What we are learning...
Mr. Kyle Price, Language & Literature, Individuals & Societies, and Design Teacher
What is your favorite book? I used to say Peter Pan, but that's really more for the idea that the book represents. I don't really want to grow up, at least not completely. But I really don't have a book I can call my favorite. There are so many great books, and they are great for such a huge variety of reasons, that it's hard to narrow my answer to just one book. The Book Thief? Ella Minnow Pea? The Great Train Robbery? Seabiscuit? Pajama Time? The Fault in Our Stars? The Book of Three? And there are so many more. Too hard to pick just one.What is your favorite movie? Star Wars. I saw it in the theater, more than once, when I was five or six. The movie has its flaws, but it made a deep impression on me, maybe leaving a more indelible mark than any other movie.
If I hadn't been a teacher, I probably would've been... A tour guide? I love seeing the world and love showing neat things about the world to others. Or maybe I would've been a project manager. I like cobbling together a community of people around a common goal. Maybe that's why I was so excited about the creation of the Milk Boat Project.
What is your favorite song? My very first favorite song that I can remember was "Sailing" by Christopher Cross.
If you could travel anywhere through space and time, where and when would you like to visit? I guess I would like to visit the future. There must be other life in the galaxy, but I don't expect to see it in my lifetime. Maybe that desire to see it is the mark of watching Star Wars at such an impressionable age.
One of the units the 7th Graders currently have on their plate is Analytical Essays. The unit uses short stories and literary elements to help the students learn to analyze a text and to argue for a topic sentence in just one paragraph. The 7th Grade year in Language & Literature focuses a lot on the organization of writing, and one of my favorite features of this unit is the weekly feedback cycle. Because of the feedback and the opportunities to try again, the students end up looking at feedback as formative rather than just summative. A lot of students make clear goals from week to week, particularly with organization, and even among the students who don’t make clear goals, there’s still a clear emphasis on growth. The Statement of Inquiry for the unit is the following: Communication requires structure. The unit ends at the Thanksgiving break, and by that time, there’s usually a lot of evidence of improvement in analysis and organization skill.
