Hello, all!
I hope you had a restful and enjoyable holiday. I traveled to Iowa to visit my immediate family and my mother's side.
When we start back tomorrow, here's where we'll be heading, content-wise:
7th:
We will spend about a week, week-and-a-half, learning about the U.S. entry into WW1 and the Russian Revolution, which occurred in the midst of Russia's participation in WW1. We will finish our read-aloud/listen-and-draw of the book War Game, and then begin reading together from The Truth About Sparrows; this latter novel will pre-empt our study of the Great Depression, which will take place next quarter.
Along with our study of the Russian Revolution I have a readers' theater piece; we'll probably read some excerpts of the novel The Kitchen Boy, and I'm (even as I type this) currently previewing an older British film entitled Nicholas & Alexandra; my tentative plan is to have the students do some background reading and research about the Russian Revolution and then to watch the film and analyze it for historic accuracies and inaccuracies (this is dependent upon my assessment of the film by its end, however). This assignment actually relates to what we're studying in 8th grade, as well, so I am tentatively planning to do these same lessons with 8th grade.
8th:
Coming up for 8th graders is the film, Gandhi, starring Ben Kingsley. Then we'll move into our study of Apartheid in South Africa and the leadership of Nelson Mandela; I have a really great new graphic novel about the life and work of Nelson Mandela that we'll use in some capacity.
We'll also work on finishing up with reading and analyzing the classic novel, Animal Farm; the students seem really into this story! It's a great, manageable introduction to the concepts of allegory, metaphor, symbolism, and analogy. I think we need to pause for a bit in our reading and solidify our understanding of the characters and plot-line of the story; I'm planning to have the students get into small groups to act out a chapter of the book so far; they'll also have the choice to draw it out in storyboard form, create a puppet show, or build key scenes from the chapter they are assigned out of Legos and/or Play-doh. Should be fun.
Both grade levels will have some in-class work time to do credible internet research on the country of their choosing for their independent research project; we'll be breaking the research down into what I call The 10 Categories: Business, Transportation, Socialization, Environment, Education, Technology, Recreation, Government, Religion, Fine Arts. Both grade levels will also begin new 4-Source Comparison Packets for their respective units of study.
Please remember that homework assignments and due dates are posted on my class Twitter account: @MsHoodsHoodlums @twitter.com.
If you have any questions, concerns, or constructive feedback, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thanks!
Ms. Hood
