Matt Patrick, Humanities

Comida con Causa Syllabus, Fall 2017

Email: mpatrick@hightechhigh.org
Website: http://matthewdpatrick.weebly.com/
Donors Choose: http://www.donorschoose.org/mattpatrick

Our Essential Questions, How might we combat inequities in the food system? and Why do poor people historically
inhabit rich lands? allow us to explore complex history while making an impact on our society.
In the Humanities portion of this immersive Spanish-Humanities project, exploring social justice and food equity, you
will delve deep into Latin-American history, analyzing the treatment of rural workers, and their exploitation by capitalists and
US imperialists, particularly during revolutionary periods. Inspired by your historical research, you will make connections with
the US food system, highlighting inequities and proposing solutions to improve the lives of rural workers. This will be
presented in a medium of your choice at exhibition (art, music, poem, etc). Finally, you will volunteer at a local food justice
organization, completing an internship-style service learning project.

Key Humanities Deliverables:

Latin American Country Research Paper
Bilingual Cookbook
Food Equity Argumentative Paper & Exhibition Product
Food Justice Volunteer Project

Project Purpose/Learning Objectives:

Identity: Students will understand how their eating habits and purchases impact their health and the food system.
Diversity: Students will study different cultures relationships with food security, recognizing its influence on broader issues.
Justice: Students will analyze the treatment of farmers, peasants, and the indigenous population of Latin America, recognizing
their role as instigators and pawns of social revolution.
Action: Students will take steps to combat bias and injustice in the food system, volunteering and completing a project with
local food justice organizations.

Comida con Causa Calendar, Fall 2017

Week Humanities

1 Project Launch - $5 Meal, MyFitnessPal, Food Systems & Inequity

2 Latin America Country Snapshot Research.

3 Country Snapshot Presentations

4 Country Historical Research Paper

5 Country Historical Research Paper

6 Country Historical Research Paper Final Draft, Create Project Groups

7 Chef Interview Questions & Recipe

8 Chef Interview, Cookbook 1st Draft, Food Justice

9 Cooking Demos with Students & Chefs, Volunteering, Food Justice Exhibition Product 1st Draft

10 Cookbook Final Draft, Volunteering, Food Justice Exhibition Product 2nd Draft

11 Cooking Demos with GSE Guests, Volunteering, Food Justice Exhibition Product 3rd Draft

12 Community Cooking Night, Volunteering, Food Justice Exhibition Product Final Draft

13 Cooking Demos with GSE Guests, Volunteering, Farmers Market Prep

14 Volunteering POLs, Farmers Market Prep

15 Exhibition: Cooking Night & Farmers Market

Reading for Pleasure (R4P)

One of my goals this year is to help all students develop a love of reading. Research clearly demonstrates that
readingmore than any other activityleads to an increase in a persons cognitive (thinking) abilities and additional success
on the SAT and in college. Put plainly: reading is great for our brains. Its also incredibly entertaining. The instant you fall in
love with reading, it is almost impossible to ever find yourself bored again. More to the point, if we are to be as successful as
we can be, we need to fall in love with reading. Or, if weve already fallen in love with reading, we need more time to pursue
that love.

Thats why were going to commit ourselves to Reading for Pleasure time, or R4P. We will already be doing a lot of
reading this year books and articles related to the inquiries we will be pursuing. R4P is different. R4P asks you to select a
book that interests you, to bring that book to school every day and, during R4P, read that book. And when you finish your
R4P book, get another R4P book. The hope is that you will read 5, 10, 20 books this year and grow 5, 10, 20 times smarter and
more confident this year.

Class Environment and Expectations

Our classroom will rarely be silent, and students need to utilize their peers knowledge, opinions and abilities this
demands communication. This is not only encouraged, but also expected. In my classroom discourse is free from ridicule, with
the underlying principle of mutual respect. Below are some basic expectations.

CODE OF CONDUCT
Be kind Admit and learn from mistakes
Be honest Respect your environment
Be healthy Confront issues
Be on time Be open to change
Be professional Work together
Work hard Share as much as possible
Never give up Listen to each other

DIGITAL PORTFOLIO
Students will maintain their DP throughout the year, regularly posting reflective blogs. Besides making you a more
reflective student, better able to identify strengths and weaknesses, regularly updating your DP will help you when preparing
for POLs, and can make the difference getting into college.

PHONE USE
Be present in the moment! Phones are not allowed out in class unless permission is given for research purposes.

MUSIC
Be present in the moment! No headphones during class discussions. If permission is granted, during research time,
you should only ever have 1 earphone in, so you can communicate and collaborate with peers.

HOMEWORK
My goal is to limit homework as much as possible, and will usually focus on reading. The purpose of homework is to
help students develop skills; as well as reinforce what is taught in class. Homework help is available during lunch, before and
after school by appointment. All homework, resources, calendar etc will be on Google Classroom.

GRADING
I hate grades. I do not believe that a letter or number can represent your learning, but I accept they are a necessary
evil. For that reason, I would like to congratulate you on achieving an A. Respect it, own it, be proud of it, but dont lose it. I
believe students arrive in the classroom with a wealth of knowledge and experience and therefore do not start at zero. Your
ability to maintain an A will be determined by how well you meet expectations and rubrics. We will be constantly revising
work and you will have several opportunities to finesse work before final submission. Therefore, the main way you will drop
grades is by failing to submit work (see Late Policy below). Any grade below a C-, or 70%, is regarded as a fail, but I make it
my mission to give every student the opportunity to not only pass but to succeed and thrive. I will regularly publish grades to
Powerschool, http://powerschool.hightechhigh.org/public/, which can be accessed by students and parents.

LATE POLICY
I understand from time to time its not possible to submit work on the assigned due date. In which case, you must
inform me ahead of time, and we can discuss a potential restructuring. Telling me the day before the due date is not sufficient.
Failure to hit a deadline or receive permission for an extension will result in a letter grade reduction for each overdue week
(i.e. A to A-, A- to B+ and so on). In order to go back up the grade ladder you must submit 5 successive assignments on time to
an acceptable quality (determined by rubric and teacher). As you can see, it is very easy to drop grades very quickly. Stay
focused and maintain open and honest communication with me. Im here to help and my goal is to reduce anxiety over grades
by focusing on participation. I believe you will learn more by contributing to class discussions and submitting quality work
rather than worrying about grades.

STUDENT EMAIL & COMPUTER USE

Students will be given their own @hightechhigh.org email address and network log in. Topics communicated through
email should be related to schoolwork only. Be aware that your My Documents and Search History belong to the school and
can be inspected at any time. Students who misuse computer and technology privileges will lose access to their school
account. Students will be using laptops in class regularly. Students are expected to respect all equipment guidelines and
follow checkout procedures. If possible, I recommend that students bring their own devices.