More Reading Lists!

If you copy and paste the link below, you'll find annotated bibliographic info for historic fiction for teens, organized by period of history:

http://www.skokie.lib.il.us/s_teens/tn_books/tn_booklists/histfict.asp

Supplementary Reading: Apartheid in South Africa

I took the following information directly off of a webpage operated by Boston University:

1. BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS All of these books are
available for loan from the Boston University African Outreach Program.

Elinor Sisulu, The Day Gogo Went to Vote.

Sheila Gordon, Waiting for Rain [winner of several children's book awards (ages 12 & up)
_________, Middle of Somewhere: A Story of South Africa (elem/middle)

Beverly Naidoo, Journey to Jo'burg A South African Storv [winner of several children's book awards]

_________, Chain of Fire, (ages 11 & up)

Hazel Rochman, ea., Somehow Tenderness Survives: Stories of Southern Africa [an ALA Best Book for Young Adults]

The Open School, Two Dogs and Freedom - drawings and observations about life in South Africa by black South African children

Mary Benson, Nelson Mandela: The Man and the Movement (advanced high school) [Mary Benson has also done a middle school level biography of Mandela]

Apartheid: Calibrations of Color (Icarus/Rosen Publishing Group). [winner of African Studies Assoc. award for children's book]short stories, plays, photos and personal essays by South Africans. [middle & high school]


Sarah Harris, Timeline: South Africa (Weighing Up the Evidence)

Gail Stewart, South Africa (Places in the News)

Hugh Lewin, The Day the Picture Came Alive [about the excitement of Nelson Mandela visiting children in a village soon after his release from prison]; [elementary school]

D. Stanley, Shaka: King of the Zulus
S. Harris, Timeline: South Africa. [middle school]
G. Stewart, South Africa: Places in the News. [middle school]
S. Otfinoski, Nelson Mandela [middle school]
Floyd Cooper, Mandela. [elementary school]
Rebecca Stefoff, Nelson Mandela A Voice Set Free
Jack Roberts, Nelson Mandela. [elementary school]
John Vail, Nelson and Winnie Mandela

N. Silver, No Tigers in Africa [a coming of age story about a white boy who is pushed to unlearn the prejudice he grew up withl; [middle school and higher]

M. Williams, The Genuine Half Moon Kid [a coming of age story about a white boy]; [middle school and higher]

Peter Lowis, South Africa: Free at Last ("Topics in the News" series)

In addition, the B.U. African Outreach Program has a series of short biographies, w/ photos, of key leaders in the anti-apartheid struggle. [grades 5-8]; [published in South Africa]

The following fine picture books take place in South Africa. They offer stories which vividly
depict the lives and culture of black South Africans.
Isadora, Over the Green Hills
_________, At the Crossroads
I. Mennen and N. Daly, Somewhere in Africa
N. Daly, Not So Fast Songololo
N. Daly, The Day of the Rainbow
C. Stock, Armien's Fishing Trip
H. Lewin, Jafta (series)
R. Schermbrucker and N. Daly, Charlie's House
J. Seed, Ntombi's Song

Research-based Article Indicates Parental Involvement in Middle School Students' Academic Achievement

Check out the article below (in PDF form):


http://www.nmsa.org/portals/0/pdf/publications/RMLE/rmle_vol31_no10.pdf

Q2 Midterm Update

Hello!

A few items of business:

1) Please remember to check your child's midterm grades over Thanksgiving Break.

2) Please remember to send a signed permission slip for pen-pals from Thailand; I will accept notice via email. We will begin writing after Thanksgiving.


This week in 8th grade Social Studies, we finished watching the movie Gandhi, and looked at my photographs of India from my trip there over Fall Break; when we get back from Thanksgiving Break we will discuss South Africa's Apartheid system, and Nelson Mandela as a leader; then we will move on to a more in-depth study of the Cold War; we will begin reading the Core Knowledge novel, Animal Farm, by George Orwell!


7th graders began working on a (hopefully) fun project as we study WW1-- they will be practicing and performing (live or recorded versions) of songs from the WW1 era!

Students can choose to work alone, in pairs, or in small groups; groups of more than two students are required to perform one song for every two people in a group (e.g. 1 student= 1 song, 2 students= 1 song, 3 students= 1 song, 4 students =2 songs, 5 students= 2 songs, 6 students= 3 songs...) Students may choose to perform more than the required number of songs, if they want to!

WW1 sheet music can be found at the following site:

http://dl.lib.brown.edu/sheetmusic/ww1/

(If you have trouble accessing this website, just do a Google search for "WW1 Sheet Music", and it should be the first link that the search produces. Also, students have information about how to access our class gmail (email) account, and the link can be found in our collective Inbox, as well.)

Students can perform the song live in class, or record a version at home to play for us in class; some ideas have been to make a music video, video record yourself while singing/playing the song, record your performance onto your computer/laptop and upload it onto your iPod to play in class, etc.

Students can perform a vocal rendition of the tune, an instrumental version, or a combination of the two; it is acceptable for one student to sing while the other plays an instrument.

This will be due at the end of Q2.


On the Legislative Draft front, all 7th and 8th graders should begin searching for legislative committees that focus on the environment, and recording the names of the legislators that comprise those committees. We will attempt to contact relevant legislators when we return next week from break. Some states are still in the process of forming committees, so depending on the states your child is following, s/he may or may not be able to find this information.


Have a nice Thanksgiving!

Leah Hood

Amazon's Top 10 History books of 2010

Thought of some of you might be interested in this list; many of these supplement the units of study in my classes, as well as other levels of the Core Knowledge sequence; please bear in mind that I have not yet read any of these...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000628091

#1) The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
by Isabel Wilkerson

#2) Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
by S. C. Gwynne

#3) Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
by Ben Macintyre

#4) Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address Illustrated
by Abraham Lincoln

#5) Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour
by Lynne Olson

#6) The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
by Nathaniel Philbrick

#7) Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin
by Hampton Sides

#8) Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
by Daniel Okrent

#9) The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum

#10) The Fall of the House of Walworth: A Tale of Madness and Murder in Gilded Age America by Geoffrey O'Brien

In a globalized world, look to global examples...

Very interesting articles about, perhaps, where we should be looking for guidance....

http://www.learningfirst.org/teachers-we-trust-interview-finnish-education-expert-reijo-laukkanen

http://www.iptv.org/iowajournal/story.cfm/447

http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/148771.html

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1995/10/18/07finkel.h15.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4031805.stm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharon-higgins/why-do-the-education-refo_1_b_775087.html

From The National Council for the Social Studies

Check out the links below to find out more about how I view my role as your child's Social Studies teacher:

http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/teacherstandards

http://www.socialstudies.org/standards

http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/strands

http://www.socialstudies.org/category/topic/21st-century-skills


Hope you are either A) Feeling better, B) Getting rest, or C) Enjoying your unexpected long weekend!

Take care,
Leah Hood

Q2 Update

Hard to believe, but Q2 is well under way!

In 7th grade, we continue to study WW1; this week so far we have read about the Fleet Acts, and played a board game about "militarism." I have been reading aloud to the students from The Kitchen Boy, as they draw what they hear; it is a During Reading activity aimed at A) visualization, and B) visual summaries. Some students are enjoying the novel more than others, of course, but most agree that the plot is starting to pick up the pace...

7th graders were just tested over the Canadian provinces, and will next be tested over countries in South America.

Early next week, we'll be using the laptop cart to explore the following website, which contains sheet music from the WW1 era:

http://dl.lib.brown.edu/sheetmusic/ww1/


In 8th grade, we started learning about the Indian independence movement, including historic figures such as Gandhi and Nehru, and historic events such as the Amritsar Massacre, The Salt March (aka The March to the Sea), and Partition; we will be watching the movie, Gandhi, starring Ben Kingsley. We will also be covering Apartheid in South Africa, paying special attention to the life and work of Nelson Mandela.

Here are a few of the online resources we used today in 8th grade:

Amritsar Massacre: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6687085

Salt March Reenactment: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/in_pictures/4343307.stm

8th graders were tested over countries in central Africa, and are about to be tested over countries in southern Africa.


Since the midterm elections are behind us, next week (in both grade levels) we'll be moving forward a bit in our Legislative Draft project.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks for reading, and take care,
Leah Hood

Cool supplements!

There are so many cool things going on in the Twin Cities metro area!

Check out the current and upcoming events at the Science Museum of Minnesota:

http://www.smm.org/

(Including "Celebrate Girls & Science on Saturday, November 13", and "Coming February 2011: Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs" !)

And through the MN Historical Society:

http://www.mnhs.org/events/

Or at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts:

http://www.artsmia.org/

(Particularly for the 8th graders, who have been studying African geography: http://www.artsmia.org/index.php?section_id=2&exh_id=4031)

Homework Assignments

All 7th and 8th graders have two assignments, as of today:

1) Go to the websites of Mark Dayton, Tom Emmer, and Tom Horner; in Social Studies Notebook, list 1 idea from each candidate's website that you agree with, and 1 idea that you disagree with; 6 ideas in total (3 that you think are good ideas, 3 that you think are not-so-good/bad ideas); tomorrow we will have a class vote!

http://markdayton.org/mainsite/

http://www.emmerforgovernor.com/

http://www.horner2010.com/


2) Study for the next map quiz; 7th=Canadian provinces; 8th=Central African countries; quiz next week (exact date TBD).

Welcome back to Q2!

Fall Break went zipping by for me! I traveled to India (to Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra) with my mom, and visited a friend who is living in Delhi and working in the media there. It was an amazing experience; it's so good to get outside your comfort zone and challenge yourself to see life through the eyes of another culture.

So, here we are, back for Q2!

We are already off and rolling, which is a good feeling.

In 7th grade, we will continue on in our historical fiction novel, The Kitchen Boy. We will be doing Pre-Reading, During Reading, and Post-Reading packets for most chapters; there are a few chapters that students will just be listening to, and drawing what they hear. We will also sometimes be using what I call, "During Reading Role Signs". Each students gets a sign, which has one thing "good readers" do while they are reading; that student will be responsible for completing that task, as we read together in class. When students share their role with the whole class, we get a fuller picture of what good readers do "During Reading".

We will study WW1, The Russian Revolution, and the dawn of the spread of Communist philosophy.

In 8th grade, we will read the novel, The Surrender Tree (which we read in 7th grade last quarter); this historic fiction book fits in with our study of the Decline of the European Colonial System, which we introduced ourselves to at the end of Q1. Later in the quarter, we will read the Core Knowledge novel, Animal Farm; this will be a part of our study of the Cold War era, and the spread of Communist Totalitarian regimes.

We will also continue our study of U.S. Government; we may even extend this unit into Q3; it's such a complex process, and such an important thing for students to understand, so I want to keep working on it until we've really covered it.

In both 7th and 8th grades, we will continue with our year-long Legislative Draft project; we will be doing some more focused research on the states on each student's "team", and writing to new legislators in those states after the upcoming elections.

Also in both 7th and 8th grades, we will be learning more about the differences and similarities between Democracies, Autocracies, Capitalism, Communism, and Socialism; understanding these systems and philosophies is at the heart of the study of modern history, and current events. We are also going to be spending a lot more time in class juxtaposing and examining contemporary maps of data about the world; for example, today we looked at a map of the world as it appeared under the European colonial system, and compared it to current maps of Infant Mortality Rates, and Women's Suffrage throughout the world; students noticed some interesting correlations!


There is a map quiz this Friday, October 29th:

7th= Eastern European countries

8th= North African countries


Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks and take care,
Leah Hood

Enjoy Fall Break!

Oh my goodness gracious! I cannot believe it's the end of First Quarter. Conferences were a great time for me to slow down a bit (even in the midst of hurried conferences!) and synthesize all those bits of information I have been learning about my students so far this year, and articulate where I think we need to go. It feels so promising to realize that we have, in fact, been moving through material, and getting to know one another. I feel really positive heading into the rest of the school year.

Second quarter, 7th graders will continue reading The Kitchen Boy, while learning more about The Russian Revolution, within the broader context of WW1; then we will learn about The Roaring Twenties, and The Dust Bowl and Great Depression; I'd like to use some poetry from the 1920s, and we'll read The Truth About Sparrows alongside our study of 1930s.

Coming up in 8th grade, we will continue our study of U.S. Government through the upcoming election, go deeper into the Decline of European Colonialism, and then learn more about the Cold War era. We finally finished reading Year of Impossible Goodbyes, and next quarter we'll read Animal Farm, which is one of the Core Knowledge novels.


And please meet me at the MN History Center in downtown St. Paul, on Saturday, October 30th, from Noon-4:00, for the "Dia de los Muertos Celebracion"! This will be the second event featured in our MN Historical Society Club.

I hope you're feeling good about Q1, and enjoy Fall Break! (I'll be in India with my mom and friend!)

Take care,
Leah Hood

The-Almost-End-of-Q1!

Hi all!

Here's a slew of info about the end of this quarter:

1) All 6th-8th grade students will be going to the MN State Capitol on the last day of the quarter! This fits in well with the 8th graders' study of how our government works, and is a great pre-learning activity for the 6th and 7th graders, who will be studying this when they reach 8th grade. We had a phenomenal number of parent/guardian volunteers to be chaperones; unfortunately, I could only take two from each grade level! But a parent made a good suggestion that, in the future, I choose volunteer chaperones by a random lottery drawing, rather than on a first-come, first-serve basis; so I will do that in the future. Thanks so much for all your interest and support!

Please get those permission slips in ASAP! Thank you!


2) Conferences are this Thursday and Friday. I am unable to hold conferences on Thursday evening, but I will be available all day on Friday; if Friday does not work for you, please contact me at school and we will arrange an alternative time to meet. Sorry for any inconvenience!


3) All late/missing/make-up/re-take work is due this Thursday, September 30th. (Teachers have grades due midway through next week, and conferences all day Friday, so it's really difficult to meaningfully grade huge amounts of student work those first few days of the last week.)


4) There is a map quiz in Social Studies on Thursday, September 30th. 7th graders are being tested over Western European countries, to go along with our beginning study of WW1 (which was the major stage of the war); 8th graders are being tested over the map of the world as it appeared during the era of European Colonialism, which goes hand-in-hand with our beginning study of that era in world history.


5) I am starting a "MN Historical Society Club"; once or twice per quarter, I'll choose an historic site in MN, book a tour date and time, and let you all know about it. If you are able to and interested in coming, great! If not, not big deal. You will have to figure out transporation and payment, though, and please make sure all students are accompanied by an adult other than myself. The first of these visits is this Sunday, October 3rd, at the James J. Hill House in St. Paul, at 2:30 PM. There are already about 15 people signed up, and there's plenty more room! Please let me know by Friday, October 1st, if you plan to attend, and how many people will be in your party. Hope to see you there!


Thanks so much for a great quarter!

Enjoy your Fall Break!

Take care,
Leah Hood

The Legislative Draft

We held our Legislative Draft in class today! It went well. Different students volunteered to play the roles of Emcee, Time Keeper, Recorder, and Map Master; students were allowed to dress up for the occasion, and some even took me up on my suggestion to go home last night and (with parent permission) look on youtube for video clips of the NBA Draft for inspiration ;) They seemed to enjoy the opportunity to be out of uniform!

So what this means is that now each student has three U.S. states (or Washington D.C.) to pay attention to for the remainder of this school year; students should be looking specifically to the state legislatures and state media for proposed and passed legislation, and current events stories about environmental issues.

When it comes to the legislative piece, however, we can't really begin until after the upcoming midterm elections and the start of the new legislation sessions! So we will be doing some research about the candidates, and then contacting representatives to solicit their help in keeping us current on proposed legislation about the environment.

If students are eager to get started, at this point they can find articles from their states' media sources that relate to the environment.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. And don't forget to find homework assignments and due dates on Twitter! (MsHoodsHoodlums)

Thanks and take care,
Leah Hood

Midterm Report!

Hello, Paideia families and students!

Here's a little post about where we've been during this first half of the quarter, and where we'll go from now until Fall Break:

7th grade: We are wrapping up our study of "America Becomes a World Power/U.S. Empire/U.S. Imperialism/U.S. Expansionism/The Spanish-American War" (take your pick of labels!). We have a few final lessons and activities before we completely move on to WW1; students should be familiar with the terms, "imperialism", "anti-imperialism", "yellow journalism", "U.S.S. Maine", "reconcentration camps", "Rough Riders", "Anti-Imperialist League", "Platt Amendment", and "Treaty of Paris"; they should also be familiar with President William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William Randolph Hearst, General Valeriano Weyler, Jose Marti, Maximo Gomez, and Emilio Aguinaldo. In the next few days we will work to solidify these terms and their relationship to one another.

Once we finish reading, The Surrender Tree, we will begin reading The Kitchen Boy, which is a work of historic fiction set in Russia during the Russian Revolution (which was in the midst of WW1).

Once we move into our study of WW1, we will discuss the origins of and differences between capitalism, communism, and socialism, and how these economic systems have interacted with the governmental systems of democracy and totalitarianism. We will end the quarter studying WW1; students have been prepared for this unit in Language Arts, where they have been reading WW1 related novels for the past few weeks!


8th grade: We have been learning about different systems of rule throughout human history; students have been introduced to concepts and vocabulary such as "popular sovereignty", "autocracy", "democracy", "checks and balances", "separation of powers", "legislative branch", "executive branch", and "judicial branch", among others. I have been using the Frayer Model for vocabulary; we will spend a lot more time developing vocabulary as it relates to U.S. government. (Eventually, there will be a vocab quiz. More information forthcoming...) We will continue our study of U.S. government throughout Q1 and Q2, because I'd like to pair it with the upcoming midterm elections...

But during the latter half of this quarter (starting next week), we will get more into our study of the decline of the European colonial system; this will include studies of the "Scramble for Africa", Apartheid, Partition, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, the Opium War, the British Empire, the Spanish Empire, and the U.S. Empire. Students have been prepared for this unit in Language Arts, where they have been reading, The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck (a Core Knowledge book).


On the long-term-project front, we have used the COW in class a few times now to do some preliminary research for our "Legislative Top 10" lists; the lists will be formally due by next Monday; we will hold the draft on Wednesday, September 22nd! (Students will be allowed an out-of-uniform day, provided they come dressed up, like people do for the NBA Draft :) )


Please note that students have a map quiz tomorrow!

And please follow my tweets (on Twitter) for homework assignments and due dates: MsHoodsHoodlums. Please note: You must have or set up a Twitter account to view my tweets. (www.twitter.com)

Thanks!

Leah Hood

Q1 Resources

Hello to all you adults out there who take care of my students when they are at home!

In case you are interested in some of the books we are working with in class, here are some titles for you to check out:

7th grade: Resistance in Paradise: Rethinking 100 Years of U.S. Involvement in the Caribbean and the Pacific

Simple Verses (by Jose Marti)

Keys to American History: Understanding Our Most Important Historic Documents

8th grade: DK Who's In Charge? How People and Ideas Make the World Go Round

Shh! We're Writing the Constitution

Understanding the Bill of Rights

Keys to American History: Understanding Our Most Important Historic Documents


You can follow assignments and due dates on my class Twitter account at MsHoodsHoodlums; don't forget to study for the Map Quiz on Thursday, September 16th; continue researching U.S. states' legislative records on and agendas for environmental issues for the Legislative Draft; remember that we have a field trip to the Minnesota State Capitol on the last day of Q1!

Thanks for reading!

Leah Hood

Map Quiz #2!

Please note that our second map quiz will be next Thursday, September 16th.

7th graders will be tested over North America and the Caribbean.

8th graders will be tested over the Indian Subcontinent Region.

These map quizzes coincide with our units of historical study; in 7th grade, we are nearing the end of our study of The Spanish-American War/America Becomes a World Power/The American Empire; in 8th grade, we will begin learning about The Decline of the European Colonial System (8th graders have already started reading the Core Knowledge novel, The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, in Language Arts.)

Here are some recommended study tools:

http://www.ilike2learn.com/

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/


Also, this is new:

I now have a class Twitter account, which is "MsHoodsHoodlums". You can check it for assignments and due dates!

Thanks for reading!
Leah Hood

Legislative Draft Project Update-- "Research & Top 10"

Welcome back, after the Labor Day holiday!
I hope everyone had a nice long weekend-- I had a wonderful time visiting Montana!

Last week, I announced the results of the 7th and 8th grade election (for the Legislative Draft project): Environmental Issues won, and by a pretty large margin!

If you look at the "Overview" that I sent out the second week of school, we are still working under the "Before the Draft" section (on the back of the front page). Today in class, we used the laptop cart to do some preliminary research on U.S. states' involvement in environmental issues. We will have one more day of in-class work time to do research; any further research will have to be done on students' own time, outside of school. Remember, the more you research, the better your Top 10 list will be; the better your Top 10 list is, the better chance you have of drafting a successful Legislative Team; the better your Legislative team, the more likely you will be to win the grand prize at the end of the school year!

Here are some examples of really useful websites for doing your research:

http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/

(Notice the "State Legislature" link near the bottom left... ;) )

You can find this same website for almost every U.S. state!

If you can't find this website for the states you want to research, I recommend exploring the state government portal. For example:

http://ncgov.com/

My goal is for us to have completed The Draft by the end of this quarter; that way we can be ready to go when the 2010/2011 legislative sessions begin!

As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please feel free to contact me at Paideia.

Thanks and take care,
Leah Hood

Q1, Week 4

Wow! The time is going fast!

My classes were a bit displaced this week, due to MAP testing in my classroom, but we adjusted and made do; next week should be more back to normal, in that respect.

Today, students took their first graded map quiz; at the start of next week (after Labor Day!), we'll start right in on the pre-test for the second quiz! We're just going to keep rolling, and try to get as much in as possible this year.

I have a fabulous website recommendation for my students and their families alike explore:

http://go-passport.grolier.com/

I will be using this resource in class-- particularly the Pro/Con debates, essay questions, and encyclopedia components. Check it out!


In both 7th and 8th grades, we're about halfway through our first historic fiction novels! I hope for us to finish up with these by mid-term, so that we can move on to a second novel for the latter half of this quarter. I will be doing some formal checks for comprehension next week, and we'll be discussing some of the literary elements found in these books.


Also, a Social Studies related announcement:

All 6th-8th grade students at Paideia will be taking a field trip to the capitol building in St. Paul on the last day of Q1 (Friday, October 8th). We have taken Paideia students on this trip before, and it was great! This fits in well with 8th grade's study of U.S. Government this quarter. More information on this and other field trips forthcoming.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at my school email account: lhood@paideiaacademy.org

I think we have been pretty darn productive so far this quarter!

Thanks,
Leah Hood

Upcoming Map Quiz!

Hello all, and welcome to Week 3, Q1!

Please be aware that next Wednesday, September 1st, ALL 7th and 8th grade students have their first graded Map Quiz in Social Studies.

7th grade:

8:30-9:25= U.S. States

9:30-10:25= U.S. State Capitals

8th grade:

10:30-11:25= World Continents and Oceans

11:30-12:25= U.S. State Capitals


You can view or print off labeled or unlabeled study guide maps on the following FREE (!) website:

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/


Or, you could take the quizzes on this website:

http://www.ilike2learn.com/


There are plenty of other study options out there, I know, and please feel free to utilize whatever works best for your child! These are just a few that I know of and think are good sites.


Besides reading on in our historic novels, this week we are beginning to think about and work with the following terms, which are one way of categorizing what all human societies "do":

Business
Transportation
Socialization
Environment
Education
Technology
Recreation
Government
Religion
Fine Arts

We will be working with these categories a lot in Social Studies! The purpose is to give us a manageable system for breaking down how human societies function; hopefully, we will be able to think more holistically by using this system of categorization.


Please note that I will be out this Thursday and Friday (I'm going to the Boundary Waters!); students will be watching historical documentaries about the time periods we are studying.

As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please feel free to email me at: lhood@paideiaacademy.org

Take care,
Leah Hood

7th grade in-class COW assignment:

7th grade students:

Copy and paste the address below into your browser bar:

http://www.pbs.org/crucible/



Get out your 4-Source Comparison Packet;

Turn to the back pages with the graphic organizers;

Explore the website (above);

Record facts you learn about this time period in your graphic organizer;

Raise your hand if you need my help, or have a question!

Suggested Reading!

Here are a few books that I have either read or heard of, that would be a great supplements to our studies in Social Studies:

7th grade:
Daughter of Madrugada, by Frances M. Wood (U.S. Empire/U.S. Becomes a World Power, Mexican-American War)

Cuba 15, by Nancy Osa (U.S.-Cuban relations)

Mexican WhiteBoy, by Matt de la Pena (Biracial identity issues)

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez

Before We Were Free, by Julia Alvarez

In the Time of Butterlies, by Julia Alvarez


8th grade:
When My Name Was Keoko, by Linda Sue Park (Japanese occupation of Korea during WW2)

Gandhi (DK Biography), by Primo Levi and Amy Pastan

Nelson Mandela (DK Biography), by Lenny Hort and Laaren Brown

Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie (India)

Week 2!

Hello there!

Last week in Social Studies we discussed the issue of "power"-- at the middle school level, as compared and contrasted to at the governmental level. Why do people want power? How do they get (or attempt to get) power? Once they have power, how do they keep power? And how might they lose power where they once had it?

This week, we'll take that issue into a discussion of "human nature."

We are going to start the year with some basic geography, such as world continents and oceans, and states in the U.S. Below are some good online study tools (please try copying and pasting these websites; I haven't yet had success in making the web addresses into links! Sorry!):

http://eduplace.com/ss/maps/

http://ilike2learn.com/



I have no doubt that there are many more great resources out there! These are just two that I know of, and have used in the past.

We will be reading an interview with one of my favorite historians, Howard Zinn; in this interview, Zinn discusses his ideas about "Why Students Should Study History." This interview can be found at:

http://www.zinnedproject.org/posts/1493

(We will also be using his U.S. textbook for young people!)


In 7th grade, we are starting to learn about the Cuban Independence Movement(s) at the end of the 19th century; we are currently reading the novel, The Surrender Tree, by Margarita Engle. This novel puts some characterization and imagery into our study of U.S. Imperialism/Expansionism.


In 8th grade, we are starting to study the U.S. government, including documents such as the Bill of Rights; we started reading the novel, Year of Impossible Goodbyes, by Sook Nyul Choi; this book takes us from the end of WW2 into the Cold War era, through the eyes of a Korean family in Pyongyang living under Japanese (and then Soviet) occupation.


This week we will also start in on what I refer to as our "4-Source Comparison Packets." Since I believe that History is a collection of recorded perspectives, I do not believe in looking to only one source as the "be all and end all" of History; I always try to present each unit from no fewer than four different sources, all of which speak to the same historic event, person, or era. We will always ask the following questions of each source, before comparing and contrasting:

Whose perspective (side of the story) is heard in this source?

Whose perspective is not heard in this source?

Who-- if anyone-- is made out to be the hero in this source?

Who-- if anyone-- is made out to be the villain in this source?

I like this activity as a way to teach students the habit of analyzing sources for perspective and bias. I will always try to provide a spectrum of perspectives and opinions, whenever possible. If you know of any good sources to supplement our studies, please let me know!


So that's where we're headed in Social Studies this week!

As always, if you have questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to email me at:

lhood@paideiaacademy.org

Thanks so much for your support!

Take care,
Leah Hood

Welcome back!

Hello, all!

I am truly excited about this new school year. This first post will be a general overview of what we will work on in my 7th and 8th grade Social Studies classes throughout the 2010-2011 school year at Paideia.

For the 8th graders and their families, you will notice that this year will be a bit different from last year, in that this year I am no longer teaching Language Arts-- just Social Studies. Though I have truly enjoyed teaching both Language Arts and Social Studies, I am very much looking forward to being able to focus on one subject area this year. (Ms. Bender and I have already started aligning our Language Arts and Social Studies curricula as much as possible!)

I will, however, still be integrating many "language arts skills" (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) into my teaching; for example, we will still be reading novels along with each of our units of historical study. I am still in the planning stages, but here are some novels we may be reading in Social Studies this year:

7th grade: The Surrender Tree (Cuban Independence), The Kitchen Boy (WWI/The Russian Revolution), Celeste's Harlem Renaissance (The Roaring Twenties), The Truth About Sparrows (The Dust Bowl), On Hitler's Mountain (WW2).

8th grade: Year of Impossible Goodbyes (End of WW2-Cold War), Animal Farm (The Cold War), Catch a Tiger by the Toe (McCarthyism), A Raisin in the Sun (U.S. Civil Rights Movement), The Things They Carried (The Vietnam War), Iqbal (Middle East Current Events)


The Core Knowledge Sequence for Social Studies in 7th and 8th grades spans (mostly) the 20th century. In 7th grade Social Studies, we will be concentrating on the time period in U.S. and World History from The Spanish-American War to The End of WW2; in 8th grade, we will pick up from The End of WW2 and work our way through The End of The Cold War; we will also concentrate on geography and current events issues throughout the year.

Here are some the key Social Studies skills we will be working on throughout the year:

Questioning
Identifying Historical Patterns
Problem Solving
Cause/Effect
Compare/Contrast
Perspective
Bias
Anticipating Consequences
Identifying Correlations
Evaluating Decisions and Developing Informed Opinions
Research

I hope you have had an enjoyable and rejuvenating Summer Break!

Please contact me with questions or concerns (lhood@paideiaacademy.org).

Thanks and take care,
Ms. Hood