Student Short Short Stories - TMDG Vocabulary - Discussion of TMDG

On this day in histlitlogic:

• Students read one another's short short stories entitled "The Most Dangerous Game." Each student's story is posted at his blog.
• Each student examined a page of vocabulary words from Richard Connell's TMDG and defined the ones he knew. A vocabulary quiz will be given Friday based on the words the student isn't yet able to define.
• Had a long, in-depth, incisive discussion of "The Most Dangerous Game." Student-made questions were used first, with teacher-made ones interspersed. Here are a few of them:

• Did Rainsford and Zaroff have a battle to the death at the end of the story?
• Why did the author not put immediately in the story that Zaroff hunted animals?
• Is Rainsford a good person?
• What happens between the last two paragraphs in the story?
• To what extent were the legends and lore about Ship-Trap Island true? Why did these legends exist?

Assignment - Due Wednesday - Venn Diagram Collaboration

• Working together - or on your own, should you prefer - fill out a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting Rainsford and Zaroff as depicted in "The Most Dangerous Game."
• Use lots of detail from the story.
•  I have shared the Google Doc of a Venn Diagram with you, but you may alter it, color code it, make a completely new one (there are jillions of them online), etc. if you like. 
• Including some pictures might add a splendid touch.

3 Maps Analysis - Mini-Debate on Time Article

Today we:
1. Followed up on the 3 Maps from Memory activity from Friday.

• Students compared and contrasted the 9 different maps of Texas they had made. (BTW, I know you're supposed to spell out numbers when writing sentences and essays and such, but these blog posts aren't formal essays and are mainly for conveying instructions, information, summaries of daily activities, giving assignments, etc. Numerals are easier to spot and deal with than worded numbers; sorry, just had to get that out of my system. Thanks.)
• Identified common elements among the maps and why they are more easily remembered
• Inserted the revised photo of the wall display
• Wrote blog posts analyzing the 9 maps

2. Continued our discussion of the Time article, "Why Texas is the Future"

• Students had been asked to write 5 discussion questions over the map
• Several of their questions were raised and discussed, including what are"per capita income" and "globalization." Students were shown how to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-F to search/find the words in a Word doc or on a webpage. By using the feature, students figured out answers to the two questions and applied them to Texas as presented in the article

3. Held a Mini-Debate over the question, "Will it be good or bad if the rest of the United States becomes more like Texas?"

• As time was running short, students spent 5 or 6 minutes planning and then debated for approximately 10 minutes. 
• Both sides made cogent arguments and defended them effectively.

Assignment - Due Tomorrow - In a blogpost:

1. Write and illustrate the 5 most important things you learned about Texas in the article. Illustrate with an appropriate picture.
2. Write a one-paragraph (okay, sometimes I'll write it in words, if it somehow feels right) answering the questions, "Will it be good or bad if the rest of the United States becomes more like Texas?" Be sure to offer convincing evidence to support your thesis (main argument). You don't have to illustrate your paragraph.