Don't cry because the iPads are going away! If we get a chance to use them again, we will! Today was what Wireless Generation called "packing day," and that is just what we did. We also completed our character charts for our book projects, and wrote more feedback for the pilot.

Homework:

- Book project (due Jan 13th)

- Enjoy your break, and read something every day! :-)

We had our final discussion of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass today. What a success! Students were able to really dig deep into a piece of our history, and come away with such meaning. We worked hard each day and night, and hopefully everyone knows how successful they were. Hopefully we all have a grand sense of accomplishment for what we have been able to do. NICE WORK!

Homework:

- Bring the iPad w/the case, & charger!!!

- Bring independent novel to class

- Mobicip feedback

We only worked with 14 paragraphs today, but they were still more powerful than all of our short stories we have read this school year. Keep up the hard work for one more night befo we head into winter break!

Homework:

- Solo work #9

More discussion about Frederick Douglass today... All of our hard work deciphering what he meant has led us to some amazing discussions and hence, realizations...

Homework:

- Solo work #8

We are still conquering the Frederick Douglass' autobiography. Over the weekend, we learned of his anguish, now that he is literate... Please keep up so we can have more valuable discussions! In fact, suspend work on your book project until Friday so you can keep up. (The character chart was due today, but we'll work on that in class Friday as we are packing up the iPads...)

Homework:

- Solo work #7

Quote for this weekend...

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
― Flannery O'Connor

We completed Class 5 of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass together - once again putting a number value on his suffering - physical and psychological, completing a phrazecloze activity, and finding evidence and writing about when FD was NOT suffering psychologically.

Homework:
* Solo #6 cards - YOU CAN FIND THESE AND THE COMPLETE TEXT ON EDLINE
* Answer these questions on Mobicip... http://goo.gl/IRB24
1. Do you see places in other classes where you could use the iPad to enhance your learning? (Imagine every app. works!)
2. What do you think is the future of iPads being used in school?

We completed Class 4 of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass together - looking for more surprises, and putting a number value on his suffering - physical and psychological.

Homework:
* Solo #5 cards - YOU CAN FIND THESE AND THE COMPLETE TEXT ON EDLINE

Our plans today are to complete Class 3 together - looking for surprises in Frederick Douglass' writing. We also had some time to start the homework in class - quite a lot, but doable. Again, the next two weeks will be tough stuff- content as well as vocabulary. It would be a good idea for parents to read the Narrative of Frederick Douglass alongside their child, or at least be aware of what we are reading. I do believe that students will rise to this challenge.

Homework:
* Solo #4 cards - YOU CAN FIND THESE AND THE COMPLETE TEXT ON EDLINE

Yes, yes, yesterday we had to use paper and pencil! Oh, my! Way to throw a wrench into the mix, eh? Well, we'll see what we run into today. The plans are to complete Class 2 together - filling in two more phrazecloze paragraphs, analyzing who had portions that were close to what Frederick Douglass said, and then learning how to write clear and useful introductions to quotes from the book. We also did one rewrite of the last paragraph in chapter 1. Again, the next two weeks will be tough stuff- content as well as vocabulary. It would be a good idea for parents to read the Narrative of Frederick Douglass alongside their child, or at least be aware of what we are reading. I do believe that students will rise to this challenge.

Homework:
* Solo #3 cards - YOU CAN FIND THESE AND THE COMPLETE TEXT ON EDLINE
* If you haven't already, watch the video of "Frederick Douglass."

* Book project components

Heeeeere we go! Right into the Narrative of Frederick Douglass! Since we are piloting a program, we had to do the Solo #1 work in class, as students were not able to get to the cards on Friday and subsequently do them for homework. Thus the reason for starting with Solo #1 work in class today. When all students had completed this work, we then finished the first lesson. It included many activities we'd already done for the last two short units, so students were familiar with the patterns, and it went smoothly. The next two weeks will be tough stuff - content as well as vocabulary. It would be a good idea for parents to read the Narrative of Frederick Douglass alongside their child, or at least be aware of what we are reading. I do believe that students will rise to this challenge.

Homework:
* Solo #2 cards - YOU CAN FIND THESE AND THE COMPLETE TEXT ON EDLINE
* Book project components

It was our last day using the Gettysburg Address for our lessons. Today we listened to different versions being spoken aloud, and the actually recorded our own. Make sure these are shared on the iPads with families at home! Afterwards, we had some time to provide feedback to WEX, read silently or work on our book projects. This has been a challenging week, but hopefully students realized the value of struggling with a new, complex text and also the reward in discovering meaning by rereading and responding in writing. Rereading text is not something students do because the don't understand it; it's something students do because they know there is more to discover...

Homework:

* Read 60 min / Q2 project
* Provide feedback -- http://goo.gl/IRB24

We tackled the Gettysburg Address once again. This time, however, we compared and dissected two different versions of it - the Bliss version (the final speech), and the Nicolay version (one of Lincoln's drafts). Another challenging day that the students were ready for!

Homework:

* Gettysburg Solo #4 Work

* Read 20 min / Q2 project