A Letter to Students

Dear Honors Sophomore English Students,

I hope you are ready to begin this adventure. Please look at the guidelines, the project or project scoring guide for details about the unit. This is just a letter to introduce you to the unit and to address your broad questions, parts of this letter can be found in the parent letter, as well.

Are you ready to use technology?

I read an article several years ago about the use of technology with students and people have long been talking about the fact that you guys can use technology for social media like nobody's business, but don't know/don't want to use it for education and for learning. I'm sure you've noticed the amount of technology that's being incorporated in your classes, this is because your teachers are trying to teach you how to access information as well as how to have content literacy (knowing what you need to know for each class); we are trying to teach you 21st Century skills. There is no denying that whether you believe all that there is to believe about the importance of these skills you must have them to function in today's society. We must bridge the gap between teacher and student, we must be independent learners and we must how to incorporate these skills in college and in your career.

It is important to be college and career ready as it:

1] shows you can demonstrate independence
2] helps you build a strong background knowledge
3] shows you can respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose and discipline
4] shows you can critique as well as comprehend
5] gives you the tools to value evidence
6] helps you use technology and digital media strategically and capably
7] helps you understand other perspectives and cultures

For more information on these topics, click here.

What does homework look like now?

I still require that students spend 15 minutes a day or 1 1/2 hours a week at home devoted to my class. However, they are allowed to work at their own pace with goals for the day, the week or the whole unit in mind. There may be videos to watch, short stories to read or listen to, notes to watch and take, surveys to take or assignments to blog about. Each assignment will be attached to a blog post through this blog (http://hastyshonors.blogspot.com/). Whatever they work on at night will determine what they work on during class and I will be there to answer questions about their reading, supplement their notes, ask questions, work on projects or use the computer lab. I've asked that students create a blog where they can house their work and discussions with me. It can be a public one like this one, or they can make it private to where only they and I have access.

What does classwork look like now?

We'll start with a mini-lesson (topics listed below) and then students will be allowed to work alone, with partners or small groups in whatever way they find class time to be most useful. We'll be using the Catch and Release model to address individual and class concerns. Students will actively creating their own content through the completion of a project and participation with this blog and their own.

Mini-Lesson Topics:

1] Intro to the unit: expectations, a look at blogger, the class blog, the project and online ways to create it

2] Romanticism

3] Gothic Romanticism

4] The Scary Story

5] Questions about the Project

6] Where are you in the unit?

7] Southern Gothic Romanticism

8] Closing the unit

What does a 'flipped classroom' require of you the student?

Students are expected to come prepared to class each day with the background knowledge of each concept, ready to learn it better, deeper, and faster. Students are not expected to have full mastery of the content before they arrive in class, although many students will be at that level.  

The “flipped classroom” requires you to take responsibility for their learning in several ways:  

1] work on your work to prepare for class the next day (before 10pm is highly suggested), use class time wisely

2] take initiative to complete a task.  

3] make sure that if they are absent, you still complete the required work and come to class prepared

4] Students must make sure that they take initiative to communicate with me either online or in person if there are issues. This includes coming and seeing me before school, during Academic Lab, Jacket Lab, to complete the work in a timely manner.  

What does this mean? You can come to class having read the stories, completed a blog post or listened/viewed a video, come to class with questions you need answered and understand that I will not just be in front of the class spewing out information, you must seek by going through the required tasks.  Don't come to class and take up time complaining about the amount of your work you have to do or the time it took to complete something because your internet crashed or [fill in with some other excuse], you have plenty of time to complete the work if you use your class time wisely and come to class prepared to learn and be challenged. 

What if you do the work every night but still do not understand the content?  

Catch and Release gives you ample time to address personal and class questions. I am still available during study times, computers are also available during this time.

We've talked about what it means to study, you must now apply those skills to succeed in this unit.

Thanks,

Mrs. Hasty