Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Link to 5 Years of Observations and Evaluations
I had the opportunity to be observed by a few different administrators at my school. I definitely learned from the observations and and unexpected outcome was developing great collegial relationships with the administrators who visited my classroom. The documents are all in this folder.
Monday, December 12, 2016
Lesson featured by Pulitzer Center
Very excited that the Pulitzer Center quoted my student and me in this article and published my lesson.
http://pulitzercenter.org/
http://pulitzercenter.
http://pulitzercenter.org/
http://pulitzercenter.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Less is More - Middle East History
When teaching Islam in Middle East History, I used to have the students complete a huge comparative religions chart. Inevitably, much of the chart was copied from the internet with the students not making much meaning of the comparisons.
This year I changed the assignment and it was much more successful and the students' understanding more authentic. (See below)
The lesson still accomplished the goal of the learning target: I can compare Islamic values to other religions' values.
The PDF referenced below was produced by an amazing organization called Interfaith Youth Core.
This year I changed the assignment and it was much more successful and the students' understanding more authentic. (See below)
The lesson still accomplished the goal of the learning target: I can compare Islamic values to other religions' values.
The PDF referenced below was produced by an amazing organization called Interfaith Youth Core.
Using primary sources, find text to show shared (or not shared) values in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Also, plot twist, find text from one secular source.
Use the format that is included in the attached PDF and save it in your Google Drive. You will be presenting it on Friday.
You don't need to do a full works cited, but include on the second page of the document where you found the information.
Another plot twist, if you find the information on a secondary site (Wikipedia, etc), confirm the information in one of the web sites below.
http://search-the-quran.com/
https://www.biblegateway.com/ (remember, to differentiate between Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Although Christians often quote and believe in the Hebrew Bible, in their theology there is an emphasis on the New Testament)
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/63255/jewish/The-Bible-with-Rashi.htm
https://www.biblegateway.com/ (remember, to differentiate between Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Although Christians often quote and believe in the Hebrew Bible, in their theology there is an emphasis on the New Testament)
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/63255/jewish/The-Bible-with-Rashi.htm
(THESE ARE NOT ACADEMIC SOURCES, PER SAY. THESE ARE PUBLISHED BY RELIGIOUS FIGURES IN THEIR COMMUNITIES).
Also, you can find good primary sources here: http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/index.asp
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Welcome Back To School
It's been a while since I've written. Last year my contract was 60 percent English and 20 percent designing the school's web site. This year, I have a 100 percent contract, 90 percent teaching. It is a whole new ball game with two small children, one of which is attending the school this year. However, I wanted to write about what I want to write about so that I don't forget. This is my tenure year, and this blog will serve as my portfolio. I need to make time for this along with everything else. It's also nice to reflect and such.
Summer Conference
This summer I attended the "WLU Literacies for All" Institute in St. Louis. The sessions were great. My three biggest takeaways from the conference were 1. Different methods to give student feedback
2. Using creative responses vs. writing standard essays and 3. A huge list of books that I want to read!
I was also impressed by the teacher activism going on in urban areas, specifically Ferguson, Missouri. It gave me a lot of food for thought on what is the role of the teacher in the classroom.
Connecting with Kids on the First Day
On the first day of school with my 10th Grade English class I am very strict and explain the policies and guidelines. However, I don't want to create a total authoritarian atmosphere. The next class I ask them to email me answers to questions about themselves and questions or concerns that they might have about the class. (I also do this in my Social Studies courses). I've added a number 6: "Ask me (almost) any question about myself. The students usually ask, "Why did you become a teacher?" but there are other questions about favorite t.v. shows, what do you like to do for fun, what do you like about being a mom, and others. I think it humanizes me for the students, but in a safe way, one to one on email.
Another thing I tried for the first time is showing the students feedback I received from last year's class at the end of the year. The category that I shared was "advice for next year's class." I kept is as they wrote it with grammar mistakes and all so that they would know it was really from their peers.
Decorating
A weakness of mine is decorating the classroom (and my home for that matter). This year, inspired by another colleague, I put up a poster with my favorite quotes. It's already been a hit with the kids. I prefer posting student work, but they really seemed to get a lot out of it. A challenge is that I teach three subjects, share a room with two other teachers, and there are only a few bulletin board. However, I think I will find a way to add more without ruining the walls!
Seizing the Day: Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart
The weekend before school began, I read an amazing article called Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart by Scott Anderson. Although it will add to my work load, I can't not include it in my Middle East History course. However, it is a very long article and not linear, so it requires a lot of scaffolding. There are great lesson plans on the site, and I will use some of them, but I need to weave the article into the curriculum in a meaningful and authentic way.
What's exciting is that I contact the lesson plan designer who wrote me back write away. Fareed Mosoufi wrote the lessons and Mark Schulte is the head of the Pulitzer Center. While of course I'm familiar with the Pulitzer Prize, I didn't know of that they had an educational wing. We have already corresponded eleven times. They want to know how I'm using the article and would like feedback. We also are going to try to schedule the author to speak to my class and my colleague's class.
One of the first suggestions that I made is that they have the author record an audio version of the article to make it more accessible to students with learning disabilities. We will see what they say!
This is not my first time using long form journalism in a class. At my last school I used The Girl whose Mother Lives in the Sky by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tom French http://www.sptimes.com/the_girl/index.html to teach about immigration. He then spoke to the class and they loved it!
I hope my students will share my enthusiasm. We will see!
Summer Conference
This summer I attended the "WLU Literacies for All" Institute in St. Louis. The sessions were great. My three biggest takeaways from the conference were 1. Different methods to give student feedback
2. Using creative responses vs. writing standard essays and 3. A huge list of books that I want to read!
I was also impressed by the teacher activism going on in urban areas, specifically Ferguson, Missouri. It gave me a lot of food for thought on what is the role of the teacher in the classroom.
Connecting with Kids on the First Day
On the first day of school with my 10th Grade English class I am very strict and explain the policies and guidelines. However, I don't want to create a total authoritarian atmosphere. The next class I ask them to email me answers to questions about themselves and questions or concerns that they might have about the class. (I also do this in my Social Studies courses). I've added a number 6: "Ask me (almost) any question about myself. The students usually ask, "Why did you become a teacher?" but there are other questions about favorite t.v. shows, what do you like to do for fun, what do you like about being a mom, and others. I think it humanizes me for the students, but in a safe way, one to one on email.
Another thing I tried for the first time is showing the students feedback I received from last year's class at the end of the year. The category that I shared was "advice for next year's class." I kept is as they wrote it with grammar mistakes and all so that they would know it was really from their peers.
Decorating
A weakness of mine is decorating the classroom (and my home for that matter). This year, inspired by another colleague, I put up a poster with my favorite quotes. It's already been a hit with the kids. I prefer posting student work, but they really seemed to get a lot out of it. A challenge is that I teach three subjects, share a room with two other teachers, and there are only a few bulletin board. However, I think I will find a way to add more without ruining the walls!
Seizing the Day: Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart
The weekend before school began, I read an amazing article called Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart by Scott Anderson. Although it will add to my work load, I can't not include it in my Middle East History course. However, it is a very long article and not linear, so it requires a lot of scaffolding. There are great lesson plans on the site, and I will use some of them, but I need to weave the article into the curriculum in a meaningful and authentic way.
What's exciting is that I contact the lesson plan designer who wrote me back write away. Fareed Mosoufi wrote the lessons and Mark Schulte is the head of the Pulitzer Center. While of course I'm familiar with the Pulitzer Prize, I didn't know of that they had an educational wing. We have already corresponded eleven times. They want to know how I'm using the article and would like feedback. We also are going to try to schedule the author to speak to my class and my colleague's class.
One of the first suggestions that I made is that they have the author record an audio version of the article to make it more accessible to students with learning disabilities. We will see what they say!
This is not my first time using long form journalism in a class. At my last school I used The Girl whose Mother Lives in the Sky by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tom French http://www.sptimes.com/the_girl/index.html to teach about immigration. He then spoke to the class and they loved it!
I hope my students will share my enthusiasm. We will see!
Thursday, April 30, 2015
World Zionist Congress Adaptation Simulation
This post contains links to a World Zionist Congress Adaptation Simulation lesson plan. The resources include the assignment, content materials, assessment and the evaluation from the observation including my own reflection.
This adapted simulation is not historically accurate nor is it meant to be.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Note: the bulk of the Zionist biographies are excerpts from the Online Encyclopedia Judaica.
Lesson plan with post reflection
The Assignment
The Assessment with Student Answers
Content
Observation
This adapted simulation is not historically accurate nor is it meant to be.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Note: the bulk of the Zionist biographies are excerpts from the Online Encyclopedia Judaica.
Lesson plan with post reflection
The Assignment
The Assessment with Student Answers
Content
Observation
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
How is Islam is portrayed in the media worldwide
This semester to begin Middle East History, each student was assigned a different news web site from a different country or part of the world. Into the news' sites engine, they needed to type in the word "Islam" into the search engine. They then copied the headlines into a Google Doc and copied them into Wordle.
If you are unfamiliar with Wordle, it it a graphic representation of the most frequently used words that are copied and pasted into a word cloud generator. It can help students, especially visual learners, easily spot trends.
After creating their Wordles, students inserted them into a Google Presentation. Today, we will discuss what words are currently associated with Islam as indicated by the different news sites from around the world. We will compare and contrast countries to note the emphasis. We will ask why some words are there and some are not. For example, Islam is a religion but the word "prayer" or other Muslim observances are hardly mentioned. Why?
This lesson follows a previous lesson authored by my colleague Mrs. Chill, where students examine their own identities and how that may lead to their perceptions in the course. Where a media outlet is located also influences its coverage of Islam and the stories that are written about it.
Just a technical note, not every student has Flash on their computers as required by Wordle. There are many other programs that create word clouds. They are listed here.
Below are a couple of the Wordles generated by this class, but if you would like to see more, visit the presentation.
The next time I do this assignment, the only thing I would change is have students actually delete the word Islam from their Google Doc so we can focus on the other words instead.
If you are unfamiliar with Wordle, it it a graphic representation of the most frequently used words that are copied and pasted into a word cloud generator. It can help students, especially visual learners, easily spot trends.
After creating their Wordles, students inserted them into a Google Presentation. Today, we will discuss what words are currently associated with Islam as indicated by the different news sites from around the world. We will compare and contrast countries to note the emphasis. We will ask why some words are there and some are not. For example, Islam is a religion but the word "prayer" or other Muslim observances are hardly mentioned. Why?
This lesson follows a previous lesson authored by my colleague Mrs. Chill, where students examine their own identities and how that may lead to their perceptions in the course. Where a media outlet is located also influences its coverage of Islam and the stories that are written about it.
Just a technical note, not every student has Flash on their computers as required by Wordle. There are many other programs that create word clouds. They are listed here.
Below are a couple of the Wordles generated by this class, but if you would like to see more, visit the presentation.
The next time I do this assignment, the only thing I would change is have students actually delete the word Islam from their Google Doc so we can focus on the other words instead.
 |
| The Local (Germany) |
 |
| From the Jakarta Post |
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
1948 Arab-Israeli War
Teaching about the Middle East is challenging, but teaching about the Middle East in the Middle East can be daunting. Although I taught the course for several years in the United States, I am now fortunate to work with the woman who literally wrote the book on teaching the Middle East in high schools, Mrs. Abigail Chill. She teaches one section of the course and I teach the other one.
There is no one textbook to use on this topic (although Congressional Quarterly has a great one) and almost every resource is controversial. However, I found a good one to teach the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, a film by the BBC called the Birth of Israel. What is important to note is that we teach lessons prior to watching the film to contextualize what happens in 1948 beginning with Ancient Jewish and Arab history, continuing on to the Enlightenment and Colonialism.
While watching this film, I asked students to answer the question, "Who is responsible for the refugee crisis as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War?" Possible answers could be the IDF, Arab States, Palestinians, British, and the United Nations. I also ask them to look for bias. After the film, the students took a position on the question and also noted the bias they observed. They asked questions and several students stayed after class to continue the conversation.
What better assessment of a lesson is there than students missing part of their sacred lunch period to talk about history?
There is no one textbook to use on this topic (although Congressional Quarterly has a great one) and almost every resource is controversial. However, I found a good one to teach the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, a film by the BBC called the Birth of Israel. What is important to note is that we teach lessons prior to watching the film to contextualize what happens in 1948 beginning with Ancient Jewish and Arab history, continuing on to the Enlightenment and Colonialism.
While watching this film, I asked students to answer the question, "Who is responsible for the refugee crisis as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War?" Possible answers could be the IDF, Arab States, Palestinians, British, and the United Nations. I also ask them to look for bias. After the film, the students took a position on the question and also noted the bias they observed. They asked questions and several students stayed after class to continue the conversation.
What better assessment of a lesson is there than students missing part of their sacred lunch period to talk about history?
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