Planning for fall
While I grade an obnoxious stack of papers, I take mental breaks to plan some stuff for fall (is that strange?). I have some ideas for how I ant to change up things I did this year. I almost consider this my first year since I had all new preps. Luckily I don't consider it a new year in terms of classroom management, even though I will be evaluating what I did right and wrong this year.
There are two big areas I am looking at right now: Current Events and Essays.
Current Events I am tweaking a bit. I did a drastic change from what the previous teacher did, because I had heard from many of the kids when they weren't in my class that one person would get an article, everyone would photocopy it, and write a brief summary. Apparently, the teacher would also give extra credit if you wrote in cursive (WTF?!?!?!). I gave specific topics the kids had to follow for a quarter or semester depending on the grade. I gave a specific breakdown they had to complete for each article which included a one sentence summary, an outline of the article. depending on the grade, they had to breakdown political parties stated/implied, pro/anti America or American policies, and all had to state if it was from a Biblical or secular world view (I am at a Christian school, and it was interesting for me to see what they thought was aligned with a Biblical worldview and what was not.). Oh, and they had to actively read each article. Then they had to write an essay at the end of the time frame based on the events they had. The kids hated it, the parents loved it. :) My current potential tweaks:
8th US:
This year followed a specific state for 1st quarter, then a different state 2nd quarter, then assigned a president to get news on for 3rd quarter, and a different president 4th quarter. Had to turn in a 5 paragraph essay each quarter using the articles as basis for a thesis they created.
Potential next year: Start out with presidents, still turning in articles about the person weekly. Require some specific sources (journal, speech/writing excerpt from the person, etc). Write the 5 paragraph essay with an arguable statement about the person (best, worst, weirdest, etc). Then second semester follow a different state's news 3rd/4th quarter, ditto on resources, and essay.
9th World:
This year was randomly assigned a country, had to follow the news from that country, write a 5 paragraph on the assigned country at the end of the quarter.
Next year assign 3 countries at the beginning of the year, follow one per quarter, with specific requirements on sources, write a 5 paragraph at the end of each quarter. 4th quarter, bring in 2 more articles for each country, then write a 5 paragraph tying all three countries together.
11th US:
This year they followed a specific topic for the semester, then wrote a compare/contrast (8+ paragraph) at the end of the semester.
Next year, still get assigned a specific topic, but require more specific sources (like 2 articles from a liberal news source, and 2 articles from a conservative news source, scholarly journal, at least one primary source (like a state of the union speech on the topic), etc.
12th Government: (Fall)
This year they followed a specific department for the semester, and wrote a compare/contrast essay on the department/policies/practices/etc. Next year, because the class I will have is bigger than the number of departments, I might have them follow government agencies (CIA, FBI, ATF, etc). It might be a little more interesting for the kids. Ditto on the 11th grade sources.
12th Economics: (Spring)
This year they followed a specific economic issue for the semester, then wrote a compare/contrast essay on it.
Next year, not much different, except for the specific sources.
It looks like I am picking-up AP US next year, and since that is new, I am leaning toward giving them a document to analyze, possibly then they have to find a companion article for the document. Then every few weeks, give them a DBQ the document relates to that they have to write on in-class using their documents. Use it as continual prep for the AP exam.
In terms of essays in general, I am going to be much harder on the kids in terms of strong thesis statements, and real justification of their thesis statements, using more direct quotes, explaining those quotes, etc. I think I am going to put together something along the lines of the writing standards for English I have been helping out the English teacher with that process. But really laying it out in terms of an A history paper at this grade is this, and a C is this. Something that hasn't really happened with our history department in a while.
I like the idea of requiring them to look at a minimum number of liberal and conservative sources. We have a pretty split population in terms of liberal/conservative, and I really want the kids to figure out what they believe, and not just parrot back what mommy and daddy say.
OK, back to grading for now...