Hello, Spiegel Core Families!
So sorry for the late bog update - it seems like crazy life things always happen on Fridays! I figured with the long weekend, no one would be too upset if the blog post came a couple days late ;-)
We had another busy week; in fact, it felt like it flew by quickly! We read quite a bit - starting with an article about a middle school student who created an inexpensive Braille printer out of Legos! Then, we read our Article of the Week - a two page piece about eating too much sugar. Each week, students are trying to write a 1+ page response to the articles they read. This is in preparation not only for the Smarter Balanced Test's performance tasks, but for future writing tasks throughout their school careers. It also helps them synthesize information they read into real-world and personal applications, which is an invaluable skill to cultivate throughout life. By the end of the year, it is my hope that all students in the class will be able to write at least one solid page in response to each article we read.
We also read an intense, poignant short story called "Liars Don't Qualify," by Junius Edwards. This story, focusing on a black veteran attempting to register to vote in the South shortly after the passing of the 15th amendment, moved the class into deep, high level discussion. Students were listening carefully to one another and responding thoughtfully on difficult issues. We pulled out interesting excerpts and talked about body language, symbolism, pride, oppression, the legacy of racism, and much more. The class should be proud of their participation and involvement in this difficult but meaningful discussion.
We did a difficult vocabulary crossword and then took the quiz a couple days later, during which time students doing Word Within the Word worked quietly on their lists. There were some tough words on the list this time, and our tests show we need a little more practice with these words. This will happen on Tuesday, before we start our next list.
We had an awesome election for our Egyptian God Campaign Posters. Because they are all running for different offices, students instead voted on "Best Artwork, Best Hieroglyphs, Best Overall, Best Slogan, Best Design, and Landslide Award (best qualified for their position)." Students wrote in on their ballots, and will find out the results officially on Tuesday.
On Friday, students had the incredible privilege of hearing from a member of our classroom community. Mary Rower, Anna's mother, came in to speak to the class about a very personal issue: cancer. Because da Vinci is currently running a fundraiser for "Pennies for Patients," which supports the LLS - The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Mary wanted to give the students an opportunity to hear about her firsthand experiences with the blood cancer Myeloma. The LLS has been invaluable in her life, and has contributed an inconceivable amount to cancer research. Mary has generously agreed to match our class' donations up to $300!!! So far, we have raised about 60 dollars, and I am hoping we can bring that up all the way to $300. If our class shows up with $600, we will show the whole school how important our classroom community is to us! And we will raise money for an incredible cause that has a very personal connection for us. Donations are due by Friday, February 20th, so please send your student with donation money this week!
At the end of the day Friday, we made fun anonymous, alliterative valentines and hung them up on the wall outside our classroom. Every core class has done these now, so there are hearts with complimentary adjectives all over the school! A fun, nice way to celebrate Valentine's Day.
Next week, we will start our awesome unit on Newbery Honor book The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis! This book, in addition to several short stories, will not only help us celebrate Black History Month, but will help us explore issues that are important to our students and the future of our society. We have a class set, and I will be posting PDFs and Word Documents of most things we do with the book. Stay posted!
Does your student have a Google account?? If not, please help them get set up with one this week. Every student needs to have one for our next project, which will not only make sure every student is familiar with Google Docs (important for the future), but will make sure students know how to create proper, college style annotated bibliographies. We are going to put a fun spin on this traditionally college-level activity by making, as a class, an Annotated Discography. Together, we will compile a list of our favorite songs, cited correctly, and write short annotations to explain our choices. We will do the same with books, and as an end result, each student will have access to over 100 songs and books with information about why their peers made personal or intellectual connections to them. They will be able to digitally access the list through Google Docs, and it will include links to each item on the internet. We will have a printed one for the book list, hopefully with student illustrations, that will be added to by new generations in the future!
Lets have an Egyptian Feast!!
Your students have been working hard on this Egypt unit, and I want to celebrate by having an Egyptian God and villager-themed party and feast. As we close out Egypt by discussing some of their more current events and transitioning into ancient Judaism, think about what kinds of foods you could contribute!
We will definitely need things like hummus, falafel, schwarma, fruits and veggies, and much more. Keep your eyes peeled for an email with more information!
As always, there's more to say!! But I just realized it's past midnight, and I really wanted to get this done so people would have to wait no longer!
Stay tuned, and thanks, as always, for your awesomeness :)
Hope your long weekend is going swimmingly!!
So sorry for the late bog update - it seems like crazy life things always happen on Fridays! I figured with the long weekend, no one would be too upset if the blog post came a couple days late ;-)
We had another busy week; in fact, it felt like it flew by quickly! We read quite a bit - starting with an article about a middle school student who created an inexpensive Braille printer out of Legos! Then, we read our Article of the Week - a two page piece about eating too much sugar. Each week, students are trying to write a 1+ page response to the articles they read. This is in preparation not only for the Smarter Balanced Test's performance tasks, but for future writing tasks throughout their school careers. It also helps them synthesize information they read into real-world and personal applications, which is an invaluable skill to cultivate throughout life. By the end of the year, it is my hope that all students in the class will be able to write at least one solid page in response to each article we read.
We also read an intense, poignant short story called "Liars Don't Qualify," by Junius Edwards. This story, focusing on a black veteran attempting to register to vote in the South shortly after the passing of the 15th amendment, moved the class into deep, high level discussion. Students were listening carefully to one another and responding thoughtfully on difficult issues. We pulled out interesting excerpts and talked about body language, symbolism, pride, oppression, the legacy of racism, and much more. The class should be proud of their participation and involvement in this difficult but meaningful discussion.
We did a difficult vocabulary crossword and then took the quiz a couple days later, during which time students doing Word Within the Word worked quietly on their lists. There were some tough words on the list this time, and our tests show we need a little more practice with these words. This will happen on Tuesday, before we start our next list.
We had an awesome election for our Egyptian God Campaign Posters. Because they are all running for different offices, students instead voted on "Best Artwork, Best Hieroglyphs, Best Overall, Best Slogan, Best Design, and Landslide Award (best qualified for their position)." Students wrote in on their ballots, and will find out the results officially on Tuesday.
On Friday, students had the incredible privilege of hearing from a member of our classroom community. Mary Rower, Anna's mother, came in to speak to the class about a very personal issue: cancer. Because da Vinci is currently running a fundraiser for "Pennies for Patients," which supports the LLS - The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Mary wanted to give the students an opportunity to hear about her firsthand experiences with the blood cancer Myeloma. The LLS has been invaluable in her life, and has contributed an inconceivable amount to cancer research. Mary has generously agreed to match our class' donations up to $300!!! So far, we have raised about 60 dollars, and I am hoping we can bring that up all the way to $300. If our class shows up with $600, we will show the whole school how important our classroom community is to us! And we will raise money for an incredible cause that has a very personal connection for us. Donations are due by Friday, February 20th, so please send your student with donation money this week!
At the end of the day Friday, we made fun anonymous, alliterative valentines and hung them up on the wall outside our classroom. Every core class has done these now, so there are hearts with complimentary adjectives all over the school! A fun, nice way to celebrate Valentine's Day.
Next week, we will start our awesome unit on Newbery Honor book The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis! This book, in addition to several short stories, will not only help us celebrate Black History Month, but will help us explore issues that are important to our students and the future of our society. We have a class set, and I will be posting PDFs and Word Documents of most things we do with the book. Stay posted!
Does your student have a Google account?? If not, please help them get set up with one this week. Every student needs to have one for our next project, which will not only make sure every student is familiar with Google Docs (important for the future), but will make sure students know how to create proper, college style annotated bibliographies. We are going to put a fun spin on this traditionally college-level activity by making, as a class, an Annotated Discography. Together, we will compile a list of our favorite songs, cited correctly, and write short annotations to explain our choices. We will do the same with books, and as an end result, each student will have access to over 100 songs and books with information about why their peers made personal or intellectual connections to them. They will be able to digitally access the list through Google Docs, and it will include links to each item on the internet. We will have a printed one for the book list, hopefully with student illustrations, that will be added to by new generations in the future!
Lets have an Egyptian Feast!!
Your students have been working hard on this Egypt unit, and I want to celebrate by having an Egyptian God and villager-themed party and feast. As we close out Egypt by discussing some of their more current events and transitioning into ancient Judaism, think about what kinds of foods you could contribute!
We will definitely need things like hummus, falafel, schwarma, fruits and veggies, and much more. Keep your eyes peeled for an email with more information!
As always, there's more to say!! But I just realized it's past midnight, and I really wanted to get this done so people would have to wait no longer!
Stay tuned, and thanks, as always, for your awesomeness :)
Hope your long weekend is going swimmingly!!
vocab8.docx |