Mr. Dye's Socratic Seminar

Frankenstein study helps

2010-11-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

YouTube video on the Gothic genre

YouTube video on the inspiration for Victor

YouTube video from StarTrek: compare Data with Frankenstein's monster

A radio story on the origins of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: how weather created a monster

Biography of the author: Mary Shelley

Funny scene from spoof video: Young Frankenstein

Reading Expansion for Beowulf

2009-08-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

Please select a book you have NOT read before. It needs to be a fantasy novel, a book by Tolkien (i.e., The Lord of the Rings), or Grendel (by John Gardner).

Please note that Grendel is a mature book with some brief strong language. It tells the story of Beowulf from Grendel's point of view. If you or your parents are uncomfortable with this, please choose another book to read. That being said, I do recommend Grendel because it connects so well to our reading of Beowulf and I do not believe the mature elements are gratuitous but help to develop a point of view.

Norse Mythology Videos

2009-08-25T12:19:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIwvYuL2PMA

After you watch part 1, go on to watch parts 2 and 3. (If you want, you can watch all of them.)

Unit 1B: A Brief Historical Overview

2009-08-20T16:03:00.000-07:00

Capture all with appreciation

Preview History Textbook Chapters 5-18

Dye on World History on a Line

Expand for your own purposes and values

Create a timeline of what you think are the most important developments in world history (no more than 20)

Sketch a proposed design for a mural on world history

Find two current events articles that connect with events from history that we are going to be studying this year

Teach for the benefit of others

Unit 1A: Becoming an L/T

2009-08-17T15:48:00.001-07:00

Capture all with appreciation:

A Dragon Story
Dye on Learning: The Three Person Problem
Dye on Seeds and Stories: Carefully packaged information
Dye on The Genealogy of Ideas
Dye on The Heart of the L/T Role
Classroom Procedures and Rules development activity
Course Syllabus
Discussions: Why use the Socratic method? Why study literature? What is the point of education?

Expand to explore the things you care about:

Read Teaching and Learning for Exponential Growth (Gong)
*Set up a blog (or journal) to keep a log on your expansions
Watch the online video, Shift Happens: http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=1785&title=ShiftHappens
Take the Learning Styles Inventory Test: http://www.learning-styles-online.com/
Learn about surface vs. deep learning on the following website: (http://www.montclair.edu/academy/Documents/Deep%20and%20Surface%20Learning.pdf)
Learn about your teacher’s teachers: Dillon Inouye, Walter Gong, Stefinee Pinnegar, Arthur Henry King, Paul Hedengren, Patricia Esplin
Interview someone who is a successful learner about his/her learning
Study what your own faith (if you have one) has to say about learning (Are there scriptures, articles, books, or a religious leader that you could draw upon?)

Teach and serve for the benefit of others:

In-class workshop

10th Grade Socratic Seminar Course Description

2009-08-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

Making Connections
Mr. Dye, 2009-2010

Welcome to Socratic Seminar. This course will be one of the most fun, challenging, and memorable parts of your Maeser experience. You will have a deep love for learning in this class and develop the ability to think CRITICALLY, CREATIVELY, and PRECISELY.

The name Socratic Seminar comes from the Greek philosopher Socrates. He was known for helping his students learn by asking them questions that probed their thinking. He compared himself to a midwife who helped his students give birth to the ideas within them. Likewise, in this class you are expected to think for yourself. In class you will participate by engaging in three thinking processes:

1) Discussing
2) Writing
3) Reading

You are expected to engage in thoughtful discussion of the literature we read. This may require you to come out of your comfort zone for a while. (Fortunately, coming out of your comfort zone expands your comfort zone!) Please, come to class each day prepared to set aside other concerns and engage in a dialogue with us.

You will succeed in this class. You will be safe in this class to share your ideas. You will get a grade worth bragging about. You will enjoy the three thinking activities: READING, DISCUSSING, and WRITING. You will be prepared to enter any college or university of your choice because you have learned how to learn.

Objectives

By the end of this class, you should be able to:

• Engage in the processes that real-world writers use and submit your own written pieces to writing contests.
• Summarize historical developments from the decline/fall of the Roman Empire through the French Revolution.
• Engage in the interrelated processes of reading, talking, listening, and writing to create meaning for yourself.
• Explain how geography influences the development of civilization.
• Make connections between great works of literature and your own life, society, and other creative works (i.e., art, literature, film, etc.).
• Show interest in learning about the content of this course on your own.

12th Grade Socratic Seminar Course Description

2009-08-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

Nature Writing & Comparative Literature and Film
Mr. Dye, 2009-2010

Welcome to 12th grade Socratic Seminar! The senior Socratic Seminar classes specialize in specific areas of literary interest (kind of like college classes). This class will have two semester-long mini-courses: Nature Writing and Comparative Literature and Film.

The Nature Writing portion of the course will consist of a thematic exploration of environment and landscape through reading, field experience, and writing. You don’t have to be a “tree hugger” to be in this class. This class is more about becoming more aware of how our physical environment shapes our experiences. We go on regular field trips into the local wilderness and one extended overnight campout. (Outings most likely will be scheduled for “early-out” Friday afternoons.) We will then practice writing about our experiences in our own poems and essays.

Comparative Literature is a branch of literary scholarship that compares literature from different cultural and national groups. It also compares the relationship of film to literature. In the Comparative Literature portion of this course, we will read works of literature and watch films from various cultural traditions.

In addition to studying literature, this course will also explore modern world history from the 19th Century to the present day as well as current events. That means you will continue studying world history where 9th and 10th grade Socratic Seminars left off.

Why I Read Literature

2009-08-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

“The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented. Even the eyes of all humanity are not enough. I regret that the brutes cannot write books. Very gladly would I learn what face things present to a mouse of a bee; more gladly still would I perceive the olfactory world charged with all the information and emotion it carries for a dog. Literary experience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege, of individuality. There are mass emotions which heal the wound; but they destroy the privilege. In them our separate selves are pooled and we sink back into sub-individuality. But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do."

C.S. Lewis