Lesson Plans The Secret History
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Full Lesson Plan Overview
This classic focuses on oral storytelling. It is of special interest to librarians, teachers, and anyone who wants to weave a storytelling spell. But this one includes essays by some of the best modern writers for children talking about how and why they do what they do. I met her near the end of her life and learned that she, like me, grew up in Rutland, Vermont.
We had lots to talk about. Kieran Egan, Imagination in Teaching and Learning: The Middle School Years. This is a favorite. Egan helped me understand the huge changes that happen between third-grade and ninth-grade and how to deal with them with imagination, not rote teaching. Jean Fritz, who mostly writes stories of American history, was an inspiration when I began writing for young readers. Her books, all written with wit and grace, are intended for elementary and middle school readers, but can be enjoyed by anyone at any age.
I recommend all of them highly. Here are three titles: In the s Lillian Lieber used what I think of as poetry to write books about math and physics that are both witty and informative. Barry Mazur, a Harvard professor has updated many of her books. She said this of her writing style: Writing each phrase on a separate line facilitates rapid reading, and everyone is in a hurry nowadays.
Jeff's friend, Richard Evan Schwartz, also a math professor, is the author and illustrator of two charming books on math.
One of them titled, Really Big Numbers , will help you deal with the googolplex world. Like most writers, I live in a space wallpapered with books. Many of them write adult trade books that can be read by middle and high school students. Young readers may miss nuances, but as long as they keep reading I believe we should encourage them. Eventually those thoughts begin to make sense. Nancie Atwell understands the power of reading and explains it well in these two books.
She's the deserving winner of a million dollar teacher award. Ask your librarian for help finding other page turners.
Our reading problems don't seem to go away. Here are words from an article in The Atlantic Monthly, back in November ; since then a whole industry has been built on attempts to raise those scores. Much of it is gimmickry and many have profited. Finally, no account of the present condition of college students would be complete without mention of the extraordinary dearth of factual knowledge they bring to college….
Beginning in the mids these students have been entering college so badly prepared that they have performed far below potential, often to the point of functional disability. We tend to assume that with their high aptitude for learning, they should be able to fend for themselves. In effect, the test numbers substantiate what the National Commission on Excellence in Education concluded—quoting the education analyst Paul Copperman—in in A Nation at Risk: For the first time in the history of our country, the educational skills of one generation will not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach, those of their parents.
The news is not encouraging. In , of the high school seniors taking the SAT But do these numbers matter? The testimony of those who teach at the college level suggests that the answer is yes. Take reading, for example. They pay no attention to detail. A friend of mine at the University of Michigan remembers that in the s the normal assignment in his course was one book a week.
Now he allows two to three weeks for each title. Twelve to fifteen books over a fifteen-week semester used to be the rule of thumb at selective colleges. Today it is six to eight books, and they had better be short texts, written in relatively simple English. Along with this impoverishment of language comes a downturn in reasoning skills. Da Costa [at Yale] laments that students are no longer trained in logical analysis, and consequently have difficulty using evidence to reach a conclusion. Paula Fass, a professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley, remains astonished that sophomores and juniors in her upper-level course on American social history are often unable to differentiate between the American Revolution and the Civil War, but rather see them as two big events that happened way back in the past.
Year-long survey courses in history and literature, covering the United States, Europe, and the world, were designed to ensure that college-bound students would have the necessary background to make sense of the new subject matter they would encounter in college. Yet few high schools today teach that kind of curriculum.
Little wonder that so many students experience great difficulty in absorbing detail; since they have no context in which to fit what they read, Two other factors help account for the prowess of these schools in holding the line against deterioration. The first is a dogged reliance on a traditional liberal-arts curriculum…fundamentals such as English grammar and vocabulary received heavy stress. The other key factor in preserving academic quality was the practice of grouping students by ability in as many subjects as possible.
The answer lies in the cultural ferment of the s. In every conceivable fashion the reigning ethos of those times was hostile to excellence in education. Individual achievement fell under intense suspicion, as did attempts to maintain standards. The latter, of course, are the disciplines primarily responsible for inculcating verbal skills and for supplying the broad framework of knowledge that students need for success in college. Yet it is precisely in these areas that the spirit of the sixties remains most evident, hovering over the high schools and junior highs like a ghost.
Consider the teaching of English.
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The Great Books, of course, are out of fashion. A few get assigned as a token gesture, but are rarely set in chronological order. Nor are they asked to read much. Most ninth- and tenth-grade English reading lists are limited to four or five titles a year. Essays in which the writer marshals evidence to support a coherent, logical argument are too rare. Since that kind of exercise might dampen creativity, it must be minimized. The outcome is utterly predictable.
Students headed for college used to get a solid grasp of both American and European history at the high school level. All over the country, educators today typically judge themselves by how well they can reach the least-able student in the system, the slowest one in the class. Programs to help the culturally disadvantaged have proliferated, while those for the gifted receive no more than token interest Here it is necessary to be precise: They do read, the survey found, but primarily lightweight publications like People rather than serious newspapers or periodicals.
As the United Negro College Fund aptly puts it, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Teaching Resources--ebooks that extend learning, study guides, and perhaps best of all kudos to some super teachers. A History of US Ordering flier 1. Click here to learn interesting FAQ's about Joy and her books. A History Well Told: A History of US.
Chingos and Grover J.
The Secret History Lesson Plans for Teachers
In the tradition of The Wind in the Willows , Stuart Little , and Poppy come two cat brothers whose curiosity about the world and passion for adventure takes them on a journey from their harborside home to see places and creatures beyond their wildest imaginings. Black-and-white line drawings illustrate each chapter.
From Newbery Medalist Avi comes the thrilling and suspenseful story of an ordinary American family that falls under suspicion in s New York. When twelve-year-old Pete Collison is labeled a communist by his teacher, he sets out to discover the truth about his family. When eleven-year-old Corinne stumbles into the forest on her Caribbean island home, she rouses a jumbie—a malevolent spirit—who emerges to wreak havoc.
Corinne must call on her courage and her friends and use ancient magic to stop the jumbie and save the island. In Adam Shaughnessy's debut, the first in an adventurous new series, year-old Pru and her classmate ABE—with help from an uncommonly rude squirrel and the enigmatic Mr. Fox—must save their town from being destroyed by battling Norse gods. But first they have to find the lost Eye of Odin. In this highly anticipated sequel, Abigail and Sherlockian detective of the supernatural Jackaby follow a trail of mysterious murders from New Fiddleham to nearby Gad's Valley.
There they are reunited with exiled police detective Charlie Caine, and the three race to find the culprit before more lives are lost. Acclaimed author Chris Lynch explores the American love affair with football and our attempts to come to terms with the dangers of the sport through Arlo Brodie, a teen who loves being at the heart of the action on the football field, getting hit hard and hitting back harder.
Sahar even lets herself dream that one day they might marry. The end of his story is clear, but the people who love Richie want to keep him alive as long as possible. You can combine daily lessons or use the ideas within them to create your own unique curriculum. They vary greatly from day to day and offer an array of creative ideas that provide many options for an educator.
Fun Classroom Activities differ from Daily Lessons because they make "fun" a priority. The 20 enjoyable, interactive classroom activities that are included will help students understand The Secret History in fun and entertaining ways. Fun Classroom Activities include group projects, games, critical thinking activities, brainstorming sessions, writing poems, drawing or sketching, and countless other creative exercises.
Many of the activities encourage students to interact with each other, be creative and think "outside of the box," and ultimately grasp key concepts from the text by "doing" rather than simply studying. Fun activities are a great way to keep students interested and engaged while still providing a deeper understanding of The Secret History and its themes. Students should have a full understanding of the unit material in order to answer these questions. They often include multiple parts of the work and ask for a thorough analysis of the overall text.
They nearly always require a substantial response. Essay responses are typically expected to be one or more page s and consist of multiple paragraphs, although it is possible to write answers more briefly. These essays are designed to challenge a student's understanding of the broad points in a work, interactions among the characters, and main points and themes of the text. But, they also cover many of the other issues specific to the work and to the world today.
Individual achievement fell under intense suspicion, as did attempts to maintain standards. Many of them write adult trade books that can be read by middle and high school students. Design a Coin Design and "mint" a quarter for your state or another one. William Zinsser, On Writing Well. Questions for discussion, curriculum connections, and web links to learn about Jackie Kennedy, JFK, and more! It can get your students thinking about material that will be used later on in the class, review material from a previous class, or simply get your students thinking in English, moving around , or awake. Four Week Quiz B.
The 60 Short Essay Questions listed in this section require a one to two sentence answer. They ask students to demonstrate a deeper understanding of The Secret History by describing what they've read, rather than just recalling it. The short essay questions evaluate not only whether students have read the material, but also how well they understand and can apply it.
They require more thought than multiple choice questions, but are shorter than the essay questions. The Multiple Choice Questions in this lesson plan will test a student's recall and understanding of The Secret History. Use these questions for quizzes, homework assignments or tests. The questions are broken out into sections, so they focus on specific chapters within The Secret History. This allows you to test and review the book as you proceed through the unit. Typically, there are questions per chapter, act or section. Use the Oral Reading Evaluation Form when students are reading aloud in class.
Pass the forms out before you assign reading, so students will know what to expect. You can use the forms to provide general feedback on audibility, pronunciation, articulation, expression and rate of speech. You can use this form to grade students, or simply comment on their progress.
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Use the Writing Evaluation Form when you're grading student essays. This will help you establish uniform criteria for grading essays even though students may be writing about different aspects of the material. By following this form you will be able to evaluate the thesis, organization, supporting arguments, paragraph transitions, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. They pull questions from the multiple choice and short essay sections, the character and object descriptions, and the chapter abstracts to create worksheets that can be used for pop quizzes, in-class assignments and homework.
Periodic homework assignments and quizzes are a great way to encourage students to stay on top of their assigned reading.