September 30

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Emerson wrote, "Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great." What do you think this means? Do you agree? Why/why not?


AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Rewrite the dialogue between Haimon and Creon (you can write this to illustrate a different character flaw of Creon, or you can invent a character flaw for Haimon, or you can choose to create a nice father-son moment that leads to a happier ending)
3. Read literature analysis book

REMINDER:
Vocabulary quiz tomorrow

September 29

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Fear is a powerful motivator. It influences advertising, politics, war and the economy. What do you fear? How/when does fear motivate or influence you?


AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Reading quiz (Antigone Scenes 3-4)
3. Read Antigone Scene 5

September 28

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Some students have decided to stab themselves with sharp objects in sensitive areas (tongues, faces, belly buttons). Why? What does this symbolize to you?


AGENDA:
1. Journal/check vocab and Antigone HW
2. Return Tao/Aikido essays; discuss thesis statement and purpose of introduction
3. Antigone Scenes 3-4 (whatever we don't finish in class is HW; continue active/close reading to the end of Scene 4)

September 27

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Look around the classroom and choose a piece of furniture. Imagine that you are it! How would you see the classroom differently? Being here all day/night and on weekends, you must see some interesting things that the rest of us miss. Please share these observations with your reader.


(EARLY OUT/30 MINUTE PERIODS)

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Discuss HW/pass back work
2. Vocabulary

September 24

JOURNAL TOPIC:
When was the last time you convinced someone that you were right and s/he was wrong? How did you do it? Describe in detail.

AGENDA:
1. Journal/turn in
2. Endorse & turn in literature analysis #2 (#3 is due 10/8)
3. Vocabulary quiz
4. Continue Antigone

HW: Comb through the play and collect at least three textual references to one of the following topics: 1)families divided by political differences; 2)the death penalty; 3)gender bias; 4)loyalty. What does your evidence suggest about the author's tone and intended theme(s)? Be prepared to describe/explain in discussion and/or writing Monday.

ANTIGONE

antigone script

September 23

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Think of something you love to do that requires skill and practice. How would you teach someone else to do it? What information and materials would the person need? What strategies would you use? Be specific.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Reading quiz
3. Continue Antigone; begin discussing how Aristotle would "grade" Sophocles on his use of the six elements of tragedy

HW: Are Creon, the Sentry, Antigone & Ismene static or dynamic characters? Analyze Ode II foreshadowing.

REMINDERS: Vocab quiz and literature analysis due tomorrow, 9/24

September 22

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Write an outlandish fake absence excuse using any five of this week's vocabulary words.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Antigone: historical context, performance structure, introduction, main characters, conflict

HW: Review active reading notes and prepare comments/questions to open class 9/23

LITERATURE ANALYSIS BOOKS: SEPTEMBER

Wondering what your colleagues have read so far? Here are the books you recommended in class today (in no particular order) based on your first two literature analyses. If you read a book and don't see it here, please let me know.

Literature Analysis Books
(as of September 21, 2010)

TITLE
1. Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer
2. Buried Onions by Gary Soto
3. Walking Stars by Victor Villasenor
4. White Noise by Don Delillo
5. Down & Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
6. The Shack by William P. Young
7. The Sin Eater by Sandra Cisneros
8. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
9. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by Janet Evenivich
10. One for the Money Two for the Dough by Janet Evenivich
11. Angel Falls by Nora Roberts
12. Blue Dahlia by Nora Roberts
13. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
14. Call of the Wild by Jack London
15. Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
16. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
17. Gingerbread Girl by Stephen King
18. Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
19. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
20. Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
21. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
22. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
23. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
24. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
25. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
26. Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alexander
27. HP: Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
28. HP: Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
29. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
30. The Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
31. Deadly Partners by Christine Green
32. Identical by Ellen Hopkins
33. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
34. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
35. Long Fall by Walter Mosely
36. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
37. The Giver by Lois Lowry
38. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
39. Uglies by Scott Westerfield
40. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
41. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
42. Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini
43. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
44. Under the Dome by Stephen King
45. The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
46. A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
47. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
48. You’ve Been Warned by Michael Connelly
49. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
50. Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
51. Every Boy’s Got One by Meg Cabot
52. Dark Angel by V.C. Andrews
53. The Stand by Stephen King
54. The Shack by William P. Young
55. The Lake House by James Patterson
56. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
57. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
58. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
59. The Black Company by Glen Cook
60. Shadows Linger by Glen Cook
61. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
62. Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
63. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
64. The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis
65. The Haunting by Joan Lowery Nixon
66. Blue is for Nightmares Laurie Stolarz
67. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
68. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
69. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
70. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
71. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
72. Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
73. Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly
74. The Hard Way by Lee Child
75. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
76. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
77. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

September 21

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Describe your favorite music-- to a deaf person.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Socratic Seminar/Aristotle's Poetics, Tragedy & Back-to-School Night

HW: No assignment; bring textbook to class 9/22

September 20

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Can a person love someone or something too much?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Vocabulary
3. Aristotle's Poetics and the 6 elements of tragedy

HW:
1. Vocab
2. Prepare for tomorrow's Socratic Seminar by reading pp.768-773 in your textbook & reviewing Aristotle/elements of tragedy

NOTE: Remember Back-to-School prep if you are running a student-led conference

September 17

JOURNAL TOPIC:
What in your life would you miss most if it were gone? This may be a person, an opportunity, a possession, a pet, or even an idea-- like your freedom. Explain your answer.

AGENDA:
1. Journal/turn in
2. Vocabulary quiz
3. Read literature analysis book

HW: No formal assignment this weekend; work on literature analysis #2 (due 9/24)

September 16

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Describe a memorable fight scene from a book or movie. What makes this particular conflict stick out in your memory? How was it important to the story?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Discuss Socratic Seminar
3. Back to School Night: Student-led conferences (see below #1)
4. Aristotle's Poetics (see below #2)

HW: Finish Poetics. Make sure you know the six elements of tragedy and the defining characteristic of the tragic hero.


student led conference script


aristotle's poetics

September 15

JOURNAL TOPIC:
In many cultures there are rituals that signify when a child becomes an adult. How can you tell in our culture? By age? Getting a driver's license? Voting? Be sure to explain your answer.

AGENDA:
Socratic Seminar/ Meanings, Signs & Symbols

HW:
1. Read this article about shampoo (http://www.salon.com/news/environment/good_life/2009/08/13/shampoo);
2. Come to your own conclusion about whether people should use shampoo;
3. Argue your point to someone and write a paragraph about the conversation.

September 14

JOURNAL TOPIC:
You are the author of an advice column, and you receive the following letter: "My girlfriend (or boyfriend) is cheating on me- what should I do?" How will you reply, and why? Be sure to give reasons for your advice.

AGENDA:
1. Journal/check homework (vocab & active reading notes)
2. Discussion: Meanings, Signs & Symbols
3. Using quotes in your writing

HW: Meanings, Signs & Symbols (Part III)-- come to class tomorrow prepared to answer the question, "Are you a Shampoo Slave?"

September 13

["EARLY OUT" SCHEDULE/ 30 MIN. PERIOD]

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Which would you prefer: a minor role in a great [movie/university/team/organization] or a major role in a mediocre one? Why? Explain.


AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Vocabulary

HW: Meanings, Signs & Symbols (Part II)

September 10

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Describe the best practical joke you've ever seen or heard about. Tell the story in a way that keeps the reader in suspense until the end. (Hint: use what you know about inciting incidents and rising action.)

AGENDA:
1. Journal/turn in
2. Turn in literature analysis #1 (L.A. #2 is due 9/24)
3. Vocabulary quiz

HW: Read Meanings, Signs & Symbols Part II (distributed in class)

September 9

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Predict the future! What do you think our school's campus will look like in 100 years? 1000 years? Describe in detail.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Tao recitals
3. Turn in essays/ analyze thesis statements

HW: Meanings, Signs & Symbols Part I (distributed in class)

September 8

JOURNAL TOPIC
Throughout the history of storytelling, authors have used familiar formulas such as tragedy and comedy. What is your favorite type of story? How does it make you feel?

AGENDA
1. Journal/check vocabulary HW
2. Discuss study habits article
3. Tao recitals

HW: Read "Organizational Aikido" (below) and write an essay in which you compare the theme(s) from the Tao chapter you mastered with the main idea(s) of the article.


organizational aikido

September 7

JOURNAL TOPIC
Your friends invite you to a fancy restaurant in San Francisco-- all expenses paid! The waiter brings you a soda, calls you "sir" or "miss" and hands you a menu. With horror you realize that every dish consists of insects in different sauces! What will you do?


AGENDA
1. Journal
2. Vocabulary
3. Recite the Tao


REMINDER: Literature Analysis #1 is due Friday, September 10.

HW: Read the following article and use it as inspiration for vocab sentences; be prepared to discuss in class Wednesday, September 8.

The New York Times Reprints
This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article. Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information.

September 6, 2010
Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits
By BENEDICT CAREY

Every September, millions of parents try a kind of psychological witchcraft, to transform their summer-glazed campers into fall students, their video-bugs into bookworms. Advice is cheap and all too familiar: Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies).

And check out the classroom. Does Junior’s learning style match the new teacher’s approach? Or the school’s philosophy? Maybe the child isn’t “a good fit” for the school.

Such theories have developed in part because of sketchy education research that doesn’t offer clear guidance. Student traits and teaching styles surely interact; so do personalities and at-home rules. The trouble is, no one can predict how.

Yet there are effective approaches to learning, at least for those who are motivated. In recent years, cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying.

The findings can help anyone, from a fourth grader doing long division to a retiree taking on a new language. But they directly contradict much of the common wisdom about good study habits, and they have not caught on.

For instance, instead of sticking to one study location, simply alternating the room where a person studies improves retention. So does studying distinct but related skills or concepts in one sitting, rather than focusing intensely on a single thing.

“We have known these principles for some time, and it’s intriguing that schools don’t pick them up, or that people don’t learn them by trial and error,” said Robert A. Bjork, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Instead, we walk around with all sorts of unexamined beliefs about what works that are mistaken.”

Take the notion that children have specific learning styles, that some are “visual learners” and others are auditory; some are “left-brain” students, others “right-brain.” In a recent review of the relevant research, published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of psychologists found almost zero support for such ideas. “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing,” the researchers concluded.

Ditto for teaching styles, researchers say. Some excellent instructors caper in front of the blackboard like summer-theater Falstaffs; others are reserved to the point of shyness. “We have yet to identify the common threads between teachers who create a constructive learning atmosphere,” said Daniel T. Willingham, a psychologist at the University of Virginia and author of the book “Why Don’t Students Like School?”

But individual learning is another matter, and psychologists have discovered that some of the most hallowed advice on study habits is flat wrong. For instance, many study skills courses insist that students find a specific place, a study room or a quiet corner of the library, to take their work. The research finds just the opposite. In one classic 1978 experiment, psychologists found that college students who studied a list of 40 vocabulary words in two different rooms — one windowless and cluttered, the other modern, with a view on a courtyard — did far better on a test than students who studied the words twice, in the same room. Later studies have confirmed the finding, for a variety of topics.

The brain makes subtle associations between what it is studying and the background sensations it has at the time, the authors say, regardless of whether those perceptions are conscious. It colors the terms of the Versailles Treaty with the wasted fluorescent glow of the dorm study room, say; or the elements of the Marshall Plan with the jade-curtain shade of the willow tree in the backyard. Forcing the brain to make multiple associations with the same material may, in effect, give that information more neural scaffolding.

“What we think is happening here is that, when the outside context is varied, the information is enriched, and this slows down forgetting,” said Dr. Bjork, the senior author of the two-room experiment.

Varying the type of material studied in a single sitting — alternating, for example, among vocabulary, reading and speaking in a new language — seems to leave a deeper impression on the brain than does concentrating on just one skill at a time. Musicians have known this for years, and their practice sessions often include a mix of scales, musical pieces and rhythmic work. Many athletes, too, routinely mix their workouts with strength, speed and skill drills.

The advantages of this approach to studying can be striking, in some topic areas. In a study recently posted online by the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, Doug Rohrer and Kelli Taylor of the University of South Florida taught a group of fourth graders four equations, each to calculate a different dimension of a prism. Half of the children learned by studying repeated examples of one equation, say, calculating the number of prism faces when given the number of sides at the base, then moving on to the next type of calculation, studying repeated examples of that. The other half studied mixed problem sets, which included examples all four types of calculations grouped together. Both groups solved sample problems along the way, as they studied.

A day later, the researchers gave all of the students a test on the material, presenting new problems of the same type. The children who had studied mixed sets did twice as well as the others, outscoring them 77 percent to 38 percent. The researchers have found the same in experiments involving adults and younger children.

“When students see a list of problems, all of the same kind, they know the strategy to use before they even read the problem,” said Dr. Rohrer. “That’s like riding a bike with training wheels.” With mixed practice, he added, “each problem is different from the last one, which means kids must learn how to choose the appropriate procedure — just like they had to do on the test.”

These findings extend well beyond math, even to aesthetic intuitive learning. In an experiment published last month in the journal Psychology and Aging, researchers found that college students and adults of retirement age were better able to distinguish the painting styles of 12 unfamiliar artists after viewing mixed collections (assortments, including works from all 12) than after viewing a dozen works from one artist, all together, then moving on to the next painter.

The finding undermines the common assumption that intensive immersion is the best way to really master a particular genre, or type of creative work, said Nate Kornell, a psychologist at Williams College and the lead author of the study. “What seems to be happening in this case is that the brain is picking up deeper patterns when seeing assortments of paintings; it’s picking up what’s similar and what’s different about them,” often subconsciously.

Cognitive scientists do not deny that honest-to-goodness cramming can lead to a better grade on a given exam. But hurriedly jam-packing a brain is akin to speed-packing a cheap suitcase, as most students quickly learn — it holds its new load for a while, then most everything falls out.

“With many students, it’s not like they can’t remember the material” when they move to a more advanced class, said Henry L. Roediger III, a psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis. “It’s like they’ve never seen it before.”

When the neural suitcase is packed carefully and gradually, it holds its contents for far, far longer. An hour of study tonight, an hour on the weekend, another session a week from now: such so-called spacing improves later recall, without requiring students to put in more overall study effort or pay more attention, dozens of studies have found.

No one knows for sure why. It may be that the brain, when it revisits material at a later time, has to relearn some of what it has absorbed before adding new stuff — and that that process is itself self-reinforcing.

“The idea is that forgetting is the friend of learning,” said Dr. Kornell. “When you forget something, it allows you to relearn, and do so effectively, the next time you see it.”

That’s one reason cognitive scientists see testing itself — or practice tests and quizzes — as a powerful tool of learning, rather than merely assessment. The process of retrieving an idea is not like pulling a book from a shelf; it seems to fundamentally alter the way the information is subsequently stored, making it far more accessible in the future.

Dr. Roediger uses the analogy of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics, which holds that the act of measuring a property of a particle alters that property: “Testing not only measures knowledge but changes it,” he says — and, happily, in the direction of more certainty, not less.

In one of his own experiments, Dr. Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke, also of Washington University, had college students study science passages from a reading comprehension test, in short study periods. When students studied the same material twice, in back-to-back sessions, they did very well on a test given immediately afterward, then began to forget the material.

But if they studied the passage just once and did a practice test in the second session, they did very well on one test two days later, and another given a week later.

“Testing has such bad connotation; people think of standardized testing or teaching to the test,” Dr. Roediger said. “Maybe we need to call it something else, but this is one of the most powerful learning tools we have.”

Of course, one reason the thought of testing tightens people’s stomachs is that tests are so often hard. Paradoxically, it is just this difficulty that makes them such effective study tools, research suggests. The harder it is to remember something, the harder it is to later forget. This effect, which researchers call “desirable difficulty,” is evident in daily life. The name of the actor who played Linc in “The Mod Squad”? Francie’s brother in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”? The name of the co-discoverer, with Newton, of calculus?

The more mental sweat it takes to dig it out, the more securely it will be subsequently anchored.

None of which is to suggest that these techniques — alternating study environments, mixing content, spacing study sessions, self-testing or all the above — will turn a grade-A slacker into a grade-A student. Motivation matters. So do impressing friends, making the hockey team and finding the nerve to text the cute student in social studies.

“In lab experiments, you’re able to control for all factors except the one you’re studying,” said Dr. Willingham. “Not true in the classroom, in real life. All of these things are interacting at the same time.”

But at the very least, the cognitive techniques give parents and students, young and old, something many did not have before: a study plan based on evidence, not schoolyard folk wisdom, or empty theorizing.

September 3

JOURNAL TOPIC
Imagine that you have just been elected President of the United States. Now what? What laws would you propose? What would you do about war, terrorism and criminal violence? Jobs? The environment? What do you feel strongly enough about to risk improving?


AGENDA
1. Journal (turn in)
2. Vocabulary/lecture quiz
3. Discuss Tao chapter translations


HW: Memorize one of the chapters (your choice, except 18 and 33); due Tue. September 7

September 2

JOURNAL TOPIC
What if you showed up to school and no adults were here? What would you do? Would you stay on campus? Would you use resources like computers/library/pool/gym? What could you learn from the experience?


AGENDA
1. Journal
2. Textbook issues/apologies on behalf of the library
3. Theme, tone & mood
3. The Tao te Ching (selections in handout distributed in class; see below)

HW: Finish translating selected chapters from the Tao


THE TAO TE CHING

September 1

JOURNAL TOPIC
Imagine that you are waking up from a deep sleep. When you open your eyes, you realize that you are still in the sixth grade- your entire memory of high school was just a dream! Based on your "dream" what you would you do differently as you move forward? Explain your answer.

AGENDA
1. Journal
2. Discussion: Socratic Method, opinions & entitlements, critical thinking and the Katha Upanishad


HW: Read "The Monkey's Paw" (pp.50-58 in textbook) and answer these two questions: 1)What is the theme of this story? and 2)How does it relate to learning and/or the work we do in this class?