May 30 - June 2
Literature circles continue with reading and character traits assignment. In social we will reflect on which Aztec god was the most important and look at their unique social structure.
May 22 - 26
Literature circles continue with our second Socratic Seminar and more time to read. In social, we will continue to look at the Aztec by watching a video on their engineering practices and looking at their four main gods.
May 15 - 19
Literature circles continue with our first Socratic Seminar and setting assignment. In social we will begin our Aztec and Spanish unit while wrapping up the Age of Discovery.
May 8 - 12
Literature Circles begin! Students will be checking out their books and beginning to read. A complete schedule of what we are doing with Literature Circles will be posted on Google Classroom. The Renaissance unit test will take place on Thursday, there will be time to review in class.
May 1 - 5
The final week of essay writing! Students will be completing their body paragraphs including their conclusions. Time for peer and teacher feedback will be provided. Students will also be making their literature circle book selections. In social we will work on an assignment that focuses on what it was like to be "discovered" where students will be choosing a group of interest and looking at the age of discovery from their perspective.
April 24 - 28
Essay writing continues! Students will be working on creating their thesis and writing their introductory paragraphs. They will then focus on planning their body paragraphs. In social we will begin to look at the Age of Discovery with a focus on why people chose to explore.
April 17 - 21
Essay writing begins this week! Students will be supported through templates, exemplars, and multiple rounds of feedback. This will take the majority of our humanities time for the next two weeks. Students will be finishing up their poems and recording them using FlipGrid.
April 11 - 14
This week we will be writing poetry and beginning our research on a key Renaissance person of our choosing. This research will then be used to write a persuasive essay, illustrating why our choice is the GOAT of the Renaissance.
April 3 - 7
This week we will be looking at some key people from the Renaissance. We will also be working on various forms of dump journaling to use for poetry writing next week.
March 25 - 30
Spring Break
March 20 - 24
This week we will be working on our SEES paragraph, reflecting on a poem we found most interesting and explaining why. In social we will be creating our products to represent why our city-state was the most influential.
March 13 - 17
Poetry continues! This week our focus will be on identifying tone and figurative language. Students are working towards writing their own. In social we are finishing our City States research and will begin looking at how to best present our information in a convincing way. Students want to convince their peers that their City State is the best.
March 6 - 10
This week we will be continuing with poetry in English with a focus on annotating, identifying the main idea, and summarizing the poem in 1-2 sentences. In social, we will be introducing city-states and looking at how they impacted Italy during the Renaissance. There is no school for students on Friday due to conferences. Please make sure to book a conference if you have not yet done so.
February 28 - March 3
This week we will be diving into poetry, and some classes will continue to work on their character boards. In social we will be looking at why the Middle Ages ended and begin our study of the Renaissance.
February 21 - 24
This week we will be finishing our Character Boards in English and starting poetry. In social we will be working on our debates, COVID vs Bubonic.
February 13 - 15
This short week we will be working on our Character boards for Samurai Shortstop and continuing to look at the Bubonic plague.
February 6 - 10
This week we will be continuing our Hexagonal thinking work with Samurai Shortstop. In social we will be continuing with the Black Death and how it led to the end of feudalism.
January 30 - February 3
This week we will look at the Black Death and how it ravaged Europe. In English, we will be starting our second round of CARS and STARS reading assessments and finishing our novel Samurai Shortstop.
January 23 - 27
This week we will be focusing on the concepts of trade and the Silk Road, which will lead us to the Black Death. In English, we are continuing with our novel study and participating in various discussion groups to build our understanding of the novel and the complex relationships between characters.
January 16 - 20
This week we will begin our next unit of study in social studies, the Renaissance. Our focus will be on understanding geography as trade was very important during this time. In English, we will continue with our novel study and engage in a formal Socratic seminar.
January 9 - 13
This week we will continue our novel study and prepare for Socratic seminars. In social we will be completing another current event reflection where students will identify two different perspectives and then choose a side. They will be revisiting the ACE strategy for this response.
December 19 - 22
Our focus this week had been on completing our individual current event reflections based on an article of our choosing. We have also continued with our novel study and have begun identifying some of the cultural challenges that were present during the Meiji period.
December 12 - 16
This week we participated in Graffiti tables where we worked in groups to build our collective knowledge of the different characters in the book. We looked at individual motivations and evidence using STEAL. This week an article was modeled in social studies so that we would better understand how to pull out and identify key information related to various perspectives within the article.
December 5 - 9
This week we will continue our Samurai Shortstop Novel with a focus on identifying different character traits. We will begin looking at current events in social studies with a focus on identifying different perspectives.
November 28 - December 2
This week we will begin our whole class novel study Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz. It is based on the Meiji period in Japan making it a great tie-in to our social studies curriculum. We will have our Japan unit test later this week and begin looking at some current events.
November 21 - 24
This week we will be continuing with our Tokugawa hierarchy redesign and finishing up our stories. Conferences will be held in person on Nov. 24 from 4-8 pm and online on Nov. 25, 9 am-3 pm.
November 14 - 18
This week we will be applying our research on the Tokugawa social hierarchy in order to redesign it. Students will have an opportunity to choose how they would like to represent their learning. In English, we will be starting our plot diagrams to support our narrative writing.
November 7 - 10
This week we will be continuing our research on the different social classes in feudal Japan. In English, we will begin a narrative writing assignment related to the short stories we have read. There will be a Remembrance day celebration on Thursday, Nov 10, please send in a donation for a poppy.
October 31 - Nov 1
This week we will be diving into our research in connection to the Tokugawa Shogunate social hierarchy. Students will also be working on ACE paragraphs in English related to the short story Lamb to Slaughter.
October 21-28
This week we will start our second short story focusing on dramatic irony and suspense. In social we will finish fleshing out our feudal Japan hierarchies and begin a research project.
October 17-21
We will continue our work on suspense, tone, mood, and foreshadowing this week. Students will be writing an email using examples of foreshadowing from the short story The Landlady to create a tone of unease. In social we will continue our study of Japan with a focus on its two main religions, Buddhism and Shintoism. From there we will introduce social hierarchies and feudal Japan.
As always please remember to check PowerSchool weekly with your student.
October 11-14
Students will be bringing home their reading goals this week based on their CARS assessment results. Please review it with them when they bring it home and discuss their goal. We will continue with Japan's geography and how its unique features impact worldview. In English, we will be continuing with suspense and beginning a short story.
Remember to check PowerSchool regularly and Google Classroom if you are away.
October 3 - 7
Students will continue to work on completing their CARS and STARS reading assessments as well as identifying tone and mood in song and text. In social they will begin looking at Japan with a focus on geographical features.
September 26 - 30
Students completed their literary devices posters in English this week. Next week they will continue to work on developing their understanding of tone and mood while also completing some more baseline reading comprehension assessments. In Social, they finished identifying elements of Worldview in the country of their choosing. Next week will focus on Reconciliation as we end the week with Orange Shirt Day.
September 19 - 23
Students began a Worldview assignment on a country of their choosing this week and will continue to work on it this coming week. The focus is on identifying elements of worldview. In English, we will be focusing on figurative language and students will be creating a poster to demonstrate their understanding of a specific literary device (ie. simile).
On Monday we will be having a moment of silence to show our respect for Queen Elizabeth II.
September 12 - 16
This week in Social Studies students will continue to develop their understanding of Worldview and will be starting a research assignment on a country of their choosing. In English, students will focus on mood and tone specific to suspense stories.
This past week, students completed various baseline assessments and worked on classroom routines including accepting invites to their various Google Classrooms.
