National Poetry Month

Yesterday in Language Arts, students wrote or created poems to celebrate National Poetry Month, and we wanted to share some with you. This link will take you to some of our more visual poetry (book spine, blackout, and chance poetry).

We also wrote some "exquisite corpse" poetry, where students write a line of poetry, fold it over, and pass it to the next person, who writes their line - and so on. The results, as you can see here, are pretty entertaining.

And last, but not least, students were able to just write poems - and a couple of those are posted here.

Enjoy the end of National Poetry Month! As a reminder, Poem In Your Pocket Day is April 27 - a day to encourage students to carry poems around with them. If students send me a picture of their poem and either themselves or where they are, there will be some kind of reward! Photos will be accepted upon students' return to classes as well.

Enjoy the break!

Renowned Civil War Presenter

It was just brought to my attention that we neglected to share with you this fabulous resource. Back in January, thanks to the General Stannard House Committee (thanks, Bill!) and the Milton Historical Society, we were treated to a presentation by noted historian, Howard Coffin. LCATV recorded this presentation and made it available for the public to view. Enjoy!

Video of Howard Coffin's presentation

Civil War Quilt

Students' inquiry work from our Civil War unit (The Danger of a Single Story) was incorporated into quilt squares and assembled in our hall by some visually inventive students. 

John Brown: Hero or Criminal?

Here is a sampling of students' posters in response to the question "Was John Brown a hero or a criminal?"

Vermonters and the Civil War

Today, we had a visit from Howard Coffin, a noted Civil War historian. He talked to us about Abraham Lincoln, Vermont's role in the Civil War, and General Stannard's house in Milton. It was an exciting presentation that had all 80+ of our students engaged and interested.

Here are some pictures:

Mr. Coffin and an Abraham Lincoln style top hat.

Mr. E, being one of our tallest Falcons, shows off his Lincoln style.

Mr. Coffin's passionate style kept our students quite entertained.

Student Voices: "Peace"

Each week, students have an opportunity to free write: we provide a topic, and students have seven minutes to write continuously on that topic or one of their choosing. We'll occasionally post a student's writing to give you a feeling for the student voices on Team Falcon. 

"Peace"

The equality of our nation is still pressured, even many years after the great speech of dreams. Our nation has changed, but the dream is not fulfilled to its potential. There are still many years to come to heal the scars of the past, but our nation is still young. May we gain wisdom as we grow older. Hope to soon have a country truly filled with liberty and justice for all. Hope that we have peace in this world to exceed our boundaries to ensure the promise of safety among all races and places.

May we all have peace in this world.

-- Liz, Grade 7, 1/17/17

Year in Rap(s)

I'm a couple of weeks behind, but before our December break, students were tasked with writing a rap that summarized the news events of the year. We had some great beats, impressive raps (even one that compared war damage to my receding hairline!), and many shouts out to Milton Middle School.

This picture summarizes the kind of joy we witnessed that day. Thanks to all of our rappers! And happy new year...

Writing Prompt - Week Six

The Last Prompt of July! I'm going to write my response to this prompt and post it tomorrow. I'd be interested to see what anyone else comes up with. Feel free to post your writing as a comment. 

And again: the idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

Today's prompt: You have seven minutes to tell everyone in the United States anything that you'd like. What do you tell us? What would you show us? What would you want to happen after you were done talking to us?

OR:

Two people knock on your door and call you by a name that is not yours. You pull out your wallet to show them your identification and it says...the two people are right. That is your name. What do you do? What happened? WHO ARE YOU? 

OR: 

Write whatever you'd like.

And remember...have fun!

Writing Prompt - Week Five

Another week = another prompt! Let's write. If you are so inclined, feel free to post your writing as a comment below. 

Remember: the idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

Today's prompt:You have been chosen to be the president of the United States. What would you like to see for the country? What would you change? What is just fine as it is? How do you feel about being chosen as president? For an extra challenge, write this as if it were a political speech for thousands of people! 

OR:

You are stuck in an elevator with two other people. You discover that your cell phones don't work. What do you do? What do you say to the other two people in the elevator? Who are the two other people in the elevator? And what was that sound you just heard...?!

OR: 

Write whatever you'd like.

And remember...have fun!

Writing Prompt - Week Four

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a PROMPT! If you are so inclined, feel free to post your writing as a comment below. Remember: the idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

Today's prompt:
You find yourself stuck in the middle of a lake with one other living being (friend, family, animal). What do you do? What does that living being say or do? What do you see/hear/smell/taste/feel?

OR:

You are a famous rock star/politician/writer/dancer/artist. Write a letter from a fan to you. What do they love about you and your work?

OR: 

Write whatever you'd like.

And remember...have fun!

Writing Prompt - Week Three

Happy Independence Day!

I find that summer brings me opportunities to write letters or postcards that I don't make time for during the school year. So one of today's prompts will be just that. (That prompt may require more than seven minutes, and you may want to revise it to make sure your reader can understand what you are writing!) Remember: the idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

And if you'd like to, post your writing as a comment below.

Today's prompt:

Write a postcard to someone who may not expect to hear from you. It could be a friend or a family member or a camp counselor or whomever you'd like.

Seven Minute Ideas:

Write about gaining independence. It could be the US's independence from Britain, or the planet's independence from aliens, or your independence from school, or...

OR: write whatever you'd like.


And remember...have fun!

Writing Prompt - Week Two

Happy second week!

As a reminder, this is a voluntary opportunity to keep your writing skills sharp over these lovely warm months. Each Monday, I will post a writing prompt for those who would like to keep practicing writing. Treat it like our free-write Mondays: give yourself seven minutes, try to write the whole time, and let yourself play! The idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

And if you'd like to, post your writing as a comment below.

Today's prompt:

You wake up and discover that you're a giant beetle. What do you do? (I borrowed this idea from a Franz Kafka story called "The Metamorphosis")

Tell a story from the point of view of a piece of gum.

Or, write whatever you'd like.


And remember...have fun!

Writing Prompt - Week One

Happy Summer, everyone!

I know that we're all taking breaks this summer, but I wanted to provide an opportunity to keep your skills sharp over these lovely warm months. Each Monday, I will post a writing prompt for those who would like to keep writing or keep practicing. I encourage you to treat it like our free-write Mondays. Give yourself seven minutes, try to write the whole time, and let yourself play! The idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

And if you'd like to, post your writing as a comment below.

Today's prompt:

Your pet can suddenly talk - write out your first conversation with your dog/cat/fish/parrot/lizard.

You find yourself suddenly transported to Spain. What do you do on your first day? Use sensory details.

Or, write whatever you'd like.

And remember...have fun!

Humanities Update (5/20)

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.

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.

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!

Humanities Update (4/29)

Hello Families of House C Students!

Here is an update about the work done this past week in Humanities!

In order to create a more complete argument, we’ve been introducing students to responses to The Omnivore’s Dilemma. One article called The Omnivore’s Delusion, written by a farmer named Blake Hurst, questioned many aspects of Michael Pollan’s book. In addition, and to work on our listening skills, we listened to a discussion between Hurst & Pollan, hosted on National Public Radio.

We applied our close reading skills to a modified version of an article from Seven Days about James Ehlers, a passionate advocate for water quality in Lake Champlain who presented in our science classes on Thursday. We used our NPS (Non-Fiction Positioning System) Coordinates - which help readers know what an author is trying to communicate - to better understand the text and to gain some background knowledge for Thursday’s presentation. NPS Coordinates include metaphors, similes, comparing and contrasting, expert opinions - we use these as road signs that help point the way to understanding the reading! Your student should have a handout that displays what each coordinate is and what they mean.

For the last part of this week, we have been preparing for a debate. Students have been assigned topics such as college education, school uniform, violence in video games, and tablets vs. textbooks. They have spent time researching both sides of the argument on procon.org and are now in the process of creating their debates. Some students may not have finished this preparation; there is a two-page worksheet that they should use to capture their best arguments for their side as well as some arguments that might come their way from the other side (and rebuttals to those counter-arguments).

Next week, we will be debating these topics in teams, with an eye towards using these skills to complement their argument writing.

Students are now just over a month from when their book project and blog post are due. Those assignments are on the Google Classroom.

We will also be completing weekly quizzes on the United States geography and capitals! 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.

Humanities Update (4/17)

Hello House C Families:

Happy break week! Since this is a week away from school, and since we have been working hard on some interesting things, we thought we'd take a moment to let you know what we've been doing in humanities, as it may spur some thoughtful discussions (and we know that sometimes the only response to "What did you do in school today?" is..."Not much!")!

As you may have heard, we are reading a student edition of The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. We are using this as an informational text for students to work with in creating an effective argument. Over the past three weeks, we've been reading about three food systems: Industrial, Industrial Organic, and Local Sustainable. Students have been collecting arguments for and against each food system and upon their return to class, we'll start creating arguments for which food system students think is best to meet the needs of our community. We will also read some articles written in response to Omnivore's in order to get a sense of both sides of the argument and to round out our understanding of the material.

On Friday, each student highlighted one piece of evidence and created a poster to display in our classroom. Students then participated in a gallery walk to collect evidence they might not have already had on their note sheets. Their work is really informative and eye-catching. This book has been the fuel for some really interesting discussions, and we encourage you to ask your child about what they're thinking about!

To link geography skills to the content of the book, students have undertaken a series of activities to sharpen their geospatial thinking skills. They first thought about some of the foods they typically eat in a week. Then they used several maps to determine where those foods would likely have come from if bought in a conventional supermarket and mapped the states of origin of those food products. Based on that data, they wrote paragraphs to analyze what grows where, why there, and why we should care. Many students still need to follow through with all of those steps. It would be great if they could work on that over the break.

We are 44 days away from our book projects and blog posts being due (May 31). As a reminder, each student is expected to read at least two books per trimester, and then complete a book project about one and a blog post about the other. Hopefully students are finding books that interest and entertain them! You can find the links to the assignments here: Book Project - Blog Post.

We are also working on knowing our state capitals. We've used this very catchy song and video as a way to remember them. Students have completed two attempts at naming all 50, and on Friday, we set a goal for our third attempt, which will take place shortly after returning from break. This might be a great opportunity to ask your student to name the capital of a certain state - or to watch the video with them and challenge each other!

Finally, in celebration of National Poetry Month (and to go along with Omnivore's Dilemma), we spent some time on Friday looking at the grass and making observations related to our senses in Milton Middle School's field. Students then wrote a short poem about the experience, or about the grass, or about the strange request of looking and listening to grass. We hope they share their work with you!

We hope that this break week is refreshing for our students and that you get some time to enjoy their company. If you have any questions, please let us know. Thank you for you all that you do.

These Pictures of Us - 12/21

photos by Anna Kaigle, Kyle Raftery & Raneen Salha

House C is looking forward to our photography exhibit, which serves as the culminating event to our humanities unit about Personal Narratives. As a reminder, this event will be Monday, December 21, starting at 4:00 (and going until 6:30).

Your learners have been creating an installation that summarizes who they are and how they see themselves in the world. Learners have been exploring how to communicate through images, working with rules of photography and our visual arts teacher (Ms. Baldwin) to help set up and take some inspiring photographs. As the above examples show, the work is striking and thoughtful. 

This is an exciting project that has resulted in some terrific art. We hope you can drop by and stroll through our gallery between 4:00 and 6:30 on the 21st. (This is very similar to an art exhibit in that you may come and go as you please!)

Light refreshments will be served. Please let me know if you have any questions.

No Summit, Week 4: "On top of the world"

And so here we are: at the ending.

Order of Events

I'll be interested to hear what you all think of how the book is structured. It makes a certain amount of sense that the book proceeds in the order of Jordan's mountain climbs - at the same time, the Everest climb felt like such a climax that the final climb seems like an afterthought. I wonder if there could have been another way to structure it so we could end on that high, thrilling note. Or maybe the Vinson climb needed more detail. I found it surprising that there weren't more difficulties or details. How else could the book be structured?

That's the Power of Words

Something I've been thinking about since early on in No Summit is the support we sometimes need to tackle our goals. It's pretty clear to me that Karen and his dad are big supports on Jordan's journey, and there are often times where one of them says just the right thing that helps him keep moving and pushing himself. Could Jordan have completed his goal without the support, encouragement, and even the occasional shove of those two? 

Paul, Karen, Jordan & "King" Richard - image from kbhr933.com

Just as often, though, the words that come back to him are those of the guide on Kilimanjaro ("the mountain wants you to climb it."). This made me stop and think about the power of words. I doubt Samuel said those words thinking that Jordan would remember them for the next five years, but that is indeed what happens. As he's climbing Vinson, those words are coming back to him. Jordan is pretty lucky to have received such supportive, encouraging words from someone.

It made me think about the things we say to each other, the things that stick with us, even if the person saying them didn't mean for them to stay there. Here's a silly example from my life. 

A friend in college said that the way I eat ice cream cones was "disgusting." He said this, gasped, and averted his eyes. Years later (too many to count), that still sticks with me. To this day, I have to feel pretty comfortable with someone to eat ice cream in a cone in public. If I'm alone, no problem. But an offhand remark that someone said years ago still haunts me to this day. Did Joe mean for me to be thinking about this comment long after college? Probably not. If I asked him today, he probably wouldn't even remember the comment. But it has actively changed the way I relate to people (in an admittedly small, strange way).

You're probably guessing where this is going - what are the things we say to each other that don't go away? What are some things friends have said that have helped you in trying times? What about things said that still make you feel hurt, or angry, or bothered? How can we make sure that what we say to each other is positive and supportive? 

That's the thought I want to take away from this book as we start the school year on Wednesday: anything I say could have a bigger impact than I intended. I want to be aware and thoughtful so that those impacts are helpful. Not harmful.

I'll look forward to seeing you all soon! Perhaps even at tomorrow night's open house! 

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get a creemee. 

Three people in front of whom I can eat creemees.