Week 3, Q4

(Please note: I apologize for the formatting and aesthetics of this post; I have tried repeatedly to correct it but it will not recognize spaces between paragraphs! This has never happened before. Hopefully this issue will resolve itself before my next post. Thanks for your patience.) The Great Depression & The Civil Rights Movement Hello, Paideia families! This week in Social Studies we were pretty much back to normal after MCA testing last week; some students still had to be pulled from classes for make-up testing throughout the week, but other than that we were back to our normal routine. Here's the update: 7th grade: This week we read a few more chapters in our novel about the Great Depression. We are almost (finally!) finished reading The Truth About Sparrows; we hope to finish up with this by the end of next week, when we plan to wrap-up our study of the Great Depression and New Deal. Students watched the PBS documentary Landslide, about the presidency of Herbert Hoover, and completed a film guide aimed at building and assessing comprehension and analysis about the topic. Students used a PBS online timeline and packet of graphic organizers to define and describe terms relating to the Great Depression and New Deal. Students also tested over countries in northwest Africa, such as the Ivory Coast and Senegal. Next week students will pretest over countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and make posters about the Great Depression and New Deal for display in the hallway. Lastly, students received detailed grading rubrics and expectations for their 5-paragraph essays and oral/visual presentations of their independent research, both due June 7th. All weekly research assignments are due Monday, May 7th; these have been assigned weekly since the start of Q3; students have had time in Computers class each week to work on these assignments. 8th grade: We made lots of progress in our learning about the U.S. Civil Rights Movement this week! Students used a PBS online timeline and The History Channel website to define and describe key terms (people and events) of the movement and record their notes in a packet of graphic organizers. Students also worked in pairs to make mini-posters about key people and events in the Civil Rights Movement and we used these posters to create a timeline in the hallway; students then read each others' posters and summarized each term in a packet. We ended the week breaking into two small groups to do some direct instruction about different philosophies within the Civil Rights Movement. Next week we will read the class play, A Raisin in the Sun, readers' theater-style in class, and study music of the Civil Rights Movement. Lastly, students received detailed grading rubrics and expectations for their 5-paragraph essays and oral/visual presentations of their independent research, both due June 7th. All weekly research assignments are due Monday, May 7th; these have been assigned weekly since the start of Q3; students have had time in Computers class each week to work on these assignments. If you have any questions or concerns about your child in Social Studies, please feel free to contact me. We're already approaching midterm! Have a nice weekend, Ms. Hood