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.