 This weekend zoomed by. | Wow! That was a very fast weekend, from attending a meeting on Saturday morning to helping my Dad pick up a new motorcycle the rest of the day (including trailing him back from Indiana for three hours) to listening to |
the Bears go down in defeat while doing some cooking early Sunday to prepping for this school week. Before I knew it, it was 8:00 p.m. on Sunday night, and the weekend, like my Dad's new bike, was a shadow.
In all seriousness, if there is one thing that I have learned the past three years, it's that time flies when you are a teacher. These last three school years have been the fastest years of my life, and this year is off to another quick start.
As for what matters, here's what happened on what was mostly a very positive day, with the exception of some missed vocabulary homework! We all had busy weekends, I guess (totally just kidding). :-)
In all seriousness, if there is one thing that I have learned the past three years, it's that time flies when you are a teacher. These last three school years have been the fastest years of my life, and this year is off to another quick start.
As for what matters, here's what happened on what was mostly a very positive day, with the exception of some missed vocabulary homework! We all had busy weekends, I guess (totally just kidding). :-)
Reading class began with an introduction to the grade weights for reading, social studies and writing, which should be signed and returned tomorrow. We then looked at this week's vocabulary words (due Friday) before returning to last week's close read of a community farm in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood for refugees from the Congo and the Asian nations of Myanmar and Bhutan. This article is a perfect transition into our first novel, Seedfolks, which we will begin on Tuesday.
For about 20 minutes, students performed a third close read of "A Farm in Chicago?" article, working with their groups to visualize what they imagined the garden to look, feel, smell, taste and sound like based on text evidence. Students then watched the following video on the garden, listed what they observed, and compared these observations with what they imagined the garden to be like. For homework tonight, students will move onto the fourth close read with a written response that will examine some of the potential challenges that may result as a result of community gardens being based on a "shared responsibility" model, which will be a great segue into Seedfolks.
For about 20 minutes, students performed a third close read of "A Farm in Chicago?" article, working with their groups to visualize what they imagined the garden to look, feel, smell, taste and sound like based on text evidence. Students then watched the following video on the garden, listed what they observed, and compared these observations with what they imagined the garden to be like. For homework tonight, students will move onto the fourth close read with a written response that will examine some of the potential challenges that may result as a result of community gardens being based on a "shared responsibility" model, which will be a great segue into Seedfolks.
I was really hoping to get to visit this garden the past weekend to see it in action. I will have to do so before it gets cold and share my findings with the students.
Transitioning to Social Studies, we watched our first CNN Student News of the year, with the children focusing on answering these key questions.
Transitioning to Social Studies, we watched our first CNN Student News of the year, with the children focusing on answering these key questions.
- Why is Pope Francis visiting Cuba?
- How is Cuba like Budapest, Hungary?
- Why is Chinese President Xi coming to the U.S.?
- Give two reasons why the U.S. and China are friends.
- Give two reasons why the U.S. and China are enemies.
- What is CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy)?
- What are some symptoms of CTE?
We will continue to do CNN Student News for about 10 minutes each day and have weekly quizzes every Monday.
During the rest of Social Studies, students continued taking notes on the seven elements of social studies, as begun on Friday. We will explore these elements in more detail on Tuesday.
In writing class, students self-assessed the introduction to their 9/11 reflection and then provided a peer review of one fellow student's paper. From there, we did a whole-class mini-lesson on how to write the second paragraph of the reflection, beginning with a strong topic sentence that lists the reason and 4-5 supporting sentences that SHOW, rather than just tell, the reason by including great detail. Students then began writing their second paragraph, which will be due tomorrow. Here are the notes from today's writing class.
During the rest of Social Studies, students continued taking notes on the seven elements of social studies, as begun on Friday. We will explore these elements in more detail on Tuesday.
In writing class, students self-assessed the introduction to their 9/11 reflection and then provided a peer review of one fellow student's paper. From there, we did a whole-class mini-lesson on how to write the second paragraph of the reflection, beginning with a strong topic sentence that lists the reason and 4-5 supporting sentences that SHOW, rather than just tell, the reason by including great detail. Students then began writing their second paragraph, which will be due tomorrow. Here are the notes from today's writing class.
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Until tomorrow!
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