Koyczan – Flight 307

March 15, 2013March 15, 2013

9 CPI: To Kill a Mockingbird, Tolerance & Essential Questions

Today in class, we will spend a massive extra-value meal-sized amount of time with To Kill a Mockingbird the film.

And we will do so with an even greater sense of purpose.

Our next project is the tolerance project. (Here’s a rubric that looks a lot like the one we will be using.) You will work in groups of 1, 2, or 3 members to create a product that answers an important essential question around the thematic idea of tolerance. You may choose to create a song, a movie trailer, a short story, or a product of your own choosing that you get pre-approved by me. (As I right this, I’m thinking you could create a pretty sweet board game, card game, or video game around this.)

When we watched the “To This Day” poem by Shane Koyczan, we were looking at an example of a tolerance project that would exceed the standard across the board.

When we watched the “Playing for Change/”Be in Love”” video by the Maine Academy of Modern Music, we were looking at an example of a tolerance project that would exceed the standard across the board.

When we watched Macklemore’s “Same Love” video, we were looking at an example of a tolerance project that would exceed the standard across the board.

And as we watch To Kill a Mockingbird, we are looking at a tolerance project that would exceed the standard across the board.

For homework this weekend, determine which essential question(s) you would most like to answer. You had a homework assignment due today that asked you to imagine a conversation about this topic. Be certain to look early in the week for that assignment.

And try to get caught up.

February 25, 2013

Humanities: “To This Day” and Tolerance Work

Over break an amazing model of a tolerance project was posted by the spoken word artist, Shane Koyczan.

We will be watching the piece in class. Go to the video and the discussion boards by going to this 9 CPI blog entry.

Besides it just being incredibly powerful, consider how it fulfills our project criteria. Koyczan develops the characters in the poem (based on real people) into figures with whom we empathize by using the same techniques as Harper Lee and other creators. We get a sense of the values, beliefs, family structures that populated his childhood. He certainly develops a theme around tolerance and the lasting affect of intolerance on one’s identity.

What essential questions does this poem answer? What essential questions might Koyczan ask us to consider if he were in the room right now? Blog about these two ideas.

Then get to work on your own projects.

Think about your audience and where you want to affect the most change.

Within this class?

Within this campus?

Within this community?

Around the world?

And then do it.

February 25, 2013

9 CPI: New Routines & “To This Day”

Today, we change things up just a bit. Our daily routine is going to look like this from now on:

1. PrimeTime (10 min)

2. Roots Work (10 min)

3. No Red Ink (MUGS) (10 min)

4. Activity (30 min)

5. Blogging (10 min)

Moving forward, I want our blog entries to be more about reflection and creating and less about rehashing and summarizing. I’m hoping that we can make that happen by moving the blogging time to the end of the day.

So what’s up with today?

1. We’ll start with a trip to the library to get new books/renew books.

2. Roots #10 – It’s been assigned. We may not get much time with it today because of library time. Quiz next Thursday and product due next Thursday as well. (Still looking for a lot of word castles/roots products from 8 and 9.)

3. No Red Ink – We’re moving into the world of run-ons and complete sentences from the common mistakes land we’ve been wrestling with. Be prepared! You’ll still be quizzed on the common mistakes from time to time.

4. Activity. As we continue looking at tolerance (we started by looking at Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s “Same Love”) we are going to take a look at, “To This Day,” a spoken word/video from Shane Koyczan.