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Utopias at Diegueno Middle School

My amazing student teacher will be leaving us next Thursday.  When she told the kids today, they let out a collective groan.  Poor kids will be stuck with me after that!
  As we read The Giver, she had the students take notes on various aspects of Jonas's community-religion, occupations, education, etc.  They also read several articles about real "Utopian" communities.  As the final project, students had to create their own Utopian Community in groups.  She gave them numerous options including: creating a video. a Prezi, a Google slide show, or a poster






 .  Students were so engaged in this project today that I jokingly said to her, "We could go to Starbucks and come back, and they wouldn't even notice that we left!"  Monday, students will present their communities to the class, and the class will vote on the "best" place to live!  Finally, students were assigned an argumentative about why their community is superior to the one in The Giver.  Students will be using the textual evidence that they compiled in their notes as they read!  I will definitely be implementing some of her ideas next year!

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