It’s navigable, but it’s not (nor should it be, at this point in the year) an overly easy road. We will practice for the Regents Exam once a week, with time for revision and reflection; read and write our way through One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; and use annotations, discussion, and the complete writing process to respond to a high-interest article on “learning to lie.”
As a result, your teachers got together and decided to eliminate the GAP score for Q3B. We will fold those three weeks into the profile-based assessment of the next three weeks, ending with another GAP report on April 5.
This means that you will be able to demonstrate growth, if you struggled recently, and earn a much higher profile score. You will be able to demonstrate more amenability and self-awareness. It’s a chance to look at six weeks worth of progress, not just three, which is exactly what some of you need. (Students already doing well should just keep on keeping on.)
A comment noting this decision and linking back to this post will be added to Infinite Campus. You can ask questions below.
That prompt utilizes the writing process in full. A PDF copy of the essay prompt is embedded before the comment section, which is where you should add your insights, observations, and questions.
You will be reading the rest of the novel, The Invisible Man, with three days in class to hit specific page goals. You will not be able to choose another book in place of The Invisible Man.
We will then watch the 1933 film version of The Invisible Man. It will take two days. See the course calendar for the planned dates.
Finally, you will write a character analysis essay comparing the film to the novel. The majority of this will be completed in class. Again, see the course calendar for the planned dates.
Page numbers are taken from the Dover Thrift Edition available in the classroom. Use the direct link above if reading online.
Due Friday, March 22 — Chapters 13-17 (Pages 43-59)
Due Monday, March 25 — Chapters 18-21 (Pages 60-77)
Due Tuesday, March 26 — Chapters 22-26 (Pages 78-97)
Due Friday, March 29 — Chapter 27-Epilogue (Pages 98-110)
Writing Assignments
Due Thursday, April 4 — Character analysis essay
An Explanation of These Changes
We started The Invisible Man on February 7. For the next few weeks, we tackled essential questions, in-class discussion, and the next round of 20% projects. Most recently, we did close reading of later chapters in The Invisible Man to practice analytical writing.
Unfortunately, you have struggled collectively to stay focused. You aren’t meeting deadlines, and the lack of reading means your “choosing to read” analysis is ineffective.
To help you, we are having everyone read The Invisible Man. We may return to choice novels in Q4, but this novel and Macbeth will be mandated. We are also making these changes:
You now have assigned seats and group members.
You will not be given Fridays to work on your 20% projects until April 12.
You will need to work on your Pareto Projects on your own time, carving out 20% of your schedule elsewhere. You are still responsible for the project itself. On April 12, before Spring Break, we’ll dedicate the period to these projects again, with the hope of using every Friday after that to plan and create.
Instead of your projects, you’ll be using the next three Fridays to catch up on the required reading and writing. You can see in the daily calendar what this specifically entails.
You will first finish the SOAPSTONE analysis assigned for this week:
We will update the daily calendar to reflect these changes. We will note page counts and other specifics, too. Ask questions in the comment section below.
March 18, 2019: Read on for updates to our study of the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, in English 11 ICT.
Overview of the Novel: Parts 1-4
Part 1 — Pages 3-145
Part 2 — Pages 149-201
Part 3 — Pages 205-258
Part 4 — Pages 261-325
Reading Assignments
Due Tuesday, March 19 — Pages 3-41
Due Friday, March 22 — Pages 42-75
Due Friday, March 29 — Pages 76-158
Due Friday, April 5 — Pages 159-258
Due Friday, April 12 — Pages 261-325
Writing Assignments
Due Monday, March 25 — Response to Pages 3-75
Due Monday, April 1 — Response to Pages 76-158
Due Monday, April 8 — Response to Pages 159-258
Due Monday, April 22 — Response to Pages 261-325
Note that the final writing assignment is due after Spring Break.
On each Friday, when a reading assignment is due, you will write an in-class response based on the assigned reading. You will then type that response over the weekend and submit both the handwritten and typed writing by the beginning of class on Monday. Work handed in after the beginning of class will be considered late, and all insufficient or incomplete work will factor heavily into your GAP scores.
Mondays will still be reserved for sustained, silent reading.
This was a massive amount of preparation and planning. It was meant to give you choice and freedom. Consider the updated makerspace FAQ or this recently published overview of a makerspace: It takes much more work on your teacher’s end to give you choices, because we are essentially creating 32 separate lessons for 32 individuals.
As a class, you’ve recently failed to demonstrate self-control. You’ve failed to follow directions and take advantage of the opportunities given to you. As a result:
The choice-related assignment that was originally due on Wednesday is now null and void.
You now have assigned seats and group members.
You will not be given Fridays to work on your 20% projects.
You should work on your Pareto Projects on your own time, carving out 20% of your schedule elsewhere. You are still responsible for the project itself.
Instead of your projects, you will now spend every Friday writing an in-class response on the assigned pages from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. You will then type that response over the weekend and submit both the handwritten and typed writing by the beginning of class on Monday. Mondays will still be reserved for sustained, silent reading.
You will still do the reading and writing assignments outlined for Tuesdays and Thursdays. The next two are a narrative response based on an essay, “Learning to Lie,” and a character analysis response based on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. You will still do silent, individual Regents Exam prep every Wednesday. The only difference will be your assigned seats and groups.
We will update the daily calendar in the next few days to reflect these changes. We will note reading assignments there, too. You may ask questions in the comment section below.
SOAPSTONE is an acronym that breaks down persuasive or expository writing into discrete components. By separating elements this way, you can analyze the overall rhetoric of a piece more efficiently and effectively. The acronym stands for Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Speaker, and Tone.
Introduction For many students, the creation of a piece of writing is a mysterious process. It is a laborious, academic exercise, required by teachers and limited to the classroom. They do not see it as a way of ordering the mind, explaining their thoughts and feelings, or achieving a personal voice.
The following letter comes from Chapter 27 of The Invisible Man. You are to analyze the rhetoric of this letter — the Invisible Man’s declaration of war — by using the SOAPSTONE tool.
Rhetoric is defined simply as “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.” To understand the rhetoric of Griffin’s missive, you should first annotate it, and then you can apply SOAPSTONE.
You have been amazingly energetic and clever, though what you stand to gain by it I cannot imagine. You are against me. For a whole day you have chased me; you have tried to rob me of a night’s rest. But I have had food in spite of you, I have slept in spite of you, and the game is only beginning. The game is only beginning. There is nothing for it, but to start the Terror. This announces the first day of the Terror. Port Burdock is no longer under the Queen, tell your Colonel of Police, and the rest of them; it is under me—the Terror! This is day one of year one of the new epoch—the Epoch of the Invisible Man. I am Invisible Man the First. To begin with the rule will be easy. The first day there will be one execution for the sake of example—a man named Kemp. Death starts for him to-day. He may lock himself away, hide himself away, get guards about him, put on armour if he likes—Death, the unseen Death, is coming. Let him take precautions; it will impress my people. Death starts from the pillar box by midday. The letter will fall in as the postman comes along, then off! The game begins. Death starts. Help him not, my people, lest Death fall upon you also. To-day Kemp is to die.
The handout has a printable SOAPSTONE chart. You can also work in a notebook or with a separate sheet of paper. Look to Google Classroom for the formal/typed assignment.
This is the static explanation of “Holt’s checkpoint,” which is a part of the reading process and the concept of choosing to read, both of which are explained in their respective posts. The directions are repeated through Google Classroom and Google Forms as part of all formal reading assignments.
Starting Monday, your phones will be banned in the classroom. You’ve been given one of the pockets in the corner of our room as a holder for that phone:
Notes on the surrounding posters and handouts are in the next section. First, a complete list of assigned pocket numbers:
Write down your number. They are assigned in alphabetical order. We may also use these numbers to do some assigned group work.
Part of what you’re doing is performative — you are showing us, at the start of class, that you’ve chosen to remove the distraction of the phone. Putting that phone in its designated pocket does that. You are basically channeling Oedipus in this scene and playing to the back of the theater.
You should turn off notifications, sound, etc., before storing the phone. Make it obvious that you are removing the distraction.
The Why
You’ll notice posters and handouts all around the storage cubby for your phones. These are reminders about how to start the class period so that you can be most effective. The bigger poster is drawn from this:
While the smaller posters are all gleaned from the following document, which will be added to the “What Do I Do Next?” post when I find an extra hour in the day.
That’s where the black-and-yellow poster by the phone cubby originates, at least in this class: Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor. It means, “I see better things, and approve, but I follow worse.” I think you’ll find your productivity increases greatly without that distraction.
Ask questions about any of this, from the protocol for putting away your phones to the philosophy behind the decision, in the comment section below.
Every year at this time — early March, with just enough winter left to make the rest of the year feel interminable — the high school’s National Honor Society chapter invites students to join. The first invitations are based on the student’s cumulative GPA1; the application, however, stresses a wide range of skill, straits, and knowledge.
The most interesting requirement might be character, which gets its first definition in the NHS guide to becoming a member:
The student of good character is cooperative; demonstrates high standards of honesty and reliability; shows courtesy, concern, and respect for others; and generally maintains a clean disciplinary record.
Searching their website for a bit will lead you to a more thorough definition, which is well worth reading in full. In that address, the president of Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C., states that
[c]olleges and universities seek students who demonstrate high moral character. University leaders desire students who will contribute richly to a campus community, not only through scholarship, leadership, service, and citizenship, but with a mutually inclusive commitment to trust, honor, and respect.
She ends by telling her audience — students preparing to apply to and attend college — to “remember the influence your character has on your opportunities, relationships, and future contributions to society.”
The National Honor Society doesn’t have a monopoly on character, of course. Character matters to every student preparing to apply to and attend college, which is why it’s one of the essential skills and traits in Brewster’s SCP and our makerspace’s grade abatement profiles:
This “ongoing, underlying focus on the individual learning experience” is dependent on a student’s character. Individualizing learning2 requires a strong sense of who that individual is.
Which is why you see articles like this one, from Bucknell Magazine, stressing character, not GPAs and SATs, as critical to “an open and holistic process of recognizing talent.” Read the entire piece below:
In the end, this is not about the National Honor Society at all. It’s a larger conversation around character and its role in school cultures, from high school to college. The March emergence of NHS simply gives us the occasion to discuss and to write about character.
It’s worth noting, as we move on, that while NHS is a net positive in school, it does succumb to some weird logic. Click for the xkcd site, or go here for an explanation of the comic.
Defining Character
To write about character requires a definition of character, even before we launch the writing process. This definition will change through discussion and reflection, but we need a starting point. I’d suggest the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, which often addressed “building character” through Calvin’s interactions with his dad.
After reading a set of such strips, you should see the way a child’s perception of “character” conflicts with an older generation’s definition. It’s an interesting starting point, and it lets us return to the academic definition with a clearer perspective.
Start with what Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University, gave as her definition of character:
a concern for and personal commitment to a community
an individual’s integrity, honesty, and trust
an unwavering pledge to abide by established policies and regulations
a willingness to stand and be an advocate for those who are experiencing adversity
a demonstrated commitment to fairness and social justice
a respect for the rights, needs, reputation, and intellectual and physical property of others
Each term and phrase in that list can be unpacked, discussed, etc., to draw us closer to our own definition. We can then compare that to the criteria given by the National Honor Society itself. NHS indicates that a student of character:
takes criticism willingly and accepts recommendations graciously;
consistently exemplifies desirable qualities of behavior (cheerfulness, friendliness, poise, stability);
upholds principles of morality and ethics;
cooperates by complying with school regulations concerning property, programs, office, halls, etc.;
demonstrates the highest standards of honesty and reliability;
shows courtesy, concern, and respect for others; observes instructions and rules;
exhibits concentration and sustained attention as shown by perseverance and application to studies;
manifests truthfulness in acknowledging obedience to rules, avoiding cheating in written work, and showing unwillingness to profit by the mistakes of others;
actively helps rid the school of bad influences or environment.
These are interesting criteria to analyze. Pay attention to adverbs and adjectives, to abstract ideas like “morality and ethics,” and to the significant overlap between these criteria and our set of universal skills and traits3.
Writing a Character Essay
If you’ve invested in this interstitial post so far, you’ve already done a fair bit of the first part of our writing process:
Start with the prompt, which is a deceptively simple one. You’ll need to think about your audience, your purpose, the sorts of clichés that abound in the more rote character essays — and then it’s a matter of finding an approach that explores your character in a unique and authentic way.
This sort of essay can be explicitly about selling yourself, including language that specifically references an application process (“I would be a good fit for these reasons”), but the best responses will do this more subtly, often by letting the storytelling guide the reader. Showing, not telling, will be our goal.
It is all embedded in the writing process itself. Use the digital or printed version, and remember that the makerspace is built for this kind of exercise. You are solving an authentic problem: how to write a character essay about yourself in a world that increasingly demands that you demonstrate great character.
Use the comment section to ask questions about the process, or to comment on some of this background reading and definitional work. We will do the bulk of our writing work in class, together, and probably without screens. This is an opportunity to prep at home and embrace the physicality of writing in school.
Keep something in mind: This is the first year that juniors will write their college essay at the end of the year, instead of writing it at the start of their senior year. Our character essay is a precursor to that, and many of your responses will be useful to us in May and June. This prompt does not, however, carry with it any restrictions on word count, subject matter, and style.
Let’s find the river.
As always, I would point interested stakeholders toward Alfie Kohn and Jerry Jesness for a crash course in why GPA might not be the best starting point, even if it is the most straightforward way to sort students. ↩
And it may always haunt me, like Marley haunting Scrooge, that “individualizing” is erroneously capitalized in this printed/posted/publicized version of our universal skills and traits. ↩
Note, for instance, that “tak[ing] criticism willingly” is amenability. Collegiality and empathy are shown through “courtesy, concern, and respect for others.” This is universal stuff, and that should help us in writing. ↩
The rest of this post explores how the ELA framework and standards work in our space. What follows is adapted, in fact, from the general course syllabus and this Google Site.
What Is a Makerspace?
“Makerspace” is not the only term for this kind of work, and in the real world, the name is relatively unimportant Names are always relevant, of course, because they help us set the agenda for the work we do. The point is that folks solving problems in the real world will be less concerned with the name of the space and more concerned with the work itself. The work is what matters.
This clip from Apollo 13 showcases makerspace problem-solving:
What you have there is a group of like-minded and similarly trained folks who must confront a real-world problem. To solve it, they gather all the tools and resources they need, and then they collaborate on a solution.
In this particular example, NASA engineers pour out a box of mechanical components and use their expertise and creativity to “invent a way to put a square peg in a round hole.” As in most makerspaces, academic or otherwise, the components are physical — gears, electronics, plastic, etc. Even when the components are something as small as DNA, they are still physical.
That’s why hacking DNA (to create cow-less milk; read the Wired article hyperlinked in the previous paragraph) requires the same kind of makerspace thinking needed to save stranded astronauts. These examples also fit the usual acronym attached to makerspaces in education: STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math).
English doesn’t often get a seat at the table, perhaps because its components are more abstract. Literature and writing aren’t considered to have the same modular, experimental elements, at least in a general sense, and the history of makerspaces, hackerspaces, fab labs, etc., is very much about the STEM and STEAM disciplines.
But a makerspace can be an excellent way of reading, writing, and exploring the Humanities. That’s because all makerspaces must answer the same two questions:
What important, real-world problems are we solving?
What components and tools do we need to solve those problems?
These are the same questions answered by scientists, engineers, and so on. What’s interesting is how universal the questions become when applied to an English classroom. What is more universal than being human? In fact, the authentic problems students face in an English classroom are the problems all of us face. They are the questions that we answer through reading, writing, and thinking:
What does it mean to be a human being?
What does it mean to coexist in a society?
What are my beliefs?
How do I want to live my life?
Like all classrooms, an English classroom is where students also experiment with and learn to use so-called “soft” skills. A makerspace approach simply makes that work more explicit. Skills and traits like self-awareness, self-efficacy, and collegiality are components for solving problems like these:
What does it mean to be educated?
What is the purpose of school?
How does each of us learn best?
What are the most important skills and traits for our futures?
In a Humanities makerspace, we experiment to find solutions to these problems and answer these questions. We collaborate, ask experts, do research. We try to think outside the box. We dismantle the box to build a better one, when necessary.
So the tools and components we pour out on the table in English are
a set of universal skills and traits;
our connections to other human beings; and
the literature and nonfiction that best teaches us how to be human.
Makerspace Building Blocks
The rest of this post explores the specifics of writing, reading, and thinking in the space, since those are the primary tools and resources used to solve problems in the Humanities. It’s critical, though, to understand the building blocks of this kind of learning:
Writing is the fundamental creative act of a Humanities makerspace. it is driven by essential questions (like these), central texts (like this), prescribed prompts (like these), and much more.
We use a writing process built from the ground up to emulate college-level writing workshops and STEAM makerspaces. We focus on component understanding, modular experimentation, and constant metacognition.
Importantly, as the FAQ emphasizes, the makerspace applies this process to the same grade-level and course-specific prompts done by non-makerspace classrooms. We hit the same targets, from MLA-formatted research papers to college essays.
Below is a direct link to this writing process, followed by an instructional essay that explores the importance of writing, the history of makerspace-inspired writing guides, and the need for a different kind of assessment.
Reading in a makerspace is an intricate, flexible process that emphasizes student choice while adhering to grade-level and course-specific text requirements. We cover the skills of literary analysis, including test-driven terminology prep; close reading, both with fiction and nonfiction; and and the balanced study of contemporary and canonical essays and novels.
As that suggests, literature is one of the many tools available to people in the real world, and it is easily the most powerful tool we can use to develop empathy and expand our life experiences. In our makerspace, it’s a tool connected to all the rest. It’s one of the components we pour out on the table, so to speak, when we need to answer the most important questions.
It’s not the particular book that matters, as a result; it’s how that book is read. We stress choice. We use essential questions to drive those choices. We still tackle the canonical requirements, from American short fiction to Shakespeare, but often allow students to branch out in order to invest fully in the reading process.
Above all else, we are focused on the component experiences that make students lifelong readers, not children who hate reading. To see a 2019 attempt at developing this habit, look here:
Metacognition is the key to the thinking in our space. The most important thing students learn is always something about how they learn, and a makerspace embraces that. Many of the most powerful lessons come from this, and the skills associated with thinking are universally important.
The content still matters! This is critical: The content, assured experiences, etc., are still approached with fidelity. The makerspace prepares for tests, gives quizzes, studies literary devices, and hits however many pieces of canonical literature we need to. Consider this reading calendar from 2018-2019.
Makerspace Instruction
Here is an essay on how technology shifts instruction in a makerspace:
There are many others that grapple with “interstitial” teaching, but that one best covers the philosophy behind the shift. Technology is a tool for learning, and it can become part of a lifelong habit of reading and writing. Consider one of the flipped lessons used to start a discussion about reading in a makerspace:
That post discusses hyperlinks, responsiveness, and the freedom students have to engage with different levels of instruction. It is about turning the Internet into a tool for the Humanities and a resource for student growth.
Makerspace Assessment
Finally, there is how a makerspace treats assessment as a tool. This is covered in the post on building blocks, as well as many other posts on this site. Student feedback on the process is especially helpful.
The use of grade abatement allows us to give embedded, individualized feedback; teach 21st century skills in context; encourage risk-taking; and avoid grade obsession, gamesmanship, and the hit to self-esteem and self-efficacy caused by traditional grades.
The process is modular and responsive. It works for all grade and ability levels, because it makes universal skills and traits clear, discrete, and actionable. It enables a better form of feedback. Here is the process in full:
This is the instructional hub for a study of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Essential Questions
First, students will work in small groups to write answers to a set of essential questions adapted from the year-long questions suggested by the syllabus. These questions inform the literature and nonfiction we study.
To what extent should we trust that what we see is what is really happening?
To what extent should we trust our memories of the past?
Is it better to be ignorant and happy, or to gain knowledge, even at the cost of happiness? Why?
To what extent and in what ways does power corrupt?
What does it look like to be truly alone, and what is the impact of loneliness on us?
To what extent is human nature self-destructive?
How should we deal with individuals who threaten a community?
Remember that you have precise feedback about how to answer essential questions thoroughly in this post: Insufficient vs. Sufficient Work.
We start with handwritten responses. After small-group discussions, those responses can be typed up and submitted for feedback.
Holt’s Threshold
Students will be given class time to read the novel and find what we call “Holt’s threshold.” We can then discuss whether to continue to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or to select a work of equivalent literary merit. Here are the two relevant instructional posts:
Ever since it was published 50 years ago critics have described Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as the great nonconformist novel, but Nathaniel Rich writes that the novel’s true message is about the militarization of American society-and the trauma of war.
When a novel becomes a “classic”—when it is digested by critics and English teachers and study guide authors into bite-size morsels that can be slurped with a spoon—it undergoes a peculiar type of transformation. For one, it ceases to resemble a novel. Even the messiest, most obstreperous books are reduced to a litany of bullet points, or a single bullet point. Moby Dick: Obsession devours. Crime and Punishment: Guilt corrupts. White Noise: Technology numbs. It can be disorienting to actually read the damn thing, and find out the epitaph is no more descriptive than a chapter title, and a misleading one at that.
This fits our approach to reading. For a refresher, look back at the reading process posts, or read this:
