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Privacy
A WebQuest for 12th Grade English
Designed by
Tyler Estabrook
We
live in an increasingly public world. The line between what is public and
what is private continually gets blurred. In response to this, in the
following WebQuest, you will work to develop your own definition of privacy
and apply that newfound to the first two chapters of 1984.
So, what is privacy?
TSWBAT develop their own
definition of privacy in a short paragraph.
TSWBAT apply their definition of
privacy to the first two chapters of 1984
in another short paragraph.
Your
task is to develop your own personal definition of privacy. In order to do
that, use the Web to compile as much information as you can about privacy.
You will be dissecting real world examples of privacy policies in order to
develop and support your definition. From here, you will apply your
definition to what you have read so far in 1984.
1.
Before
you begin, complete a two minute quick write in which you describe in detail
how you personally define privacy. I will lead you in this part of the
process.
2.
Now that
you have formed a rough, uninformed definition, take a look at a few
dictionary definitions of privacy. Take notes on what you learn.
OED Definitions of “Privacy”: http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/151596?redirectedFrom=privacy#eid
Definition:
3.
Now, dive into the following real world
examples of privacy policies that I have compiled for you. As you read, take
careful notes. These notes will be source material that you will use to write
up your definition at the end of class.
Government Description of Patriot
Act:
TSA Pat-Downs:
Facebook Privacy Statement:
Twitter Privacy Statement:
YouTube Privacy Statement:
4.
With
your new list of information compiled from the websites, write up a thorough
definition of what you define as privacy. This should be a broad, in-depth
definition that addresses things such as privacy at home, when traveling, and
on the internet. Cite specific examples from the sites you explored.
5.
Let’s
take it one step further. Apply your definition to Winston’s world. While Big
Brother looks on, determine what parts of your privacy definition are being
violated in 1984. Cite specific
examples from the text.
6.
Both
your definition and your application to 1984
will be included in one document.
Date Created: Oct
29, 2013 08:26 am (CDT)
Well
Done! Keep your definition of privacy in mind as we explore 1984 in more detail over the next few
weeks. This will be central to your understanding of this novel. Also, think
about your definition as you go about your day. See if Big Brother is
watching you!
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Privacy WebQuest
Saturday, April 13, 2013
It Takes a Village... Or, At Least, a Teacher's Lounge
This topic might not be earth-shattering or life changing, but I'd like to bring the topic of collaboration to the forefront for a moment. By reading through all of these blogs and listening to the many brilliant things by classmates say in and out of class, I've realized just how much you can learn with and from your colleagues. The collective English department, the teacher's for a certain grade, or even just the teachers that all have lunch at the same time can be a huge help to one another. I simply hope to be able to lean on my colleagues for help, ideas, and to learn from as well as, hopefully, to be able to provide the same for them. In the meantime, I'm aiming to recreate that type of atmosphere here at school. This group mentality, I fervently believe, will help each of us become better teachers and, in turn, help each of our students.
Drawing is Scary
Broz's article on graphic representations of literature brought out my skeptical side. I began reading through all of Broz's high praise of graphic representations and how he still cherishes his crayon drawing of Gawain the Green Knight. That seemed great for him, but I couldn't help but think, "Hey, what about the kids who cringe at the idea of drawing for an assignment?". Those would be the students like me. I know that at the heart of all the explorations into multimodality the idea is to help kids who do not learn via oral and written word as well as through other means. Though this is not the only intent of multimodality, it still seems to push the subject of English a bit farther out of the hands of those geared towards traditional means of learning the subject. I never want to isolate any student and I fear that things like graphic representations, which would instantly turn me off of an assignment, might do that for some students.
Now, this is not to say that I dislike the idea of graphic representations or multimodality. Graphic representations, when given such a strong structure, such as Broz describes, that aims students towards higher level thinking and towards better critical thinking and writing skills, are great tools. Also, multimodality has opened my eyes to a whole new and exciting world of teaching as well as confirmed many of my own aspirations. My lurking fear though still exists. I feel that the solution, though not the easy or quick one, is to offer multiple options for students or to leave room for personalization and interpretation with assignments of this nature. Multimodal assignments such as graphic representations can be great for some students, I just never want it to be the kryptonite for other students. The bottom line is well-planned teaching is very important in order to design assignments that persuade students to think and work hard rather than dissuade them.
Now, this is not to say that I dislike the idea of graphic representations or multimodality. Graphic representations, when given such a strong structure, such as Broz describes, that aims students towards higher level thinking and towards better critical thinking and writing skills, are great tools. Also, multimodality has opened my eyes to a whole new and exciting world of teaching as well as confirmed many of my own aspirations. My lurking fear though still exists. I feel that the solution, though not the easy or quick one, is to offer multiple options for students or to leave room for personalization and interpretation with assignments of this nature. Multimodal assignments such as graphic representations can be great for some students, I just never want it to be the kryptonite for other students. The bottom line is well-planned teaching is very important in order to design assignments that persuade students to think and work hard rather than dissuade them.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Hand Wavers Anonymous
Prior to shooting our 20 shot video, I was skeptical. I could come up with a good 2 million places I'd rather be than on the recording end of a camera. My group members Tim and Sami were kind enough to step up and be our actors (a role that they both excelled at despite what they'd tell you) leaving me to be on the other side of the camera. Though I claim to have no tangible skills with a camera, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The project opened by eyes to another medium I was waving my hands at. It made me really visually dissect the mental pictures the short story made in my head. In order to do this, I had to read and fully comprehend the story. This is always step one of any reading project. Moving on from that, a project should make you think about and better understand the message and tone of a piece. This project did this particularly well. We weren't going to simply capture the plot of the piece when we had be armed with the knowledge of different types of shots, angles, and camera motions. This information is what made the project. I have participated in other video projects where all we did, more or less, was set the camera up on a tripod, hit record, acted the scene out, hit end, and turned the thing in. This barely even grazes the surface potential of a short story. If I can give my students these basic ideas on cinematography, a video project can actually teach interpretation skills rather than simply allowing students to act.
Besides this benefit, I've noticed through talking to others who have completed similar projects that these projects are memorable. You don't put hours into a five minute video and just forget about. I think if I can assign a project that will instill knowledge in my students that they won't forget, I may just be convinced to stop waving my hands at projects that move away from simply paper, pencil, and a marker or two.
The project opened by eyes to another medium I was waving my hands at. It made me really visually dissect the mental pictures the short story made in my head. In order to do this, I had to read and fully comprehend the story. This is always step one of any reading project. Moving on from that, a project should make you think about and better understand the message and tone of a piece. This project did this particularly well. We weren't going to simply capture the plot of the piece when we had be armed with the knowledge of different types of shots, angles, and camera motions. This information is what made the project. I have participated in other video projects where all we did, more or less, was set the camera up on a tripod, hit record, acted the scene out, hit end, and turned the thing in. This barely even grazes the surface potential of a short story. If I can give my students these basic ideas on cinematography, a video project can actually teach interpretation skills rather than simply allowing students to act.
Besides this benefit, I've noticed through talking to others who have completed similar projects that these projects are memorable. You don't put hours into a five minute video and just forget about. I think if I can assign a project that will instill knowledge in my students that they won't forget, I may just be convinced to stop waving my hands at projects that move away from simply paper, pencil, and a marker or two.
Big Kid Picture Books
According to every movie about a teenager I've ever seen, I should have had a sizeable stack of comic books hidden under my bed at some point during my life. Apparently, I don't live in a movie, though. My first and only exposure to the medium of graphic novels and comic books came during my World Literature course last year. I must admit that when I first ordered the graphic novels, I scoffed at the fact that I would be reading books with pictures and getting college credits for it. When I got off my literary high horse and finally dove into them, though, I found out these were much more than the big kid picture books that I thought they were.
These graphic novels were challenging. It wasn't as if someone had written a short story, sprinkled some cartoony pictures on top, and spread it out to a full length novel. They had long, detailed, symbolically-rich, plots and messages. I thought that they'd be watered down novels that used pictures to help those with weak imaginations and grasps on the language, but, wow, was I wrong. I actually had a lot more trouble working out the symbolism and messages of a graphic novel than I've had with print-based novels.
With this experience in mind, when I read the section of Jacquelyn McTaggart's "Graphic Novels: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" entitled "I Understand the Value of Using Graphic Novels With Reluctant and Struggling Readers. Do They Offer Any Benefit for Proficient Readers Who Already Like to Read?," I agreed completely with the author. She says that "[a]dvanced and proficient readers profit [from] ... [t]his multi-sensory activity [which] stirs the imaginations of more advanced readers and challenges them to use their higher-level thinking, reading, and writing skills (McTaggart 34). The visuals aren't things that detract from the novel and simply the reading for advanced and proficient readers. They add more to them. The visuals can be engaging and imagination stirring, but they can also be an added level for interpretation. That is what I think we so often miss when we think about graphic novels. They make the reader engage on so many different levels in order to truly take them all in. This is were the value for them comes in for the classroom.
So, let's step down from our literary high horses and give these big kid picture books a chance.
These graphic novels were challenging. It wasn't as if someone had written a short story, sprinkled some cartoony pictures on top, and spread it out to a full length novel. They had long, detailed, symbolically-rich, plots and messages. I thought that they'd be watered down novels that used pictures to help those with weak imaginations and grasps on the language, but, wow, was I wrong. I actually had a lot more trouble working out the symbolism and messages of a graphic novel than I've had with print-based novels.
With this experience in mind, when I read the section of Jacquelyn McTaggart's "Graphic Novels: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" entitled "I Understand the Value of Using Graphic Novels With Reluctant and Struggling Readers. Do They Offer Any Benefit for Proficient Readers Who Already Like to Read?," I agreed completely with the author. She says that "[a]dvanced and proficient readers profit [from] ... [t]his multi-sensory activity [which] stirs the imaginations of more advanced readers and challenges them to use their higher-level thinking, reading, and writing skills (McTaggart 34). The visuals aren't things that detract from the novel and simply the reading for advanced and proficient readers. They add more to them. The visuals can be engaging and imagination stirring, but they can also be an added level for interpretation. That is what I think we so often miss when we think about graphic novels. They make the reader engage on so many different levels in order to truly take them all in. This is were the value for them comes in for the classroom.
So, let's step down from our literary high horses and give these big kid picture books a chance.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Daily Writings
Last semester, I observed an eighth grade English teacher who implemented what he called Daily Writings into his daily curriculum. I really liked the idea of them and wanted to share the idea as well as expand upon them a bit. The idea of a daily writing was to have students write for a solid five minutes every single day before the lesson began and then students were encouraged to share their pieces if they chose to. Students were allowed to opt out of sharing if they felt their piece was too personal or otherwise chose not to want to share it. The inspiration for the writings were usually a short prompt, written or oral, or sometimes merely a single word. Students could respond to the prompt as best as they could, or, if they prompt did not move them or they had a more pressing topic in mind that they wished to write on, they could write on another topic.
The idea of Daily Writings were to get students more comfortable with writing and doing so with less restraint. This proved to work well. Student pieces grew lengthier and more detailed as the year progressed. Also, it encouraged students to make writing a public, interactive art. As the year progressed, more and more students chose to read their writings aloud to the class.
I really liked this idea, as I said before. I loved the results of it. It made writing a regular, important part of every single class and made students comfortable and confident in sharing what they had to say via writing. I, also, see more potential with the prompts for these writings. Since these writings are so freely open, I see them being a good opener for teaching different styles of writing. For example, before a lesson on persuasive writing the prompt for a Daily Writing could be something on the lines of "Write a sales pitch for an imaginary product." The prompt could also be a picture, short video clip, or music. Daily Writings have so much potential.
The idea of Daily Writings were to get students more comfortable with writing and doing so with less restraint. This proved to work well. Student pieces grew lengthier and more detailed as the year progressed. Also, it encouraged students to make writing a public, interactive art. As the year progressed, more and more students chose to read their writings aloud to the class.
I really liked this idea, as I said before. I loved the results of it. It made writing a regular, important part of every single class and made students comfortable and confident in sharing what they had to say via writing. I, also, see more potential with the prompts for these writings. Since these writings are so freely open, I see them being a good opener for teaching different styles of writing. For example, before a lesson on persuasive writing the prompt for a Daily Writing could be something on the lines of "Write a sales pitch for an imaginary product." The prompt could also be a picture, short video clip, or music. Daily Writings have so much potential.
Active Reading
I recently read Geof''s post on close reading skills and video production, and this spurred me to expand on my own ideas surrounding close and active reading.
I think students have such difficulty with reading closely with a text because they believe that reading involves solely reading the words on the page. They pick up the reading, read it front to back, put it down, and expect to be able to answer any question thrown at them. This is such a flawed view of reading. Reading needs to be an active experience not a passive one. I know that a lot of the methods for active reading involve marking up a text and this makes school districts cringe over the "defacing" of their pricey textbooks, but there are ways around this. A method I plan on using in my classroom is employing the use of many, many post-it notes. At first, I want to make it an assignment to make so many notes on the post-its or write down so many important lines that you would highlight if it was a text you owned, etc. as my students read a text. My hope is that this will eventually become a happen and less strict measures will be needed to be taken to ensure that students interact with the text as they read it. I see this being really helpful to high school students. It teaches a skill that will definitely help them to better digest a text, more intelligently discuss it, and perform better on test, including the standardized texts Geof mentions that require close reading skills.
As always, I'd appreciate any other ideas for active reading activites or criticism on the one I proposed.
I think students have such difficulty with reading closely with a text because they believe that reading involves solely reading the words on the page. They pick up the reading, read it front to back, put it down, and expect to be able to answer any question thrown at them. This is such a flawed view of reading. Reading needs to be an active experience not a passive one. I know that a lot of the methods for active reading involve marking up a text and this makes school districts cringe over the "defacing" of their pricey textbooks, but there are ways around this. A method I plan on using in my classroom is employing the use of many, many post-it notes. At first, I want to make it an assignment to make so many notes on the post-its or write down so many important lines that you would highlight if it was a text you owned, etc. as my students read a text. My hope is that this will eventually become a happen and less strict measures will be needed to be taken to ensure that students interact with the text as they read it. I see this being really helpful to high school students. It teaches a skill that will definitely help them to better digest a text, more intelligently discuss it, and perform better on test, including the standardized texts Geof mentions that require close reading skills.
As always, I'd appreciate any other ideas for active reading activites or criticism on the one I proposed.
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