What a better way to strengthen inferencing skills and understanding propaganda and its persuasive power on people than to do a game of Pictionary Telephone. Students alternated from drawing a picture of what a phrase represented to writing a phrase of what a picture represented. All together, students wrote a phrase, passed entire stack, put phrase on bottom and on new paper drew what the phrase, passed entire stack and so on until the stack made it back to the original owner. Special thanks goes to our community members, Mrs. Keely Miller and Mrs. Rachel King, for bringing this activity to us to help teach what propaganda does in a simple, understandable form. After students understood the activity, one of the adults started pushing a certain 'propaganda' (image or text) in each turn. Soon, all of our stacks started representing similar ideas and images. Students saw how easy it was to be manipulated and how they weren't looking for tricks or to change the rules because the adults were in a position of authority and were trusted to be the guardians of the rules and doing it 'right'. This activity made it concrete how easily it is to be manipulated and really set parameters on who is the custodian of knowledge, morals and rules, and how it is so important to not blindly follow but ask questions. This activity was done in our Holocaust unit and allowed students to understand on a small scale the manipulation, blind following and propaganda that allowed such terrible acts to take place. Most importantly, it was a fun way to learn the objectives. (We even had grammar reinforced with proper sentence structure when it was time to write.)
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Students took a virtual reality tour of Auschwitz and watched a NY Times 360 video on "The Displaced" to get a better understanding of our Holocaust unit and apply it to real events happening currently in war-torn countries. The comparison was important to deepen the understanding that worn-torn countries and people being displaced was not just something that happened a long time ago, but is istill relevant to today's world. Students deciphered between factual statements and opinions. Sometimes, a difficult skill for students, especially when the opinion sounds reasonably true. Students often get true and false confused with fact and opinion and think that if it's true, it's a fact or if it's false, it's an opinion. Trying to get students to stop thinking of facts and opinions in that way can be challenging. Writing on the desks to group them with their partner, students discussed the statements and placed them in the correct category and then checked their answers with other groups.
Thanks to Mrs. Sanders and her HS Art students for helping the 8th graders create artwork on their blackout poetry that embodies the mood of their poems. Students chose pages from Anne Frank’s Diary, Night, or The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, books that go along with our Holocaust unit, to reuse the words and create their own unique poetry. The poetry truly reflected each student and the creativity of their artwork was impressive! There are some artistic 8th graders this year!!
Students worked on their problem solving skills using Kiva Planks. They were given tasks cards and had to make the free standing figure using the Kiva Planks. Students also had to work cooperatively in groups to complete the tasks in sequential order. The task cards did not tell them directions but only gave a 2d image and students had to decipher the perspective of the planks based on the color of lines on the task cards. Some students really excelled in problem solving and even tried to see who could build one task the highest without it collapsing.
Students used the StopMotion app on the iPads to create their own 'About Me' videos the first week of school. By taking pictures with minor movements in each photo, the app pieced together all the photos into a moving video replicating the old 'flip book' and motion picture methods. Students used their creativity to tell about themselves instead of the traditional 'About Me' group share that usually happens the first week. The shy students still were able to share without being forced into the uncomfortable position of talking in front of peers they may not have known yet. It was fun to see their creativity and learn so much about them in the first week, like how they work, problem solve, create, and time manage...and something unique about them that they enjoy.
Students used their learning of figurative language, Greek mythology, and other unit concepts to make 3d figurines of their mythical figurative language Greek Gods. Thanks to the Mr. Miller in the STEM lab for helping our creations come to life! All printed 3d figures are displayed in the trophy case at the entrance of Blakemore MS. The hands-on activity made learning concrete and fun!
8th graders used Strawbees to build a visual representation of the plot map of the story we read in class, Pandora’s Box. Students had to show their knowledge of the elements of plot and correctly identify the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement of the story. Working in groups also exercised their social skills, like leadership, compromise, listening and communication. Instead of sitting and listening to the teacher talk for 50+ minutes, students explored the classroom in a scavenger hunt, learned the expectations outlined in the syllabus, investigated the teacher by putting their inferencing and deductions skills to task, made a one word focus goal for the year and set up their supplies. Little time to zone out while a teacher just talks when students are up and moving around and using important skills on the first day! It set the tone for the year! During our Holocaust unit, students often have a hard time understanding how such terrible acts are perpetrated on a mass scale. They often say, "I would just refuse to go..." or "why didn't someone tell them, 'no, I'm not doing that." To help students get a better understanding, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. King and Mr. Benton collaborated lessons with me; my 8th students learned the brain science that is involved in manipulating and the killing of millions. Mrs. Miller created a victim 'passport' for each student and each week, they would read what their REAL victim did before the war, during and after. We then saw how many of our real victims survived. We read the book, "The Butterfly" by Patricia Polacco, and created our own symbolic butterfly of our victim that are now hanging in the 8th grade hallway. Along with the passports, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. King and Mr. Benton did experiential learning activities with the students to show how easy our brain can be tricked or what we see may not be reality. These activities helped students not only learn the ELA lessons and the history, but also, helped them understand and be able to empathize. Students loved the collaboration and looked forward to it each week! I just regret that I was so involved in the activities as well that I failed to take any pictures. 😏
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March 2019
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