argument/opinion writing, informative/explanatory writing, and narrative writing. One of the most common questions out there right now is “What does good student work aligned to the Common Core look like?” Teachers, coaches and school leaders alike will benefit from viewing these exemplars and sharing them within their schools and districts.
Common Core Writing Types Common Core Argument/Opinion Writing View Details Common Core Informative/Explanatory Writing. The List: Top 10 Romeo and Juliet screen adaptations. Read 12 Short Stories From Nobel Prize-Winning Writer Alice Munro Free Online. Calling her a “master of the contemporary short story,” the Swedish Academy awarded 82-year-old Alice Munro the Nobel Prize in Literature today. It is well-deserved, and hard-earned (and comes not long after she announced her retirement from fiction). After 14 story collections, Munro has reached at least a couple generations of writers with her psychologically subtle stories about ordinary men and women in Huron County, Ontario, her birthplace and home.
Only the 13th woman writer to win the Nobel, Munro has previously won the Man Booker Prize in 2009, the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction in Canada three times (1968, 1978, and 1986), and two O. Henry Awards (2006 and 2008). Her regional fiction draws as much from her Ontario surroundings as does the work of the very best so-called “regional” writers, and captivating interactions of character and landscape tend drive her work more so than intricate plotting. Why do I like to write short stories? "Voices" - (2013, Telegraph) RAFTing with Raptors: Connecting Science, English Language Arts, and the Common Core State Standards. By: Gary J. Senn, Deborah H. McMurtrie, & Bridget K.
Coleman Forty-five states and three territories have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and most states are now in the process of implementing them (CCSS Initiative, 2012). CCSS for English Language Arts (ELA) & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, or CCSS for ELA/Literacy, are designed to extend literacy learning beyond ELA to other content areas. The integration of literacy skills with science content has been increasingly emphasized in science education (see, e.g., Bricker, Rogowski, Hedt, & Rolfe, 2010; Sinatra & Broughton, 2011), and recent literature has featured various writing strategies that have been successful for integrating ELA and science content (Bintz, Wright, & Sheffer, 2010; Kokkino, Ortiz, Pappas, & Varelas, 2008). RAFT writing RAFT and CCSS for ELA/Literacy RAFT in science instruction RAFTing with Raptors Conclusion Previously published in Middle School Journal, January 2013.
Potential government shutdown: How would the U.S. media report on it if it were happening to another country? Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images This is the first installment of “If It Happened There,” a regular feature in which American events are described using the tropes and tone normally employed by the American media to describe events in other countries. WASHINGTON, United States—The typical signs of state failure aren’t evident on the streets of this sleepy capital city. Beret-wearing colonels have not yet taken to the airwaves to declare martial law. Money-changers are not yet buying stacks of useless greenbacks on the street. But the pleasant autumn weather disguises a government teetering on the brink. Because, at midnight Monday night, the government of this intensely proud and nationalistic people will shut down, a drastic sign of political dysfunction in this moribund republic.
The capital’s rival clans find themselves at an impasse, unable to agree on a measure that will allow the American state to carry out its most basic functions. The current rebellion has been led by Sen. In Search of Shakespeare . Comparing Film Adaptations. Introduction The late twentieth century marked a resurgence of Shakespeare on film. Directors and actors with styles as diverse as Kenneth Branagh, Baz Luhrmann and Mel Gibson strove to popularize "Hamlet" on the big screen, and students became used to seeing adaptations of Shakespeare arrive at their local Cineplex. The tradition in teaching has been to review the play by showing the entire movie. Viewing clips of the same Shakespeare scene in different film versions offers students the opportunity to engage in close critical analysis and to compare interpretations and visual styles.
This technique also inspires students to value and create their own interpretations of Shakespeare. Though this lesson deals specifically with Hamlet and its themes, many of the strategies and approaches here may be used with most any of Shakespeare's plays that have been adapted to film. Objectives Estimated Time The two parts of this lesson may be discontinuous. Materials - Branagh, Kenneth, dir. Procedure. Assessment and the Common Core standards. Posted by Lauren Hill on Tuesday, 08/21/2012 Lauren Hill shares strategies AP teachers have used for years that align with Common Core, along with formative assessment ideas.
When my state (Kentucky) adopted the ELA Common Core State Standards (CCSS), AP English Language and Composition teachers escaped many of the anxieties—and much of the extra work—that typically accompany the arrival of new standards. Text complexity? Analysis of syntactical structures? Informational and argumentative reading and writing? The College Board created the AP English Language exam in the early 1980s to address college professors’ complaints that high school graduates were unprepared for the rigors of college-level reading and writing. These students of rhetoric begin to see everything in terms of argument, and come to understand themselves as “authors” of their own lives. The AP English Language course encourages mastery of skills rather than coverage of specific texts, much like the CCSS. Text Complexity. Text to Text | 'The Scarlet Letter' and 'Sexism and the Single Murderess'
This week we’re introducing a new lesson plan format we’re calling Text to Text. In each lesson, we match a Times article, past or present, with often-taught literary, cultural, historical, scientific or mathematical material. Read more about the format, and consider submitting your own ideas. On Tuesday, we published a Text to Text for social studies teachers, and we followed it on Wednesday with one for science teachers.
We plan to publish at least one a month, and you can find them all by clicking Text to Text. ‘The Scarlet Letter’ and ‘Sexism and the Single Murderess’ Background: “The Scarlet Letter” is full of famous passages that probe themes like sin, redemption, guilt, revenge, resilience and hypocrisy, and we could have found Times articles that were interesting matches for all of those topics. In fact, in Text to Text editions to come, we just might. As always, please preview the content to make sure it is appropriate for your students. Read all of Chapter 2 » Going Further. Odell Education | Making Evidence-Based Claims Unit Grade 9: Plato - Odell Education. This unit develops students’ abilities to make evidence-based claims through activities based on a close reading of an excerpted text from Plato’s Apology.
UPDATE: September 2, 2013. Odell Education is excited to announce the release of a very special update. We commissioned an original translation of the excerpted Apology by Professor Peter Heinegg from Union College, Schenectady, NY. It is an honor to work with Professor Heinegg’s wonderful translation. Enjoy! (Note: All the unit materials have all been updated to work with the new translation.) →Option 1: Full Unit in a Zip File The zip file contains ALL unit components pre-organized into folders.Making EBC Unit – Grade 9 →Option 2: Individual Unit Components If you are unable to download a zip file, you can download each PDF separately. Learn more about How to use these materials_EBC To download the units for the other grades click here. Have you taught this unit? If you have any difficulty downloading the files, please contact us.
What Shakespeare Plays Originally Sounded Like. Old English Demonstrated By British College Students Using Famous Movie Scenes. e1691_HB_SSRJ_web. Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies. Common Core Practice | Chickens, Clouds and the View Outside Your Window. Writing Fiction Based on Real Science. 30 Indispensable Writing Tips From Famous Authors. Common Core requires publishing. Technology makes that happen.
12b_6719_AP_AI_English_CM_WEB_130605. Strategies for Student Centered Discussion - High School English Lesson. The Great Gatsby: Teaching activities that make the most of what the critics hated - TES English - Blog - TES English. 'The Great Fratsby' Is The 'Gatsby' Spoof That's Perfect For College. Luhrmann's 'Gatsby' Summer reading Passports Rooted in Reading. Tracing Project « ENGL 300: The Graphic Novel. 26 Indispensable Writing Tips From Famous Authors. Grammar and the Common Core. ASD | Middle Link | Language Arts | Writing. Object(ive) Writing: A Creative Exercise for the Composition Classroom.