Day Six: January 28

Our agenda for the day:

• Questions and comments about Diigo. (5 min.)
• Compare maps with neighbors (5 min.)
• Small group discussion questions about the chapter (15 min.)
• Whole-class discussion about the chapter, nature of political activism, first-person perspective on a major historical event (15 min).
• Shift to blogs. Look at assignment sheet and goals. (5 min.)
• Look at examples of previous semester blogs. (5 min.)
• Sign into your class blog with SEU and start customizing.

Diigo (5 minutes). Missing a couple of students. Overall comment: don’t forget to add three tags per item and two sentence summaries.

Maps (5 minutes). Take a couple of minutes to talk to your neighbors about the locations you tagged on your maps for “Greetings to the Dawn.”

Small Group Discussion (30 minutes). Here’s how we’ll discuss the reading in small groups. I want you as a group to pretend that you are an investigator with the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior. You’ve tracked his movements on your Google Maps, and now your task is to compile a dossier on Malek Sghiri, which you’ll write up as a comment on this day’s class blog entry (you can elect one scribe, but write down the names of everyone in your group). Touch on the following points:

1. Personal background: Family, education and employment.
2. Psychological profile
3. Political profile.
4. Habits, activities and known associates.
5. Subversive activities and/or known crimes against the state.

Large Group Discussion (10 minutes). Each group will share some details from the item I ask them about. Other groups will have a second to mention anything important about each item.

Look at Previous Student Blogs (5 minutes). I’ll show you what a typical full-paragraph (or longer) blog entry looks like using these examples from Fall 2014.  Here is one by Kevin at the end of the semester. Here is one by Allie from the beginning of the semester.

• 3 points to summarize first artifact.
• 3 points to summarize second artifact.
• 4 points for the quality of your reflection on both artifacts.
  1. Repeats only basic knowledge or facts contained in the artifacts.
  2. Builds on knowledge or facts with some reflection on meaning to larger historical context.
  3. Connects the knowledge and historical context to perspectives on globalization or other large concepts.
  4. Uses all of that to express growth in understanding and greater expertise over the topic, which can be demonstrated by venturing answers to substantial questions or expressing your beliefs or doubts about perspectives on globalization.

Log In to your Class Blog from St. Edward’s Sites (Remainder of Class). Start customizing your blog. Change the layout and appearance, change the title (your name and topic, for example), practice adding a post, etc.