•  

     

    At Mountain View High School, we are a community of learners committed to continuous professional development. On this page, you will find resources from past workshops and trainings. Please email or call me for more information.

     
If you are having trouble viewing the document, you may download the document.

  • Engaging our students in a discussion about mass shootings

    Posted by Jennifer Yoo-Brannon on 2/23/2018

     

    I've been reflecting on the tragic school shooting in Parkland, FL. I wanted to find a way to give my students a space to discuss their reactions and feelings about it. As an educator, I try to engage my students in critical thinking about the world in which we live and help them see themselves as active participants and empowered individuals in that world. Kelly Gallagher, one of my teacher role models, is currently doing a whole unit on mass shootings culminating in students writing letters to lawmakers. I did not feel like I had time to do this entire unit, but I wanted to do something. I had a lesson plan for this morning, but last night, I changed my mind. 
     
    In my AP English Language and Composition class, we have been working on understanding and making effective arguments. I wanted to continue that work but also give my students an opportunity to talk about the social problems revealed by this incident. So here is a general outline of what I did today with my students:
    1.  What you know/What you've learned- I had giant post-its and markers for each table group. They created a T-chart. On the left-hand side, students wrote down a list of everything they heard/read about the shooting.  We watched this Youtube clip about the incident  ABC news coverage, then students added what they learned from the video on the right-side of the T-chart.
    2. Free talk- I gave my students the opportunities to talk freely about their thoughts and feelings about the school shooting. To make a distinction between our usual Socratic Seminars and this kind of class talk, we passed around a giant minion doll to students who wanted to speak. So, students hugged the minion while sharing their thoughts and feelings.
    3. Problem and Solution Mapping-Then, I facilitated a class discussion about the problems associated with and revealed by mass shootings. Then, I challenged students to come up with some potential solutions. 
    4.  The Arguments of Others-Our discussions of solutions inevitably started a robust debate. Students challenged one another saying, "That won't do anything." "What about this?" "How would that make a difference?" I also contributed common arguments typically made in the gun debate. 
    5. The Task-During the last 20 minutes of class, I showed Emma Gonzalez's speech to gun advocates and then gave students their homework assignment. Students had to write a 1-2 page response that does the following:
      1) Describe the social problem(s) revealed by mass      shootings. 2)Analyze the common arguments made about these problems 3) Propose your own solution(s) 
     
    You may not want to devote a whole period to a lesson like this. You could just read/watch the speech together and have a short discussion. If you want a brainstorming/lesson-planning partner about this issue or about anything else, let me know. 
     
     
    Comments (-1)

Recent

By Month

  • The Apollo School: What 21st Century Learning Looks Like

    by on Length:

    This semester, Dr. Lewis and I are sharing a classroom. I teach AP English Language Composition 1st period and then most of my students stay for his AP US History class. I often stay in the room instead of heading down to my office. I try to focus on my instructional coaching duties but I often get delightfully distracted by the learning happening in Dr. Lewis's class. I often overhear my students make connections between my English class and Dr. Lewis's history class. I see students using the chromebooks to explore the resources that Dr. Lewis points them to and I observe students being led by their own curiosity to research topics connected to both history and literature. I have often had the thought "We should just teach a 3-hour cross-curricular block." That's what the Apollo School has done. The Apollo School provides a model for what cross-curricular, personalized learning could look like. Here's a little teaser:

    We’ve reached a point where most teachers embrace the idea of student-directed learning, the philosophy of being the guide on the side rather than the sage on the stage. We can also appreciate the value of cross-curricular studies, blending math and science, for example, or integrating arts and music into history class. So why are so many teachers still using the same old model, where we plan and deliver lessons in separate subjects, in lock step, using the same traditional schedule as we always have?

    Two reasons, I think.

    One, because it works, more or less. We move students through the system, they learn some stuff, pass tests, and graduate with an acceptable repertoire of knowledge and skills. Acceptable. Enough to function, to continue on to college and survive, more or less.

    Except that lately, more and more voices are telling us that this repertoire of knowledge and skills isn’t quite cutting it. Students aren’t quite as adept at problem-solving and collaboration and inquiry as they need to be for the 21st century.

    The other reason we stick to the traditional framework is the one I believe is more powerful: It’s because we don’t know how to change. We have no template for what school could look like if we restructured it to reflect priorities like cross-curricular connections, student self-efficacy, and inquiry-based learning.

    Well, I have a template for you today, and I can’t wait to show it to you.
    Play Comments (-1)

  • Embarrassment And the Emotional Underlife of Learning

    by on 1/10/2018 Length: 27:54

    I listened to this podcast over the winter break and am definitely going to order the book ASAP.  I think I've been waiting for a book like this. As the book suggests, this book discusses the emotional underlife of learning.  This learning includes students and teachers. It encourages teachers to confront their own feelings of embarrassment when lessons don't go as we planned. It proposes the idea that, to become better teachers, we have to learn how to deal with failure and our own embarrasment over our mistakes and bring them out into the open and embrace our failure as part of our teaching life. 

    Here's one of my favorite lines from the podcast:

    "We all need help at some point, and there should be no stigma in getting it. And the more a school can be a culture where you can get that help, and not have it be judgmental, I think we're all gonna be happier. Otherwise, we just kind of suffer in silence, which is what I did and what I regret."

     

     
    Play Comments (-1)

  • Making the Most of a 90-minute Block

    by JENNIFER GONZALEZ on 8/13/2017 Length:

    Check out this podcast from The Cult of Pedagogy.  It reviews some best practices when teaching a 90-minute block.  
    Play Comments (-1)