Project Based Homework Due 10.29.12

Hello All,

This week we will be discussing stereotypes in our society and in literature. Please be prepared with your online cultural stereotype research of your articles this week of 10.22.12.

Class 421 ONLY

You will be starting your journey in Project Based Learning Independent Study Research. From now on, your PBH assignments will begin to take on this format. Your assignments will be due every 8 weeks, however, a lot of research and contacting important places and people will have to be conducted. We will have periodic meeting points where I will meet with you either via email or one-on-one conferences to check your progress. The meeting dates will be updated and posted on the center bulletin board inside the classroom. It is the board that has ideas written on sentence strips protruding from the board.

The first assignment is for you to create a brainstorm list of ideas that you would like to research and develop. Please keep in mind that you are not doing this just for show or a grade (which you will receive) but for your idea to become a reality. For example, if you wanted to create an invention for senior citizens or for students in school that would make life easier, cost effective and save time your purpose would be to sell the idea to Bill Gates or the Apple Company. You must think with the end in mind. As you begin to brainstorm, have someone and/or some place where you know your idea will be considered or possibly bought. Trust me it can happen! You just have to know where to search and who to send it to if you cannot reach the top person in charge. Do not lose hope, it will eventually make its way to the top.

Please take this assignment seriously. After you have found out what you want to research, your purpose for this interest and who it will be sent to (it must be a legitimate address), then you will have to write a proposal letter including the information I just stated.

The first portion will be a graphic organizer web with the PBL interest in the middle and the ideas that branch out of it. This is due October 29, 2012.

The second portion will be the proposal letter. The letter will be due the following Monday, November 5, 2012

Class 421 and 401

Walter Dean Myers Book Clubs

1. Please take out your library cards because all of you will need to take out a WDM book from the library. I already have the reading support questions for this assignment prepared. Please note that you CANNOT use any of the assigned book club or in class WDM readings for your second book review that is due on November 5, 2012. You are required to read a play. The outline will be given to you sometime this week. This reading will be done independently at home unless I tell you to bring it to school. I will provide you with a list of students who will be reading certain WDM books.

Class 421 and 401

2. To continue our exploration of stereotypes you will write a poem about the negative stereotypes associated with your culture.

Your poem only needs to be two stanzas and four or more lines in each stanza. Please keep it somewhat short but it should not be too short.

The first stanza should have a creative way to describe the negative stereotypes said about your culture.

The second stanza should have a creative way to describe how you are above these negative stereotypes, how you or people you know have overcome these stereotypes (i.e. Martin Luther King Jr.), and/or how your life experiences does not fit the negative "label" society has placed on your ethnicity.

Lastly, there should be a "catchy" creative title and it should be typed, 12 font, Times New Roman and since it is a poem it does not need to be double spaced unless you feel that it adds to the interpretation of the poem!

I will show you a sample of the poem before Friday.

As always if you have any questions, please email me Monday through Friday before 7 pm.