Reflecting on Unit 3...

Today is Grandparents and Special Friends Day, so we had a shortened class period. We began the class by looking at the "want to know" questions we posted on the KWL chart at the beginning of the unit. We discussed the questions and whether or not we found answers to these questions in the unit and where we could find answers if the questions were unanswered. Then, we clipped together all of our work from unit 3 and began the unit 3 reflection process, matching artifacts with unit goals and assessing whether or not we met the goals.

We will continue this reflection process and choose artifacts for our portfolio on Monday. No homework. Have a great weekend!

RAFT share day and FOOD DAY!

Today we collected Humanities Night letters and shared our RAFTS in small groups. Then, several students shared their RAFT with the entire class. We also enjoyed all sorts of delicious foods from Latin America and Canada- including french toast with Maple syrup, quesadillas, sopapillas, mango and more. We also turned in our Before We Were Free books today. If you have yours at home, bring it with you tomorrow.

Tomorrow in class we will begin formally preparing for Humanities Night, which is next Thursday, March 4th. There is no homework.

Black History Celebration & Machu Picchu pics!

Today was Black History Celebration Day. Here are some photos from yesterday's trip to Machu Picchu. Enjoy!

Machu Picchu = que rico!

Today we had a fantastic field trip to Mercado del Pueblo and Machu Picchu Restaurant. Pictures to be posted soon. Thank you to parent volunteer chaperones- Mrs. Kaiser, Mr. Connor, & Mrs. Ferguson.

Homework reminders: Final RAFT due Thursday. Be prepared to present. Food day is Thursday.

Here we go a RAFTing...

Today, students began to brainstorm about the project they would showcase during Humanities Night. Each student needs to write a letter home to his/her family explaining the event and inviting their family members to it. Letter formats are here.

Then, we got together with classmates to revise and edit each other's RAFT drafts. After this process, students wrote their final draft RAFTS which are due on Thursday.

Homework: Finish final draft of RAFT. We will present these in class on Thursday. Also, letters home to parents about HUM Night are due on Thursday as well.

Quiz and RAFT drafting

2 notes of business: If you would like to be a parent chaperone with us on next Tuesday's field trip to Machu Picchu Restaurant, send Miss Devine an email ASAP. The cost of the trip for adults is $9.

If your student would like to come to school tomorrow morning to be a part of an ACMS Information Session for prospective students and families, he/she can earn bonus points. The information session is tomorrow morning: Saturday, February 20, from 10-11:30am.

Permission forms and money for the Machu Picchu field trip are due ASAP, or students will not be able to join us on the trip.

Today, students took a quiz on chapters 7-11 of Before We Were Free. They learned about the Latin America and Canada food day next Thursday. This food day gives students the option of bringing in a Latin American or Canadian food to share with their classmates when we present our RAFT projects next Thursday. Students who would like to bring in a food, need to fill out this slip of paper and give it to Miss Devine before next Thursday.

Then, we did the prewriting work and began to draft our RAFT writing. RAFT drafts are due on Monday so that we can begin editing & revising them.

Homework: Complete RAFT draft. Bring permission slip for Tuesday's field trip if you have not already done so. Students need to be thinking about what Humanities project they would like to present at Humanities Night on March 4th. You should come to class Monday with an idea of which you'd like to present.

Reflecting on Before We Were Free

Today, we reflected on reading the Olympics article, answering the questions and watching the opening ceremonies yesterday. Then, we listened to the last chapter of Before We Were Free. Then, we discussed the book's ending and processed our reactions. Later, we reflected in groups about these essential questions, related to the book, life and other things we've learned this year:

-in what ways should people address grievances with their governments?
-is it acceptable to use force to solve problems?
-how do individuals' experiences and perspectives impact their opinions and actions?
-what motivates people to move from where they live?
-how does literature help us to understand the world?


We created posters with our group's response to the question and then presented and discussed the responses. The last part of class was used to do some work on the RAFT writing.

Homework: Be prepared for a BWWF quiz on chapters 7-12 tomorrow. Also- revised persuasive essays are due (optional). Permission forms are due for Machu Picchu restaurant field trip.

Vancouver Olympics & Chapter 10

Today, we talked about the Winter Olympics in Vancouver that started over the weekend. Students shared their experiences watching the Olympics and what they knew about the location. We watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and read an article about the First Nations' (indigenous peoples') involvement in this year's Olympics. Students need to complete the reflection questions on the page with the Olympics article for homework.

Then, we went over our long weekend homework- Anita's journal reflections and presented these to the class. We listened to chapter 10 and discussed it.

Homework: Complete the reading of chapter 10. Complete the guess and check vocabulary, due tomorrow.

Reminders: Permission forms for restaurant field trip are due by Friday. Revised persuasive essays are due by Friday. Friday is also the last day to submit any Humanities Night fliers for extra credit.

Jekyll Island Photo Slideshow

Watch a slideshow of some photos from the 2010 6th grade trip to Jekyll Island!

Chapter 9 and various activities

Today, we listened to chapter 9 of the book. Then, for the rest of the class we completed different activities based on what we needed to accomplish. All students received their graded persuasive essays back with feedback. Students who received poor grades and feedback stating that they needed to revise their essays worked with Miss D. to do so in class. Other students worked on the long weekend homework: read the "Anita's Diary" section of the book and choose 3 of these activities to complete in your reading journal. They also worked on the "Guess and Check" vocab due next week. Students also had the chance to work on extra credit work- Humanities Night fliers.

Homework: Read Anita's Diary section of the book and choose and complete 3 activities to do in your reading journal. Do "Guess and Check" vocab. If you are revising your persuasive essay, it is due by Friday of next week, the final day of term 2.

Remember to get those permission forms in for the Machu Picchu Restaurant field trip on Feb. 23rd. Due next Friday!

Chapter 8, discussion and RAFT!

Today, students responded to the quotation passage on page 75 of BWWF that begins: "It's so unfair to have to live in a country where you have to do stuff you feel bad about in order to save your life..."

We used students' responses to this quotation as a springboard for discussion. Is it right for Papi and Tio Toni to plot to assassinate Trujillo? After the discussion, we listened to chapter 8. Then, Miss Devine explained the RAFT project that students will be beginning. Here is the project rubric. For homework, students are to begin to brainstorm their character's perspective. They are also to do a book club role response for chapter 8.

Homework: RAFT perspective brainstorming. Book club role for chapter 8.

Quiz and more!

Today, students took a quiz on chapters 1-6 of Before We Were Free. Then, we looked at our vocabulary work and talked about what it means to use context clues to decode the meaning of a word in sentence. Students used one of the vocabulary words from their homework to write a passage and then challenged a classmate to use context clues to figure out the meaning of the word. Then, we began our reading of chapter 7. Students should use the "Guess and Check" vocabulary sheet to record words, guesses and their meanings as they finish the rest of the book.

Homework: Read chapter 7. Do a book club role. Do your "guess and check" vocabulary which will be due when we finish the book. Here is a reminder of the book club roles.

Extra Credit: Make posters and fliers to advertise Humanities Night around the school. See Miss D. for details!

Chapters 5 & 6!

Today, we shared our characterization work that we did in class yesterday. Each group shared out the details they recorded about their character and we discussed how students would continue to follow these characters throughout the book. Then, we listened to Chapter 5 and part of Chapter 6 of Before We Were Free using the audio book. Students wrote down their questions on sticky notes as they read and we asked as many questions as possible to deepen our understanding of the book. Then, students were given time to work on their BWWF vocabulary (due tomorrow) and they finished reading chapter 6 on their own.

Homework: Finish reading chapter 6. Finish vocab assignment.

What's characterization?

Today, we discussed and summarized last night's reading of chapter 3 of the book. We talked about characterization, or the author's way of developing a character in a book. We used this characterization sheet in class. First, we practiced characterizing Spongebob and then we talked about how we would do this with characters from the book. Each student chose a character from the book and then broke off into groups with classmates who had chosen the same character so that they could read chapter 4 together and complete the character sheet about their character. We will go over the work we did with our characters tomorrow in class.

Homework: Finish reading chapter 4 and finish character chart. Be prepared to share in class tomorrow.

***Be sure to check out the new "Links from Class" section in the sidebar to see class videos including Delfina & Ylaysia's Activist Project on Rainforest Destruction in Brazil.

Chapter 2!

Today, we made predictions about what we thought would happen next in the book. Then, Miss Devine explained the vocabulary assignment for the book that is due on Friday. Then, students paired up or read independently chapter two of the book. Later, we did a jig-saw activity to summarize the chapter and student came up with 6 discussion questions using the Bloom's Level of Questions and played a game of musical discussion to have a discussion about chapter 2 with classmates.

Homework: Read chapter 3 of Before We Were Free and choose one reading response to do in your reading journal.

Before We Were Free, by Julia Alvarez

Today, we recalled all of the ways to respond to text that we've learned this school year. Some of these ways are:
-write our feelings on sticky notes
-predict
-evaluate
-ask questions
-make connections (t-t, t-s, t-w)
-journal about what we've read
-visualize
-write discussion questions
-pull out quotations or passages that are important
-write letters to characters...and many more

Then, we made predictions about the new book we began reading today: Before We Were Free, by Julia Alvarez. Then, several students gave extra credit presentations on the Dominican Republic in order to teach their classmates about the history, culture and geography in this book.

Finally, we read chapter one of the book in class together.

Homework: Choose a form to respond to your reading of chapter one and do so in your mini-journal. If you are absolutely certain that you have lost your mini-journal, you may purchase another from Miss Devine for twenty five cents.