Monday, March 10th

Today we started with our daily grammar review and we continued reading Messenger.  I taught a lesson on prepositional phrases and students created their own sentences (for some reason, I was the subject in many of them… and my actions were not exactly exemplary).  

I concluded class by introducing this term's social studies project.  Students are working in groups of three to research, write about, and present their WWII related topic.  They will be working on these projects for the next three weeks and they'll be presenting during the final week of the term.  This project will help students prepare for their culminating Exhibition projects during term 6.

Morning Notes

Afternoon Notes

Friday, March 7th

Today we continued reading Messenger and I gave the vocabulary assessment.  Both classes began a map/timeline social studies inquiry and we will finish the final part of that on Monday.  

Also, my homeroom came in second place in this year's Black History Bowl!  The boys did an excellent job and I'm proud of them. 

Thursday, March 6th

Today we had our daily language review and students completed their WWII causes inquiry.  Additionally, students who completed the inquiry were given an extension assignment so they could compare two opposing ideologies.  Tomorrow students will do some WWII map work and create a timeline of major WWII events.  We will also have the vocabulary quiz tomorrow.

Analysis of Communism

Analysis of Fascism (with a focus on Germany and Italy)

Expressions on the Ave!

Tuesday, March 4th

Tomorrow's Expressions on the Ave performance is at 2pm for both homerooms in the multi purpose room.  

Monday, March 3rd

We started the day with this week's vocabulary and daily ELA work.  After that we concluded our analysis of the setting of The Giver and Gathering Blue.  After finding a similarity, we worked together to find text-based evidence about differences between the two.  We completed one together then students worked with one or two partners to identify two more differences.  Then we shared and students filled in the last blank.  

During Social Studies I introduced this term's UOI: How the World Works.  Students worked to come up with a definition and examples of the terms constructive and destructive.  They also had to come up with examples for each.  When they presented their examples, I immediately gave my own example of how their example could fall under the other category.  This term we will continue to go beyond simply identifying terms and saying whether things are "good" or "bad."  Moving forward, events, people, and actions will be analyzed to determine if they are constructive, destructive, or (in most cases) both.

Friday, February 28th

We started ELA with correcting our daily work.  Next we discussed the 5th grade writing test and students were able to practice creating an outline for a randomly selected prompt.  The morning class continued with their WWII notes, and both classes took a formative Edmodo quiz on African Americans and women in WWII.

At the end of the day I played my Pearl Harbor video.  Some students had already seen it; however, the morning class was only able to see half of it.  Next week, we will continue our studies of WWII.