Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
This I Believe Action-in-Art Project
Hello families!
I wanted to include you in a new project the 7th and 8th graders have been assigned—it’s an extension of their “30 Things I Believe” assignment.
Mr. Kobe in Art, Ms. Hanson in Computers, and I are working together on this project. It is aimed at getting the kids to “be the change they want to see in the world.”
It is not due until a few weeks into Q4, and students will have some work time in class; students will, however, be required to complete a significant portion of this project outside of class/school.
Some important points that we went over together in class are:
A) This project must document positive beliefs in action in the student’s community; so, for example, students should not be tearing out pictures from magazines of people in, say, South Africa doing something positive (unless, of course, South Africa is an active part of the student’s life in some way…)
B) Students must be creating a new piece of art for this project; so, for example, students should not be printing off pictures from their Facebook page of a field trip to Feed My Starving Children three years ago (even though that’s a wonderful, positive thing!).
C) “Community” for our purposes can mean your family’s home, neighborhood, local recreation center, library, Paideia, place of worship, sports team, family vacation, family friends’ home or neighborhood, parent/guardian workplace, cousin’s house, mall, dentist’s office, etc.
D) In order to be safe, students must have parent/guardian permission and/or supervision before going out into their communities to document and create positive action.
Below are some basic guidelines for the project. (Which the students have been given.)
Thanks so much, and please contact me with any questions or concerns—
Leah Hood
This I Believe
Beliefs In Action
Photo/Video Gallery Project
Social Studies-Meets-Art
Due at end of Week 3 of Q4 (Friday, April 29th)
Purpose:
*To locate and document your positive beliefs in action in the community
*To create inspiring, substantive art with a social conscience
Directions:
*Choose your Top 5 Beliefs from your list of 30 Things I Believe; these 5 beliefs should be, in your mind, some of your strongest/most important beliefs (you can also choose to include more than 5!)
*Over the next month, document your Top 5 Beliefs in action; you may choose to take photographs, shoot short video clips, or record sound bytes that show/represent your Top 5 Beliefs in action out in your community.
*During the second and third weeks of Q4, Mr. Kobe will be working with you in Art to present your beliefs in an artistic fashion; I highly recommend that you work on taking your photographs (or whatever format you choose) over break, because Mr. Kobe is expecting that you will come to Art class prepared to work on this project—and he will hold you to it! Ms. Hanson will also provide you with some work time and guidance in Computers class.
*Each piece (photo, video, sound) must have a title.
*Each piece must have a well-written caption explaining what is happening and how you think it represents that particular belief.
*Remember: This is not a list of facts, or simply a list of things that you like; this is a list of beliefs about how you think the world should be, stated in a positive way.
Examples:
*(Hypothetical) Belief: “I believe we should help people.”
*Take a photograph of the food drive at your place of worship.
*Can’t find an example of your belief in action? Make it happen yourself! Go to the grocery store with your family and buy a bag of groceries for your local food shelf; then take a picture of your family donating the food!
I wanted to include you in a new project the 7th and 8th graders have been assigned—it’s an extension of their “30 Things I Believe” assignment.
Mr. Kobe in Art, Ms. Hanson in Computers, and I are working together on this project. It is aimed at getting the kids to “be the change they want to see in the world.”
It is not due until a few weeks into Q4, and students will have some work time in class; students will, however, be required to complete a significant portion of this project outside of class/school.
Some important points that we went over together in class are:
A) This project must document positive beliefs in action in the student’s community; so, for example, students should not be tearing out pictures from magazines of people in, say, South Africa doing something positive (unless, of course, South Africa is an active part of the student’s life in some way…)
B) Students must be creating a new piece of art for this project; so, for example, students should not be printing off pictures from their Facebook page of a field trip to Feed My Starving Children three years ago (even though that’s a wonderful, positive thing!).
C) “Community” for our purposes can mean your family’s home, neighborhood, local recreation center, library, Paideia, place of worship, sports team, family vacation, family friends’ home or neighborhood, parent/guardian workplace, cousin’s house, mall, dentist’s office, etc.
D) In order to be safe, students must have parent/guardian permission and/or supervision before going out into their communities to document and create positive action.
Below are some basic guidelines for the project. (Which the students have been given.)
Thanks so much, and please contact me with any questions or concerns—
Leah Hood
This I Believe
Beliefs In Action
Photo/Video Gallery Project
Social Studies-Meets-Art
Due at end of Week 3 of Q4 (Friday, April 29th)
Purpose:
*To locate and document your positive beliefs in action in the community
*To create inspiring, substantive art with a social conscience
Directions:
*Choose your Top 5 Beliefs from your list of 30 Things I Believe; these 5 beliefs should be, in your mind, some of your strongest/most important beliefs (you can also choose to include more than 5!)
*Over the next month, document your Top 5 Beliefs in action; you may choose to take photographs, shoot short video clips, or record sound bytes that show/represent your Top 5 Beliefs in action out in your community.
*During the second and third weeks of Q4, Mr. Kobe will be working with you in Art to present your beliefs in an artistic fashion; I highly recommend that you work on taking your photographs (or whatever format you choose) over break, because Mr. Kobe is expecting that you will come to Art class prepared to work on this project—and he will hold you to it! Ms. Hanson will also provide you with some work time and guidance in Computers class.
*Each piece (photo, video, sound) must have a title.
*Each piece must have a well-written caption explaining what is happening and how you think it represents that particular belief.
*Remember: This is not a list of facts, or simply a list of things that you like; this is a list of beliefs about how you think the world should be, stated in a positive way.
Examples:
*(Hypothetical) Belief: “I believe we should help people.”
*Take a photograph of the food drive at your place of worship.
*Can’t find an example of your belief in action? Make it happen yourself! Go to the grocery store with your family and buy a bag of groceries for your local food shelf; then take a picture of your family donating the food!
Monday, March 14, 2011
HBO Commemorates the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
This comes out March 21st (over break):
http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/triangle-remembering-the-fire/index.html#
I haven't seen it yet, but it relates to what we're studying in 7th grade Social Studies this quarter, and what we will study further in 8th grade Social Studies next quarter.
Take care,
Leah
http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/triangle-remembering-the-fire/index.html#
I haven't seen it yet, but it relates to what we're studying in 7th grade Social Studies this quarter, and what we will study further in 8th grade Social Studies next quarter.
Take care,
Leah
Monday, March 7, 2011
PBS Triangle Fire
Below is a link to a fabulous new website put together by PBS to supplement its new American Experience piece, "Triangle Fire".
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/triangle/
Both grade levels have read about this famous and tragic incident in U.S. history in a Readers' Theater piece in Social Studies.
I will be showing this documentary to both 7th and 8th grades.
Check it out!
Take care,
Leah Hood
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/triangle/
Both grade levels have read about this famous and tragic incident in U.S. history in a Readers' Theater piece in Social Studies.
I will be showing this documentary to both 7th and 8th grades.
Check it out!
Take care,
Leah Hood
Thursday, March 3, 2011
In Social Studies lately...
Hello everyone!
Well, we are winding down with third quarter already! We only have tomorrow and Monday before the Chicago trip!
In 7th grade we are up to Chapter 23 (out of 30) in our historic fiction novel, The Truth About Sparrows, by Marian Hale. Parents/guardians, if you haven't read it, I really encourage you to-- it'd be a pretty quick read because it's not very dense, and it's a nice story. Some days the kids get to read independently (especially after finishing map quizzes), while other days we read aloud as a whole class, follow along with the audiobook, or read in small groups or pairs. On days when we have many other activities to try to get through I have us read all together (or with the audiobook), because otherwise everyone finishes at such different paces and that makes it difficult to move on together as a class to our next activity... tomorrow we'll be listening to Ch. 23 and "drawing what we hear". Not only does this give us a welcome change of pace to our usual near-daily reading, but it also gives more visual students a chance to show-what-they-know in a different way; this is especially nice for kids who doesn't enjoy the writing process.
Also in 7th grade Social Studies this week, we read aloud another Readers' Theater piece entitled, Child's Work, which gave us some information about child labor in the U.S.; after reading the script aloud together (with students reading the different characters' parts), each student had the choice of presenting the events and information from the script using Legos, Play-doh, storyboard drawings, or in skit form.
Next Monday (3/7) is the map quiz over countries in central and southern Africa, but the rest of the week I will be with many of the students in Chicago. The following week, however, we will be studying the Harlem Renaissance and the Dust Bowl. I think that we will have to push the Great Depression and New Deal off into Q4, but that's not a problem because the only other Core Knowledge unit we have left to cover is WW2, and we certainly don't need all 9 weeks of the quarter to cover it adequately (although we could certainly go on and on about it!).
In 8th grade Social Studies this week, 3rd Period finished watching The Singing Revolution, a documentary about the peaceful protests of the Estonian independence movement (against the Soviet Union). 4th Period watched a short documentary on the life of Vladimir Lenin; next week, 3rd Period will watch the Lenin doc. After the Chicago trip, we will learn more about Stalin's rule, as well as Chairman Mao and the Communist Revolution in China. After Spring Break we will learn about the U.S. in the 1950s, including McCarthyism, and we will read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I had hoped that we would read that novel this quarter, but I think it would be better to read the whole thing straight through (it's not very long) rather than begin it and then leave it over the three week break. Students are working on completing posters or mobiles of the key figures of the Communist Revolution, including Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engles, Tsar Nicholas II, Aleksandr Kerensky, Lenin, and Stalin.
8th graders were pretested over either major world rivers or states and capitals in the Midwestern United States. Quiz is next Monday, 3/7.
Both grade levels have been working on their "This I Believe" assignment. We have been sharing them with each other, finding commonalities, and choosing a Top 10 list of the 30. We will continue to work with these beliefs throughout this quarter, and it will be expanded into a project due at the beginning of next quarter... details forthcoming.
On the Legislative Draft front, students can certainly be working on this outside of school; they could be looking up proposed and passed legislation relating to the environment in their three states' state legislatures; students should print out these bills and laws and keep them in their Legislative Draft manila folder, which I gave to each student in class a few months ago. My main goal for this quarter was for students to locate these documents; next quarter we will work on analyzing and writing about them.
If you have any questions, concerns, or general feedback, please do not hesitate to contact me here at school.
And please remember that I continue to post homework assignments and due dates on my class Twitter account: MsHoodsHoodlums@twitter.com
Thanks!
Leah Hood
Well, we are winding down with third quarter already! We only have tomorrow and Monday before the Chicago trip!
In 7th grade we are up to Chapter 23 (out of 30) in our historic fiction novel, The Truth About Sparrows, by Marian Hale. Parents/guardians, if you haven't read it, I really encourage you to-- it'd be a pretty quick read because it's not very dense, and it's a nice story. Some days the kids get to read independently (especially after finishing map quizzes), while other days we read aloud as a whole class, follow along with the audiobook, or read in small groups or pairs. On days when we have many other activities to try to get through I have us read all together (or with the audiobook), because otherwise everyone finishes at such different paces and that makes it difficult to move on together as a class to our next activity... tomorrow we'll be listening to Ch. 23 and "drawing what we hear". Not only does this give us a welcome change of pace to our usual near-daily reading, but it also gives more visual students a chance to show-what-they-know in a different way; this is especially nice for kids who doesn't enjoy the writing process.
Also in 7th grade Social Studies this week, we read aloud another Readers' Theater piece entitled, Child's Work, which gave us some information about child labor in the U.S.; after reading the script aloud together (with students reading the different characters' parts), each student had the choice of presenting the events and information from the script using Legos, Play-doh, storyboard drawings, or in skit form.
Next Monday (3/7) is the map quiz over countries in central and southern Africa, but the rest of the week I will be with many of the students in Chicago. The following week, however, we will be studying the Harlem Renaissance and the Dust Bowl. I think that we will have to push the Great Depression and New Deal off into Q4, but that's not a problem because the only other Core Knowledge unit we have left to cover is WW2, and we certainly don't need all 9 weeks of the quarter to cover it adequately (although we could certainly go on and on about it!).
In 8th grade Social Studies this week, 3rd Period finished watching The Singing Revolution, a documentary about the peaceful protests of the Estonian independence movement (against the Soviet Union). 4th Period watched a short documentary on the life of Vladimir Lenin; next week, 3rd Period will watch the Lenin doc. After the Chicago trip, we will learn more about Stalin's rule, as well as Chairman Mao and the Communist Revolution in China. After Spring Break we will learn about the U.S. in the 1950s, including McCarthyism, and we will read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I had hoped that we would read that novel this quarter, but I think it would be better to read the whole thing straight through (it's not very long) rather than begin it and then leave it over the three week break. Students are working on completing posters or mobiles of the key figures of the Communist Revolution, including Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engles, Tsar Nicholas II, Aleksandr Kerensky, Lenin, and Stalin.
8th graders were pretested over either major world rivers or states and capitals in the Midwestern United States. Quiz is next Monday, 3/7.
Both grade levels have been working on their "This I Believe" assignment. We have been sharing them with each other, finding commonalities, and choosing a Top 10 list of the 30. We will continue to work with these beliefs throughout this quarter, and it will be expanded into a project due at the beginning of next quarter... details forthcoming.
On the Legislative Draft front, students can certainly be working on this outside of school; they could be looking up proposed and passed legislation relating to the environment in their three states' state legislatures; students should print out these bills and laws and keep them in their Legislative Draft manila folder, which I gave to each student in class a few months ago. My main goal for this quarter was for students to locate these documents; next quarter we will work on analyzing and writing about them.
If you have any questions, concerns, or general feedback, please do not hesitate to contact me here at school.
And please remember that I continue to post homework assignments and due dates on my class Twitter account: MsHoodsHoodlums@twitter.com
Thanks!
Leah Hood
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