Lesson Review                       1 ASE Morning                       January 2007

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Monday, January 08, 2007                               5 Learners Present                3.5 hours

                                  R2.2g Recognize basic parts of speech  (Reading Skills & Vocabulary)

                W2.4d Use expanded vocabulary with increasing frequency and precision  (Writing: Structure and Mechanics)

               CT2.2e Use diverse sources of information & reference appropriately (Critical Thinking: Cognition & Strategies)

Individual Learning Time

We got off to a slow start (in terms of attendance) after the break, but all but one of the students

 who did return worked hard on their Math or Vocabulary.

  Student Comments

Female                   18.00 -- 24.99

[What helped you learn today?] having some time to figure out what I was gonna write about.

Female                   60.00 +

[I caught or fixed one of my own mistakes or misunderstandings:] I fixed a couple of words with ed endings.


Tuesday, January 09, 2007                              7 Learners Present                3.5 hours

How different perspectives on human behavior, interactions, and history affect people's understanding of the world. (Perspective & Interpretation)

                                          R3.1b Re-read to clarify meaning (Reading Strategies)

                            W3.3a Record thoughts, experiences, and reminders in a journal (Writing: Strategies)

               CT2.2d Monitor understanding and recognize failures to comprehend (Critical Thinking: Cognition & Strategies)

Reading Journals

Introduced Reading Journals as a new monthly expectation/requirement…  People were asked to

 re-read the Chapter from Freedom and Crisis on Eleanor Roosevelt (most people had read it

through already at least once).

It was ok if people just read, but people were expected to keep reading until they had made at

least a short journal entry.

Some suggestions/prompts:

"Eleanor Roosevelt could be called 'an outsider in her own family'.  Her life is also a shining

beacon for American liberalism.  Could there be some connection between these two

characterizations of her life?". . .

"Was Eleanor Roosevelt's life and career more a product of her circumstances or her character?"

 

"What might Eleanor Roosevelt say about America if she were alive today?"

At the end of the class we had a discussion about what made Eleanor Roosevelt a "liberal" and

how she was a different type of "liberal" than FDR.

 

We also examined two definitions of liberalism, one more positive, the other more negative

(from a more hostile conservative point of view)

1. Liberalism is the willingness to use the forces of government and populism to preserve

capitalism and democracy by addressing social issues of fairness and equality.

2. Liberalism is the willingness to use laws and government to impose certain social values at the

 expense of free enterprise and private property.

  Student Comments

Female                   25.00 -- 44.99

Went to Pioneer Valley high School with Amber.

Female                   18.00 -- 24.99

Used my journal entry for my essay [draft].

[Word Bank words:] liberal, conservative

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

I wasn't here today[.]  I went to [P]ioneer [V]alley with Amber.

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

I worked on finishing reading Eleanor Roosevelt.

Male                     18.00 -- 24.99

Read the history of Eleanor and her work in the public eye

[Word Bank words:] tenement, populist, literal, humanitarian, exasperate

Female                   60.00 +

We all [read] about Eleanor Roosevelt again, the second reading raise[d] a few more questions.


Wednesday, January 10, 2007                        7 Learners Present                3.5 hours

                                  N-3  Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates (Number Sense)

Math:

One person worked on long division, another worked on measurement conversions.  Others

worked on their own Math programs while also putting some time into their writing projects

  Student Comments

Female                   60.00 +

Math Work Today:] I worked on long division and Joe wants 10 long division problems.  I got four long

 division problems done, but I want some more time doing these problems.

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

(Current Writing Project:) My Grandma

[What helped you learn today?] helping other people and being able to help myself stay focu[ss]ed.

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

[Writing Project Work Today:] I wrote it and typed it[.] I fixed it a little[.] I'm almost done[.]

Female                   25.00 -- 44.99

Math Work Today:] Doing pretest on meaning of fractions[.] Got help from Chasity.

Female                   18.00 -- 24.99

[Writing Project Work Today:] Eleanor Roosevelt paper

Math Work Today:] rounding & multiplying decimals

[What helped you learn today?] asking for help     getting help

Thursday, January 11, 2007                            7 Learners Present                3.5 hours

       SELF MANAGEMENT - Accurately assess self, set personal goals, monitor progress & exhibit self control (Personal Qualities)

MAPT Testing and Individual Learning Time

We also listened to an NPR report giving an historical perspective on Bush's Escalation Speech.

 This compared the current situation to the situation after 9/11, after the fall of Baghdad . . .

AND to the situations that FDR faced with the banking crisis of 1933 and the 1941 attack on

Pearl Harbor as well as Truman's situation with Korea and Nixon and Ford's situations in Vietnam.

 

One person finished her writing project and another completed TWO math units (which she had

  Student Comments

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

Need to work on multiplication tables after break.

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

 I [kept] myself [ focused ].


Tuesday, January 16, 2007                              7 Learners Present                3.5 hours

How different perspectives on human behavior, interactions, and history affect people's understanding of the world. (Perspective& Interpretation)

                        R3.4b Seek key phrases defining unfamiliar words elsewhere in the text  (Reading Strategies)

The Banking Crisis of 1933

This was probably the most dangerous even t of the Great Depression and could legitimately be

compared to Pearl Harbor and 9/11.  Jonathan Alter in his book *The Defining Moment*

actually compares it to the Civil War in terms of the level of crisis.

Today we read the Prelude to this book plus several sections of the same book related to the

Banking Crisis.  We also did (and reviewed) a cloze activity that restated some of the same

information while also going into more detail about banks and the money supply while reviewing

 the different viewpoints of those who call themselves "Liberal" or "Conservative" since the start

 of the New Deal.

 

(This was some fairly intense reading, but there were only a few complaints voiced in terms of

the class spending too much time on the Great Depression.  Everybody was able to get the

reading done in about 2.5 hours with some "finishing" much earlier.)

 

[One of the challenges of modernity is the need to confront and try to understand very powerful,

 but impersonal, forces associated with complex, artificial (man made) systems.  Among these

are the money, banking and market systems of modern capitalism]

  Student Comments

Male                     16.00 -- 17.99

No more Great Depression

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

[What helped you learn today?] Reading

Need to learn more about the Banking crisis

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

[What helped you learn today?] nothing

[What didn't help?] I wasn't really focused today.

Male                     18.00 -- 24.99

I am hungry for knowledge and I worked to learn more and I will not try to be a pain in the a#@.

Female                   25.00 -- 44.99

I learned a lot of banks closed. People lost their money.

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

I read Sunday March 5. 1933. He was really specific. He had a lot of details. I [e]njoyed the book a lot.

Female                   60.00 +

I got the reading work done within the time required.


Wednesday, January 17, 2007                        4 Learners Present                3.5 hours

                                Operation and function of systems (political, economic, cultural) (Systems)

                                R3.5b Vary strategies for different texts and purposes (Reading Strategies)

                S-3  Describe data using numerical descriptions, statistics, and trend terminology (Statistics and Probability)

Banking and Reserve Ratios

Reviewed what a ratio is, how it can be represented AS IF it were a fraction, decimal, or percent

 - AND how it is different from an ordinary fraction.

 

For example if there is one male and two females the ratio can be expressed as 1:2 or 1/2  BUT

that does not mean that males are one half the group (they are only one third of the group).  It

just means that the number of makes is 1/2 the number of females.

 

Then we looked at the Required Reserve Ratios in the Federal Banking System and how that

affects the money supply over time.

  Student Comments

Male                     16.00 -- 17.99

[What helped you learn today?] I liked learning about banking systems

Thursday, January 18, 2007                            7 Learners Present                3.5 hours

                        R3.4b Seek key phrases defining unfamiliar words elsewhere in the text  (Reading Strategies)

Reading and Vocabulary Building

We had a very long and intense crossword puzzle to work on to deal with the vocabulary

Jonathan Alter used in his description of the Banking Crisis of 1933.

Two people did get "overwhelmed" but everyone else was able to find a way to cope - either by

cooperating as a group or working on their own.

  Student Comments

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

[Other Learning (or Work) Efforts:] The Banking Crisis of 1933

it was hard but my mom helped me!

Female                   25.00 -- 44.99

[What helped you learn today?] all of us getting together to work on [the] puzzle

Female                   60.00 +

I worked on my own[.]  I did ok.

Male                     18.00 -- 24.99

[Word Bank words:] symbolically, poised, rebuke, fascistic, beleaguered


Monday, January 22, 2007                               8 Learners Present                3.5 hours

       SELF MANAGEMENT - Accurately assess self, set personal goals, monitor progress & exhibit self control (Personal Qualities)

                                   W3.4b Practice all steps of the writing process:  (Writing: Strategies)

Writing:

Two new students started today.  They got a little bit acclimated and neither seemed to mind

working independently.   Most people had writing projects that they worked on independently

with one person finishing.

  Student Comments

Female                   25.00 -- 44.99

[What helped you learn today?] my daughters and the internet.  Also Joe helping with structuring

Male                     18.00 -- 24.99

The Banking Crisis of 1933, Prelude to Roosevelt's First Hundred Days

[Word Bank words:] obsequious - ostentatious - banal

[What helped you learn today?] being able to work independently

[What didn't help?] noise

Tuesday, January 23, 2007                              8 Learners Present                3.5 hours

                                  How individuals and groups interact with and impact systems (Systems)

Eleanor And Franklin

Some discussion about how modern presidents are usually expected to set the legislative agenda

for Congress - and how this has been the case since the FDR presidency.  We also went over

some important New Deal personages and members of the Roosevelt entourage before watching

 the first segment of the HBO special "Eleanor and Franklin"

  Student Comments

Female                   60.00 +

I like Louis Howe[. H]e appeared to be the most honest person in the White House working with FDR.

 I felt so sorry for Eleanor when she lost her baby Franklin.

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

Watched a movie and worked on my vocab.

[What helped you learn today?] My mom helped me and I helped her!

Female                   25.00 -- 44.99

[What helped you learn today?] Learned more about FDR, Eleanor watching movie

Male                     16.00 -- 17.99

[What didn't help?] boring movie

Wednesday, January 24, 2007                        6 Learners Present                3.5 hours

Individual Math


Thursday, January 25, 2007                            6 Learners Present                3.5 hours

         social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental system, and how they impact health (Systems and Interdependence)

Communicating About Sex

Davey from Women and Action had activities to help people think about how they talk about

sex acts and body parts so that they can be more clear about their personal limits and more

effective in communicating with health professionals.

  Student Comments

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

I don't think it [learning ways to communicate about sex and body parts] has anything to do with GED!

Female                   25.00 -- 44.99

[Other Learning (or Work) Efforts:] GED Prep Book   Irritating, Confusing. Not Having Fun.  Stressful

Monday, January 29, 2007                               7 Learners Present                3.5 hours

       SELF MANAGEMENT - Accurately assess self, set personal goals, monitor progress & exhibit self control (Personal Qualities)

Individual Learning Time - Finishing Up

Two people finished their Writing Projects though nobody is completely done with all their

monthly programs yet.

 

(Some people do better than others when they have the freedom to direct themselves towards productive work.)

  Student Comments

Female                   25.00 -- 44.99

[What helped you learn today?] Chasity helped me[.] Gave me a hard math problem

Female                   16.00 -- 17.99

[Other Learning (or Work) Efforts:] Vocab 95% done

A reading journal [entry]

[What didn't help?] I was tired and mad so I didn't feel like doing anything.


Tuesday, January 30, 2007                              6 Learners Present                3.5 hours

Relationship between production, distribution and consumption patterns to political and cultural systems (Production, Distribution, & Consumption)

                                   W3.4b Practice all steps of the writing process:  (Writing: Strategies)

Writing and Discussion:

"Is there a conflict between needs to have a strong military defense and needs to have justice