Skip to main content

Back in the Swing of Things-Period 1

Happy New Year!  I hope that you all had a relaxing break.  I must admit, I was ready to come back. During break,  I slept in almost every day, read three books, baked three pies and various other goodies, hosted a Polish dinner on Christmas Eve, went for two beautiful hikes, wasted time on Pinterest, and spent time with family and friends. It was wonderful!
Here is one of my creations:  
 I love to bake, especially pies.  

 Anyhow, we picked up right where we left off when I returned!  The students didn't miss a beat, and I was impressed with the way they got right back to work.

 College Prep English

 This week we read three non-fiction articles to for our juvenile justice unit.  Students had to read all three articles, circle key terms, and underline the author's claims.  Two of the articles were about teens who are accused of committing terrible crimes.  In one of the articles, a sixteen-year old was driving drunk and killed four innocent people.  His defense said that he suffered from "affluenza," and he ended up getting one year in a drug rehab in Malibu.  In the other article, four boys dropped an eight pound rock off of an freeway overpass.  The rock crashed through a woman's windshield and struck her in the head.  Although she survived, she will never be the same.  Your students can share the details of the cases!  They were very interested in them.  The third article we read was about the teen brain and how it develops.  It explained why teens are impulsive and at times, make poor decisions.  

 As a culminating activity, students had to prepare for a Socratic Seminar.  This is one of my favorite activities as a teacher.  After explaining the ground rules, I get to sit back and listen to all of the brilliant things they have to say about the topic! Here is some of what we did to prepare:
 During the activity, half of the class is in the middle having the discussion.  The other half of the class is observing and taking notes using the handout below.  This keeps them engaged and listening!
Students sure had some opinions about these two cases and how the boys should be handled by the legal system.  I was so pleased with how the students conducted themselves during this activity.  They were focused, polite, knowledgeable, and passionate!  I was especially happy with how some students made sure that everyone had a chance to speak and was included.  Some students are shy but willing to speak if someone asks them a question.  

 I hope you will ask your child about the articles they read.  Here are the links in case you are interested:

 Affluenza article

Woman hit by rock


Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:00 AM

    Yeah the stories about juveniles were really interesting. Also the seminar was really fun!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:01 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:03 AM

    I loved the teen trial stories they are really interesting.
    -Colson Adams

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:08 AM

    Cinco MacDonald
    I loved grudge ball, the articles on the teenage brain, and the posters.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:10 AM

    i loved the stories they were interesting especially the debate we did - Ian Hicks

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:11 AM

    This activity was very cool because we got to see everybody's point of view and that helped me opens up my mind to different possibilities.

    Siona Rector

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:11 AM

    This activity was very cool because we got to see everybody's point of view and that helped me opens up my mind to different possibilities.

    Siona Rector

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:14 AM

    This unit was really cool. It was cool to hear about everybody's opinions about the cases. Also it was really funny to read and take notes about the cases too.
    -Jake Moeller

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:14 AM

    I love being in Mrs.Karney's class. She gives us the perfect amount of homework and she always starts the day with a smile and lets us know she cares.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:19 AM

    This was one of my favorite activities because I learned a lot.
    It was really sad what happened to those people.
    Mrs. Karney you do the best activities!!
    -Hayden Vance

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TQE: Get students Engaged and Digging Deep

I've mentioned before how Twitter has helped me grow as an educator.  Edutwitter is a valuable resource for book recommendations, new teaching methods, lessons, and articles.  One of my favorite educators to follow is Marissa Thompson, a high school teacher at Carlsbad High. This summer I read about her TQE(thoughts, questions, epiphanies) method for discussing literature.  I'd always longed for having discussions like the ones I had in my college literature courses, but when I try fishbowl or Socratic seminar with my students, the discussions felt forced, flat, and awkward. That changed today when I tried TQE for the first time.  Sharing homework in small groups Students writing their TQEs on the board When I listened to Marissa's podcast on Cult of Pedagogy ( check it out here ), I was intimidated. After all, her students are in high school and have a rock star teacher.  I think I read the transcript twenty times before finally trying it....
5 comments
Read more

Writing an Essay...with a Partner

I love technology for collaboration! Teaching writing to middle school students is not easy.  All students come with different skills and knowledge.  With 35 students in a class, it's impossible to sit down one on one and assist students with the writing process.  Teaching students to write a literary analysis is particularly challenging because most seventh-graders have little, to no experience.  Students need to learn to  develop a thesis statement, find evidence from the text to support it, provide the context of the selected quotations , and write insightful commentary on the evidence they selected. Remember, these kiddos are twelve! Graphic organizers are particularly helpful to these young writers. The biggest challenge is providing feedback to students as they are writing, rather than after they turn their work in for a grade.  Students need to be able to use the feedback they receive and see the difference it makes in the final product.  I...
2 comments
Read more

Mock Trials-Periods 0 and 2

MY Ethan Couch (notice the shirt) Wow!  What a fantastic week it has been for me as a teacher!  My students have been working hard preparing for their assigned cases and getting ready to go to trial.  Each group was assigned a case based on an article we read in class.  One case was about a sixteen-year old  boy named Ethan Couch.  He had a blood alcohol level three times over the legal limit when the car he was driving hit a disabled vehicle and killed four innocent people.  He receive one year of rehabilitation in Malibu and ten years probabtion as his punishment. His attorneys blamed his behavior on what was called "affluenza."  Please ask your child about this word and how it was used to defend him in court! The other case involved for teens who threw an eight pound rock over an overpass and struck the passenger side of a vehicle.  The passenger was Sharon Budd, a middle-school English teacher and breast cancer survivor.  Sh...
27 comments
Read more