This week

This week, the first grade students are reading "The Fun They Had" by Isaac Asimov. Today they had a debate. The red team argued that a human teacher would be better than a machine teacher, while the blue team argued the opposite. I was extremely proud of the students because they did so well at this debate. They were very active, and they made really excellent points.

The second grade students are currently reading "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. Today we had a discussion about symbolism.

The third grade students this week have been studying the organization of the debate, including the specific roles for the speakers on each team. We've also looked at the Toulmin method for presentation of arguments, and today the students were introduced to fallacies. For homework, they've been asked to generate ideas for their team. The topic of our debate regards schools raising animals for meat. The proposition must propose a [strictly theoretical] new program wherein students would raise, nurture and ultimately slaughter a pig for meat. This is based in part on a true story of a similar project conducted at an elementary school in Japan.

The high school first grade students are studying about journalism. This week they'll be practicing interviews.

The second grade students are studying humor. This week, they'll be studying puns, irony, word-play, idioms, sarcasm and figures of speech.

Next week, the first grade students will be studying a news article called "Video Games Have Role in School" and we'll be talking about practical applications of video games for education.

The second grade students will be reading "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe. We'll then have a debate on whether Montressor would have been caught by the FBI if this had happened today.

The third grade students will begin working on their supporting arguments.

The high school first grade students will talk about humorous stories and observational humor, and will be focusing on techniques for delivery. This will be important for their presentation skills later on.

The high school second grade students will be talking about sports announcements.

Date: 2010⁄01⁄19 22:59｜Permalink｜Author：nelp

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