Hi all!
It was great to see so many of you at conferences this week! I truly enjoy conferences, and I wish that they didn't feel so rushed! If you weren't able to schedule a time to meet with me this week, please let me know if you're interested in meeting another time, whether next week or next quarter...
Here's the update:
7th grade:We finished The Surrender Tree! There is an extra credit opportunity for 7th graders over the Fall Break; if they choose one of the three book options to read over break and complete a basic book report they can get some extra credit towards their Second Quarter Social Studies grade. All of the book options are about WW1, which is what we will start off studying Q2.
Students have now been tested over countries in South America, and their last map quiz of this quarter will be this coming Wednesday, October 5th, over countries in Western Europe (preparing us to study WW1).
We are wrapping up our study of the late 1800s; this week we'll talk more about Teddy Roosevelt and the Panama Canal...
Next quarter we'll be reading Out of the Dust and The Truth About Sparrows, both about the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. I recommend watching the new PBS special, Prohibition, which I believe airs this Sunday evening; it will preempt our study of that part of U.S. history.
8th grade:This coming week 8th graders will finish the novel, Year of Impossible Goodbyes; we will watch some of those good old fashioned Schoolhouse Rock videos about U.S. government (i.e. "I'm Just A Bill") and learn more about the law-making process, as well as amendments 11-27 to the U.S. Constitution.
Students took their last vocab quiz last week, and next quarter it's back to map quizzes.
8th graders have been doing regular homework assignments (reading and writing) about controversial topics in U.S. politics, such as the death penalty debate, religion in politics, and homeland security "vs." civil liberties and individual privacy rights. Many of the students have been really agonizing over their positions! I'm so impressed by their thoughts and commitment to making the right decision in their own minds.
Next quarter we'll be reading Animal Farm as part of our study of the early Cold War. 8th graders also have an extra credit reading opportunity over fall break; if they check out the book The Good Earth from my classroom and do a basic book report over it, they can earn extra credit towards their Q2 Social Studies grade; this is a Core Knowledge book about the Chinese revolution, and will support our learning about Communist China during Q2.
It's been a truly great quarter! I can tell that the rest of the year will be great, as well.
Please remember that I'll be at the Museum of Russian Art (in Minneapolis) this Sunday at 2 PM. Hope to see you there!
Thanks for reading,
Leah Hood
Friday, September 30, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Social Studies Update
Hello!
Here's what we've been up to in Social Studies lately...
7th Grade:
*Central and South America map quizzes; we've used Geography Choreography as a kinesthetic study tool.
*Part 5 (which is the last section!) of The Surrender Tree.
*Graphic Organizers researching and compiling important details about The Cuban Independence Movement, The Spanish-American War, The U.S. War with the Philippines, The U.S. Annexation of Spanish Colonies (e.g. Puerto Rico, Guam) and Hawaii; and The Panama Canal.
*4-Source Comparison Packet about the Spanish-American War.
*Charades to review terms (e.g. Rough Riders, Teddy Roosevelt, Jose Marti, Anti-Imperialist League).
*We've done journal entries such as, "In your opinion, do we still have 'yellow journalism' today? Why or why not? Explain. Use specific examples."
*Original sheet music (primary source documents) from the Spanish-American War era.
8th Grade:
*Vocab work using the Frayer Model (Definition, Characteristics, Examples, Non-Examples); our current terms include "Natural Rights", "Constitution", "Checks & Balances", "Limited Government", and the three branches of U.S. government.
*A website and graphic organizers to compile important details about the three branches of U.S. government.
*History Tunes about U.S. government (very, very corny, and very, very informative ;) ).
*Journal entries such as, "What is your favorite of the rights in the Bill of Rights? Why? Explain."
*Charades to review government related terms.
*Written response homework assignments about "When Rights Collide", and "Theocracy and Democracy in Iran".
Please sign up with me for conferences next week! If you weren't able to get a spot through VolunteerSpot, please let me know and we'll work something out via email.
Have a great weekend!
Leah Hood
Here's what we've been up to in Social Studies lately...
7th Grade:
*Central and South America map quizzes; we've used Geography Choreography as a kinesthetic study tool.
*Part 5 (which is the last section!) of The Surrender Tree.
*Graphic Organizers researching and compiling important details about The Cuban Independence Movement, The Spanish-American War, The U.S. War with the Philippines, The U.S. Annexation of Spanish Colonies (e.g. Puerto Rico, Guam) and Hawaii; and The Panama Canal.
*4-Source Comparison Packet about the Spanish-American War.
*Charades to review terms (e.g. Rough Riders, Teddy Roosevelt, Jose Marti, Anti-Imperialist League).
*We've done journal entries such as, "In your opinion, do we still have 'yellow journalism' today? Why or why not? Explain. Use specific examples."
*Original sheet music (primary source documents) from the Spanish-American War era.
8th Grade:
*Vocab work using the Frayer Model (Definition, Characteristics, Examples, Non-Examples); our current terms include "Natural Rights", "Constitution", "Checks & Balances", "Limited Government", and the three branches of U.S. government.
*A website and graphic organizers to compile important details about the three branches of U.S. government.
*History Tunes about U.S. government (very, very corny, and very, very informative ;) ).
*Journal entries such as, "What is your favorite of the rights in the Bill of Rights? Why? Explain."
*Charades to review government related terms.
*Written response homework assignments about "When Rights Collide", and "Theocracy and Democracy in Iran".
Please sign up with me for conferences next week! If you weren't able to get a spot through VolunteerSpot, please let me know and we'll work something out via email.
Have a great weekend!
Leah Hood
Sunday, September 11, 2011
This Past Week in Social Studies
Hello, all--
First off in today's post I feel it appropriate to take a moment to acknowledge the tenth anniversary of 9/11. My heart goes out to the loved ones of all the victims, as well as to all the servicemen and women, and their loved ones, as well.
It has now been ten years to the day since the 9/11 attacks, and there has been a lot of discussion in the media surrounding how we address this historic event in our collective memory, in the media, in physical memorials, as well as in classrooms around the country. What's somewhat interesting about teaching 9/11 is that our legislature hasn't yet included 9/11 in the state standards, so there's no law about covering (or not covering) 9/11 as historic content; although it's been ten years since the attacks, it's still so new that our interpretation of it is still "under construction", even moreso than historic content reaching further back in time. So what's a teacher to do?
In keeping with my philosophy of teaching history (and current events), I have decided to give my students an opportunity to decide what, in their opinions, is the "best" way to remember (and study) 9/11 by comparing and contrasting different sources. On Friday, I assigned a short article from my college-level American Government & Politics textbook to 8th graders as homework; the article is entitled, "Terrorism and Information Awareness", and presents readers with the debate surrounding "national security" "v." "civil liberties". I've asked that students read the article and write a minimum of one paragraph in response to the ideas presented. Tomorrow (9/12) our daily journal entry will ask students to reflect on 9/11 and its aftermath; I reserved the COW (laptop cart) on Wednesday so that we can look at online news sources from around the world (e.g. CNN, Fox News, NPR, MPR, BBC, India Times) and compare/contrast the various angles taken by reporters.
I hope these activities will provide my students with an opportunity to participate in the public discourse surrounding the issue(s), as well as to reflect on both the losses and the future.
And now on to the week in Social Studies...
7th Grade: 7th graders watched a series of short video clips about the late 1800s and paid attention for what they all shared in common; we continued reading The Surrender Tree, and pretested over countries in Central America (quiz next Friday, 9/16).
8th Grade: 8th graders handed in their "break-up letters" to King George III, and watched a series of short video clips about the U.S. Constitution and did a variety of learning activities to help solidify our second set of vocabulary terms. All the vocab terms from last week had to do with different systems of government (e.g. autocracy, democracy), and students took their quiz on Friday. Next week 8th graders will be pretested over the third set of government-related vocab terms.
This past week, all 7th and 8th graders wrote their first letters to our pen-pals in Honduras! We're waiting on Ms. Abbott's 6th graders to finish up with their letters and then I'll put them in the mail! Very fun stuff. (Next week we'll write another set of introductory letters to our pen-pals in China!) Students always love writing to pen-pals; it's a wonderful way to learn about world geography and to foster international connections, friendships, empathy, understanding, and respect.
Tomorrow (Monday, 9/12) I will discuss with all 7th and 8th graders this year's year-long research project, which is an in-depth study of a country (not the U.S.) that is of interest to the student.
As always, please feel free to contact me with questions, concerns, or constructive feedback.
Thanks for reading,
Leah Hood
First off in today's post I feel it appropriate to take a moment to acknowledge the tenth anniversary of 9/11. My heart goes out to the loved ones of all the victims, as well as to all the servicemen and women, and their loved ones, as well.
It has now been ten years to the day since the 9/11 attacks, and there has been a lot of discussion in the media surrounding how we address this historic event in our collective memory, in the media, in physical memorials, as well as in classrooms around the country. What's somewhat interesting about teaching 9/11 is that our legislature hasn't yet included 9/11 in the state standards, so there's no law about covering (or not covering) 9/11 as historic content; although it's been ten years since the attacks, it's still so new that our interpretation of it is still "under construction", even moreso than historic content reaching further back in time. So what's a teacher to do?
In keeping with my philosophy of teaching history (and current events), I have decided to give my students an opportunity to decide what, in their opinions, is the "best" way to remember (and study) 9/11 by comparing and contrasting different sources. On Friday, I assigned a short article from my college-level American Government & Politics textbook to 8th graders as homework; the article is entitled, "Terrorism and Information Awareness", and presents readers with the debate surrounding "national security" "v." "civil liberties". I've asked that students read the article and write a minimum of one paragraph in response to the ideas presented. Tomorrow (9/12) our daily journal entry will ask students to reflect on 9/11 and its aftermath; I reserved the COW (laptop cart) on Wednesday so that we can look at online news sources from around the world (e.g. CNN, Fox News, NPR, MPR, BBC, India Times) and compare/contrast the various angles taken by reporters.
I hope these activities will provide my students with an opportunity to participate in the public discourse surrounding the issue(s), as well as to reflect on both the losses and the future.
And now on to the week in Social Studies...
7th Grade: 7th graders watched a series of short video clips about the late 1800s and paid attention for what they all shared in common; we continued reading The Surrender Tree, and pretested over countries in Central America (quiz next Friday, 9/16).
8th Grade: 8th graders handed in their "break-up letters" to King George III, and watched a series of short video clips about the U.S. Constitution and did a variety of learning activities to help solidify our second set of vocabulary terms. All the vocab terms from last week had to do with different systems of government (e.g. autocracy, democracy), and students took their quiz on Friday. Next week 8th graders will be pretested over the third set of government-related vocab terms.
This past week, all 7th and 8th graders wrote their first letters to our pen-pals in Honduras! We're waiting on Ms. Abbott's 6th graders to finish up with their letters and then I'll put them in the mail! Very fun stuff. (Next week we'll write another set of introductory letters to our pen-pals in China!) Students always love writing to pen-pals; it's a wonderful way to learn about world geography and to foster international connections, friendships, empathy, understanding, and respect.
Tomorrow (Monday, 9/12) I will discuss with all 7th and 8th graders this year's year-long research project, which is an in-depth study of a country (not the U.S.) that is of interest to the student.
As always, please feel free to contact me with questions, concerns, or constructive feedback.
Thanks for reading,
Leah Hood
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)