Literacy | work due |
Reading Workshop: We have established our independent reading routines (students are expected to read 30-40 pages per/day (some in school, the rest at home), and jot 2 post-its using the questions on their bookmark. Reading notebooks are kept in the classroom at the moment. Writing Workshop: We have been drafting our first independent writing project. Students have chosen the topic and the genre/form of their writing, and are practicing taking their writing through a process. They are learning how to use mentor texts to support their growth, how to give and get feedback from a partner, how to make thoughtful revision decisions. | Reading Plan and Prepare grades have been entered into Alma. Keep an eye on these, as they will continue to be updated, and ask your child how their reading life is going. Are they moving through books? Jotting as they read? Please reach out with any concerns. Students should have a first draft completed by Thursday 10/24. (We began drafting last Friday). Anyone who needs additional writing time should check with me. This will earn a Plan and Prepare grade. |
Math | WORK DUE |
In September and October, students have been adjusting to their middle school life. They learned about how to work collaboratively in the classroom, how to read a rubric etc. We also started our first unit called Variables & Pattern. In our first investigation together, students learned how to tell if a table or a graph is consistent or not. They learned to graph coordinates in all 4 quadrants. They also learned how to read a coordinate graph for information. Throughout this unit, we will be studying how to interpret data in a variety of models. By interpreting the information, students will make decisions of which is a best plan (given a scenario) and support it with mathematical evidence. Family letter will be handed out to students early next week. | Homework daily. Sometimes it is a handout or finishing up class work. Please review your child’s planner. Homework is copied down in math class and reviewed in homeroom. Quiz #2 on most progress, least progress will happen end of the week 10/21 or early in the week of 10/28, depending on class. A project on using graph to tell stories will be given in class end of week of 10/29. Be on the look out for project description, rubric. This project will be modeled and explained in class. Any assignments graded have been returned and I have asked for parent signatures. Assignments have approximately a 1-week turnaround rate. Be on the look out for the updated grades weekly on Alma. |
Science | WORK DUE |
We are currently in Unit 2: Hudson River Ecology. The essential questions guiding the research that students will conduct throughout this unit are: 1) In what ways are living and nonliving things dependent upon each other? 2) How do humans influence the natural world? Having spent time throughout September and October focusing on the competencies of Plan & Prepare and Collaborate, we are now moving into thinking more deeply about how scientists communicate and interpret information. Students are in the process of immersion research and are learning some essential research skills that they are practicing in their science notebooks and with a research partner. Among these skills are keeping track of sources, using different note-taking strategies based on how a text is structured, developing systems for collecting significant vocabulary terms and concepts, going back into notes to annotate and synthesize, and developing central ideas as they research across their ecology subtopic. Student partnerships will use their research to create an infographic, which will serve as a tool to teach their peers who have researched other ecology subtopics. For the larger project in this unit, the entire class will be creating a coffee table book about Hudson River Ecology, which will incorporate all of the research they conduct throughout this entire unit of study. | Students were given Plan & Prepare grades for the month of September and beginning of October to provide them with feedback on their independent and collaborative work habits. Students are being provided with feedback the week of 10/21-10/25 on the Communicate competency. This is for two research assignments they’ve done in their science notebooks: 1) Two-Column Note-Taking 2) Immersion Reading Ask them to show you their work and explain what they have been doing! |
Social Studies | WORK DUE |
We began the year with the Partner Artifact Project. We carefully observed objects, came up with initial theories about what they might be, and revised them after doing more research. We learned that objects have stories behind them and can tell us about their owner's culture. This is one way that real archaeologists work and how we will be working in Social Studies this year. Students chose a topic within Archaeology to focus on. We did research in class and revised our notes to create a "teaching tool" (like a poster) to teach others about our topic. In mid-October we did a study of Timelines. We made "personal timelines,” added "significant events and periods” in our lives and made a “key” using codes and colors to organize our timelines. This week we began research on Early Humans/”The Stone Age.” One the "Habits of Mind" introduced is that Social Scientists make comparisons between our own lives and the lives of people in the studied time period. In this case, we have been focused on comparing how we meet our survival needs (food, water, shelter, clothing) today versus how Stone Age people met theirs. | There are several Plan and Prepare grades in Alma, reflecting our focus on establishing strong work habits at the beginning of the year. These include coming to class prepared with homework and materials and using class time well (staying focused on the work!). These grades are based on teacher observations and student self-assessments. The Archaeology “teaching tool” was assessed on the Communicate competency. The Social Studies Notebook Rubric was introduced the week of 10/21 and the first notebook check will be in early November. Competencies assessed include Investigate, Discern, Interpret and Plan and Prepare. Not all criteria will be graded at first, but rather will be gradually assessed as skills are taught. |
Advisory
We are currently in Series 1: What is Advisory? Our focus so far has been on developing a safe community where people feel comfortable to share their thoughts about sensitive topics related to the social and emotional aspects of their lives.
We started our work thinking about ourselves as being a part of a larger community and we did some team building work.
Over the last few sessions, we’ve been exploring our own lives and creating identity webs. Each advisory class launched this work with a read aloud that allowed us to explore the identity of the main character in the book. Together, we created an identity web for the main character which served as a mentor for students to use as they started to think about their own lives and identity webs.
The identity web that students are creating provide them with a powerful way to visually represent the many factors that shape who they are. Students will be asked to share their identity webs in a small group or gallery walk.
We started our work thinking about ourselves as being a part of a larger community and we did some team building work.
Over the last few sessions, we’ve been exploring our own lives and creating identity webs. Each advisory class launched this work with a read aloud that allowed us to explore the identity of the main character in the book. Together, we created an identity web for the main character which served as a mentor for students to use as they started to think about their own lives and identity webs.
The identity web that students are creating provide them with a powerful way to visually represent the many factors that shape who they are. Students will be asked to share their identity webs in a small group or gallery walk.