Welcome to another update from humanities!
We started this week by introducing the upcoming unit about food insecurity. Students were given an anticipation guide for a documentary called A Place at the Table. This guide asked students to mark statements true or false based on their understanding before watching. As we watched the video, students evaluated their assumptions and identified evidence that supported their new findings. This material will be used as we enter this new unit.
On Tuesday, we reflected on our work in the classroom debates and learned who “won” (as decided by their peers, who were asked to evaluate the evidence presented and the manner in which it was presented). Students reviewed some of the feedback they received from their peers and discussed it with their teams. We pushed their learning a step farther by having students trace the development of an argument in a piece of writing. This assessment will be used to identify what parts of arguments need to be emphasized in future lessons.
We spent time this week writing our argument. We began with our introductions (Claim and Context) and then added our first two confirmation paragraphs (where students identify the evidence that supports their claims and provide reasoning to explain that evidence). Friday allowed us to have a little bit of fun with our arguments as we discussed who our audience is and how a different tone or voice impacts a piece of writing.
Our plan is to finish writing the first draft of these arguments by Tuesday. In order to stay on target, students should have three paragraphs done by Monday (one introduction and two confirmation). Some students have been sharing their writing with their parents. This is a good conversation starter, and it’s a good way to make sure that our students stay on track to finish. The digital version of the argument should be entered into Google Classroom.
Independent book projects and blog posts are due in a little over a week (on May 31). Those assignments are on the Google Classroom. To support work on the blog posts, we presented a mini-lesson about empathizing with a text. We talked about Harry Potter’s qualities and what happened to him over the course of his story. Students were then asked to come up with ways that they are “like” Harry Potter. This resulted in some fun discussions.
This coming week, we will take a break from United States geography and capitals. After the eighth graders return from Boston, we will have one more practice (on June 1) and then one final assessment (on June 8). This final score will be used on their upcoming report card. Links to practice are also on the Google Classroom.
Please let us know if you have any questions. We hope you have a great weekend.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Humanities Update (5/14)
Hello Families of House C Students:
While it may not be Friday, it's never too late to give an update of the week in humanities...
This week's primary focus was debates. Students worked in their debate teams to finalize their preparation. We held our debates on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Students did some terrific work debating in front of their peers. We were quite impressed! While teams debated, the rest of the students served as our audience. They practiced tracing a debate and identified who they thought "won" the debate. On Monday, we'll reveal those 'winners.'
We worked on some grammar fundamentals on Tuesday: 6th graders worked on apostrophes while 7/8th graders worked on proper comma usage. We will re-visit these topics in the coming days to make sure the concepts stick.
Argument writing made up most of the rest of our week. We worked on making our claims more precise and engaging, and we introduced the concept of a context. Argument writing will be the focus of our coming week - we will build our arguments daily by writing and revising in class. This may result in homework this week if students don't finish the writing in class.
Students also got introduced to the summer reading plan for Milton Middle School. This year, students could pick their own book to read from a selection of four books. We placed an order for those books and will deliver them to students closer to the end of the year, along with some expectations and ideas about summer reading. The book students chose will be used at the start of next year to help create our school culture and give us common texts to discuss!
Ongoing work:
There was yet another weekly check on our United States geography and capital naming. We heard many students express excitement over their progress towards their goal. Links to practice are on Google Classroom.
Independent book projects and blog posts are due in 16 days. Students who had turned in an early version received feedback on their work. This feedback is meant to help students take their work to the next level. We encourage students to review the feedback and revise their work! Again, links for this assignment are on Google Classroom.
Please let us know if you have any questions. We hope you have a great weekend.
While it may not be Friday, it's never too late to give an update of the week in humanities...
This week's primary focus was debates. Students worked in their debate teams to finalize their preparation. We held our debates on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Students did some terrific work debating in front of their peers. We were quite impressed! While teams debated, the rest of the students served as our audience. They practiced tracing a debate and identified who they thought "won" the debate. On Monday, we'll reveal those 'winners.'
We worked on some grammar fundamentals on Tuesday: 6th graders worked on apostrophes while 7/8th graders worked on proper comma usage. We will re-visit these topics in the coming days to make sure the concepts stick.
Argument writing made up most of the rest of our week. We worked on making our claims more precise and engaging, and we introduced the concept of a context. Argument writing will be the focus of our coming week - we will build our arguments daily by writing and revising in class. This may result in homework this week if students don't finish the writing in class.
Students also got introduced to the summer reading plan for Milton Middle School. This year, students could pick their own book to read from a selection of four books. We placed an order for those books and will deliver them to students closer to the end of the year, along with some expectations and ideas about summer reading. The book students chose will be used at the start of next year to help create our school culture and give us common texts to discuss!
Ongoing work:
There was yet another weekly check on our United States geography and capital naming. We heard many students express excitement over their progress towards their goal. Links to practice are on Google Classroom.
Independent book projects and blog posts are due in 16 days. Students who had turned in an early version received feedback on their work. This feedback is meant to help students take their work to the next level. We encourage students to review the feedback and revise their work! Again, links for this assignment are on Google Classroom.
Please let us know if you have any questions. We hope you have a great weekend.
Friday, May 6, 2016
Humanities Update (5/6)
Hello Families of House C Students:
It's another Friday, so here's another update of the work done this past week in Humanities!
We started off this week by watching some debate examples. We used one to analyze the format of a debate, and a second served as an exercise in 'tracing an argument' - being able to identify the parts of an argument in an oral presentation. This is a skill that will be utilized for the remainder of middle school and through high school! In in the midst of a presidential election year, it also seems like quite a good skill to have!
We continue working on our debate preparation with a goal of presenting our actual debate at the start of next week. Students finalized their individual research and evidence collecting, and spent time with their debate team to plan. (They are still using procon.org for the majority of this work).
We introduced the concept of an argument claim, and what makes it different from writing a claim for an opinion or informational text. After identifying some good examples, students worked to develop their own claim in response to the question: "What food system best supports the needs of the United States?" This might be an interesting thing to talk about with your student! What is their claim? What evidence do they have to support that claim?
While 8th graders were taking their science NECAPs, we spent some time working on our independent book projects. Students are now just 25 days from when their book project and blog post are due. These assignments are on Google Classroom.
We completed another weekly check on our United States geography and capital naming! It might be interesting to ask how they view their progress on this skill so far! Links to practice are on Google Classroom!
As mentioned above, we will have our debates next week. We will also introduce the format of a written argument, so students can build on their claims. It should be an exciting week!
It's another Friday, so here's another update of the work done this past week in Humanities!
We started off this week by watching some debate examples. We used one to analyze the format of a debate, and a second served as an exercise in 'tracing an argument' - being able to identify the parts of an argument in an oral presentation. This is a skill that will be utilized for the remainder of middle school and through high school! In in the midst of a presidential election year, it also seems like quite a good skill to have!
We continue working on our debate preparation with a goal of presenting our actual debate at the start of next week. Students finalized their individual research and evidence collecting, and spent time with their debate team to plan. (They are still using procon.org for the majority of this work).
We introduced the concept of an argument claim, and what makes it different from writing a claim for an opinion or informational text. After identifying some good examples, students worked to develop their own claim in response to the question: "What food system best supports the needs of the United States?" This might be an interesting thing to talk about with your student! What is their claim? What evidence do they have to support that claim?
While 8th graders were taking their science NECAPs, we spent some time working on our independent book projects. Students are now just 25 days from when their book project and blog post are due. These assignments are on Google Classroom.
We completed another weekly check on our United States geography and capital naming! It might be interesting to ask how they view their progress on this skill so far! Links to practice are on Google Classroom!
As mentioned above, we will have our debates next week. We will also introduce the format of a written argument, so students can build on their claims. It should be an exciting week!
T3 Progress Reports
House C students were sent home with their progress reports on this afternoon (Friday). Please let your child's advisor know if you did not receive them.
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