{"content":{"sharePage":{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"35741726","dateCreated":"1299876665","smartDate":"Mar 11, 2011","userCreated":{"username":"DrTAdkins-Coleman","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/DrTAdkins-Coleman","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1274981715\/DrTAdkins-Coleman-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/lmaine.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/35741726"},"dateDigested":1532090993,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Review of Draft","description":"In your revision, please consider the thoughtful and useful comments provided by your peers. They are quite competent, so I will not repeat what they have said; I simply will add to it:
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\n1. Your unit will be very important in students\u2019 development as productive, compassionate, empathetic citizens, so I am glad you chose this topic.
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\n2. Your peers provide very useful recommendations that I highly encourage you to consider in the revision. Also, in addition to your focus on developing students\u2019 understanding of the world around them, you need to discuss what specific English\/language arts skills (i.e., understanding of theme, understanding of figurative language, understanding of how to write a persuasive essay) your students will acquire throughout this unit. Further, you should include a clear explanation of your justification (i.e., adolescent development, civic awareness, etc. - See Smagorinsky chapter that was due a few weeks ago for specific guidelines for this requirement).
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\n3. Your peers provide useful recommendations, so I would revise for all of the issues they mentioned.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"35611080","dateCreated":"1299720378","smartDate":"Mar 9, 2011","userCreated":{"username":"samgloss","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/samgloss","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1303657746\/samgloss-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/lmaine.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/35611080"},"dateDigested":1532090993,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Review","description":"What an important unit! Your rationale is persuasive but concise\u2014packing strong justifications into each paragraph. Your justification and counterarguments are strong, though you might try adding some outside sources to support them (e.g., information about bullying in Maryland). Dan had a good source about bullying related to sexuality, and you and he might also find the It Gets Better Project helpful as a source of support for discussing sexuality in the classroom. I\u2019m sure there are some videos about the importance of representing various perspectives on sexuality in the classroom.
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\nSeems like The Breakfast Club<\/em> and Mean Girls<\/em> could be good movies to show during this unit.
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\nYour rationale is well written, with a strong argument and justifications. I noticed just a few items needing minor corrections: some subject-verb disagreement, a little bit of passive voice, and \u201cclicks\u201d should be \u201ccliques.\u201d Otherwise, this is a great draft.
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\nI look forward to learning more about your unit!","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"35611178","body":"Oh, I should clarify that I liked that your rationale was concise.","dateCreated":"1299720460","smartDate":"Mar 9, 2011","userCreated":{"username":"samgloss","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/samgloss","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1303657746\/samgloss-lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"35541046","dateCreated":"1299641299","smartDate":"Mar 8, 2011","userCreated":{"username":"daniel.patrylak","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/daniel.patrylak","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1304614392\/daniel.patrylak-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/lmaine.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/35541046"},"dateDigested":1532090994,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Dan's Peer Review","description":"I like that you set up three concepts within Identity - sexual orientation, social groups, and social status -- and then you supported each individually. None of the other rationales did that, and I think it was a strong support structure.
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\nI like all of the books you chose for the unit too, I think it's a great list! I like that you added a book involving homosexuality -- I think it's still a tough sell in today's culture, but one that needs to keep being pushed.
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\nI also like that you are teaching this in a 7th grade class. I think the rest of us choose high school for our Identity units, so it's cool to see you take a younger aim. I'll be interested to see what kind of activities you do!
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\nI would suggest going into a little more detail about the books you are going to use. Maybe give a little more background and explain explicitly why it fits with your three themes.
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\nIn addition to homosexuality, you may also want address the issues of gangs in The Outsiders. Some parents may feel like it will glorify gang life as a support system, and it might help to explain how you will teach against that.
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\nMy only other suggestion would be to include some potential activities or language art skills. The theme is awesome, some parents and faculty may just want to see more curricular connections.
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\nAnyhow, I like it, and I'm really interested to see the final product and steal some sweet middle school lessons!!!","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"35454212","dateCreated":"1299540242","smartDate":"Mar 7, 2011","userCreated":{"username":"saraduran","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/saraduran","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/lmaine.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/35454212"},"dateDigested":1532090994,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Peer-Edit ","description":"1. I liked the overall theme of your unit because it is definitely something that is applicable to all student. I particularly liked that you narrowed down this theme to the three main topics of sexual orientation, social groups, and social status. These three things are very applicable to our students, and I think you will be met with great success (from the students, at least) if you address them in class. I also liked that you are daring enough to tackle the issue of understanding homosexuality at such a young age. I think this is great because if you help students establish an open-mind early, it will help them a lot in the future.
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\n2. One suggestion I have is that when you consider sexual orientation you should not only consider homosexuality, but also acknowledge heterosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderness (?), etc... I also think that you should give some examples of how you plan to explore these concepts with your students (i.e. research projects, papers, poems, etc...)
\nIn the sentence that ends "they are much more than their parent\u2019s paycheck," I think it would be more effective if you simply said "they are much more than what they do or do not own."
\nIn the sentence "While students are grouped off by interests, they can also be grouped off by socio economic status" it would be helpful to say "students group themselves off by..." because this way it is made known that students do it to themselves, rather than other people forcing cliques on them.
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\n3.
\n*"The theme for my thematic unit plan is \u201cAccepting and Understanding Differences.\u201d" You can leave off "thematic"
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\n*There are a few instances when you use "their selves": "flaunting the hottest name brands and hiding their selves if they cannot afford it"m(not necessary, you can leave it out); " it is important to give students the confidence in their selves to know ..." (should be themselves)
\n*"The middle school years are where students make some of their biggest changes." Use when instead of where since it is indicating time.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]}],"more":false},"comments":[]},"http":{"code":200,"status":"OK"},"redirectUrl":null,"javascript":null,"notices":{"warning":[],"error":[],"info":[],"success":[]}}