Friday, April 3, 2015

The Miracle Project

I love when everything comes together in a teaching unit--the lessons, the engagement, the by-in, the transfer of knowledge.  Although my intention is for every unit to be perfect, sometimes my confidence at the beginning isn't that strong.

When I decided to add the writings of the Transcendentalists to a World Literature unit, I was thrilled.  I hadn't touched Transcendentalism since I left Nebraska 22 years ago, not because I didn't want to but because it simply wasn't on any district curriculum I was presented.  As I scanned the planning guide for 12th grade English for 2nd quarter, a window of opportunity presented itself, allowing me to introduce some of the writings of these great writers to my soon-to-be high school graduates.  

I must admit I was a bit skeptical.  As I said, It had been almost a quarter of a century since I last taught Emerson or Thoreau.  But the spark had been ignited, and I began to plan and gather ideas.  I started with baby steps, and then one reading/discussion just led to more ideas and ultimately the entire unit just came together and everything fell into place.  Kind of like


A MIRACLE

And speaking of miracles, I am still glowing over the final project for my Transcendental unit, which I call The Miracle Project.  The entire time I was working on it, I couldn't help think of my fabulous friend Kari, who shares so beautifully her own miracles in her blog. (read it HERE!)  And so I decided to "gift" her this project.  

Here is the letter I wrote to her to introduce the project.  It's my way of sharing it with you, too!





And, here are some links to a few completed Miracle Projects :) 








and my own demo, with slides purposefully left without pictures or completely blank in order to show my own drafting process for this project

Ms. Thompson



This Miracle Project really was the perfect way to end the first semester for my seniors.  I hope you can take something away from it, too!