4-day week-Spring Break

Language Arts

In Language Arts we wrapped up the reading portion of our fantasy unit.  We looked at the four levels of theme work: identification, author's message, theme development, themes across texts and had some practice analyzing our books and some mentor texts.  We also recorded another partner video about our reading work.  On Wednesday, we took an assessment using "Fountain of Fair Fortune" to show our reading work.  

Students will turn in their rough draft of their narrative piece of April 10th.  We will also launch our new reading unit on Nonfiction, in which we partner with Science.  This will be our final reading unit of the year.

Social Studies

Students have been bust practicing their presentations on Athens/Sparta, The Persian Wars, Golden Age of Athens and Alexander the Great.  Students begin presenting today but will finish after the holiday.

March 18-22

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, students took some time to reflect on a partnership video they recorded last week.  They look at an exemplar for an effective partnership and then evaluated their own work, using teacher feedback, to develop an action plan for a new video they will record on Sunday.  We also looked at how authors choose to resolve some aspects of a plot line and not others.  It is important to investigate and and infer why an author would make that choice in light of the whole text.  We also did an optional mini-lesson about theme development and putting story parts together to create a whole.  

As writers, we looked at creating inner and outer story lines to bring out meaning.  We also looked at teacher and student exemplars, compared them to rubrics/checklists and labeled the stories with this characteristics to refer to later.  Students began writing their rough drafts which will be due on April 10th.

Social Studies

Students created Prezi accounts this week and have been working toward building an engaging presentation about The Persian Wars, Athens and Sparta, The Golden Age of Athens or Alexander the Great.  They also created a plan to incorporate the Social Studies standards into their presentations.  They will have all Monday to practice and presentations will begin on Wednesday.

March 11-15

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, students looked at character change through a couple different lenses.  One way we looked at character change was naming the learning a character was experiencing and explaining the impact of that learning on the text or their choices.  We also looked at different types of power and how power can be used.  Some students chose to graph the power changes that occurred for different characters throughout the book.  Other students chose to label the type of power a character had and explain its significance.  Today we will look at the inner and outer dragons that a character faces and how both those factors cause change.  Students also met in partnerships and recorded their meeting.

As writers, we are finishing up brainstorming ideas using a strategy called Name It. Place It. Twist It.  We will start the rough draft next week.

Social Studies

In Social Studies this week, students worked in groups to finish their collaborative note taking about: Athens and Sparta, The Persian Wars, The Golden Age of Athens or Alexander the Great.  Based on that information, they chose a related topic of interest with which to explore as an individual further.  They also looked at the standards related to their chapter of study and translated that standard into 6th grader friendly language.  Next week, we will create our Prezi accounts and start building the presentation that communicates our group/individual learning.

In-service Day and March 5-8

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, students chose to explore a topic of their choice by doing some station work on one of the following: Quest structure, "willing suspension of disbelief", made-up languages, symbolism and figurative language.  They will have time in the weeks to come to explore another area of interest.  We also talked about different narration styles (1st, 2nd, 3rd person) and how these narration styles lead to a certain level of trust/mistrust in the narrator, which can effect our perspective.

As writers we looked at mapping a real or imagined place for events, emotions and hidden ideas to help inspire our narrative work.

The reading part of our unit will be finished on March 25th and the students will need to have at least two fantasy texts read by then.

Social Studies

In Social Studies, students broke into groups around four topics: Athens and Sparta, Persian Wars, Golden Age of Athens and Alexander the Great.  They are following a group protocol to gather background information before they delve into individual topics of their choice.  All of this information will come together using a presentation platform called Prezi.

Spirit Week

We had a lot of fun during Spirit week dressing up and collaborating with our peers.  It will be great to celebrate together with our color groups during Unity Day!

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we launched our Fantasy genre study.  Students will be asked to read AT LEAST two books between now and March 25th.  They can choose a physical or e-book from home, school, or a bookstore.  

This week we read our mentor text "The Fountain Of Fair Fortune" by JK Rowling and set up our notebooks with our rubrics and plot map.  We also talked about the importance of setting in the story and asking "What kind of place is this?" and "What rules seem to govern this place?" throughout the text.  It is also important to notice how/why these rules are important to the story.

Social Studies

In Social Studies this week, students participated in their scored discussions on Religion and Beliefs.  I was quite impressed with how well the students listened to one another, asked questions and made comparisons.  We will launch Ancient Greece next week.

Transitioning LA units

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we began to make the transition from our Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends unit to our Fantasy genre study.  Students had time to make additional notebook entries to show mastery of our learning targets and we took an assessment, using Newsela.  

To prepare for our Fantasy unit, students will need to get their first fantasy book and bring it next Tuesday, the 13th.  This can be from the library, home, Overdrive, Kindle, a bookstore etc.  We will be in this unit until Spring Break at the end of March.  

The final draft of their family folklore is due on February 18th.

Social Studies

In Social Studies this week, students continued their research on the belief system of their choice.  We spent some time talking about the reliability of sources we find online and how library databases can provide trustworthy information that can be verified.

The Scored Discussion will be on February 19th.

Terry Fox, MS Musical, Social Studies and Language Arts

Happy Terry Fox day to everyone!  I am greatly looking forward to the run this afternoon.  I am always so inspired by those around me before, during and after the run!  There are so many examples of courage all around us and there is no better way to celebrate than the Terry Fox Run! #TAISMcourage

Also, on a personal note, the MS Musical is coming up next weekend.  The shows are Thursday, February 8th at 7PM and Saturday February 10th at 2PM.  As the director of the show, I can attest to the dedication, perseverance and professionalism of the group of students I have had the pleasure to work with.  I hope you will be able to support their hard work by coming to a performance!  Tickets are 2RO as long as they are purchased before the evening of February 8th.  If you buy tickets at the door, the tickets will be 3RO each.

And now, class this week...

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we shifted our storytelling style to legends.  We learned that legends are based in truth but that the story was changed, added onto, subtracted from etc. during different periods in history or depending on who was telling the story.  We did a lot of inferencing work about what grain of truth the legend might have been based on as well as why the story may have grown or changed over time.  We also looked at the themes of different legends and how those themes reveal information about the storytellers themselves.  

Students also turned in the rough draft of their family folklore piece for feedback.  The tentative due date for the final draft is February 18th.

Social Studies

In Social Studies, we took the time to share the results of our parent interview about a religion of belief system.  There were certain religions that popped out as more popular and students began to notice a lot of similarities between religions.  We also started explaining the scored discussion the students will participate in.  Students watched a sample and were looking for positive/negative discussion behaviors of each member of the discussion.  I explained that I would be looking at the content of the discussion (what they are explaining about their religion) but their classmates would be looking for those discussion behaviors.

We also started researching about our religions.  

A full five days! January 14-18

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we started drafting our family folklore story.  We talked about how it is important to layer important details about time and place in the opening sequences of a story in order to set the reader up for success.  This can include including historical facts as well as setting the mood or feeling of the piece.  We also looked at varying our use of the English language depending on our purpose.  We looked at how different people speak in varying ways depending on the situation.  This also needs to be reflected in our writing.  

As readers, we looked at how fables are a style of story that was used as cautionary tales.  Therefore, it is essential to figure out the moral/message of the story as well as evidence to support your idea.  We also looked at how words have emotional value (connotations) either for being more positive or negative.  For example, being called cute or gorgeous.  They are on a scale of "pretty" and depending on the person/situation using those words might produce a more positive or negative reaction.

Social Studies

In Social Studies this week, we spent time viewing the GoAnimate videos that our classmates created.  We used those videos to create our unit blog post to synthesize our learning.  Next week we will launch our mini-unit on Religions and Beliefs.  

Welcome Back! We hit the ground running!

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we transitioned into the myths portion of our Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends unit.  We talked about how there are numerous modern day cultural references to myths in literature, movies and video games.  Whenever we come across a reference, it is worth going back to the original myth as it will help you understand the modern reference more clearly and complexly.  We also talked about how myths were a direct lens into the values of a given culture.  Typically, personality traits that were valued in a culture were rewarded in a myth.  The opposite is also true.  Whatever a culture did not want a person to be, would be punished within a mythological story.

Next week, we turn our attention to our family folklore pieces and will officially begin the rough draft process.

Social Studies

In Social Studies, we continued our work on our GoAnimate projects.  Students had most of the week in class to work on their video and complete their Works Cited.  The videos should be completed by Monday, January 15 and then we will view them as a class.