Podcasts about ap lit

This week I want to share a project idea that you can use for a ton of different texts - the mock trial. I'll tell you why the mock trial was one of my FAVORITE projects as a student, and one fun way I used it as a teacher. By the time you finish listening to this quick episode, I hope you'll be excited to put a mock trial into play in your own classroom.  My senior year of high school, my AP Lit teacher thought of a wonderful way to spice up our Madame Bovary unit. She had us re-enact Gustave Flaubert's obscenity trial. Did you know he stood trial for offending public morals with his novel? Yep. Anyway, we all took on different roles - Flaubert himself, and the lawyers and witnesses - and started meeting in class to plan our arguments, our questions, and our opening and closing statements. As Flaubert's defense lawyer, I thought it would be helpful to have the transcripts of the original trial, so after school I headed for the local University Library to check out the transcript, which I used to create my seven page single spaced opening statement for Flaubert. It was so much fun pulling those transcripts out in class the next day. Needless to say, Flaubert was declared innocent by the trial's end, and the project has always stuck with me as one of my favorites from school. Years later, I decided to put my own spin on it with my 10th graders in Bulgaria as we studied The Crucible. We put the judges, Hawthorne and Danforth, on trial for letting it all happen. Students took the roles of defense and prosecution lawyers, characters in the play who could be called to the stand, and jury members. Everyone had specific tasks to help them prepare, and each witness worked on either the defense or prosecution's team in building a case. The lawyers wrote opening statements and worked to come up with strong questions for each witness. Witnesses worked with their lawyers on their answers to the questions they would know, possible questions the other team might ask, and how they would respond, and reviewed their characters' actions and dialogue in the play. Jury members came up with argument ideas for both sides, as well as evidence to support them, so they'd have a clear picture of the text going into the trial. I was the judge, so I could run the order of the day and keep things moving on schedule. While I felt the judges were to blame for allowing the court to abandon real justice, I believe in the end the jury found Hawthorne and Danforth innocent, after a highly engaging day of official process.  I bet there's a mock trial spin waiting to happen for at least one of your class texts… In Romeo and Juliet, you might put the priest on trial for Romeo and Juliet's deaths. In The Great Gatsby, you might put Daisy on trial for Myrtle's death. But it doesn't always have to be about an actual crime. You might let Frankenstein's monster sue him for not creating a mate for him, and decide whether or not to award damages. You could try the insurance case of Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman.  While a mock trial isn't right for every book, it's a great way to create engagement and buy-in around building skills with argument, evidence, and analysis while also practicing public speaking. It doesn't hurt that law if a popular career many students may be considering. That's why this week, I want to highly recommend you give a mock trial project a try the next time you've got a project-shaped hole in a whole class novel unit.  Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you! 

Catherine Vandenberg is a former AP Lit & Comp teacher who transitioned to sales in 2022. She is currently a Senior Manager of Business Development. In this episode, we discuss her career transition and learn all about what it means to be in sales. Find Catherine on LinkedIn. Free Quiz: What career outside of the classroom is right for you? Explore the course that has helped thousands of teachers successfully transition out of the classroom and into new careers: The Teacher Career Coach Course Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WE give you AP Lit tips & tricks, get diagnosed with Hulkamania, and come up with the best training regimens for Rocky.   Quiz: Rambo (2008) Review (47:25): Rocky III   Facebook:@WEAintSeenIt Ethan: @ethangoose.bsky.social; letterboxd: egeese Wesley: @weswee.bsky.social; letterboxd: babyweswee

The Advanced Placement exams represent some of the most challenging subject-specific standardized tests a high schooler might ever take. Amy and Mike believe that every test warrants smart, serious preparation, so we invited educator Christy Shriver to share valuable strategies, insights, and resources for getting ready for the AP Literature exam. What are five things you will learn in this episode? What is tested on the AP Literature exam? What are the different approaches required by each essay? What strategies lead to higher scores on the AP Literature exam? How should students practice and prepare for the AP Literature exam? How has AI impacted student readiness for the AP Lit exam? MEET OUR GUEST Christy Shriver is an educator from Memphis, TN. Currently, she produces the How to Love Lit Podcast, a tool to support IB and AP students in preparation for their exams. She has been teaching both AP and IB in public and private schools in the Memphis area for the last 20 years.  Christy graduated from the Escola Americana de Belo Horizonte as an IB student and has lived much of her life internationally, primarily in the country of Brazil. Although she is a strong advocate of the IB program, she is currently an AP Language teacher and AP reader.  Christy first appeared on this podcast in episode 199 to discuss Choosing Between AP and IB Programs and episode 472 to discuss Getting Ready For The AP Language Exam. Find Christy at christy@howtolovelitpodcast.com. LINKS AP English Language and Composition Exam – AP Central | College Board AP English Language and Composition Exam What is the Test Format of the AP® English Language Exam? RELATED EPISODES GETTING READY FOR THE AP LANGUAGE EXAM GETTING READY FOR THE AP US HISTORY EXAM GETTING READY FOR THE AP STATISTICS EXAM GETTING READY FOR THE AP PSYCHOLOGY EXAM GETTING READY FOR THE AP CHEMISTRY EXAM ABOUT THIS PODCAST Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page. ABOUT YOUR HOSTS Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros. If you're interested in working with Mike and/or Amy for test preparation, training, or consulting, feel free to get in touch through our contact page.

Have you ever felt a little intimidated to teach an advanced course like AP Lit? Well, after hearing from today's guest, Gina Kortuem, we think your feelings may shift to pure excitement! Gina is someone that we've wanted to bring on the podcast for a while now because we see a lot of similarities in our teaching styles.Gina brings us a reality check about what teaching advanced courses like AP Lit is really like. Yes, the content is challenging both for you and the students, but we believe that kids can learn hard things. All kids should learn hard things! It's about equipping yourself with the strategies and tools that you need to make that happen.Inside this episode, you'll hear about Gina's genius bell ringers, her experience going to NCTE, all how she teaches an entire Shakespeare elective, which became the most popular class at her school! If you aren't already a member of Happy Hour, you'll want to join us over there because Gina is taking over with her very own episode. Plus, Happy Hour members will receive an amazing resource from Gina too.Resources:Get a week of Gina's Bell Ringers for FREE!Gina's Bell Ringers on TPTLit and More websiteLit and More TPT storeHappy HourBookshop.orgJoin Curriculum RehabLet us know what you think! Leave a review on Apple PodcastsSHOW NOTES: https://www.bravenewteaching.com/home/episode182Join Happy Hour to get FREE resources from Gina Kortuem!Check out Curriculum Rehab here!Support the show

*BONUS EPISODE TIME* In today's unhinged episode, we discuss our current favs and play a couple of trivia games. Caitlin sucks at Geography, Reba is a scientist, and Peyton thinks we remember everything from AP Lit. Basically, our school system failed us. We owe our vast knowledge of butchered facts and references to Gilmore Girls, New Girl, and the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Next week, we will be discussing Fourth Wing Ch. 19-20. Remember to follow us on Instagram @letscallitnothingpod --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/letscallitnothing/support

It's sad, but true. Camp BNT is coming to a close with this episode (at least for this year!). We're wrapping things up with a debrief from our interview with Elizabeth Acevedo, author of Family Lore. If you haven't already heard that episode, run and listen to it now! You'll hear us think through ideas in real time of how to use Elizabeth's novels in your classroom. With a range of students, including those in AP Lit, general education, and special education, we understand the importance of catering to different learning needs. We delve into the challenge of finding literature that possesses both literary merit and accessibility, questioning the subjective nature of determining such merit.Whether you choose to explore Elizabeth Acevedo's recommended books, resurrect a forgotten author's works, or embark on an author study, we invite you to push the boundaries and create a brave new teaching experience for your student!Resources:In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia AlvarezHomegoing, Yaa GyasiGoodnight, Irene, by Luis AlbertoFamily Lore, Elizabeth AcevedoSign up for our free masterclass, Down With the Reading QuizJoin Curriculum RehabConnect with us on Instagram @bravenewteachingFollow Marie on Instagram: @thecaffeinatedclassFollow Amanda on Instagram: @mudandinkteachingLet us know what you think! Leave a review on Apple Podcasts.Show Notes: https://www.bravenewteaching.com/home/episode166 Join us around the campfire for Camp BNT at https://bravenewteaching.podia.com/campSupport the show

Diana Peckham joined me on the phone to discuss watching the Wide World of Disney and The Ed Sullivan Show; "The Wizard of Oz"; her father being a wrestler in the 1956 Olympics and her grandfather being a professional wrestler in the 1930's; awareness of Andy Kaufman; seeing his challenge on SNL and writing a letter in; being one of four chosen for a "wrestle off"; taking her father and grandfather as coaches; Andy Kaufman's misogynist persona; talking to Al Franken after the show; not knowing what she was getting into in the match; not knowing the referee was Andy Kaufman's manager (Bob Zmuda); her wrestling past; her parents working as AD and assistant AD at Emerson College; offers after the much; the FBI; going to college to be an English teacher and getting a job as a P.E. teacher; having her appearance grow as legend year after year; getting the tape in 1989; showing the video to her AP Lit students; being retired in New Hampshire; getting recognized on FB when SNL started streaming; REM used a clip of her in their video for Man on the Moon; getting royalty checks and marriage proposals; being made to stay in her dressing room during the show; almost getting her shoulder broken during the match; did not fight during dress rehearsal so segment went long and bumped Mr. Bill; how she would have played it; Kaufman v. Lawler; the SNL vote; did Andy die of AIDS or lung cancer?; getting slapped at the wrestle-off; her other competitors; how Andy would wrestle his girlfriend and other plants; the movie "Man in the Moon"; teaching; her children being athletes; and wrestling in the 30's and 40's.

Albert Camus - The Stranger - Episode 2 - The Consequences Of Meaninglessness! Hi, I'm Christy Shriver, and we're here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.      And I am Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This is episode 2 in our three part series in the first work of Albert Camus' great cycle of Absurdity- the novella, l”etranger or the Stranger also called The Outsider.  Last week we began discussing Camus' life, his homeland Algeria, and the events- both political and personal that made him in many ways his own outsider.  We also introduced the idea that is forever associated with Camus in literary as well as philosophical circles and that is concept of the absurd.  We tried to flesh out a little bit of what that feels like,  the world the way Camus would have us understand it.  We tried to introduce it as a feeling more than an idea- although obviously it is both.  We started with famous first line, “Maman died today.  Or yesterday maybe, I don't know.”      It's absurd!!  Today..maybe yesterday!!! It's absurd!    And the even more important idea…”I don't know”.  This itself launches us into a world from which some of us may never return- the world of the absurd, the world of Meursault, our absurd hero.      Ha!  Hopefully we will fare slightly better than Meursault who I'll tell you right now, is not famous because of the awesomeness of his outcome.  He is NOT Forrest Gump who by no design of his own winds up in the White House or making millions in the shrimp industry- although, I will say, there is something absurd about Forrest Gump.    Christy, this is an absurd tangent      I KNOW!!  Absurd is a thread I could keeping pulling, but I won't.  Instead we will pull back into the rational world because today we want to start by giving a shout out to a friend of the podcast, a man who lives far from the world of the absurd (most days, anyway), Mr. Matt Francev.  Matt teaches AP Lit and Honors English at Whittier High School in Whittier California.  His brother Dr. Peter Francev is editor of the Albert Camus Society, and a true scholar whose body of academic work focuses on the entirety of Camus' writings- of which the cycle of the absurd is just the beginning.  Anyway, Matt reached out to us a couple of months ago, gosh I guess it was right before Christmas and asked us to feature Camus and the familiar classic The Stranger, and so we have.  Matt, this series is for you. We hope we do right by an old friend of the Francev family as we do what Camus himself might not like for us to do- paradoxically- and that is attempt to break down into manageable bite-sized pieces this overwhelming experience of living the absurd.      Christy, before we do that, I do want to point out something cool about where Matt is investing his life and career.  Whittier, California,  is only about fifteen miles south of LA.  That area itself is an incredibly diverse working class community- but what is unusual about the high school there is that it has - an eclectic yet notable list of alumni.  Two names on that list many recognize is Former President Richard Nixon, but also, totally outside the world of politics, John Lasseter, the creator of Pixar.  And if that wasn't interesting enough for your average high school,  perhaps even more notably is that the school itself was the setting for Hill Valley High School – that would be the high school Michael J Fox's parents attended in his breakout movie, Back to the Future.   How fun is that?    So fun, I wonder how many times they've played Johnny B Good on the stage in the auditorium!!!      HA!  I wonder what the real auditorium even looks like.  Anyway, Thanks Matt, for reaching out and sharing a little of your world with us.  Today, our goal is to finish out our discussion of part 1 of this novel.  Christy, last week you told us we should very wait in anxious expectation for an episode filled with boredom and meaninglessness- and especially there at the beginning we meet that expectation. Chapter 2 is not filled with action that could be described as riveting.      No, not a whole lot happens in chapter 2, if you're looking for plot, and not a whole lot happens if you're looking for deep character or thematic development.  Basically…Not a whole lot happens.      NO, it starts with the day after Maman's funeral, and We meet Marie- who will become something of a girlfriend to Meursault. Camus descriptions draw particular attention to Marie's breasts, but these descriptions are vulgar not suggestive really.  This is not your typical romantic description from a harlequin romance, not that I've ever read any of those.  It clearly ends with sex but not with passion.  Sex, of course, at its minimum is an expression of excitement- even crude sit-coms go that far.   Many times, when stories feature sex, authors are expressing deep emotions.  Relationship sex is the ultimate expression of intimacy and something,  we, as humans, attach deep meaning to- but not for our absurd hero, Meursault.  For Meursault, he meets a woman, has sex with her, she goes home before he wakes, up, he smokes cigarettes in bed until 11am, he gets up to eat eggs out of a pan, and then expresses boredom with zero reflection on all that has happened over the last 48 hours to him.  Instead of reflection, his thoughts turn to the size of his apartment where he concludes it's too big for just one person.  Again, is this guy a psychopath or a nut job?    And yet, by now, we most likely have decided that he is not.  He's apathetic for sure, but in a way we somehow understand.  Meursault has understood a few truths in this world and now he's stuck- he's gotten far enough into exploring the meaning of existence to arrive at this point of lostness.  Very intuitively, he's hit upon this notion that human reasoning is insufficient in fulfilling the very human but fundamental desire to find unity in our world.  We want things to connect, to make sense.  The universe should mean something- there should be a plan.  And yet, there are needs in our hearts that aren't reasonable. Logic- the things we know for sure about the world- these things are not enough to satisfy us.  Meursault keeps voicing this with the refrain, it doesn't matter.  When he puts things in his cosmic order- he understands His mother's death doesn't matter- not in the grand scheme of things.  This relationship he has with this woman- it doesn't matter.  His job-it doesn't matter- and so his response is to detach himself from all of it.  Why should he attach himself to things that don't matter?   What's the point?  And yet, pointlessness is leaving him bored.  It's also leaving him inert.  He doesn't go anywhere or make decisions.  Why should he, nothing matters.  Camus writes, “I said the world is absurd but I was too hasty.  This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said.  But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational world and the wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart.  The absurd depends as much on man as it does on the world.”  In other words, it's not that nothing matters that's the problem.  The fact, that we keep looking for things TO matter- that's where the craziness happens.    In the preface of the English edition, Camus describes Meursault.  Really, he's not describing him as much as he's defending him.  Let me read what Camus has told us about his protagonist:    The hero of the book is condemned because he doesn't play the game.  In this sense he is a stranger to the society in which he lives; he drifts in the margin, in the suburb of private, solitary, sensual life.  This is why some readers are tempted to consider him as a waif.  You will have a more precise idea of this character, or one at all events in closer conformity with the intentions of the author, if you ask yourself in what way Meursault doesn't play the game.  The answer is simple: He refuses to lie.  Lying is not only saying what is not true, and as far as the human heart is concerned, saying more than one feels.  This is what we all do every day to simplify life.  Meursault, despite appearances does not wish to simplify life.  He says what is true.  He refuses to disguise his feelings, and immediately society feels threatened….” There's more and we don't have time to read it all, but Camus goes on to say that Meursault is a man who and again I quote, “is poor and naked, in love with the sun which leaves no shadows.  Far from its being true that he lacks all sensibility, a deep, tenacious passion animates him, a passion for the absolute and for truth.  It is still negative truth, that truth of being and of feeling, but one without which no victory over oneself and over the world will ever be possible”.      Again, and this is still recapping the general idea of last week.   Meursault refuses to do what Camus calls “philosophical suicide” in his companion piece, “the myth of Sisyphus”.   He won't buy into an easy answer that will keep him from facing reality.  Meurseualt wants to really see life with clarity- this is what Camus is calling honest- not because he doesn't tell lies. He will lie for Raymond, as we see and likely find despicable.  But he won't lie to Marie about loving her or to the nursing home people about wanting to see his mother.   Camus said this, and I know we're quoting Camus' other writings a lot, but I think they help tell his story.  He says this, “I understand then why the doctrines that explain everything to me also debilitate me at the same time.  They relieve me of the weight of my own life, and yet I must carry it alone.”  So, in other words, when explain or simplify the world to ourselves through religious terms, economic terms, political terms, whatever terms we want to, maybe we numb the burden of suffering to some degree, but the cost of that is personal honesty.  And that might not be something we should do.  The best way for me to understand this is to think in terms of The Matrix, as in the movie.  In that movie, some people didn't know they were basically vegtables in a machine's concoction.  But there were others that did know, but then just decided they didn't care- they plugged themselves back in.  For Camus, that is a no-go.  You must face your own reality- knowing that it is absurd.  You just have to.      The Matrix is a great example.  When Camus says Meursault doesn't lie, he means it.  Meusault won't live in the Matrix, and just like in the movie,  this is a threat.  It makes everyone uncomfortable.  Having said that in his defense, it is not possible to read this and not be uncomfortable with Meursault, with his choices, with his inertia, with his inability to exercise any agency of any kind- especially when he witnesses and even participates in some pretty horrific things culminating in an actual death.      Yes- and now we have finally reached the theme for this episode.  Last week, we laid down the premise of the absurdity of life, which we've just revisited, we laid down the premise that we're all just specks in the universe which creates this absurdity of life- life goes on with or without us and we eventually disappear completely-  another big point- but what bothers Camus the most, and we see it bothering Meursault- is not just those two things- it's this third idea- if all this is true then why the heck, can I not shake this burden of guilt that the universe has laid upon me?  That is the piece that doesn't make sense.  It's the question that threads the narrative from beginning to end, and although it's subtle, as guilt often is, it bears down mercilessly like the cruel and penetrating sun.      We pointed it out last week when it showed up on page 1 when Mersault asks off work and immediately feels compelled to justify his absence with the line, “it's not my fault.”.  Although we didn't point it out in the podcast, as you read chapter 1, we saw Mersault  feeling the need to defend his choice of putting his mother in the home, as if someone were judging him for that- and indeed, this week he finds out from Salomanno that people were actually judging him behind his back for that.  He feels judged for his decision not to see her dead body.  He feels guilty for drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette with the caretaker.  When his mother's friends come in he actually says this, “For a second I had the ridiculous feeling that they were there to judge me.”   He doesn't know his mother's exact age.  That is highlighted- something to feel guilty about.  I point these things out because they all come back as reasons to judge him when he actually in a literal trial.  At the funeral procession, with the sun glaring down, he is confronted with a woman who says this, to him, “if you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke.  But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church.”  To which Meursault thinks this thought.. “she was right.  There is no way out.”      One of those statements that true on various levels- an epiphany in a way.        Yeah, I think it's something like that.  Now we're in chapter two, Meursault tells Marie that his mom has died.  She looks at him, as if to judge him, and he wants to again justify himself with the same line he told his boss- that it wasn't his fault, but he decides not to.  Because now, he's acknowledging something a little deeper- there's been a progression here that we should follow through the story.  He says this, “you always feel a little guilty.”      What do you think that means?  Of course, it's true and extremely normal to feel guilt when someone dies, especially when someone you love dies, and Meursault did love his mother.  I think that's absolutely true, so in this case you just can't help but feel responsible and guilty.      Why do you say with such assurance that Meaursault loved his mother?  He claims that they were bored with each other, and lots of people later on are going to accuse him for exactly the opposite.     Because I'm a big believer in ignoring what people say and paying attention to what people do.  We can see from Meursault's behaviors that he did love his mother. And not just because he calls her maman.  But he provided for her.  The reason he sent her to the home was because he didn't want her sitting in that house by herself.  His concern was that she was bored- he wanted what was best.  He's clearly a man with a modest income, and yet he is her sole provider.  He provides faithfully- and there is no expression of resentment in him towards her.  He seems happy to do it.  His guilt originates in love- and I think we are going to see that there is evidence he loves Marie too, to some degree.  Meursault's problem is not that he can't feel.  Meursault definitely can feel.  He just can't get his mind to wrap around what his feelings mean.  Feelings obviously aren't rational.  That don't have a point, and for Meursault, that's a huge problem.      Honestly, Camus expressing here this idea of not conforming to society's expectations of how you express yourself is again something that resonates with so many teenagers- all of us really- but especially teenagers.  This idea of appearing apathetic when in reality, it's not apathy but numbness that you're experiencing gets people in all kinds of problems.  In my world, it manifests itself with flunking grades.  How many boys, and they usually are boys- are made to sit in a chair with their teachers, their guidance counselors, and their parents- sometimes all in the same room at the same time- and the general theme of the meeting is that they are there to tell the student he simply don't care about his learning.  They are there because they care, and they want him to understand how bad it is that he doesn't care about his education; his family, his life- all of which can be seen through a general apathy towards school, skipping, perhaps drugs, trouble-making of one sort or another.  The student sits in agreement with the behaviors, but often the point that is incorrect is the diagnosis of apathy as the culprint- it's simple  to say that the student just doesn't care. But more often than not,  the problem- paradoxically,  is the opposite.  It's the caring that causes the  jam with failing grades and the other self-sabotaging behaviors.      I've been in hundreds of those meetings myself.  And the irony is in the pointlessness of it all.  The student feels guilty.  That's never the problem.  We can see that they feel guilty.  Sometimes they may even cry.  Often they feel badly for making their mothers come up to school at 6:30 in the morning (in Memphis that's when these meetings are always held).  They feel badly for not being able to make themselves do the work.  They feel badly for the bad grades, the school skipping, the vaping in the bathroom, whatever it is.  They feel badly for the shame of the confrontation.  The feeling of guilt is definitely overwhelming, but what does that do?  When has guilt ever been a good motivator for success?  As with Meursault, guilt, especially generalized guilt, usually escalates into other things.    Camus makes our absurd hero wrestle with this absurd problem.  And if I were a character in the story, I'd be fussing at Meursault non-stop, although, I already know it would be futile.  I can already hear myself, “Treat that girl better.  Take that promotion.  Stop hanging out with that garbage of a human.”    But, in my estimation, Meursault runs hard in the wrong direction- or at least not the direction, I would want him to go if I were his mother.  He runs straight into his feelings of guilt and pushes them to their most extreme point.  Let's watch how this happens with each engagement.      Well, the next engagement of note for me is Meursault running into his old neighbor Salamano and his dog.  The relationship Salamano has with his dog is one Camus is strangely interested in>. He describes the man and his dog almost like a miserable old married couple.      Page 26-27    Christy, what are we supposed to make of this?    Well, that's always the question with Camus, isn't it?  What are we supposed to make of it.  I find myself judging this man because he's cruel to his dog.  But Meursault won't do that.  He doesn't want to be judged, so he doesn't judge Salamano- just like he won't judge Raymond- and Raymond is absolutely one of the most terrible people in all of literature.  I would stack him up against Katherine Earnshaw, or Napoleon the Pig, or Jack from Lord of the flies.      OH my, that is a lovely cast of characters.  Yes, he's a terrible person.  He's a pimp, or at least seems to be.  He beats the woman he lives with to the point that she bleeds- and yet Meursault won't judge him.  In fact, later on he helps him.     Yes, that irks me. He writes a letter for him.  He lies for him.  At one point Raymond asks Meursault what he thinks about all the horrible things he's done and plans on doing to the Moorish girl he's abusing, and Meursault flat out refuses to make any moral judgements.  He has no empathy for the girl, either.  He said he didn't think anything but thought it was interesting.  Talk about what comes across to the reader as absurd- his reaction to me is absurd.  But after all of this, Camus only observes- at the end of chapter 3, we read only this, “All I could hear was the pounding in my ears.  I stood there, motionless.  And in old Salamano's room, the dog whimpering softly.”      As Meursault absorbs what I would consider to be two very obvious expressions of evil in the world- Camus creates what he calls a “divorce between the world as it is and man's conception of the world as it ought to be”.  What he's describing here is the world as it is, and not the world as I want it to be where pets and women are held in places of tenderness- where respect for life itself is highly regarded and where raw power isn't exercised so mercilessly.        And yet, if life doesn't matter, as Meursault understands that it doesn't, if speckness is a reality, as it clearly is, if we feel guilt for things we aren't really guilty for because of some irrational force from the universe, then what difference does it make if a man abuses his dog and beats a woman he's had sex with mercilessly and violently? It just doesn't matter.   Moral distinctives don't matter.    Yikes- this is deeply negative stuff.      Oh yes, and the offense doesn't end there.  In chapter 4, we circle back to Marie.  The romance between these two is every bit as absurd as the violence we saw in chapter 3.  Meursault, wants Marie, as in the sexual sense, when he see her in a red and white dress (make of those colors what you will); he notes her breasts again, btw- and I'm not sure how to understand all of that. But anyway,  They spend the day and night together; it's all very sensual.  The next morning, instead of cutting out before Meursault wakes up, Marie sticks around.  Meursault goes out to get some meat for them and then we have an odd juxtaposition of observations.  Let's read these:    Page 35-36    I agree with Marie.  It IS terrible.  But Meursault doesn't make judgements.  He doesn't say anything.  He is an outsider.  He is a stranger.  For Meursault, he couldn't see that any of it mattered to him.  Why should it?     I think he believes that is the rational thing to believe, but I think there is something about this absurdity that refuses to let him find peace.  In chapter 6 his boss basically offers him a big promotion.  He is offered an opportunity to work in Paris, to travel, to do all the things, we would ascribe as being important.  Meursault's reaction to this offer is as apathetic as his reaction to Raymond beating the pulp out of his mistress.  He says to his boss that he isn't interested in a change of life.  He says One life is as good as another.  He's not dissatisfied with his life there in Algiers.  But here's the crux of it.  It just doesn't matter.  None of it mattered.  For the absurd hero, that's where you get to with everything.  He says this same thing when Marie revisits their relationship.      Page 41-42    It's turning into a refrain- nothing matters- nothing matters- nothing matters.  Meursault dwells in a lot of silence- for the very reason that nothing matters.  He explains nothing because there's nothing to explain.  He expresses almost no feelings to us, his readers, but ironically, as we will see during his trial, everyone that he knows defends him as being a pretty decent human being.  Fpr the most part, he does right by the people in his life: his mother, Marie, Raymond, Salomano, even Celeste the lady from the diner.  That is not the problem.  For Meaursalt, the  problem is not that whether he loved or didn't love his mother- the problem is that it doesn't matter if he did or didn.t.  He doesn't matter if he loves Marie.  He's happy to marry her if she wants, but really the fact they they love or don't love, marry or don't marry- it just doesn't matter.  And on and on he goes with everything in the world. For Camus, this reality, that can make you dizzy if you go around and around about it – has to be where you start if you want to break out of the cycle of the absurd.  You have to start at this point of being rationally honest.  The problem is, once you find yourself at this basic existential understanding that life doesn't care about you- now you have the problems Meurault is facing?  At that point, How do you prevent total boredom?  How do you even make decisions?  The outcomes don't matter.   And these are tje two constant realities we see in Meursault's life and which I find incredibly annoying.  He can't care, and he can't decide anything for himself.  He lets everyone else in the world make the decisions seemingly because he doesn't see any difference between one course of action versus another.  He feels just as guilty at every point.  He figures if I don't care, and you do, we'll just do what you want.   Why not? His goal is to escape that guilty feeling, but the universe won't let him.      This is the Meursault of part 1, and this is the Meursault that arrives on a beach, shoots a man, and then allows us to walk away from the passage, wondering if it was his fault that he just killed a man who he likely didn't know his name or hold anything againt.      Ironically, for me, the day of the murder is really the happiest day in the entire story, so much so that out of no where we see Meursault having the thought and I quote, “for the first time, maybe, I really thought I was going to get married.”  He's thinking in the future and not in the exact present moment only.    If we think about it in terms of guilt, which I think we should do, we can see this book being about three deaths for which Meursault considers in regard to his own guilt.  In the first instance, Meursault is connected to and held responsible for the death of a woman he did not kill, a woman he loved.  That is sentence one.   The second death is the death of a person that Maursault is 100% responsible for killing but for whose death he did not wish nor even intend.  In this case,  we are made to question the degree to which he is responsible for what he did.  There's no question, he pulled the trigger.   There is no question he was not provoked.  Meursault is at fault.  The final death will be his own in part two, and it is in facing this final death that Meursault finds some semblance of happiness, peace- and incredibly absolution of guilty.. and it's not because he has a secret death wish- he absolutely does not commit suicide- but he'd rather face the guillotine than live dishonestly- and it is in facing hopelessness that he finds some sort of higher calling- although, again, if I'd been his mother, I'd say, I'm glad for your higher calling, son, but play the game a little bit.  Because honestly, it seems obvious, if he had just played the game a little bit, he could have gotten out of the string events that lead to the guillotine.      For sure, as we know from history, in the context of colonialism, the murder of an Arab by a Frenchman would not have been considered a serious crime.  Again, if you read Things Fall Apart with us, we saw that play out in that book as well.  In most cases, something like this, with just a little cooperation from the defendant, would have been handled to ensure minimal penalty….but Camus won't let Meursault play the game.  He seems to want us to look at the culpability of this crime in a strange way.  We are not meant to feel sympathy for the Arab and his family- that is for sure- they don't even play into our understanding of events at all.  We are interested in only the forces at play in Meursault.  This is not a story about a man versus man conflict.  We are dealing with forces that are greater than just a man.  So why do we have a baseless and senseless murder?      Yeah, this is where I feel like I'm wading into the philosophical weeds that could get me in trouble with scholars who have so many different opinions on how to answer that question.  Dang Camus, with his description style leaves so much ambiguity.  He plays around with symbols and forces us to draw some very personal conclusions.  There is room to argue, but I will have a go at it this murder scene- because it is here that we are arrive at the fullness of absurdity.  Nothing is more absurd than death- in fact that is what defines absurdity- we yearn for life but we eventually get death.  So, let's look at this one.  For, the murderer- the name Meursaultis interesting as to how it breaks down when we translate it into English.  It literally could be translated two ways mer- means sea- salt is salt- so this name could mean sea-salt- or it could mean it could mean mer- as in the present tesne of I die.  And  salt if it doesn't meant salt as in what we put on fries could mean salt- as in I leap.  This name coule be translated “die leap”- let me just throw that at you- is the absurd hero Meursault a man who is taking a leap towards the ultimate absurdity itself- death.      Okay- let's say he is.  But why?  Why do that?  One thing you can say about Meursault is that he's not really an unhappy person.  He's not dissatisfied.  He's not greedy.  He actually expresses a great deal of satisfaction and even happiness.      True- all of that is true- but think of the first sentence of the myth of sysyphys- what does Camus think is the only question really worth asking.  Should I commit suicide?  Meursault is all those things, but at the same time,  he can't escape are guilt, boredom and inertia.  That's the trifecta.  He probably could handle a lot of suffering, people do- but they have a hard time handling guilt, boredome and inertia.  If we want to put it in terms that a Christian might understand, you might say that Camus is trying to understand, explain and overcome what Christians call “original sin”- I am guilty by my nature- not by my behavior.  This is irrational and for for Meursault it's an impasse.  He wants out of that conundrum.  It makes him extremely uncomfortable.  The scenes on the beach are full of sun and are incredible uncomfortable from the moment Raymond pulls out the gun – the sun stops the world- there is the sea, the sand, the sun, silence.  There is intense heat.      Let's read it    Page 58/59    The sun made him do it.  What does that mean?    Isn't that the million dollar question?  Camus makes Meursault innocent here.  He doesn't hold him responsible.  The sun's responsible.  And yet, he's not innocent, obviously.  He's guilty by choice.  He shoots the Arab once, then he pauses then he shoots him four more times.  Camus carefully creates a separation between the arguable involuntary shot and then the four that were absolutely on purpose.  Meursault actually stopped after the first shot and then starts up again.  This is about assuming guilt.  Meursault wants something with this.   He wants to be guilty- to understand himself as being guilty.  Where before nothing meant anything- as he said over and over again- he has now committed a specific offense for which there is a concrete association with guilt.  Meursault had not wanted to look at his mother's dead body- he didn't understand why he felt that generalized guilt, but here Meursault understands.  He looks and to use his words, He knows he has broken the equilibrium of the day.  He has come to feel responsible.      And I know I'm getting ahead, but my mind goes here, to Camus' later writing, in The Rebel, he says “Conscience comes to light with revolt.”  This feels like revolt against the universe.  Against, God, if you will.      Definitely.  It is, and it is rebellion and revolt.  These will be the themed for episode 3 as we try to break down part 2 of the book- which IS the optimistic side- and we will find one.  At the end of part one, Meursault will not say anything.  He reacts in silence. Shooting the Arab four more times was like “knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness.”      Well, I guess he's not happy about killing the Arab.  There was no vengeance; no thrill or blood thirst.  Just the door of unhappiness on a day that had been actually pretty happy.    Yeah, I think so.  Some say there will always have to wade through unhappiness to get to consciousness and the peace on the other side.  I think Camus leans this way.  The sun, if we cannot figure out or agree on what it symbolizes- if nothing else expresses something that is subjugating our hero and from which he finally feels an overwhelming compulsion to revolt.  He knows it won't help.  He knows he can't escape the sun, but this metaphysical need to fight back is the sentiment.        And so we see, for the first time our apathetic character that can never do anything on his own accord- finally act upon the world.  It's a negative act to be sure.      A terrible act…and one which will come at a cost…but for Camus…that's the beauty of art.  Meursault's act is necessary- and not just for him, but for us as well.  We cannot confront the absurdity of our lives without assistance.  In some ways, Meursault's murder of the Arab is the act of conscious for us too, and if we can arrive at it with the aid of art, perhaps we can also push through the door into consciousness without the four condemning knocks of unhappiness-or at least without their stinging consequences.    Goodness, Christy, that is really living vicariously…I think I just heard you say, if we feel the need to murder the universe, read this book and let Camus do it for us, to avoid all the messy clean up of an Agatha Christie style detective story.      Yes, I think maybe it's something like that.    Well, there you go.  Next week, we will walk with Meursault through the long and claustrophobic trial scene and watch his world play out in yet another set of strange metaphysical contradictions.      The absurd conclusion to the absurd!!!      So, thanks for listening….yadayayada                              We cannot confront the absurd without assistance.  This is what art is designed to do.”In this universe the work of art is then the sole change of keeping this consciousness and of fixing its adventures.”  Art succeeds where reason fails. Art succeeds because it does not explain or sovle.  It just experiences and describes.”  It is inductive.      “the novel creates destintiy to suit any eventuality.  In this way it competes with creation and p, provisionally, conquers death…  “It expresses a metaphysical need.”  Art provides a sense of unity.  That's why symbols are important.  They are ambigiuous.  Camus believes we can only think in images.      In the human condition  “there is a basic absurdity as well as an implacable nobility.”  Symbols oscillate between the natural and the extraordinary- the individual and the universal.   The image as a parable: the attempt to express the undefineable nature of feeling by what is obvius and undefinable in concrete things.”    What characterizies our century is not so much the need to rebuild the world as to rethink it.”    Camus was concerned that language had become estranged from reality- like Orwell.  He quoted Isaiah from the Bible and said this, “the day when crime dons the apparel of innocence- through a curious transposition peculiar to our times- it is innocence that is called upon to justify itself”.    He wanted authentic social and political communities to have the lucity to call good and evil by their right names.    Revolt is a reaction against human suffering and injustice.  It begins in solitude but progresses into an act of solidarity in the name of all men and women.  Rebellion is constitutive of human nature.  “In order to exist, man must rebel,”.  “When rebellion, in rage or intoxication, adopts the attitude of ‘all or nothing' and the negation of all existence and all human nature, it is at this point that it denies itself…rebellion's demand is unity.”   

In this episode we explore a range of books including 1984, Candide, Omelas, and Harlequin and dig into a common thread among the dystopian genre. We analyze how authors of dystopia provide a praxis to combat violence in the world. This was crafted and edited by 3 AP Lit students from the Bay Area.

Cavin and Bree discuss famous architects, what the most realistic teacher scene in movies got made, and what would happen if an AP Lit exam got made into a movie. Join them as they judge this 2020 horror thriller by its cover! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/byitscover/support

King Bitch goes to AP Lit, visits Grandpa's old stomping grounds, makes some prank calls, and has very slick hands. Written and Performed By: Zoe Limbrick, Kevin McCarthy, Nako Narter, Yesenia Rego, Zoe Sansanowicz, Nat Torres, Emily Walborn, Callie Webb, Jordan Wold Logo Art By: Maddy Wiryo

If you're one of those try-hards who read this for the AP Lit test (and we are), you'll be pleased to see us finally take this one on. This week we have F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, which is about extremely non-embarrassing things like throwing enormous parties so your ex-girlfriend will notice you. We talk about Fitzgerald's accounts of sex and money, gender and sexuality, and Long Island guys who are really transplants so they go particularly hard. We read the Scribner edition with introduction by Jesmyn Ward. For a wild ride, read Gore Vidal's “Scott's Case,” published in the May 1 1980 issue of The New York Review of Books, as it contains some truly wacky bon mots, like “All Americans born between 1890 and 1945 wanted to be movie stars,” which… probably not? Find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @betterreadpod, and email us nice things at betterreadpodcast@gmail.com. Find Tristan on Twitter @tjschweiger, Katie @katiekrywo, and Megan @tuslersaurus.

Our last episode of this season includes a special guest speaker and our very own AP Lit teacher, Mrs. Cox! Together we'll talk through and have our guest speaker answer questions which even features a special lighting round! I hope you had fun listening to Under The Cover Of Night, and always remember, “In love we find out who we want to be; In war we find out who we are”.

Hey guys! We bring to you today a review on Blues: Odysseus by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. A group of AP Lit students bring you an example of how to TPCASTT a poem, with insightful thoughts and analysis on the poem.

Sarah M. Zerwin teaches Senior Language Arts and AP Lit at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado, and author of the book Point-Less: An English Teacher's Guide to More. You can follow her blog The Paper Graders and on twitter at @SarahMZerwin Topics include: What led to the idea that points get in the way of learning. How to identify learning targets and communicate them to students. How to establish a culture of feedback and maintain it throughout the year. How to report a final grade at the end of a term. Resources: Sarah's book Point-Less: An English Teacher's Guide to More. Sarah's blog The Paper Graders

"The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats--let's talk about it!

WHAAATT??!!!

Oh boy. Be real, you actually feel sad for Okonkwo.

Okonkwo is back in town, but man, things have changed.

THINGS ARE FALLING APART!

Egwugwu! Ezinma! And a wedding!

Hypermasculinity, sex and gender, and tradition versus change. Go!

What is chapter nine?! Also, what medical practices did we have going on in the west in this same time period?

Let's talk about the test and let's also remind ourselves about what it means to take a high-stakes test in a pandemic.

Okonkwo grieves. On the inside. On the outside, he's still his usual violent, demanding self.

8 trivia questions and a discussion on Things Fall Apart, chapter 7, which contained a jaw-dropping moment!

Hi all! Quick little episode comin' at ya!

So much to talk about on the pod tonight! I love you, Seniors!

Hey hey hey! I'm back with ANOTHER episode of your favorite podcast!

Listen! You know you want to!

Hi all! Friday is here!

Hey you! Hit play!

I discuss the first three chapters of Things Fall Apart. Feel free to listen before OR after you read.

Hi there! It's me again!

Hit play immediately!

Listen immediately!

You know the drill! Download immediately and listen!

Frozen 2, the essay, one way to approach this very stressful, unpredictable situation called COVID-19, and of course shout outs!

Get excited! In this episode, I cover what you are going to find in Google Classroom tonight/tomorrow. Also, at the end of the podcast, I need your help with something!

AP LIT! It's our first episode! I explain a bunch of things on this episode that you might want to know about!

This is the project that Mrs. Forbes AP Lit class was assigned for our parallel reading books. This one is in the book Homegoing

Kathy Keyes taught English for 36 years—at a rural high school, at an urban university, and at a college preparatory Catholic high school. A graduate of Purdue and Indiana University, Kathy recently stepped out of the teaching profession for a “gap year” in order to reevaluate and process the joys and challenges of teaching. She served as co-chair of the English department where she mentored teachers. She taught AP Literature for 17 years, was an AP reader, and served on the AP Lit development committee from 2016-2019. During her gap year, she plans to conquer at last the reading pile that has accumulated in her living room and to enjoy mornings without an alarm clock. Her Twitter handle is @kthkeyes The post Kathy Keyes — Episode #98 appeared first on Talks with Teachers.

This is a much longer episode where we recap highschool. It is more serious because it is also our AP Lit final project, but we try to keep it entertaining. Sponsored by: quizlet.com/hoiguy1 Instagram: @sizeeightandahalf

In this episode I recount my experiences with an AP Lit teacher who taught me to look beyond the surface value of the text.

Again we jump into the Way Back machine and pay a visit with a slightly younger and more vivacious TechNollerGist who has thoughts on incorporating Design Thinking into the classroom. If you find the pod useful or at least mildly interesting, please subscribe and give us a rating on your app of choice and as always thanks for listening and inspiring!  Larry Burden  0:19   So much good content. So much good content. David Noller  0:24  I was  starting to worry about a few are getting my good side but I'm not sure I have one anymore. Larry Burden  0:35  It's episode 5 of the TechNollerGist  David Noller  0:39  I keep thinking you're hanging on numbers like this is only the fifth one  Larry Burden  0:43  This is only the official fifth one, I checked. I was looking through the records and it was number five.  David Noller  0:48  All right,  Larry Burden  0:48  Unless my records are bad, which is very likely because like, math, not strong.  David Noller  0:52  That's not. I'm sure it's right.  Larry Burden  0:54  By the way, I am your humble host Larry Burden, and I'm joined by the man who's gamed the system. It's the TechNollerGist.  David Noller  0:59  That's right, gaming the system. I like that, I like it. Larry Burden  1:02  David Noller, the TechNollerGist, the topic should you choose to accept it? Is design thinking?  David Noller  1:08  Do we not have a moment of Zen  Larry Burden  1:09  We, the moment of zen is that other that we don't talk about that other podcast? David Noller  1:15  I'll give you one, the guy who directed. Larry Burden  1:17  The TechNollerGist Tidbit,  David Noller  1:19  TechNollerGist Tidbit. The guy who directed The Red Balloon that famous French short film also invented the board game Risk.  Larry Burden  1:27  I didn't know that. David Noller  1:33  So the idea of design, the design cycle in education. I started getting introduced. I started getting interested in this a couple years ago. And every time I saw the design cycle, I always felt like it feels like it's another lockstep and I know it wasn't supposed to. But every time I saw a model, it was start here, then do this, then do this, then repeat. And I understood the purpose of it that you introduce an idea, you create a hypothesis, you build something to test that hypothesis, you determine if there's any, anything you need to change in order for it to be more successful, you adjust it and you do it again. But it still felt like a pattern. It still felt like a... Larry Burden  2:19  like something that was designed? David Noller  2:20  like an unwieldy process.  Larry Burden  2:22  Okay, okay,  David Noller  2:23  Maybe it's my, my sort of, my approach to design in the first place, which is to sort of jump in and swim around for a while, and then take a look around and see where you are. And if there's sharks, then you obviously have to swim away. But, but if there's no sharks, you can keep going. Larry Burden  2:39  Isn't that though, a system?  David Noller  2:41  it isn't a way  Larry Burden  2:43  you said that. And I'm like, that kind of mirrors the system that you just mentioned.  David Noller  2:49  And it does. And because you know, I'm kind of a visual person, When I would see those design cycles with a starting point, and then it would loop around and start again, It looks a little bit like a rat race, or a mouse wheel, I guess, is the thing. And I never want to get stuck on that mouse wheel. And we, we saw something when we went to the METS fall rally, which was the Michigan Educational Technology Specialists fall rally. And we did the design project. But the, the, the, the cycle, the design cycle came from Ford's model I Project,  Larry Burden  3:28  Okay.  David Noller  3:29  And It's another look at how to do innovation. It's another look at how to do a design cycle. And what I liked about it was that there there are the, what they call the the actions of innovation. And these are things that you would normally see on, on a design cycle. Uncover, which is the idea where we're trying to figure out what it is that's needed. Then we're going to define the problem, we're going to design something to address it, we're going to test it and optimize it, and then we're going to implement that solution. Okay, Those are the things that normally see in a design cycle, versions of that. But the Model I approach adds, things like being empathic. When you're working with your test audience, or the people who are going to be using that thing, that product, that idea. Engaging them with empathy. Now, that's an old human design concept. But the way it's engaged here is, is different in that, for some of the old design human design projects, you start with empathy. You talk to your consumer, you talk to your audience, you figure out what they need, and then you take over from there. And, and maybe it's just the way that the Model I laid out. But they have that empathy piece being, coming into the process at each step. So sure, in the beginning, when you're trying to understand the process, but also when you're designing it, and also when you're implementing it. And also when you are generating ideas. What they call the habits of the innovator, are sprinkled in throughout the actions of innovation. So you've got the action of design. And then you've got these habits and things like: taking risks, be empathetic, collaborate, stay curious, learn from failure, challenge the rules. So that at each step along the way of that design process, you're being reminded to challenge the rules, be empathetic, Stay curious, collaborate, take risks, all those things. And when I, when I saw that model, as somebody who is someone who kind of challenges status quo and looks to do things differently. It was, it's, it's another look at a design model that allows for a lot more customization and interaction, where the the empathy part isn't just in the beginning to figure out what you need. It flows through the whole project. If nothing else from the METS fall rally, that was my big takeaway. Was, was that new look at the model. Nothing, nothing in the model's, particularly brand new. We've been doing human, human design theory for a long time. But it's the way I think that it's implemented that I think was, for me, at least a new thing. Larry Burden  6:12  It's not just the program, it actually shows you how to navigate the construct. Yeah. Which is different. David Noller  6:18  Yeah, the "what" hasn't changed? Maybe the how, and maybe the why, I think maybe...  Larry Burden  6:23  Even maybe the who?  David Noller  6:24  yeah,  Larry Burden  6:25  Because really, what they're what they're doing is they're they're engaging, they're getting you to engage in it, and reflect on it as a, as an individual or as a group going through the process. I think that's different, you're not just looking at the process, you're actually engaged, and they're asking you to be subjective, right in the process, right, so that you're really engaged in it. David Noller  6:45  And I think it's really reflective of, of teaching and how, how our staffs engaged in planning, where we're reading The Kite Runner right now. And you can, you can set, you can set your students up in the beginning, understanding where they're understanding where they're, where their prejudices might lie, or just their pre judgments about parts of the world or, or even about reading. And we can, we can engage those things early on. And then throughout the process. We do that all the time, we come back, and we check back in and we see have your attitudes changed? How have your, how has your understanding changed? I think that's built into a lot of our planning in the in the first place,  Larry Burden  7:23  You know, we're going through the ISTE standards for educators, right. And it just so happens, that next week, we're going to be jumping into the I do believe the fifth standard, which is designer. And yeah, well enough. And if I can read, I'm kind of curious what your take on it is? Educators design authentic learner driven activities and environments that recognize and accommodate learner variability?  David Noller  7:45  Yeah,  Larry Burden  7:46  I'm not going to go through the indicators and what that is. But it's interesting that in METS, there was there were discussions on this. Here in ISTE standards, it's important enough to be recognized. Why, and you mentioned that this is something that educators just do, why is there so much of an emphasis on this? When, to some extent, well, you know, we design we design all the time, we're designing curriculum, we're designing our classroom management process, you know... David Noller  8:24  Sure. Why is there, why is there an emphasis when we already do it? Because I think there's a difference between, sort of accidentally walking into it and being intentional about it. And I think we all as teachers do it from time to time. But I think there's also a challenge that we can meet by being intentional about engaging it more often. Anytime we engage kids in a meaningful, learner centered activity, that's authentic, that gives them real world experience. We know, that's how they learn better. Sometimes we get stuck in, yeah, but I have to finish this chapter or, yeah, but I have a textbook and I started at page one, and I got to get to the last one. And sometimes I think we get stuck in curriculum, when if we take a step back and slowed down just a minute, we can engage them in things that are going to last longer, in terms of impact for them. Then, as, as needed by finishing the book, finishing the textbook, or getting to that last chapter. Now I know, I'm speaking for teachers who, you know, like math teachers, I've got the SAT to confront, you know, that's something that we know that they they have to deal with. But it's how we get the kids there. And I think sometimes we can get stuck in that curriculum. And sometimes we can get stuck in the way I've always done it. I'm actually kind of lucky in a way that it's rare that I have a textbook for any of my classes. I had a textbook for 10th grade, and I had a book that I used for AP Lit. But just about every other class I've taught has been go figure it out.  Larry Burden  10:01  Even the classrooms, in the pieces that are in the areas of the curricular, areas that have textbooks or have some pre, some designated materials that they have to go through. One of the neat things about design thinking I feel is what it's doing is saying, Look at your playing field. There are variables in every playing field, every game has rules. Every game has rules. Once you recognize what the playing field is, and what the rules are, now you can construct and design within those rules. Yeah, you know, it's nice that you have a little bit wider playing field, right. But really the, the, the concept behind the design thinking is is therefore any, any playing field, any game. David Noller  10:45  Yeah. Any game. And the other nice thing is that within this within that philosophy that approach using design thinking, It also lends itself towards customizing your experiences for the kids who need the customization. I have three English language learners this year, exchange students from Germany, Italy, and Sweden. And I've had to make adjustments along the way, in order to make sure that their experience of the class is meaningful in a way that I mean, literally meaningful, like linguistically meaningful to them. And so we've we've added some new things within the, within how I teach to make that makes sense. Google Presentation now has live Closed Captioning of presentations. So as I present information, if I do it in a in a Google Presentation, It will live closed caption as I speak, and it's pretty accurate. It's pretty cool. I actually use a podcasting Mic to do it, because it can't hear me a little clearer. But that fits right into that part. As a designer of the empathy. I look at my audience, and I see who needs what, and then I make adjustments based on who needs that thing. Larry Burden  11:54  I think every educator on some level is an artist. You have to be when as you're a designer, you're an artist, you're using creativity. And really the magic of, what happens in the classroom is exploring. But It's neat to see that the educator, and I think it would be good for the for the educator to recognize that they are exploring and they are digging into their their own creative mindset, their own design, mindset, the design mindset every time they look at their curricular area, right or their classroom, and they really think about it holistically and empathetically, David Noller  12:31  And how can you get, how can you best get to the outcome that you're looking for for that audience? We have the same goal for all of our all of our students in terms of outcome, but how we get them there, because as part of that art, and sometimes we do adjust the outcome for our students. But we don't adjust it in a way that removes the meaning from it that it might be a slightly lower target, it might be a slightly different way to complete the target. But I don't think we ever change it to the point where the goal has lost its meaning. Larry Burden  13:01  So you're going to go there earlier. But I and I kind of stopped I feel I gotta apologize. But so before we jump into it, I wanted to ask you a question because this is going to be a new segment of the TechNollerGist podcast, and I don't have a name for I was struggling to find a name for the segment, you know, we have in tech tool or in the TCAPSLoop weekly podcast, we have the Tech Tool of the week, we have our name,  David Noller  13:23  Right?  Larry Burden  13:24  We need a name for this. So I'm actually you know, anybody that's listening, if you've got a if you've got a name for like some kind of a gamification now gamified title,  David Noller  13:35  Okay, if I get to, Larry Burden  13:37  absolutely.  David Noller  13:38  I'll have to think about? Yeah,  Larry Burden  13:40  So look out for that. So with that, what is, what is it? David Noller  13:45  Here's the thing. So I thought maybe that's it. here's the here's the thing, that's actually a thing that I say quite a bit. So here's the thing. Last year, I talked about a version of Monopoly that I played with my sociology kids, right? I haven't done that yet this year. I'm playing around with where I do it in my in my semester, I did it.  Larry Burden  14:04  Are you designing?  David Noller  14:04  A little bit. I did it early last year. And I don't feel like it had the same kind of impact as when they had a little bit more under their belt. So I'm holding off on that. But I came away from the METS meetup that we had thinking more about design and engagement. And I keep coming back to games in the classroom. And we're reading The Kite Runner. And there's a section of the Kite Runner where the family is trying to escape because the Soviets have come and things are bad. And so they're they're, they're on their way out. And they have to figure out how to leave. And so we've done a little bit of background information with our kids about what's the social situation in Afghanistan and the time, I think it's 1979. The Soviets have returned to the country, if you look at a map of where they were, they kind of created a ring. And then Kabul was also a dangerous place to be. And so I gave the kids of the challenge of they were making decide how many people are in their family, and they they have to leave from the same neighborhood as our characters in Kite Runner. So we're working on 1979 political condition, but 2018 financial condition, because I didn't want them to have to, "How much is a plane ticket in 2018, verses 1979." The idea was, they had to come up with a route and plan out how much money they were going to spend, to get out. And they could go to any number of, of locations, I could go to North America, Australia, someplace in Africa, Japan, South Korea, UK, Europe. They could go pretty much anywhere they wanted to they had to figure out how to get there, in an affordable way. And that's all I said was affordable. I kind of tricked them. And when they were while they're traveling in the airport, if they had to buy food, it was twice what they would normally spend. If they were around town, just for average. I asked them to figure out how much per hundred miles it would cost them to drive. And then I asked them to use travel websites to figure out how much it costs to fly or take a bus or whatever from. So The goal is Escape Afghanistan. But... Larry Burden  16:19  now we're not talking Afghani you bus fares. We're talking about bus fares,  David Noller  16:22  right?  Larry Burden  16:23  Just, you know, they said, having to go into the dark web. And  David Noller  16:25  Yeah, they said how we supposed to know how much it costs get from Kabul to whatever. And I said, Well, what do you think? And somebody said, Well, can we just figure out how much it costs to get from here to like Chicago, and then use that? Sure. Let's do that thing. It's not going to be 100% accurate. But for the purposes of what we were doing, It worked. So that that's all great. And that could be its own little thing on its own, probably. But that's just math. But this was the fun part, I thought. Whenever they changed modes of transportation, entered another city, cross the border, I rolled dice, and then I game mastered the condition. So I rolled it, I use six, six sided dice, I would roll these virtual dice and ones are failures. They're terrible. Sixes are awesome. They're great. And everything in between four and above is a success. Three and below is a not success. And based on the dice rolls, I would then tell a story. Normally, I would want the kids telling the story. But based on what we were doing. I was I was giving them complications that then they had to respond to. So there was a group that rolled really high and actually got to borrow their rich aunt's private plane and fly to Turkey. They weren't all the way home yet. But they got to that. Another group that rolled very low. One of the people in their group was abducted. There's other players who they ended up running out of money in Moscow. And so now they're in Moscow as an Afghani, not speaking the language with no money and can't go any further. After this whole thing was over, and we took an entire day to do this. And we role played out all kinds of things that people along the route that stopped you and demanded payment, somebody who was was treated very kindly by somebody that they met along the way, there was somebody who was put on a terror watch list, because their last name matched the name of somebody who had just committed an act of violence. So we had all these sort of historical and present day consequences that happened as a result of me rolling dice. So I wasn't just deciding, oh, you're gonna have a terrible thing, I would roll the dice and say, Well, here's what happens. We've talked a little bit about the design thing and the the idea of empathy. We started with the idea of we're going to do something to try to understand our characters better, because they're about to go through something that's, that's...  Larry Burden  18:53  Pretty difficult,  David Noller  18:54  Pretty difficult. And then we played this game. And the real kicker came at the end, when I said, Okay, everybody know, how much did y'all spend? And it was in the thousands, Right? And I said, Okay, here's the issue, though. The typical Afghan makes $400 a month, on average. So those are 2018 dollars you're playing with? How are you going to get that much money together to get your family out? And I said, so these really journeys that we just took? And we looked at all the list the money that we just spent, and one student from the back of the room says, they're just dreams. And I went, yes, that's, that's it. And and then I asked them to write about how that changed their understanding of refugees, people who try to escape countries, and why they do, and why they take the routes that they take? Why are people willing to get on a boat with 60 other people when it's supposed to only hold 15. So they have no other way. Larry Burden  19:54  That chance is better than no chance.  David Noller  19:56  That chance is better than no chance and, and  Larry Burden  19:59  So you're saying I got a chance,  David Noller  20:01  You're saying there's a chance. So In the end, the whole game was designed to get the kids in a more empathetic place themselves as readers of the literature that we're considering and to have them experience even in that just that simulation, what goes through your mind when you're trying to get out. Because they really engaged in this. I was really proud of them for taking it seriously. There was one group, what they weren't willing to do is accept the negative. When we role played this out, a lot of the teams were they were very accepting of the negative. They, they knew they had to trade something good for something bad. There, were there were times when they had to decide, am I going to leave this other person behind? Or am I going to pay the bribe and be penniless from now on. And they confronted that, and they wrote about that. The one group that didn't really come along? Was because they didn't want to accept the negative, they didn't want to deal with the consequence. They wanted to just shield themselves from it. So they're not used to dealing with, you know, life changing consequence of  Larry Burden  21:07  zero sum game zero.  David Noller  21:09  That's right. So, Larry Burden  21:11  so is this podcast about design or empathy?  David Noller  21:14  Yes. How can I not only use empathy to design the game, but then have the game produce empathy? In Human Design Theory, You start with empathy. And so if we're going to engage our kids in modern thinking about work. Our design companies, well, not even our design companies, our companies use these kinds of approaches and how they make decisions. Our kids need to get used to that kind of decentralized, more collaborative, decision making, engaging and empathy along the way so that their decisions can be informed by the human condition, Larry Burden  21:55  If I can argue your point. I think our kids are,  David Noller  21:59  Yeah. Larry Burden  22:00  I think, I think as educators were maybe you know, might be lagging a little bit in that process. David Noller  22:08  That's great clarification. There's so many things where I think our kids are naturally already doing it. And we're trying to play catch up. They're used to being collaborative. When they play Fortnite, they're collaborating with Team all day long and talking to each other and giving each other instructions and, and helping each other accomplish something. If you don't understand it, but your friend does, ask him. A couple last little things. You know, one of the a couple of the things that we had were challenge the rules, take risks, and stay curious. Collaborate, okay, they collaborated, I had them working in groups, they had to figure this out together. The groups that did the best and had the the highest level engagement, and frankly, had the best times, were the ones that were really willing to role play it and to stay curious about, well, what happens if we go here? If is there, What's there that we can get? Is there a bus station? Is there a plane station?  Larry Burden  22:57  has questions,  David Noller  22:58  Google Maps does a great job of providing you with that information. The other part was challenging the rules, I would have kids and I love this would say, well, can we, don't give them a lot of rules. But they would say can we and then they prompt me with something that I hadn't thought of? Sure, you can do that. There's the group that said, Can we hire a private jet? Well, let's see what the dice say. They're the ones that rolled like five sixes and a five. At that point, I said, not only can you hire a private jet, You actually have a famous aunt who was an actress, and she has offered to foot the bill for you to get Turkey. She's flying there for film festival anyway. So as long as she's going there, she'll take your crew and then all you have to do is get from there to Greece, because they wanted to go to some someplace in Northern Greece. So that's the kind of thing that would happen along the way where they would challenge the the assumptions, even though there weren't really that many rules. But they would, they would, they would sort of challenge the context. And and I want to say yes, as much as I can. And then, and then, taking risks. And there was a kid who had to decide, he had to, he had to choose between either sacrificing himself, he was just going to not be alive anymore, or becoming a drug mule. Because stuff like that happens. Larry Burden  24:11  Did you have, you said 3, 3, 6 sided dice or 18?  David Noller  24:14  6? 6? Yeah.  Larry Burden  24:16  So did you have that many variables set up? pre had you designed as? And The reason I say that is you know, you, you game?  David Noller  24:27  Yeah.  Larry Burden  24:27  And and have a penchant for storytelling?  David Noller  24:30  Yeah.  Larry Burden  24:31  Not every educator is going to have,  David Noller  24:33  understood Larry Burden  24:34  have that skill. So what would you, and what we're going way long here, so then I shouldn't do this. What would you recommend for an educator that maybe doesn't have that skill set. David Noller  24:47  When I have done this before, I've also used what I call chance cards. And I don't call them chance cards, monopoly calls them chance cards. But I would design a series of cards that have a consequence. And I could I could do this completely independently, where the kids come up and just grab a card and they see what happens. I like to be engaged in the kids. And I do enjoy the storytelling part. And so for me, rolling the dice and telling a story is easy. But I could, It would take an extra hour of preparation to prepare 30 chance cars of what's going to happen as a result. And you will, you could have still have the kids roll dice. And then if it's a good result, they pick from this pile. And if it's bad result, they pick from the other pile, they can set it up ahead of time on cards or just on a grid. They could ever everything typed out, and printed out, and have two columns of good result, bad results, and kind of cross things off as they happen. Larry Burden  25:39  Good solution.  David Noller  25:40  Yeah.  Larry Burden  25:41  Alright. tutorials and updates. Just wanted to throw it again that we had a podcast last week on the blueprint with Dr. Grant Chandler was very interesting. Good stuff, if you're interested in how a school district is changing how it's running. We have another ISTE standards, collaborator, pod coming up, should be posted. Hopefully this week. It's been a busy week. So I'm a little bit behind. I wanted to just give you a shout out. The tutorials you've been putting out are, are awesome. You've been like the tutorial machine.  David Noller  26:13  You know, that's I decided this year that whenever anybody asked a question of how to I? Iwas going to instead of answering it, I was going to make them wait about two hours and create something that everybody can use. And one of the things that's going to be coming out hopefully tomorrow is how to convert your old Google classrooms to have a classroom page so that you can reuse those moving forward. And that's a whole new thing. And Larry Burden  26:37  the thing is, if you actually look through the entirety of these tutorials, your, your ability to navigate and make google classroom work for you as an educator is going to be upgraded significantly. David Noller  26:50  One of the most recent ones was the the student view of Google Classroom because I think there's some teachers that that want to see what it looks like for the kid before they're willing to jump in. And so that one's out there, and I have a YouTube channel that's connected with my school email account. I think my channel's just called David Noller.  Larry Burden  27:08  I do believe it is  David Noller  27:09  very creative. Larry Burden  27:10  There's a new Tell Me About It, a podcast with Jame McCall and Allison McBride-Culver coming out as well. And check back it's been a couple episodes ago, but the BiblioTech Halloween podcast, She's got some great, it's that time of the year, and she's got some great suggestions for books for kids of all ages. So In closing, follow us on Facebook and Twitter @TCAPSLoop, @TechNollerGist. David Noller  27:33  Ooh, yeah, excellent @TechNollerGist Larry Burden  27:37  subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud and the Google Play Store. leave a review. We love the feedback and remember, you're never too old to play.  David Noller  27:46  That's so true. Play a game tonight. 

We will discuss the different genres, poetry, fiction and nonfiction short stories, media piece, and a virtual museum trip, to analyze the different takes on the Holocaust and how they influence, compare, and differ from Night by Elie Wiesel.

This podcast is for our Ap Lit class where we talk about A Clockwork Orange and two of its Motifs

Our topic and a lil bit of Mickey mouse

The dumb crusade against lawmakers in VA censoring "Sexually Explicit" books in AP Lit classes, the regular Road Rant, and the product that the NFL is putting out.   Also: Cover of the week and a story about awkward youth.   mydumbcrusade.com Show notes: http://bit.ly/253fTHB

Subscribe to The Test on iTunes check out aplithelp.com Could they read and could they write? That’s what they wanted to know. Of course they could do it, but how well could they do it? So they worked in silence for three hours, reading and writing. That’s all it took — three hours. A year’s worth of work, and it was done in three hours. And then, they awaited judgement. Issac and Annie are two of the nearly 400,000 students globally that took the AP Literature and Composition exam last year. It is a rigorous exam. Typically, the best and brightest students in a school take AP exams, at least that’s the way it was when I was in school.  The multiple choice section lasts an hour. Then in the next two hours students write three essays, back to back to back. Its exhausting. Few do well on it. How tough is it? Well only 8% scored a 5 last year. 18% scored a 4. If you do the math, and bear with me I’m an English teacher, nearly 75% failed to score a four or a five. 75% of the smart kids. That’s a tough exam. But when you want to award college credit for high school students, this isn’t the in-house soccer program, not everyone gets a trophy. But Is it fair? Can a test, especially a high-stakes one, reveal what you know? This is a podcast about one TEST. I want to know what those two students did to succeed? What did their teachers teach? Did they teach to the test? Did they ignore it? But once you start asking those questions, your magnifying glass picks up clues that lead down a much bigger rabbit hole. It leads you to wonder, what should a test do? Are we testing too much? How do you help a struggling reader?  Can you assess a student, a school, and entire educational initiative if you don’t test what they know and how they’ve progressed? And what about the students? What impact is all this having on them? Over the next few weeks, I’m going to talk to students, teachers, test makers, advocates and critics. I’m going to ask questions of them all to better understand where we are, what’s working and what isn’t, and the impact its having. Welcome to THE TEST The post Special Project: AP Lit Help’s “The Test” appeared first on Talks with Teachers.

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