Category: 2019-2020

Updates and general feedback for students taking the course in 2019-2020.

No comments

English 12 Calendar: April 27 – June 15

  By 2019-2020, Distance Learning, Final Projects, Second Semester Projects

Download a printable copy of the calendar here: tinyurl.com/2020-cal-v2.

Week One | 4/27–5/1

You will use this week to transition into the Final Project, which is explained in full in an instructional post and document that will be available on April 27.

After reading that post, wrap up any other ongoing projects. That does not necessarily mean abandoning them! You can use them as part of the Final Project, submit them as part of your project-based learning evidence for Q4, or continue them because they matter to you.

One of the goals for this week is to remind you that these last six week of your high school career are an opportunity to create something meaningful. It is the most important goal, in fact.

To do much of anything meaningful, you must have a solid understanding of what is required and the timeline for completing it. This calendar is an overview. The instructional post is also required.

Starting with Week Two, you’ll be focused on the final project.

Week Two | 5/4–5/8

Final Project: Step #1 | Choosing a Topic

Even if you already had a project underway, you will work on this. You’ll consider other options, get feedback, revise what you have, and so on.

Use this week to sort through the work you’ve done this semester with the end goals of the Final Project in mind. What do you have that will help you the most? What will contribute to the best process and product?

You will be given plenty of examples of atypical projects this week — everything from podcasts to video essays. You’ll be asked to read, watch, and analyze some of those examples in order to decide what you will create.

By the time you get to the start of Week Three, you should have a solid idea of where you’ll end up by June 5.

Week Three | 5/11–5/15

Final Project: Step #2 – Step #3 | Research & Purpose

You will be given a Google Form and Classroom assignment on May 11. You’ll need to submit your statement of purpose and evidence of your research. This will be due on May 15.

This week is also about potential design elements, potential final forms, and a potential audience for your project. You should be collaborating as often as possible with your peers and teachers to arrive at the crux of this project — its reason for being, in essence.

The statement of purpose will match the ones taught before March 12, and the research evidence will match the kind of evidence you usually submit to prove your reading and writing.

You’ll continue this work into Week Four.

Week Four | 5/18–5/22

Final Project: Step #4 – Step #5 | Research & Design

Your statement of purpose should lead immediately into the design stage. You’ll need lots of feedback and redirection to produce the script, blueprint, etc, required here.

You will be given a second Google Form and Classroom assignment on May 18. You’ll need to submit evidence of further research, as stipulated in the guide to this project, and then a final script, blueprint, etc. This will be due on May 22.

There will be a separate assignment posted to Turnitin.com on Monday, May 18. You’ll need to submit your written design(s) there to check your originality.

Week Five | 5/25–5/29

Final Project: Step #6 | The Final Project

You must complete your project this week or next. You’ll be responsible for an asynchronous submission, which means you will not be presenting live. Whatever you record, write, publish, etc, will be handed in when its ready.

You will also share the work in the way that makes the most sense. We’ll expand the list of options as we go, and it will help to think divergently about your audience. Should you publish what you write? Share out a video through social media? Post a link to a website or YouTube channel?

There are many, many more options. You might choose to do something live, using Zoom or another tool to host a discussion. You might use social media as the basis of the project itself — a gallery through Instagram, for instance. Perhaps you’ll share your work through Reddit and then document the results in an essay.

You will be given a third Google Form and Classroom assignment on May 25. You’ll be required to submit the final project through this form, solving any problems that arise with your teacher’s help.

Note that you have two weeks to submit a project. The deadline is June 5, so work on the projects can continue into Week Six.

Week Six | 6/1–6/5

Final Project: Step #6 | The Final Project (Cont.)

This will be the second week of sharing out what you’ve created, with a deadline of June 5 for most students. Any exceptions to that deadline will be determined this week. Remember that individualizing this process is down to you.

One of the goals of these two weeks is to shine a spotlight on your projects, so you should start thinking about the community around us, from Brewster to the wider world. Does your project lend itself to a larger stage? How can you connect your work with more people?

All of this will be done at your discretion, based on your wishes and needs. The academic requirement for English 12 will remain the formal assignment that was distributed on May 25. The deadline for submitting work will be June 5.

Once you’ve shared and celebrated your projects, you’ll move into the last step of the process.

Week Seven | 6/8–6/12

Final Project: Step #7 | Assessment & Reflection

Note that we’ll use this week to wrap up any remaining projects. The academic work is self-assessment and reflection, and it can be done as soon as you receive the assignment.

The formal assignment will be given in two parts: an online form and an essay prompt. The online form will ask you to self-assess the process and product created for your Final Project. The essay prompt will ask you to turn that analysis into a piece of writing.

You will be given the final Google Form and Classroom assignment on June 8. You’ll have until June 12 to finish both parts of this step.

The last day for most students is June 25, regardless of how long distance learning continues. For seniors, however, the last day is Monday, June 15.

The Last Day | 6/15

This will be our last day together, and we’ll use it to recognize the impact of some of the best projects created during the previous seven weeks.

No comments

Senior Projects Redux

  By 2019-2020, Distance Learning, Second Semester Projects

René Magritte, Time Transfixed (1938)

Full steam ahead.

Quick Read: What to Know

① You are not responsible for every scrap of understanding in every post.

There are levels to this kind of interstitial instruction, which is why it’s called interstitial.

In other words, there is no expectation that you exhaust every post and letter. The depth is there for students who would benefit from that depth.

To paraphrase the end of this essay by John Holt: Dive into these lectures and lessons, take the parts you understand, skip the parts you don’t, get what you can out of it, and then get to work.

As you do the work, you can ask questions, get clarification, and revisit these posts. It’s part of the process, and the process is the key.

An example is the writing from today. There is this “quick read,” then the rest of the post; then there is a letter to stakeholders that links to additional information; and on top of that, there are the updates through Google Classroom and ParentLink that likely brought you to this post.

The depth here helps. Do what you can, push yourself when appropriate, and advocate at all times.

② You are responsible for continued project-based learning.

The rest of the year will continue your project-based learning, which is enabled by flipped instruction, and which is ultimately assessed through profiles.

The goal of any project is to hone universal skills and traits. The purpose of instruction is to facilitate your creative efforts. Feedback is scaffolded and individualized, and you are empowered to use the space to help each other.

That goes for the digital space, too. Losing our classroom is a terrible blow; maintaining this digital connection will help us recover.

③ You are now required to complete only a “senior talk” and one additional project.

The Senior Talk will need to be adjusted, but there’s a silver lining: You now have the option of choosing from many different final products. We will workshop the list as we go, and some of the options are explored further in this post.

The same step-by-step guide and instructional posts can be used for this Senior Talk:

One other project is required. You can include any projects started in February and early March. We will also workshop how to adjust the process and product for your choice. For a recap of what projects are required, use the letter sent to stakeholders today and the original webpage:

Make this choice manageable for yourself. As long as you communicate your needs, this can all be individualized, which is why the most important step, as always, is to establish a feedback chain.

Read on for more on each of these updates.

① Leveled Instruction

Two things to keep in mind about all the writing I do for you:

  1. There are many points of entry and departure in each instructional post, so you can choose how much to read at one time. You never need to dig every scrap of understanding out of these.
  2. The more you read, of course, the more you’ll be able to do. There are levels.

The first point there was hammered home, I hope, through our unit on reading and the answer to why we read in particular1.

The second point is illustrated by Friday’s post:

April 10, 2020

You can take your time with this sort of instructional post. There are multiple points of entry, plus simplified or summarized instructions on Google Classroom.

If you take that extra time to read more deeply, you’ll be better equipped to individualize the work. You can take as much time as you need, however. There are levels to this.

② Not an Overhaul

The focus of your second-semester projects has always been on how you learn, what skills you need to hone, and how each project prepares you for the future. It’s been an exercise in individualizing project-based learning as much as possible. That is a universal framework.

The difference now is that we all need to cope with the present. This is the makerspace in action: We have very real, very pressing problems; they are problems of identity, anxiety, connection to others, misinformation and information; and we can address those problems through reading, writing, and discussion.

Before we get to the projects, another link to the trio of updates from last week:

Distance Learning: Week 3
• April 9 Update
• April 10 Update

Again, there are multiple points of entry. Read what you can, when you can.

Of special note is that Q3 grades will be finalized and posted on Friday, April 17. On Wednesday, you’ll be asked to self-assess, just like always, and then to work out any issues over the next two days.

Then Q4 grades will be pass/fail, which is a boon to us. Remember what grade abatement is and isn’t — which means we can now focus on authentic purposes and audiences.

This post prioritizes your projects around a few of these ideas:

  • Which projects might help you sort through the current situation?
  • What will connect us to each other through projects in the Humanities?
  • Which products have different audiences, now that we are all living and working online?
  • What still helps the most to prepare you for next year?

It’s not an overhaul. These are the same projects you started in February. You need the option to streamline and simplify them, however, and that’s what you have: the option to set a manageable schedule for yourself.

After you’ve read the next portion of this post, use the comment section to ask questions. That, too, is part of managing your own schedule. Continue to advocate for your learning.

③ Required Projects

Senior Talk

The Senior Talk is still a requirement, and you must still work with the instructional post that links it to the Pareto Project:

✰ Pareto Projects and Senior Talks

You must also use the step-by-step guide, which only needs slight alterations to function through distance learning:

Every step still works, including the final steps, regardless of the final form of the talk. We can even use the original sign-up document:

We need to think creatively about what that presentation could look like. There are no bad ideas right now, and I will share examples of video essays and other “talks” over the next few days.

In addition to this Senior Talk (which needs a new label, since “talk” is no longer exactly fitting), you must complete one additional project. They are listed below in a suggested order.

Commencement Address

This is an important opportunity to reflect on the learning community you are leaving in June. Whether you share the final product or not, this is the kind of writing you should be doing during a pandemic: personal, audience-driven, reflective.

The resources include examples of commencement addresses, but you can consider open letters and other digital formats. The key is the universal guide’s focus on audience. That guide is below, followed by the instructional post for this project.

✰ Commencement Address

I want you to think seriously about writing this in order to share it.

Pareto Projects

You might prioritize these projects precisely because we are learning from home. It’s why this post was put together for you:

April 9, 2020

Scroll down to the second section of that post, and note that there has been a cultural shift toward “passion projects” since COVID-19 hit us.

If you choose to work on a Pareto Project, it might turn into one of the other projects. It might become something we didn’t predict at all. It might continue into the summer. Regardless of the arc of that work, you have a unique learning opportunity.

In fact, this is a chance for you to build habits that will carry over into next year. Passion projects are the best way to do that, because they demand more structure from you. You build the scaffolding, and you fill it in.

Self-Prescribed Book Project

If you are able to use your time now to read, you may find no better time to become a better reader. That growth can then be turned into a project you design:

✰ Self-Prescribed Book Project

If nothing else, working further on a book you’ve chosen is a chance to discover or rediscover the part of you that loved reading when you were younger.

Below are the resources you’ve used or helped to create so far:

Research-Driven Writing

This is listed last here only because research-driven writing is part of the rest of pretty much every other item on this list. In fact, a research paper could explicitly be the product or outcome for the rest of the projects.

Don’t mistake this as a knock against research-driven writing. This is actually the most important set of skills on here: the ability to synthesize viewpoints, identify bias, craft an argument that deals with an issue, etc. It’s only that these skills are part of everything else, and time is of the essence.

To write an effective research-driven paper of any kind, you can follow this guide:

The rest of what you need is in the instructional post:

✰ Research-Driven Essay

  1. I haven’t used footnotes in a while, so let’s see if that code still works. Here is the end of an excerpt by John Holt that has been assigned off-and-on for a while now:

    This is exactly what reading should be and in school so seldom is — an exciting, joyous adventure. Find something, dive into it, take the good parts, skip the bad parts, get what you can out of it, go on to something else. How different is our mean-spirited, picky insistence that every child get every last little scrap of”understanding” that can be dug out of a book.

    I think that applies equally to a post on here. Dive in, take what you can, skip what you can’t, maybe circle back later on. Treat it as part of a much larger whole. ↩

No comments

April 10, 2020

  By 2019-2020, Distance Learning

René Magritte, The Listening Room (1952 )

Message Received: You Got This

Remember that instructional posts like this are called interstitial, which refers to their intended use: You should visit and revisit the post when you have a enough time to focus on paragraphs or sections, to click on links, to look up references, and so on. Use the spaces in between.

In other words, these are instructions meant for more than just our English work. As you read these, you’re meant to learn interesting things and practice universal skills and traits. Think of them less as a lecture you watch once and more like a textbook chapter you should return to as necessary.

This is always worth repeating, because it’s a deliberate attempt to help you develop a more future-proof kind of reading skill. It’s much more about the how than the what, although this is still an instructional post based on the current situation.

The header image and thumbnail for this post link back to Magritte, who keeps appearing in the instructions for distance learning. Maybe the use of Magritte paintings reflects the surreality of our current situation. Modern art should also be part of any study of the Humanities, especially if you are drawn to that study purely out of curiosity.

For today, there’s one more bit of interstitial knowledge: the ten-code system, which you might have heard in the line, “Ten-four, good buddy.” It derives from CB slang, and it means that a message has been received. Like that Magritte painting, it’s (sort of) about listening.

What does that have to do with this post? Well, America is one of the few countries in the world that uses the MM-DD-YYYY format for dates. The rest use DD-MM-YYYY. It’s an interesting fact, and it means that today, April 10, is also 10-4-2020.

The “ten-four” message received here is about your stress level and need for clarity, simplification, and support. After the most recent weekly update, one student left a private comment:

As I went through the instructional post today. I notice that even though you are giving us a good amount of time to work on them, it just feels like a lot of work. Maybe if you could share something like a checklist ,or something how to make one, or how to organize your work. I think this would be really helpful. Thank you.

That is a great example of working on the feedback chain that sustains individualized learning. It also gives us an excuse to look back on the strategies for organization embedded in a November unit. You should look at those when and if you can.

Here’s the thing, though: While those resources are continually useful, they were designed around regular in-class and face-to-face meetings. We don’t have that resource right now. That will require us to circle back to your projects over the next week or two to make them manageable.

Here is an additional resource, by the way, that was shared by one of your peers earlier this week:

It was also posted yesterday to Google Classroom as a formative assignment. You can make a checklist for checklists and then a checklist for your everyday work in here. Your list should remind you to set a goal, fill out the daily Google Form, and check for updates online. Then it’s about your current project goals.

But as that comment from another peer reminds us, the project-based work that was meant to be spread across four months of in-class interaction is now being done in quarantine. It was the right amount of work for a normal semester; while you might have more free time now, you don’t have the same resources. The workload needs to be adjusted.

Projects and Projected Adjustments

If you load the main page for these second semester projects, you’ll see the fundamentals of project-based learning and then a list of the three most important things to remember:

  1. Almost every aspect of every project can be individualized.
  2. You must read the instructional posts carefully in order to individualize the work and make it authentic.
  3. Your in-class focus and use of feedback will determine your grade abatement profile more than any other aspect of your learning.

That list is repeated on all of the individual project pages, which makes updating it to reflect our COVID-created reality a little difficult. Instead, we have to tackle each of those elements now, one by one, in reverse order.

③ Your in-class focus and use of feedback will determine your grade abatement profile more than any other aspect of your learning.

While we are all working from home in the midst of a pandemic, there is no in-class focus to evaluate. You must check in every day with a clear goal for your dedicated English time, and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to share feedback, works-in-progress, and so on. You don’t, however, have that 36th chamber as the center of the learning experience. The result:

③ Your in-class focus and use of feedback will determine your grade abatement profile more than any other aspect of your learning.

Cross it off. Your use of feedback is still critical, but it’s not observable in the same way. The expectations are radically different now.

The next element of these projects:

② You must read the instructional posts carefully in order to individualize the work and make it authentic.

Still absolutely essential. If you don’t read everything carefully, you can’t keep up with the work. Flipped instruction has always been a building block for our makerspace; it is now more important than ever. You can’t rely on in-class Q&A, handouts with simplified checklists, whiteboards with key dates — that’s all impossible to replicate here.

What’s most important about these online resources is that they allow you to individualize the work, which is the single most important element of your projects:

① Almost every aspect of every project can be individualized.

And this is the goal now: to make the best of this situation by individualizing the projects. To do that, the project parameters might need adjustments. We might need to be streamline and simplify the work to give you more flexibility and freedom.

That will be the instructional post on Monday: a rundown of which projects to prioritize, which ones to combine, which ones to ignore, and how it all fits together, whether we spend the rest of the year apart or reconvene at the high school in May or June.

Right now, the “ten-four” takeaway is that I recognize your stress, especially as this situation stretches out longer than anyone anticipated. I know that working from home is not easier than having class every day, and that some of you will do better work if you know that the next two months offer even more flexibility than the original slate of second-semester projects did.

Look for the update on Monday. In the meantime, be sure you’ve done the weekly self-assessment and reflection assignment, and contact me or Ms. Egan with any questions or concerns you have. Read all the recent posts on this site, too. Do it in bursts, when you can, and try to use the comment section below to get clarification.

One Comment

April 9, 2020

  By 2019-2020, Distance Learning

René Magritte, Elective Affinities (1933).

Two quick updates this afternoon.

Q3 GAP Scores and Grades

Q3 grades will be finalized on April 17, not the pre-COVID calendar date of April 24.

Your final Q3 grade will be the average of three scores: the two GAP scores posted on March 27 and a final profile score based on the distance learning from March 25 through April 15.

We’ll stop the Q3 assessment process on April 15 to give us two days to clarify your profiles through evidentiary discussion and analysis.

This last GAP score will reflect the same universal skills, traits, and profiles. The process is the same, minus any consideration of in-class focus.

You have been — and will be, through next Wednesday — responsible for checking in each day with a goal, filling out the weekly self-assessments, and advocating for any feedback you need. You should also have shared any relevant evidence related to your current project.

The language of the profiles can be applied to any circumstances, including distance learning. That language is student-centered and flexible. Think of it as a perpetually aggregate model: It rewards you for what you’ve done well, adding that evidence up until it fits a profile.

There will be a Q3C profile report, just like there usually is at the end of the panel, but it will not be part of Q3. Instead, it will be another way for you to take stock of your progress, sort through your work, and communicate your progress. We will use it in Q4.

In other words, that final GAP report will be given next week to start a discussion, not as the last required assignment of this strange last panel of the quarter.

Before Q3C scores are posted, you’ll have two days to discuss them with me. Right now, the plan is to post scores on April 17. Keep in mind that this situation is constantly changed, however.

Pareto Projects

Back in September, which feels like it was at least several years ago, we started your passion projects. These 20-Time or Pareto Projects were designed to lead into the Senior Talk, but only as one potential outcome; the real focus, as with any passion project, was to help you explore and learn and create.

This week, Apple posted the following:

If you have an Apple account and device, that list of apps is worth a serious look. The same apps are available through Google, for the most part. But you don’t need apps to set aside some of your free time now for a project of your own design.

This kind of thinking has always been part of our makerspace. The assessment and instructional innovations have allowed us to dedicate time to you as an individual, and the prime example has always been the Pareto Project.

So this Apple store story is an authentic validation of our space. The most important thing you learn is something about how you learn, because you can always learn something new. The more you learn, the more you’re likely to find your own passion.

Your final projects are going to need some tweaking, and you can predict what that means: We’ll need to prioritize the projects, organize your time based on the latest news from Governor Cuomo, and adjust your final products to work within distance learning limitations.

A passion project is about you, though. Fortunately, if you find something you want to study/create/etc, it’s likely to fit into a required project. It might even replace a requirement entirely, depending on the scope and sequence of what you want to do.

Remember, your work in the Humanities is about reading and writing as a way to develop universal skills and traits. It’s the study of you, though, more than anything else. It’s about what makes you human, what connects you to others, and how you can build a better version of yourself through the work we do.

These passion projects have always been a way to pursue those goals, so don’t ignore the opportunity to start one, even if it’s already April 9. You’ll find, again, that a Pareto Project makes it easier to generate whatever required projects are left. We’ll find a way to fit that passion into our final two months.

Ask questions about this below. Tomorrow, you’ll get an update with more feedback and instruction, and that should be followed on Monday by a post that simplifies and streamlines your second-semester projects.

3 Comments

Distance Learning: Week 3

  By 2019-2020, Distance Learning

Image: René Magritte, Decalcomania (1966)

Self-Assessment: Week 2

Remember that these instructional posts set up the next week. The self-assessment for Week 2, which is the week that ended yesterday, is being folded in to help clarify the process.

You must complete the following form over the next few days:

This is a weekly form that updates you and your teachers on your progress and sense of self-efficacy. It is a way to strengthen the feedback chain. Here is the relevant instructional post from earlier in the year:

The Feedback Chain

If you did not read that earlier this year, last week, or at any other point when it was brought back into focus, you must take the time to read it now. Your self-advocacy is essential during distance learning.

The form asks you to write a paragraph (or more) about your progress. Then you are encouraged to share links, documents, and other evidence through Google Classroom or Gmail.

The form also requires you to review a series of statements about this course, indicating whether or not

  • you have examined all recent profile scores;
  • you know exactly what those scores mean;
  • you know you can get individual feedback about those scores at any time;
  • you know that you must read all instructional posts in full;
  • you know that you must read everything on Google Classroom in full;
  • you know that you must set a daily goal through Google Forms;
  • you are aware of all the available resources for your project-based learning;
  • you know to share evidence of your project-based learning;
  • you are aware of how to seek feedback, in class and online;
  • you know you can always ask further questions to individualize the work;
  • you know how to ask questions to individualize work.

More statements may be added. You will have this kind of check-in every week while we are doing distance learning.

If you answer “no” to any of these statements, you must self-correct. You must read the instructional posts, seek feedback directly, organize your work, and so on.

Week 3: Resources & Assignments

This section of the post will be repeated frequently. It lists and/or links to the resources and assignments you need to have organized for the rest of the year.

For the rest of this week, you should focus on self-advocacy and feedback. We will revisit the final shape of each project, especially the Senior Talk, next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Semester Projects

Evidence Folders | Essential. If you haven’t set these up yet, do it immediately. You’ll use them for most evidentiary work and feedback requests.
• Directions: https://tinyurl.com/gap-pbl-1
• Google Form: https://forms.gle/dT3FGwzoouPk3fibA

Google Classroom Links | These are listed out as they appear under “Second Semester Projects” on Google Classroom. Load the Classwork tab, and then be absolutely certain you’re clear on each and every element here.
• Final Obligations & Assessments [Posted Feb 12]
• Final Exam: Senior Talk Reflection [Posted Feb 12]
• Senior Talks [Posted Feb 12]
• Pareto Projects [Posted Feb 12]
• Commencement Address [Posted Feb 5]
• Research-Driven Essay [Posted Feb 4]
• Self-Prescribed Book Project [Posted Feb 4]
• Second Semester Projects: Overview [Posted Feb 4]

Formative Work

Google Classroom Links | These, too, are listed out as they appear on Classroom. Look under the Classwork tab for “Second Semester Formative Work.” These are assignments that help check for understanding or set up further feedback throughout your project-based work.
• GAP Scores: Q3 Before the Social Distancing [Posted Mar 27]
• English 12: Distance Learning Update [Posted Mar 25]
• Optional Work: March 18–24 [Posted Mar 18]
• Research-Driven Essay: Models [Posted Mar 12]
• Statements of Purpose [Posted Mar 5]
• Self-Prescribed Books: Your Choices [Posted Feb 25]
• Checkpoint: February 10, 2020 [Posted Feb 10]

Flipped Instruction and Feedback

This is an updated list of the essential instructions and feedback posted since March 25. If you have not yet read any element below, including the internal links to other documents, you must make it a priority to catch up.

Start, as necessary, with the April 1 lecture that delves into the nature of feedback and your responsibilities at home:

April 1, 2020

Then review the rest of the flipped materials below:

• March 25 Letter: tinyurl.com/makerspace-update-0325
• DL Week 1 Post: sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=4059
• March 27 Update: sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=4075
• DL Week 2 Post: sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=4079
• April 1 Update: sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=4082
• April 2 Update: sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=4095

4 Comments

April 2, 2020

  By 2019-2020, Distance Learning

Below is a full screenshot of the computer I’m using during office hours:

Students need to look at this image carefully. Notice first that the assignment on the right — the self-assessment assigned on Tuesday and due yesterday — was completed by only 40% of you.

The next thing to notice is the Q3C gradebook open on the left. The names are blocked and randomized, so you can focus on the columns of GAP scores. Those numbers tell the story of each student’s academic progress.

Every day, my co-teachers and I are building a picture of how you’re doing. We are coordinating feedback, sharing data, taking notes — whatever it takes to give you what you need.

Distance learning makes the forms you complete essential to that progress. You must complete them. The 40% who didn’t make yesterday’s deadline aren’t penalized with a lower GAP score, however; there just isn’t any data for them.

This is true for the daily check-in, as well. Here is a document pulled together after five days of distance learning:

62 students have communicated a daily goal at least once in those five days. That is a bit more than 50%.

If you haven’t checked in each day and/or didn’t complete the self-assessment for April 1, you are missing. It’s no longer about grades and passing or failing; the potential for growth in GAP scoring should prevent that concern. The concern is that you are missing.

In other words, while we are away from the physical classroom, you cease to exist when you don’t communicate. There’s nothing for me or my co-teachers to see.

Take the next 24 hours and be sure — be absolutely certain — that you check in, complete the self-assessment about your progress, and firm up your intentions to stay in contact.

If you have questions, that’s a great place to start: Ask them here, in the comment section of this post, or send an email.

5 Comments

April 1, 2020

  By 2019-2020, Distance Learning

Aucun Poisson d’Avril

The image is a reference to the French version of April Fool’s Day. It’s more interestingly a reference to René Magritte’s painting, The Treachery of Images:

If you have heard of Magritte, it’s likely to be in relationship to that painting or The Son of Man, which is another absurdist painting of his.

What This Has to Do with English

This is being posted on March 31, not April 1, but the assignment and lesson covered here are intended for April 1. The date gives us an excuse to learn about the French version of April Fool’s Day, which leads to an absurdist image, which leads to Magritte.

None of it is related to a specific project or lesson. All of it, however, is related to learning. As always, the goal of an instructional post like this is not just to tell you about the specifically English stuff; it’s to link together some interesting information and help you hone your curiosity.

Why? Because it’s good practice for the kind of reading expected of informed citizens:

Well, Why Read?

Reading online needs to be exploratory for you. It should take you down side paths and winding roads. You have all the information in the world available to you through this screen; it would be a shame to focus you solely on the Google Form posted below.

It’s also about exposure to new ideas in the Humanities, and that absolutely should include Magritte. You could do worse than to be curious about absurdist painters and surrealism. That’s a rabbit hole worth falling into.

The Specifically English Stuff

We continue to adjust to distance learning:

Distance Learning: Week 1
• March 27 Update
Distance Learning: Week 2

We are fortunate to have started project-based learning that would span the entire semester. We are much less fortunate that we lost our class time, especially given how much emphasis is placed on those 40 minutes in a makerspace.

Which brings us to your formative work for the next day or so. Start by reading or revisiting the following post on feedback:

The Feedback Chain

Consider how the logic of that post shifts with distance learning. It doesn’t shift much, but it does shift; and if you want to be successful during our time at home, you need to shift with it.

That post, “The Feedback Chain,” was a November 12 discussion of how feedback works in a Humanities makerspace. Of particular importance now is this section:

[T]he design of all creative work in a makerspace is concatenative. The word comes from the root for chain, and that’s the metaphor: Strength comes from successive links, and each link is dependent on the one before it. Weak links break the chain. The chain starts with that background work, and if it is all done with fidelity and in good faith, we have enough of a feedback loop to start.

The concept of “good faith” is more important now than ever. All of your teachers are acting in good faith. You must operate in good faith, too. You must approach every aspect of your learning honestly.

We all know that there will continue to be difficulties. Working even an hour a day would be a commendable thing. Accomplishing small goals is something to celebrate. There is purpose to project-based learning, including the overarching opportunity to hone the skills and traits you’ll need in the future.

So your teachers — not just me, but all of us — will make good-faith efforts to predict your needs and proactively help you. That is much harder without our time in class, but we will reach out as often as possible. I will write to you most days. I will reply as quickly as possible to your emails.

The key here is the verb in that last sentence: reply. You need to take the initiative now. You must build that feedback chain explicitly and directly.

To show you what I mean, look at the folders you were asked to set up in February: https://tinyurl.com/gap-pbl-1. Those folders are there to organize evidence for the moments when you need it. They help you identify your GAP score, but they are much more useful to you as you complete true project-based tasks.

On my end, those folders are not artifacts to be scoured every day. It would be impossible for anyone to go through 600 individual folders on a weekly basis looking for places to give feedback. It would go well beyond finding a needle in a haystack.

Fortunately, you do not have set deadlines, except when you must self-assess for a GAP score. It is more likely that you will use your folders to request feedback based on what you need in that moment — so, for instance, you might need help with a bibliography for the research-driven writing, with the length of a slideshow for the Senior Talk, or with your statement of purpose for the commencement address.

You set the chain in motion. As we get into April, we’ll talk about presentations and final products, but even then, the conversation will be light. We don’t know yet when or if we’ll return to school. For now, you have to be proactive.

That said, I know that you have multiple classes, plus your responsibilities at home. I know that you are experiencing distress and anxiety because of this pandemic. We all are. If, at any time, you think you need an exemption or exception, just say so.

To recap:

  • It is your responsibility to communicate your need for feedback.
  • It is your responsibility to send links to the proper folder, document, etc, or to attach the proper document, when you request that feedback.
  • You must check in each day so that I know you are working on something, but that itself does not constitute a request for feedback.

While we’re on the subject of your daily goal: That goal is set for you — not for me, not for administration, not for a grade, but for you. You are using that form to calibrate yourself, and it is a reason for you to be mindful each day. It is there to help you.

Formative Assessment: Your Progress So Far

This is posted mostly as-is to Google Classroom.

Make sure, first, that you’ve read that post from 11/12/19:

The Feedback Chain

If you did not read that earlier this year, or when it was brought back into focus at other points, take the time to read it now. Its message is more important now than ever: Seniors must initiative the feedback loop on their work directly, and they must advocate for themselves on each project.

In fact, the real work is the work of self-direction, self-efficacy, and self-awareness. You must set daily goals, organize your ongoing work, and respond to formative assessments — and the feedback chain starts and ends with you.

For this assignment, account for what you’ve accomplished since March 12 by writing a short paragraph (or more) describing and explaining your progress. If at all possible, include hyperlinks to evidence — to those evidence folders, to individual documents, to screenshots.

Complete this in the Google Form posted to Google Classroom. Then answer the series of true/false prompts as honestly as possible. You can then fill in the gaps in your knowledge based on which answers are “no.”

Submitting the form will acknowledge whether or not

  • you have examined all recent profile scores;
  • you know exactly what those scores mean;
  • you know you can get individual feedback about those scores at any time;
  • you know that you must read all instructional posts in full;
  • you know that you must read everything on Google Classroom in full;
  • you know that you must set a daily goal through Google Forms;
  • you are aware of all the available resources for your project-based learning;
  • you you know to share evidence of your project-based learning;
  • you are aware of how to seek feedback, in class and online;
  • you know you can always ask further questions to individualize the work;
  • you know how to ask questions to individualize work.

More statements may be added. You will have this kind of check-in every week while we are doing distance learning.

If you answer “no” to any of these statements, that will fly a few red flags. The trick, though, is that answering “no” means that you must now do the work you missed previously. You must read the instructional posts, seek feedback directly, organize your work, and so on.

Just answering this form is a contract of sorts. You’re telling us that you know what to do and will continue to do it — a declaration that includes your promise to ask for help as often as you need it — or you’re committing yourself to shoring up your knowledge of the learning environment as quickly as possible.

The only students who will end up on an administrative list are students who don’t write the required paragraph and fill out the form. We’ll look at those students’ daily goals (or lack thereof), overall progress, recent grades, and so on; and then we’ll do whatever it takes to bring those students back in line with this project-based learning.

For everyone, use this opportunity to ask questions and to get clarification. Also use it to demonstrate that you are reading the instructional posts, directions, etc. Show that you are engaged in these projects.

No comments

Distance Learning: Week 2

  By 2019-2020, Distance Learning
Previous Essential Updates

Distance Learning: Week 1
• March 25 Letter / PDF
• March 27 Post

Week 2: March 30 – April 3

Continue to work on your projects. Follow these guidelines:

☈ Daily Goal: Set a specific goal each day before 1:30 PM. That would be the end of P8, the makerspace’s last class of seniors, on a normal school day.

☈ Office Hours: Still from 10-11 each morning, which corresponds to P4/P5 on a normal school day. If there is any sort of disruption to these, I’ll let you know in the daily Google Classroom announcements.

☈ GAP Evidence: Share evidence of your progress as often as you can. Put documents in the shared folders, send emails, request feedback directly — whatever will serve the dual purposes of helping your work and supporting your assessment profiles.

Note your options. You can tag teachers in comments on your own work. You can start discussions in the comment section of instructional posts. You can leave private comments through Google Classroom. You can send emails.

Keep up steady contact and ask for regular feedback. That’s the key during this second week: Adjust to distance learning, make steady progress on a project or two of your choosing, and get feedback at least once.

There are plenty of possible tools for us to consider as this situation continues. It looks like April will be spent at home, but let’s remain hopeful about May and June.

Ask questions below about the start of this week. If you want to begin with the optional analysis of your Q3A/Q3B GAP scores, read the March 27 post carefully.

No comments

March 27, 2020

  By 2019-2020, Distance Learning

GAP Scores: Q3A + Q3B (WIP)

Later today, March 27, students will receive their grades for the first half of Q3. This post will now do two things for all stakeholders:

  1. It will contextualize those scores, which will let us use them to improve learning.
  2. It will invite us all to talk, especially in the comment section of this post, about that student learning.

First, let’s talk about March 12. On Wednesday of this week, all stakeholders got the following:

✰ English 12: Distance Learning Update (March 25, 2020) + PDF version ✰

Distance Learning: Week 1

The letter was sent separately, because it is by far the most thorough explanation of our project-based work. The weekly update that followed is a review of each project and a collection of important links.

To understand what we’re currently doing, that letter and post are required reading. To understand where we were on March 12, when school dismissed early due to the coronavirus, you need another document:

March 12 was meant to be an inflection point for us. As that letter says, March 12 was exactly three months from the end of classes, exactly halfway through Q3, and exactly halfway through Q3B. On March 13, the high school planned to send out progress report notices.

You all know what happened next. Once our situation changed, those GAP scores had to be held in abeyance until distance learning could be put into place.

The most important thing to remember is this: The GAP scores posted today, March 27, reflect only the work done between February 3 and March 11. We also had a week off in February, which complicates the calendar:

  • 2/3–2/14 + 2/14–2/28 → GAP Q3A | Posted 3/27
  • 3/2–3/11 → GAP Q3B WIP | Posted 3/27
  • 3/25–4/24 → GAP Q3C | TBD

As the letter and post from March 25 explain, that last profile score will include any distance learning we do. Students need to set daily goals, work for 30+ minutes, and share evidence of their progress for feedback. The expectations for student work have been clarified by the district and building administration, too.

Meanwhile, we have the body of evidence students produced in February and early March. The main focus for that time frame: in-class focus and use of feedback. Again, the letter meant for March 12 is your best guide:

In a world without the coronavirus, you would’ve gotten GAP scores alongside this letter. March 12 had been highlighted for several weeks prior as an inflection point, a day when you would get a lot of feedback and direction before diving back into these end-of-the-year projects. The feedback included profile scores to unpack and analyze, individual comments on your progress, and that letter, which thoroughly explains what we are doing and why.

Of course, we went home early on March 12. We haven’t been back since. It’s unclear when we will be back. We have to adjust.

Unpacking the GAP Scores

Note: This is optional. It would make a good goal, however, for any of the next few days of distance learning.

Once you have your GAP scores on Infinite Campus, you can unpack and analyze them. Focus on that first verb: unpack. Each score corresponds to a profile, and the language of that profile can be unpacked to describe student skills, traits, and knowledge.

You can only make sense of these Q3 scores in the context of our project-based learning, which in turn requires a focus on in-class learning and feedback. You can start here:

Static GAP Score Feedback

Each tier and individual score can be used to build a blueprint for improvement or continued success. That’s your job now: to take what you can from the start of Q3 and apply to the you that is now working from home.

You’ll also want the usual reference links, especially if you invite another stakeholder into this work:

Grade Abatement Profiles
Universal Skills and Traits
Step-By-Step Guide to Assessment

And I think the post clarifying what grade abatement is, how it works, and why it is so important is always worth revisiting:

Clarifying Grade Abatement

Take your score at face value. Connect it to a profile. Unpack that profile, bit by bit, to form a picture. Then use the resources I’ve just listed to build a better approach to your learning for the future.

If you do this in writing, I can help you refine your analysis. We will have to hold off on our usual face-to-face conferences until next week, when there should be more clarity on the length of our distance learning.

Ask questions below. Focus here on questions that might help others. Email individual questions, or share individual writing directly.

No comments

Distance Learning: Week 1

  By 2019-2020, Distance Learning

Today is the first day of distance learning in English 12. In addition to this post, there will be an announcement on Google Classroom and a static link on my BHS website. The most important document is the following letter:

This letter will be attached to the March 25 announcement on Google Classroom. It will also be added as a formative assignment in that section of Classwork, sent home to your parents, and copied to administration.

Please note that this letter is designed to work on two levels: first, as a shorter reminder of what you were doing in Q3; second, as a thorough explanation of what you will be doing, whether as distance learning or back in the makerspace, for the rest of the year.

If you have not already, please read the two most recent updates from the Superintendent and the rest of the BCSD administrative team:

  1. tinyurl.com/bcsd-update-0323 | Updates on high-stakes testing and K-5 parent-teacher conferences.
  2. tinyurl.com/bcsd-update-0324 | Full update on distance learning expectations and schedule.

I am hopeful that we will return to regular instruction soon. In the interim, I will use the existing structures of our course to keep you and every other stakeholder involved and invested. Let’s start with the three most important details:

Daily Announcements | Will be posted every morning to Google Classroom. It will include reminders, links, and general feedback. Start here each day and follow instructions, just as you have all year.

Weekly Updates | Will be posted every Wednesday to this website. These weekly updates will cover any adjustments and updates to your projects. They are also a place where you can ask questions in the comment section.

Office Hours | Every morning from 10:00–11:00, I will be available to help in real time through email, the course website, and Google Classroom. I will post these to the front page of the BHS and Sisyphean High websites, as well.

Note on Synchronous Learning: We will not be using Zoom or any other form of FaceTime during our distance learning. We will focus on real-time annotations, synchronous editing of documents, and Q&A sessions through the course website and Google Classroom.

Read on for more.

Distance Learning: Week 1

Per that 3/24 update from the BCSD, the first week of distance learning requires 30 minutes or more of work per day. That is just enough time for you to return to your project-based work and build some momentum.

Your requirements each day:

  1. Set a specific daily goal by 10:00 AM. Use the same form and protocol we have used all year.
  2. Collect all evidence of your work each day and copy it into the evidence folders assigned to you on February 26.

To set your learning goal each day, do what you have always done. Load the link at the top of Google Classroom:

Remember that it will open up to give you all the resources you need to set a goal, self-assess mentally and physically, and share anything else you want to share:

Those resources:

What to do at the start of class: tinyurl.com/makerspace-start
Reformatted as a post: sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3561
Prefilled form: tinyurl.com/sisyphus-calibrates

For each day of distance learning, you must set a specific goal. I will check that goal against your progress, but it’s more important than that: Simply setting a goal will help you to stay focused.

As an example of just how much data comes out of these daily calibrations, look at this spreadsheet from Q1:

You can see how helpful this is on both ends of the learning experience. That’s why the daily check-in is a requirement. Again, it should be done before office hours start at 10:00 AM.

As you work, you will generate evidence of some kind. You must collect it, whether you worked for 30 minutes or much longer, and make sure it goes into one of the folders you were asked to create on February 26.

The assignment for setting up these project folders is under the Classwork tab, in the category for Grade Abatement:

These evidence folders will allow me to check your progress, provide regular feedback, and help you put together the final products for each project. Start organizing them. This is what you will see when you open up the assignment:

Those directions were printed and distributed in class, and you can access them through that simple URL: tinyurl.com/gap-pbl-1.

Remember, too, that Ms. Egan and I spent every class period after February 26 helping students set up their folders. If you are behind, make this your first daily goal. Get it done by Friday. We are available to help directly during office hours, but we can walk you through the process and check your work at any point during the school day.

The rest of the information you need is in the instructional letter. Make reading it a priority:

I’ll continue to remind you what to do each morning, and Ms. Egan and I will be available throughout the day to help.

Use the comment section below to ask any questions you have.