Of Soil and Learning Aug. 26

Writing Portfolio

First period signed up for devotionals this year.

I shared a devotional with First Period about reverence and rudeness. We read from 1 Nephi 18:9 and Alma 4:8.

We reviewed the basic structure of a five paragraph essay. We will be writing one on Thursday as an initial assessment of student writing and as a foundation for more advanced academic writing this year.

Core
We read the Parable of Sower in Matthew 13. I like to refer to this as the Parable of the Soils, because it is the soil conditions that determine whether or not the seeds can grow and produce fruit. Students illustrated the four types of soil and compared these soil types to different educational situations. For example, the seeds which fall by the wayside and are eaten by birds before they can even be planted are like when a student doesn't read an assignment and then comes to class and doesn't know enough to be able to learn from a discussion of the reading. It is also like when a student is distracted or sleepy during class and can't even process what is going on.

I shared my philosophy that each student and I are learner-teachers (L/Ts) in the classroom. That means we switch back and forth between the roles of being learners and teachers during class. This means some of the students' most important teachers will be their peers. We discussed what we need to do in order to be able to learn from our classmates.

We reviewed the classroom tardy, hall pass, and late work policies.

Students worked in small groups to try to divide a world map into regions. This gave them an opportunity to try to understand what regions are and to identify significant cultural and geographic features and patterns in the world. Student groups identified what questions they would need to be able to answer in order to be able to designate world regions well.

Homework:

• Conduct research that will help your group identify regions.