Classroom+Units+and+Student+Work+Gallery


 * Hunger Games Unit**

Taking the inspiration from my students (who encouraged me to read //The Hunger Games// in the first place), the final six week grading period of Guided Study was turned into the Hunger Games. We had tributes, a reaping, sponsors, and some serious competition.



During the first week:
 * All classes became "Districts" like in the book. Their district numbers were their class periods and then they got to vote on what their districts represented
 * Students were able to register for the "reaping" where their name would possibly be chosen as tribute
 * The reaping occured and Tributes were given manuals with all rules and regulations as well as signing contracts to abide by these



During the second week: The Third Week until the end was The Games. Below you will find pictures of Tribute Daily Challenges, the arena, injuries, the Game Boards made by The Game Maker (Ms. Weiss) and various alliances that formed. After a sudden death match in which tributes wrote a statement of why they should win the games and the districts all voted on the best statement--District 2's tribute, Jami, won by ONE VOTE!
 * Tributes were "trained", given an outline of the rules and also given scores by the Game Committee based on their overall effort in guided, work completion, grades and strengths
 * Manuals were handed out and rules were explained to all districts
 * Interviews were given to all tributes and posted to the class blog by our very own Ceasar Flickerman
 * District members were invited to be an audience member and not participate, or be a sponsor and earn points by an array of things from coming to class on time to revising a paper with Ms. Weiss before handing it in. These points could send their tributes gifts to avoid injuries in the arena
 * [[image:the_games.JPG width="448" height="330" align="center"]]


 * //For all Updates and more pictures from the Games please visit www.weissguided.tumblr.com//**


 * //Montana 1948// PostSecret Unit**

While teaching the novel //Montana 1948 by// Larry Watson to my Freshman English Class, I used the essential question "Why do we keep secrets?" to guide a unit about why we keep secrets in all areas of life--relationships, from ourselves, work, community--and what our secrets can reveal about us.

Keeping it a Secret: Starting off the unit
 * Students all anonymously chose a piece of paper with a character name on it and wrote it down--this had the character they would follow the entire novel
 * They kept their character a secret and began reading the novel by identifying key passages and details about their character
 * We also discussed secret conventions--what makes a secret? The class came up with No Names, Embedded Meaning, Giving Selective Information, Not Everyone Knows, Certain Details Left Out/Revealed, Embarrassing/Gossip/Trust/Reputation



PostSecret: Looking at Real Life Examples
 * By looking at an actual post card from the online blog, Postsecret.com, students analyzed and saw a postcard that got sent in anonymously giving a secret in a creative way
 * We also watched "Dirty Little Secret" by the All-American Rejects--a music video using postsecret postcards for more examples and analysis of postcards expressing secrets



Characters Revealed: Using PostSecret for our Characters
 * Using guidelines the class created by making Secret Conventions, and insights from real-life examples, students made post secret post cards from the characters they secretly chose at the beginning of the unit
 * They were required to also write an analysis essay incorporating character quotes that had shaped their secret and how their art related to their character/secret
 * We had a gallery walk and the class got to vote on their favorite post cards
 * It was the only assignment the entire semester that every student turned in--even the ones who struggled the most, particularly in writing