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Middle School Teachers Chatboard

Year long expression project

by Chris

Jul 31, 2012

I want to design an ever evolving, year long, expressive project for a class of 26. I want the foundation fornth project to be about them, their ideas, gols, emotions, fears, characteristics, etc through art, words, and so forth! I have the ability to use an entire classroom solely for this project and want the walls to be dedicated to this "I am that" project! I could use some help with more ideas with this...or kind of centralizing everything. It's for an 8th grade class.

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Sara On 7/31/12, Chris wrote:

We do something similar - we have students write up their autobiographies in expository fashion and then also have them write their memoirs to their current point in life.

We read short biographies of prominent people, living and dead, to take a look at how people live their lives and spend their lives. M...See MoreOn 7/31/12, Chris wrote:

We do something similar - we have students write up their autobiographies in expository fashion and then also have them write their memoirs to their current point in life.

We read short biographies of prominent people, living and dead, to take a look at how people live their lives and spend their lives. Martin Luther King, Brad Pitt (believe it or not - he's quite a philanthropist when he could do nothing but make movies and spend the money he makes from movies)Thomas Edison, Jonas Salk - what drives such people? (Edison was likely bipolar) We discuss the concept of choices and living the 'intentional life'. How do we take life on? Passively? Do we live to serve? Do we work to live or live to work?

Then each student tries to find a personal hero (other than family members) and they present that person to the class as a hero and try to define the qualities of heroism they saw in the person.

Last but not least, each student does s "Real Life Project" which is their projection of how their adult life will really be. Life is not school - what will they do for a living?

Then very last, we ask them to articulate some cause to which they could devote some interest and maybe some time. Which of the dozens of volunteer opportunities would they consider? What thorny issue in the world or in our country would they see themselves as being able to contribute their interest? ( we don't ask them to donate to their causes)

Kids like the class. I'm sure they'll like yours too.

We encourage an 'independent learning project' for 3 weeks in which they can engage pretty much any project they want - one of my students taught himself to play the banjo. > I want to design an ever evolving, year long, expressive > project for a class of 26. I want the foundation fornth > project to be about them, their ideas, gols, emotions, > fears, characteristics, etc through art, words, and so > forth! I have the ability to use an entire classroom solely > for this project and want the walls to be dedicated to this > "I am that" project! I could use some help with more ideas > with this...or kind of centralizing everything. It's for an > 8th grade class.

Aug 2, 2012

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