12/4 Humanities

Hello folks,
I have a BIG week for updates:
The students have been deeply involved in their revolution research papers. At this point, the expectation is that students have completed a first draft, received feedback from me and some of their peers, and have completed a second draft. It is this second draft that I will be assessing against the standards. Students are encouraged to revise their papers until all standards have been met. PowerSchool is updated so that you can see whether or not your child has completed the first and second drafts of this piece. I would encourage you to view your child's report on our team wiki so that you can see the progress being made. Just to remind you, the focus of this piece was to make a claim about the relationship between media (communication of information) and a revolution or other major movement. It's important to note that we will not be using any more class time on this part of the unit. Students will need to work outside of class (clinic, before/after school, recess, at home) to complete the written portion of this unit.
At the students' request, we will now shift the lens on this unit of study and students will represent their new knowledge in a visual way (movie, digital story, etc.) By the end of this week, they will present these projects to the rest of the team.
As we prepare to move into our next unit on the Foundation of Government, we will begin a full-team, in-class reading of Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Although many students have already read this book independently, we will be reading it in a guided way, making connections between the fictional government of Panem and our own government. Additionally, I plan to model reading strategies and allow for the students to construct new understandings based on group discussions. Stay tuned for more details on this.
Lastly, I wanted to give you a heads up that on Monday 12/5, the students will have the opportunity to hear a presentation on the state of education in Sudan, Africa. Through a connection of mine, two college students have arranged to come in and present to the students, keeping the focus on students examining their own access to education. This may or may not lead to some further opportunities for service learning projects, depending on how the students respond to this lesson. I invite you to sit in on this presentation if you are able (it will be presented at 9:00am and 10:00am). If not, please engage your child in a discussion about this important topic.
Students will be quizzed on WEDNESDAY of this week on lessons 15-16.
Phew – that should do it for now.