New Sprint System

Please feel free to provide feedback on the new class organization by posting a comment.

Seminar Quarter 4 Disclosure Document Addendum

Dear Parents and Students,

Thank you for a wonderful school year thus far. I have felt very fortunate to be working with such wonderful students and to be exploring together such interesting ideas. To finish off the year, I will be organizing the fourth quarter of Socratic Seminar in a new way. The quarter will be divided into four two-week sprints. At the end of each sprint, I will look at the work completed by each student during the sprint and assign a grade.

Individual assignments will NOT be posted on PowerSchool. Instead, I will simply post a grade for each sprint. The final quarter grade will be determined based on the grades received for the four sprints as well as the final exams and independent reading assignment. This will allow me as a teacher to assess each student’s overall progress rather than focus on points associated with individual assignments. NO LATE WORK will be accepted after the end of a sprint.

This new structure will benefit students in the following ways:

· Students will receive consistent and timely feedback on their performance (every two weeks).

· Students can focus on their performance for a manageable “chunk” of time.

· In determining grades, the teacher can take into consideration trends of improvement from sprint to sprint.

· Students will not be buried under by trying to make up late work. Once a sprint is over, no late work will be accepted. Rather than focus on the past, students can work to keep up with assignments in the subsequent sprint.

· Students’ participation in Socratic discussions during class can be factored into grades.

To help parents and students stay abreast of assignments, I will post a list of assignments for a given sprint on my class blog (socraticworld.blogspot.com). Please check back regularly for updates. I am also happy to respond to questions about assignments by email (brigham.dye@maeserprep.org). As this is a new approach to organizing this course, I welcome any feedback you may have.

Sincerely,

Mr. Dye

Extra credit: Can you find a sentence written in passive voice in this document?

Socratic Seminar Quarter 4 Schedule

Sprint 1 March 28-April 8

History: WWI and International Organizations

Literature: All Quiet on the Western Front; WWI poetry

Elements of literature: poetic devices

Grammar: parallelism; SAT prep

Writing: finish State of the Union Term Papers (persuasive writing)

Mini-Sprint 2 April 18-22

History: Revolutions in Russia and China; the Great Depression

Literature: excerpts from Red Scarf Girl or Wild Swans

Writing: Creative nonfiction

Writing conventions: MLA formatting

Grammar: commas and semicolons

Vocab: roots review

Spring Break April 11-15

Utah State Testing (CRTs) April 25-28

Independent Reading (see list)

April 29 Field Trip to BYU Museum of Art exhibit “At War! The Changing Face of American War Illustration”

Sprint 3 May 2-13

History: WWII

Literature: Maus I & II

Writing: Historical fiction

Sprint 4 May 16-27

History: the Cold War; recent turmoil in the Middle East

Literature: short stories from The Martian Chronicles; film—Paradise Now

Writing: Finalize writing portfolio with reflections

Field Trip: Hill Aerospace Museum

Review and Wrap-up May 31-June 2

Final Exams June 3-7