Lesson Review 1 ASE Morning June 2004

Thursday, June 24, 2004 8 Learners present. 3.25 hours

TABE Testing

(Some people collected Philosophy readings and quizzes for the Fourth of July break)

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Wednesday, June 23, 2004 10 Learners present. 3.25 hours

TABE Testing

We also distributed YES Financial Literacy portfolios and did the TLP Student Questionnaire

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Tuesday, June 22, 2004 8 Learners present. 3.25 hours

TABE Testing

We welcomed Jasmine to the class and discussed issues relating to yesterday's philosophy class and

some developments in the Middle East before starting the TABE testing.

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Monday, June 21, 2004 7 Learners present. 3.25 hours

--Dynamics among power, authority, and participation (Power, Authority, & Participation) Express thoughts in

writing (Writing) Development of comprehension strategies (Reading) Distinguish between fact & opinion (Critical

Thinking)

Philosophy and the New Millennium

We looked at some materials from Amber's college class: a brief article about "paradigms" and "Thinking

about Thinking, and a Socratic Dialogue about persuasive power and truth. (Phaedrus)

Amber introduced some concepts about thinking and asking philosophical questions. People took turns

reading, and took parts in the Dialogues. We discussed democracy, rhetoric, and truth and lies from the

government.

People were asked to write a sentence or paragraph on their definition of philosophy.

Marguerite brought in a relevant quote from Dag Hammarskjold about "concealing the truth" in order that

"truth be victorious"

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Thursday, June 17, 2004 6 Learners present. 3.25 hours

-- create connections between building blocks and complexity in our natural in designed world (Similarity and

Diversity)

The Kingdoms of Life Classification System and "Name that Cell"

We compared some of the major characteristics that differentiate Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plants, and

Animals.

We also looked at pictures/diagrams of different types of cells (plant cells, bacteria, animal cells,

prokaryotic, and eukariotic). We also looked at pictures of viruses and viruses attacking cells.

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Wednesday, June 16, 2004 7 Learners present. 3.25 hours

-- Explore, identify and extend patterns in mathematical and real-world situations (Patterns, Relationships &

Functions)

Equivalent Fractions and Multiples

Starting with the number 1/4 we identified .25 and 25% as equivalents. Then we started generating other

equivalent fractions 25/100 . . . ..

We noticed that the denominators (of fractions equal to 1/4) all had to be multiples of 4.

We used this to find equivalents to 1/5, 1/6, 1/7 and 1/8.

We also had a farewell party for Lori and Eva

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Tuesday, June 15, 2004 6 Learners present. 3.25 hours

--Dynamics among power, authority, and participation (Power, Authority, & Participation) Develop reading

Vocabulary (Reading) Recognize formal & informal systems (Critical Thinking)

Voter Education Project.

Luz, Helen, and Regina (with help from Margaret and Lynn) lead activities to increase awareness of

voting rights and responsibilities. There was also lots of information on the mechanics and details of

voting. Two people registered to vote today.

The activities included an interactive review of the history of voting rights and participation (expansion and

contraction of the franchise), a "Penny Poll' comparison of the classes budget priorities compared to the

actual Federal Budget, and lots of discussion.

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Monday, June 14, 2004 4 Learners present. 3.25 hours

-- Increased knowledge of grammar rules (Writing) Increased decoding ability (Reading)

Parts of Speech and Word Parts

Irene brought in a game based on parts of speech. People pulled words out of a hat, until they could

form a sentence with those words. People took turns taking the hat around so they could read other

people's sentences. Different parts of speech were on different colored cards. She started the activity

with a poem from the 1830s about nine parts of speech.

Then Joe had an activity to show how the same root word could be changed to make it a different part of

speech. (Sometimes you need to add a prefix, most times you add or change the suffix. Sometimes you

have to change the inflection of the root itself.)

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Thursday, June 10, 2004 6 Learners present. 3.25 hours

-- human body systems (physical, mental, social, and spiritual), their interdependence, and their roles in health

protection (Systems and Interdependence) Development of comprehension strategies (Reading) communicate how

different systems relate to and interact with each other (Systems)

Bacteria, Viruses and systems for classifying living things.

Spent a lot of time defining a virus (some nucleic acid surrounded by a protein or fatty case. They use

other cells to reproduce) We looked at how a virus can attack a cell. We looked at arguments for

defining viruses as living or non living. (If you define life by the ability to reproduce, then viruses are alive,

but then so would DNA). We used the building block system to understand how viruses connect to living

things (>> atoms >small molecules> large molecules> organelles >cells> tissues> organs> systems>

organisms>>)

Since viruses attack certain kinds of cells they may only attack a certain system of an organism (example

the HIV virus attacks the immune systems of monkeys and humans) We also talked about hepatitis and

rabies.

Our reading looked at the 5 Kingdom system and also the 7 levels of classifying living things (Kingdom,

Phylum, Classes, Order, Family, Genus, Species). It also helped us discuss how classification systems

change.

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Wednesday, June 09, 2004 6 Learners present. 3.25 hours

--How individuals and groups interact with and impact systems (Systems) Compute with whole numbers,

fractions, decimals & integers using appropriate algorithms and a variety of techniques (Number Relationships &

Computation)

Workplace Safety

Aaron D. Wilson of Western MassCOSH went over the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970.

Discussions covered the number of people who die from "on the job" injuries every year in Mass (about

70), how workers have the right to be free of "recognized' hazards in the workplace, how defining a

"hazard" under the law can be complicated and political, and how his organization can help people protect

their rights to a safe workplace.

Simple Majorities (and Fractions, Percents, and Decimals).

Most of us did a worksheet to review calculating a majority (50%+1) and also to help see that

1/2=.5=50% and 2/3 is very close to .666666 and 66.66667% AND . . . 3/4 = .75 =75%

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Tuesday, June 08, 2004 8 Learners present. 3.25 hours

--How individuals and groups interact with and impact systems (Systems) Learn strategies for organization

(Writing) Refinement of Comprehension Strategies (Reading)

Supreme Court Cases (and issues in American politics)

Went over the structure (breakdown) for writing up a Supreme Court Case. Each case should be . .

1. Named, 2. Dated (by year), 3. Placed in a Historical Era, 4. Briefly Summarized (the facts of the

case), 5.have it's significance (importance) described. (People can also add extra information and their

personal opinions in other optional sections).

At the request of Chad and Matt we also went over the historical eras often used by US history books.

(Pre-Columbus, Early Exploration & Conquest, English Colonial Era, Revolutionary and Federal Era,

Sectional Conflict over Slavery, Capitalist Consolidation and Reactions, World Wars and Depression,

and the Post War Era.)

We started the class with some practice finding simple majorities (50%+1) because Marguerite is reading

a book about Math that uses Lani Guenier's criticism of simple majority rule as a "Math and Fairness"

topic.

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Monday, June 07, 2004 7 Learners present. 3.25 hours

--Learners' "PLACE" in relationship to the rest of the world (Environments & Interdependence)

SCANS Skills (for resume?)

We welcomed Abdi to class and talked a bit about the location and history of Somalia (near Ethiopia on

the Horn of Africa). We also talked about World War II and D-Day because of yesterday's anniversary.

People looked at a lengthy list of SCANS (workforce and job readiness) skills and picked the three that

they thought most important for success. Talked about resumes and how they could be used to convince

an employer that an applicant has these skills. We also checked in on the status of people's resumes.

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Thursday, June 03, 2004 5 Learners present. 3.25 hours

Review of Bacteria (compared to Viruses).

BACTERIA are single celled organisms in the kingdom Monera. VIRUSES may not even be alive.

(Some scientists say they are really just very large, complex molecules)

Viruses are much smaller than bacteria

Antibiotics can kill bacteria. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses.

We developed a much more detailed comparison of similarities and differences through discussion and

reading

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Wednesday, June 02, 2004 6 Learners present. 3.25 hours

-- Compute with whole numbers, fractions, decimals & integers using appropriate algorithms and a variety of

techniques (Number Relationships & Computation)

Individual Math

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Tuesday, June 01, 2004 7 Learners present. 1 hours

Job Interview Skills

Eva and Lori did some interactive demonstrations of good (and poor) job interview skills and strategies.

The class participated by making up questions, critiquing the performance, and discussing issues such as .

. . Legal v. illegal questions, appearance, dress, attitude, responsibility, motivation, what kinds of

information to disclose (and how to be discrete about certain issues).

Class was cut short because of a furnace malfunction.

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