Exploring Missions, Describing a Work, Creating Missions
Youth Voices Study Group Saturday April 21, 2012
Three sites where you’ll need to be registered and logged in to today:
http://youthvoices.net
http://P2PU.net
Missions
1. Overview:
Here are some Missions to look at:
Photographable Question
Answer “Who Am I” with Four Photos
Interactive Ethical Story Using Scratch
Black Boy
Annotating Together: Articles About the Shooting of Trayvon martin
Magnifying the Universe
Annotating Together: Toxic Cosmetics
Look around and notice from 2 perspectives:
Set up a page in your notebook - or an electronic page of your choice that can have 2 sections. Each section will represent a different perspective - one, the TEACHER and one, the STUDENT.
• In one section you will record your reactions as a TEACHER or your thoughts about what the teacher’s intentions were in creating this Mission
• In another section you will record what you notice about the STUDENT responses or how you imagine a student might react or what they might contribute to this mission.
Discussion
2. One Teacher’s Mission: Relevant and Reliable Research
Read student posts and comments
3. Close-up on Student Writing
Descriptive Review of Writing
Amal’s Question: How do students decide to take liberty/freedom in written expression vs. following models and prescribed guidelines?
"Descriptive Review of Children’s Works: Guidelines for Describing Written Works," adapted from guidelines for Prospect Fall Conference, 2008 by Patricia Carini, Mary Hebron, and Betsy Wice
Reflection on a word: to take liberty/freedom
Reading aloud: We’ll read <a href="http://youthvoices.net/discussion/what-causes-children-become-bullies-long-run">What causes children to become bullies on the long run?</a> by <a href="http://youthvoices.net/users/rodzul">Zulema</a> aloud in its entirety, with different readers for different sections.
Overall impressions of the piece: First impressions of the piece.
The next step is to read a selection aloud, sentence by sentence, with descriptive, non-evaluative commentary that proceeds in rounds. It is always an option to pass.
Descriptive rounds:
Descriptive Round 1: Please read a sentence and then to say what it says to you – not paraphrasing but saying over in your own words what is happening.
Each reader can return to passages already read or proceed to the next. The chair may start with a reader who has experience with the process or the chair may take the role of first reader.
Subsequent Rounds: Description can be of longer passages and/or can make connections among passages. As the description unfolds, pulling forward compositional features (sentence length, construction, recurrent phrasing, tempo, etc.) is possible as well as identification of imagery and subtleties of meaning.
Concluding Round: On the strength of what has been described in prior rounds, the final round gives particular attention to the writer‟s presence in the work (preferences, choices, perspective, hand).
Final integrative restatement and teacher’s question:
The group restates motifs, stylistic elements, imagery, compositional features, themes, across the rounds of description, concluding with the child’s presence in the work.
Amal will be asked to reflect on what she is thinking now about her question: How do students decide to take liberty/freedom in written expression vs. following models and prescribed guidelines?
4. Construct a Mission
Think of a Mission that might work for your class and your students even if you cannot actually do it with them yet.
Share to the group.
Reflective Postings on P2P
What can be done before school ends?
Our hope was that everyone would find a way to participate in this work in some way. Though hurdles have arisen... how might people see themselves into this work this year?
1. What makes sense for what you are doing now?
2. What aspect of Youth Voices could you try out with students?
What have we learned about Youth Voices to help us move forward?
1. What makes it work?
2. What gets in the way?
Group Discussion...