Thursday, 3.3 (Blue Day)

We didn't have any classes today ... students spent their time on the mountain racing their boxsleds. They had a blast showing off how they can apply what they've learned in Science and Math while building their boxsleds.

Thursday, 2.24 (Blue Day)

Social Studies

Students had their second of three work days on their final project on Globalization. We didn't watch or discuss the news - I wanted students to have as much time as possible to work on their assignments. The final project will be due on Tuesday, March 1st.

Literature

Students had FVR today ... we spent the class period reading.

Thursday, 2.10 (White Day)

Social Studies

We worked on using maps/charts to answer questions about China's rise in the global economy. The assignment was divided into three parts - answering questions directly from the map, using information from the map and applying it to other questions, and using information from the map and other sources (previous magazine articles, class discussions, CNN Student News, etc.) to create their own thoughts about China's role in globalization. The assignment was due at the end of the class - it's homework if they didn't hand it in.

Literature

Today was the same as yesterday's (Wednesday) class - they could work on FVR, or they could work on their second attempts on showing they understand how the author uses word choice, simile, and conflict as story elements. Their second attempt at these assignments are due on Friday, and their third an final chance to show mastery will happen in their next Letter Essay (due 2.24).

We'll do the same one more time tomorrow in Literature.

Thursday, 2.3 (Blue Day)

Social Studies

Students did the same as the classes yesterday - their learned a new reading strategy (CNS or Cornell Note-taking System) that helps them to read difficult portions of text and to summarize the ideas that they've read. We read and did a CNS activity as a class, and then students were given an article on China's recent rise to power to complete their own CNS summaries. We didn't get the summaries done in class today - students will have the chance to finish them in class on Monday.

Literature

We spent the class looking at how an author creates conflict to build interest in a story to create a plot. We examined the idea of how an author purposefully uses problems in a story as a series of "high points" that move the story towards the ending. This was a whole-class discussion today and students didn't have any independent work.

Thursday, 1.27 White Day

Social Studies

Students spent most of the class working on the "Where Are We Wearing?" assignments. This was the last time we'll spend time in class working on this assignment, so if a student didn't get it done they need to finish it at home. The actual assignment isn't due until our next class (next Monday), but we'll start moving on to our next assignment in our Globalization unit.

Literature

We finished reading the novel "Zach's Lie" as a class. We had FVR the rest of the class period.