Week 20: Carousel of Progress
This week was one of my favorite weeks of the year. We started the inquiry based learning project unit where you guys will be researching a specific element of the Civil Rights Movement/ Great Depression to build background knowledge prior to reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Tuesday we started with the image flood, which you all seemed to love. Wednesday we did the carousel discussion, which got you all heated, and Thursday we did the reading frenzy and the color wheel activity. The whole week had you all collaborating with your groups, discussing, moving around, and fully engaged with the process of learning. It made me happy to see each of you happy as well.
I have to say my favorite day was probably the carousel discussion. I gave you all agree or disagree statements such as: It is okay to break a law if it goes against your moral conscience. You all discussed the statement, and then left a sticky note saying why you agreed or disagreed and then you moved on to the next statement. At the end, you all shared out what the groups had stated, and then I showed you a quote by Martin Luther King Jr to let you know where he might stand on the issue. It was cool to see how much you wanted to be on his side. Some of you were on his side and some of you weren't, but the key is that all of you learned something.
Mostly, you learned that you can talk with your peers about issues that matter and work together to determine where you stand as a collective whole. I hope you will remember some of the quotes that were shared this week. I also hope you will be reminded of them again when we start reading the novel, and you see characters who are conflicted in a very similar way. Life is full of contradictions and opposing viewpoints. It is not important that we all see the same thing, the same way, all the time. That is the beauty of our differences. However, it is very important that we all listen and learn from others despite our differences. "It is the mark of an educated man to entertain a thought without accepting it." -Sophocles.
Embracing Differences,
Mrs. Bell
