Literacy | WORK DUE |
Critical Reading Study-- As a part of our continuing work in the Disrupting Racism Unit, students will join book clubs to discuss how both visual media and books contribute to the way we see the world. We will conduct a personal Social Media Investigation, look at advertisements and on-line videos along with watching sit-coms and reading books. You can expect students to be able to “Deconstruct Media” and discuss stereotypes and unhealthy norms and values. Writing Mini-Unit--In the first half of January we are doing a quick study of powerful anecdotes (which we are calling “Tiny Stories). In December, students looked at mentors and tried out some stories from their lives in their Writer’s Notebooks. They will choose one to revise and publish mid-January. Later in January we will begin work on the next big writing unit: Focus & Elaboration in Essay when we analyze mentors and gather ideas for journeys of thought we might take in an essay. | Reading Week of January 27th: Graded Critical Reading Club Talk Essential Questions:
Writing Tuesday, January 21: Tiny Stories Due |
Math | WORK DUE |
This month we will start Unit 3: Symbolic Manipulations(Say it with Symbols). The essential questions are:
This link will provide an overview of how concepts are developed in this unit. For more detailed version of how the math is developed, see here. (Be warned though - it is 21 pages of math reading. 😀) | Homework will be given daily. See your child’s planner Quizzes at least once per week. |
Science | WORK DUE |
We are continuing our exploration of evolution this month. We are finishing our work around the biology of skin color, and learning about how skin color evolved to both protect the folate in our blood and allow us to synthesize vitamin D. We will then analyze evidence for evolution to see how scientists pieced together the history of life on Earth. One of the pieces of evidence we uncover is the vestigial structures you can find on your own body! We will begin our Force and Motion unit at the end of the month. Students will study Newton’s Laws and explore machines, culminating in a project where they create their own Rube Goldberg machines! | Homework: Notebook Quick Checks EdPuzzle videos Google classroom quizzes (~1 every 2 weeks) Keeping up with notes and in-class assignments Projects: Synthesis Page Due the week of January 21 |
Social Studies | WORK DUE |
This month, students are continuing their unit on Scientific Racism and Eugenics. Through this interdisciplinary unit, students will study issues related to race through literacy, science, and social studies. In social studies, we focus on the historical origins of the idea of race, how the definition of race evolved in U.S. to justify racist social and legal politices, and how it evolved into the field of eugenics. We will then begin our study on Immigration. We will explore the lives and challenges of the great waves of immigrants who came to this country during the turn of the century. We will explore Chinese immigration through Angel Island, European immigration through Angel Island, and the Great Migration of African Americans out of the South and into Northern and Western cities. We will explore these movements through the lens of race, power, and gender. | Unit 3: Scientific Racism and Eugenics Notebook Synthesis Page: 1/14/19 Unit 4: Immigration Launch 1/14 |
Spanish | WORK DUE |
Students will being the unit “El niño desobediente.” Target vocabulary includes the words escucha, hace, and debe hacer. |
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Advisory
We are continuing to develop our activism projects in advisory. Ask your student what they are working on!