Wednesday, September 17th, 2014

The Day In a Nutshell:
1) Miscellaneous stuff
2) Create presentation about 9/11 interviews
3) Do an activity around understanding how symbolism is used in books
4) Create presentations about why empires fall.

Adminastrivia and Notices: 
--Check off interviews
--Check off Posters
--The Box
History and English together is confusing
Presenting is difficult/Only get better with practice
Seating Chart/It will change
Breaks/Class is long/We will do our best to keep it going.
--Class website
--Create list of unknown words at table from Ernie's Ark
--Reading video
--Habits to Practices:
Respectful use of computers
Being on time

Circle: Something nice done for you or someone else.

Remembering 9/11
Target: Understand how communities are connected and affected by events.
By the End of the Period: You will explain how events can affect communities.
We will be interviewing staff and asking them questions about what they remember about 9/11 and their thoughts about what's happened since.
Challenge: Create a presentation that explains how individual's perceptions of communities and civilizations are changed by events.
Activity: At your tables review your interview notes, then take turns sharing your interview with the group. Then put together a presentation that explains how individuals perceptions of their communities are changed.
Target: Understand what a claim is and how it works; Understand how 9/11 affected people.

Ernie's Ark
1) Theme game: develop lists of abstract words and another of concrete nouns then explain how the concrete items help understand the abstract thing.
2) Split to two groups: one identify the abstractions in the first chapter, the other the concrete things. Each group pick 5; swap lists and explain how the concrete things help us understand more about the abstractions.
Target: Learn how authors use symbolism to advance a theme.  Today, you will see how concrete objects are used to help explain abstract ideas better.

Empires Falling
Challenge: Create a presentation that explains why empires fall -- think about who what where when why.  Keep it simple.
Target: Learn both examples of fallen empires and why empires fall.

Processing
Based on the given concept map, write about today's activities and what you learned.

Read Ernie's Ark
Homework: read to page 91.

Homework for Honors
From the reading, write a paragraph explaining how Monica Wood uses symbolism to advance her theme.

Homework for Everyone
Read to p.91 in Ernie's Ark

Future: 
Common Assessment for ELA
Interesting fact about Rome/Presentation
Planning for Viking trail -- investigating to answer some questions
Planning for Downtown Norway -- investigating to answer some questions
Food grant
Computer Etiquette
Note taking