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

Quarter 4 Sprint 1 Assignments

Please remember, NO LATE WORK will be accepted after the end of the Sprint on Friday, April 7.

1. Finish reading All Quiet on the Western Front
2. Poetry Project (due Tuesday, April 5)
3. WWI and vocab test (Wednesday, April 6)
4. Bring your most recent term paper draft to class on Thursday, April 7 for in-class conferences and revision.
5. Term Papers (due Friday, April 7)

Poetry Project

The Poetry of War Project

Due: Tuesday, April 5 (Remember, NO LATE WORK will be accepted after the end of the sprint.)

Instructions: Write THREE original poems, each using MANY of the poetic devices we have discussed in class. Use any three of the following prompts:

1.1. Use war as a metaphor for something in your life.

· Example: “My mother’s war on weeds”

· What other war-related concepts can you use as metaphors? (example: recruiting, flanking the enemy, weapons)

2.2. Respond to a modern war through a poem.

· Possible wars to consider: Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan

· You don’t have to be an expert on the war. You can simply write a poem about how you as a teenage American in 2011 understand war (or fail to understand war).

3.3. Write about WWI from an unusual perspective.

· Examples: from the point of view of a young man who stayed behind when his friends enlisted, from the point of view of a child of a soldier, or from the point of view of an airplane pilot flying over the trenches

4.4. Compose lyrics for a song about war (and perform it in class, or record it and play it in class, for extra credit).

5.5. Write a poem that is a letter to a war vet.

6.6. Make a metaphor collage to describe war.

· Use at least ten different pictures cut from magazines and paste them together in an original way.

· Each picture should not be literal depictions of war (e.g., tanks and guns), but should be used like metaphors to represent what war means (e.g., a picture of a bird’s nest that has been raided, with broken egg shells).

· The colors, shadows, and angles of the pictures you select should create the tone or mood you are trying to communicate about war.

Grading:

	Points Possible	Score
Project includes 3 original poems based on 3 of the poetry prompts. Each poem is at least 12 lines long.	30
Poems are rich in poetic devices.	20
Poems avoid sentimentality. They do not tell the reader what to think about war, but allow the reader to feel something because of the images and words that are used.	5
Poems use mostly concrete images (think of your five senses), rather than abstract concepts (e.g., “love”, “fear”, “tyranny”)	10
Poetic devices are fresh, not worn-out clichés.	10
Capitalization, punctuation, and grammar enhance the meaning of the poem because they are used intentionally rather than haphazardly.	5
Gives a 2 minute oral presentation of one of the poems during class.	10
Overall professional quality of work. It is appealing and beautiful.	10

As with all assignments, plagiarism on this project will result in an automatic failure.

Modern military alliances and international organizations

United Nations background

current United Nations Security Council resolutions (note the ones dealing with Libya)

NATO background

wikipedia on NATO

The Western Front in WWI

link to animated map of the Western Front in WWI

As you watch the animation, respond to the following questions:

1) What specific details did you notice in this animation that would support the claim that WWI was a stalemate?
2) Name 3 of the major battles of the Western Front and explain what happened at each.
3) Describe the Hindenberg Line.

affect vs. effect worksheet answers

1. affect
2. affected
3. effects
4. affects
5. effects
6. effect
7. affects
8. affect
9. effects
10. effect
11. effects
12. affected
13. affect
14. effect
15. affect
16. effect
17. effect
18. affect
19. effective
20. effects
21. effect
22. effect
    

bonus: Can you find the apostrophe problem on the worksheet?

Imperialism Videos

As you watch the following videos, prepare to respond to these questions:

1) What motivates the imperial country in each case?
2) How do the "victims" respond? Do they try to resist?
3) How did China's response to Western imperialists differ from Japan's response?

Opium War in China

America Forces Japan's Opening to the West (watch the last 15 minutes, starting at 41:00)