Monday, February 15, 2010

PHUCK YOU JOHN MAYER, PAT ROBERTSON & OTHERS





This short film is a response to all those who have spewed racist, sexist, homophobic, and/or anti-semitic hate speech from their filthy mouth. The response is simple,"PHUCK YOU." Produced by Charles A. Grandson IV.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Frederick Douglass Video Project

I started off class with a pre-class warm up question on a very important point Douglass makes in chapter 2, were he makes clear that slaves sing to express their "prayer(s) and complaint(s)." After that I explained to the class that we would be starting a video project and that we would meet at different locations on Wednesday and Friday. They were excited about the project and it elicited responses from members of the class who haven't spoken all year. They even pitched in ideas, suggesting that they use my laptop as a video camera. After the explanation I showed them an example of the type of films they would make, using the YouTube 2Pac video featuring the song "Changes." For that moment, I reached another student who rarely pays attention to whats going on in class. He participated in the discussion after the video about 2Pac's message. After the video we transitioned, recapping and finishing our discussion of chapter 1 of Douglass. Only 2 students participated in this dicussion because they were the only one's who had read the chapter the night before. This prolonged the discussion and we didn't get to the storyboarding. I briefly assigned the storyboarding worksheet and assigned it for homework. Tomorrow's lesson has been modified to address the fact that they haven't read chapter 2.

Pre-Class- Why is it important for each student to engage in class discussion?
Discuss Pre-Class (5 min.)
Review Chapter 2 (20 min.)
Listen to Slave Spiritual / Connect to 2Pac Changes "Prayer and Complaint"
Listen to Obama Speech & Discuss (10 minutes)
Class will read Chapter 3 (Group or Independantly) (20 min.)

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Using Video Production and Historical Thinking to Engage Inclusion Students in the Secondary History Curriculum

My graduate thesis at the culmination of my masters program for the Donovan Urban Teaching scholars program at Boston College was concerned with using culturally relevant curriculum and pedagogy to keep the attention and captivate the minds of today's young people. Gone are the days where teachers can stand in front of the class and lecture as my middle and high school teachers did on a daily basis. They were great teachers and I wouldn't have preferred it any other way, but adolescents in 2010 have developed a different palette and teachers have had new competition for the past 20 years. Youth centered television programming, the Internet, Ipods, Facebook, and their predecessors have revolutionized, perceptions of reality, communication, study habits and access to information. Unfortunately, traditional education, specifically urban public education, has not evolved alongside its technically savvy customers, the students. My thesis / theory of education aims at eliminating the Achievement Gap, (national and international), by using the multiple types of text and methods of communication that students use in their daily lives. For the next few months this blog will document my journey in attempting to apply this theory in my 9th grade inclusion U.S. History I class.

Essential Question: How does 19th century American slavery affect my life today?
Important Components of Project:
1. Video project on the Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass
2. Writing: Students write out video outline
3. Processing the text: Students will capture important scenes from Douglass on paper in the form of Story boards.
4. Starting Date: Monday, February 8th. Students have already read chapters 1 and 2 of Douglass.
5. Wednesday & Friday students will began the video making process.

Monday
TuPac –Play Video: Changes
Process with Students: What did you hear/ write down (Pass Out Teacher's Notes afterwards)
Relate to Douglass Chapter 2 –discuss power of Music / Music as a reflection feelings & experiences / Music has a healing balm / Share the music tree
Filmmakers Workshop: Story Boards of Chapters 1 & 2 of Douglass
H.W. Finish Story Board

Tuesday
Quiz: Chapters 1 & 2
Obama – Play Audio: We Are One
Process with Students: What did you hear/ write down (Pass Out Teacher's Notes afterwards)
Relate to Douglass Chapters 1 & 2
H.W. Read Chapter 3 Douglass

Wednesday
Introduce Students to my video: Reparations
Introduce film making process
Model media gathering process for students
Students gather their own media
Collect students media on USB towards the end of class
H.W. Read Chapter 3

Thursday
Process and Discuss Chapter 3 in class
Read Chapter 4 in class
H.W. Finish Chapter 4, start Chapter 4

Friday
School Daze -Video Clip - Skin Color in American Society
Process with Students: What did you hear/ write down (Pass Out Teacher's Notes afterwards)
Introduce Window's Movie Maker
Students began to build videos

This is the preliminary plan. Changes will be made along the way. I will also debrief each lesson on this blog.