Hello, everyone!
Well, it's the last week of this school year! I really hope the kids have moved forward in their knowledge and understanding of the topics in U.S. and World History and Geography that we have covered this year.
In both 7th and 8th grades we got through all of the countries in the world by continent or region; we also worked on all the U.S. and Mexican states, as well as the Canadian provinces. Not only are these places a part of the MN state Social Studies Standards and Core Knowledge, but they are a necessary part of civil discourse and cultural literacy; if you don't know that Serbia is a country, you probably won't pay attention when you hear it in the news! It is my hope that my students will have a better awareness of what is out there in the world, and that their brains will perk up and pay attention now every time they hear or read about a country mentioned in conversation or in the news.
I also think that both the 7th and 8th graders have a basic understanding of the legislative process, that there is a federal government as well as state governments, that a bill is an idea for a new law, that there is a House of Representatives, a Senate, and the executive branch involved in passing a bill into law.
I really do believe that, through our work in Social Studies this year, my students have built a broader base of knowledge throughout this past year; 7th graders now know a bit more about the Women's Suffrage Movement and Labor Movement in the U.S., the Dust Bowl, Great Depression, and some of the basics of WW2; the 8th graders have a pretty solid understanding of Gandhi's life and work, the Cold War, the Russian Revolution, and Stalin's Soviet Union, as well as some of the resistance movements (such as the Singing Revolution in Estonia).
Some highlights of the year that stick out in my mind were writing to our pen-pals in Thailand, doing The Charleston in 7th grade, and reading A Raisin in the Sun in 8th grade. The kids really seemed to love these activities, and I definitely plan to repeat these lessons in future years!
So many of these kids show such a thirst for learning. I know they will continue to learn in the years to come, and that they will do well. I just hope that they have been given a solid foundation upon which to build in the latter half of their secondary school years!
Thank you so much for all of your support this year; I had so many families offering up volunteer hours in and for my classroom, chaperoning field trips, donating money and items to different projects throughout the year... THANK YOU.
I am truly looking forward to continuing with the 7th graders as 8th graders next year, and hope to keep in touch with the current 8th graders and their families from time to time in the years to come.
It is a privilege and an honor to teach your children.
Enjoy the summer!
Take care,
Ms. Hood
Monday, June 13, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
1.5 weeks left!
Hello everyone!
The school year is almost over!! I think everyone is ready, but the end of the year always seems to be the busiest time of the year! We have 8th grade Graduation coming up, the horseback riding field trip tomorrow, final projects due, and the bowling/field day on the last day of school...
In 7th grade Social Studies this week we have been watching an American Experience documentary about the life and work of Eleanor Roosevelt; students are required to complete comprehension and critical thinking response questions that go along with the video. Examples of questions are: "What characteristics did Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt admire in one another?" "Why was Eleanor sometimes called Franklin's 'eyes and ears'?" "Do you think it was necessary for FDR to hide his disability from the public? Why or why not? Do you think the U.S. public would elect a person in a wheelchair to be president today? Why or why not?"
Second period finished reading the memoir, On Hitler's Mountain, and had a fantastic discussion about the author's opinions about how to secure-- and threaten-- democracy and freedom. We discussed some interesting ideas, such as whether or not the American traditions of singing the National Anthem and saying the Pledge of Allegiance consistute indoctrination. Pretty high level discussion for 12 and 13-year-olds, if you ask me! I have been so impressed at how willing our students are to be open-minded and what a concerted effort they make to avoid generalizations and stereotypes. We have good kids.
We also labeled all the states of Mexico on a map; there won't be a formal, graded quiz over this next week, but they will be getting pronunciation help from Senorita Adams in Spanish!
Next week in 7th grade Social Studies we will learn about Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, and Japanese Internment, along with much else about WW2.
In 8th grade Social Studies this week we watched a bunch of U.S. Cold War propaganda films, which the kids really enjoy. We watched some video lecture clips from Khan Academy (online-- really neat) about the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis; then kids had the choice of portraying these events in the form of a skit, a series of drawings, or a Lego or Play-doh sculpture. We looked at primary source documents from the Harlem Renaissance, and did some Listen-and-Draw activities to textbook chapters about the Civil Rights Movement. Students also had to do haiku summaries of the assigned reading.
OK, I have to run out for dismissal and then to play practice!
Legislative Draft Write-ups are due tomorrow, and that concludes the project!
Thanks,
Leah
The school year is almost over!! I think everyone is ready, but the end of the year always seems to be the busiest time of the year! We have 8th grade Graduation coming up, the horseback riding field trip tomorrow, final projects due, and the bowling/field day on the last day of school...
In 7th grade Social Studies this week we have been watching an American Experience documentary about the life and work of Eleanor Roosevelt; students are required to complete comprehension and critical thinking response questions that go along with the video. Examples of questions are: "What characteristics did Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt admire in one another?" "Why was Eleanor sometimes called Franklin's 'eyes and ears'?" "Do you think it was necessary for FDR to hide his disability from the public? Why or why not? Do you think the U.S. public would elect a person in a wheelchair to be president today? Why or why not?"
Second period finished reading the memoir, On Hitler's Mountain, and had a fantastic discussion about the author's opinions about how to secure-- and threaten-- democracy and freedom. We discussed some interesting ideas, such as whether or not the American traditions of singing the National Anthem and saying the Pledge of Allegiance consistute indoctrination. Pretty high level discussion for 12 and 13-year-olds, if you ask me! I have been so impressed at how willing our students are to be open-minded and what a concerted effort they make to avoid generalizations and stereotypes. We have good kids.
We also labeled all the states of Mexico on a map; there won't be a formal, graded quiz over this next week, but they will be getting pronunciation help from Senorita Adams in Spanish!
Next week in 7th grade Social Studies we will learn about Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, and Japanese Internment, along with much else about WW2.
In 8th grade Social Studies this week we watched a bunch of U.S. Cold War propaganda films, which the kids really enjoy. We watched some video lecture clips from Khan Academy (online-- really neat) about the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis; then kids had the choice of portraying these events in the form of a skit, a series of drawings, or a Lego or Play-doh sculpture. We looked at primary source documents from the Harlem Renaissance, and did some Listen-and-Draw activities to textbook chapters about the Civil Rights Movement. Students also had to do haiku summaries of the assigned reading.
OK, I have to run out for dismissal and then to play practice!
Legislative Draft Write-ups are due tomorrow, and that concludes the project!
Thanks,
Leah
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Q4 Midterm Update
Hi all--
While I sit here at home on this gorgeous day, sniffling away with a nasty head-cold for the third day in a row, I decided I could at least update my blog...
We only have 4.5 weeks left of the school year! I hope-- and I think-- that we have made gains in learning about history and geography this year. In this post I'll just give you a little run-down of what we've been up to and what we have left to cover in the next month and a half...
7th grade: We finished up learning about The Roaring 20s by learning how to do The Charleston; the kids really loved this activity, by and large. We pushed all the desks and chairs up against the walls of my classroom, looked at a bunch of different pictures of flappers, wrote and discussed dance today and how it reflects our culture and society, and later compared and contrasted that to how dances like The Charleston reflected American culture and society in the 1920s. Then we watched some youtube clips of Ginger Rogers dancing The Charleston, and tried to follow written directions to learn to dance it; we had some adept and brave students (who are dancers themselves) perform a much better demonstration for the class than anything I could've ever cooked up! So thank you to those students!
Then we did a stock market simulation, where students got to familiarize themselves with some basic stock market vocabulary, design a company and product, and invest fake money in other peoples' companies; the next day they got to find out which companies failed in the Crash of '29, and which succeeded. This transitioned us nicely into watching a PBS documentary entitled, The Crash of 1929 (from the series The 1930s); students responded to critical thinking questions during and after watching the film.
With the substitute today and yesterday, 7th graders continued reading about life for German people during the rise of the Nazis in the memoir, On Hitler's Mountain; they also read two chapters from our Hakim textbook-- "Down and Out", and "Economic Disaster", both about The Great Depression-- while recording most important facts from each chapter and Heard, Not Heard, Hero, Villain for each chapter.
When I get back tomorrow, I plan to play the song, "We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover", from the musical, Annie (Fun Fact: I was Annie in my high school's production when I was a senior in high school. If you read this far, let me know and I'll give you a prize :) ) We'll have a brief discussion about "Hoovervilles" and look at some primary sources from The Great Depression; the primary source set that I have is from a company called Jackdaw, if you want to google search that...
Once we finish up with The Great Depression and the New Deal, we'll spend the remainder of the year learning about WW2 at home and abroad. With that we'll read Linda Sue Park's, When My Name Was Keoko.
8th grade: We are nearly finished reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which is about life in a Soviet gulag (prison/work camp in Siberia).
We have also learned quite a bit about McCarthyism and the controversy sparked by Senator Joseph McCarthy's methods of "hunting" alleged communists in the U.S. government and media. Along with this we learned quite a bit about the life and work of journalist Edward R. Murrow and his producer and friend, Fred Friendly. We watched an A & E Biography of Murrow, read a chapter in the Hakim text about McCarthyism, and watched the movie Good Night, and Good Luck, which I highly recommend if you haven't yet seen it yourself, parents and guardians. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Murrow and Friendly story, they worked for CBS and basically exposed McCarthy on national television, and are credited with effectively ending his influence in the Senate; it was a highly controversial undertaking at the time.)
Since I've been gone this week the 8th graders have had time to do Geography Choreography for their map quiz tomorrow over major world deserts, and today are reading two chapters from the Hakim textbook called, "Liking Ike", and "Houses, Kids, Cars, and Fast Food", both predictably about life in the U.S. during the 1950s, post-WW2 (the Baby Boomers and all that). They are doing the same partner-read/note-taking activity as the 7th graders, though they are studying a different time period.
We have a lot to do in this last month in 8th grade! We'll learn briefly about the Korean War, then spend more time on JFK's presidency (including the Space Race, Sputnik, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, assassination), the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. (including Malcolm X and MLK Jr.; we'll be doing A Raisin in the Sun as a readers' theater along with this); the 1960s and the counter-culture movements (i.e. hippies); we'll spend a few days learning about the Vietnam War, mention the fall of the Berlin Wall, and try to discuss the 1980s very briefly at the end of the quarter. Whew!
So that's a more in-depth version of this week's newsletter, for those of you who are interested. Now I will return to trying to sleep off this pesky bug...
Thanks for reading,
Leah Hood
While I sit here at home on this gorgeous day, sniffling away with a nasty head-cold for the third day in a row, I decided I could at least update my blog...
We only have 4.5 weeks left of the school year! I hope-- and I think-- that we have made gains in learning about history and geography this year. In this post I'll just give you a little run-down of what we've been up to and what we have left to cover in the next month and a half...
7th grade: We finished up learning about The Roaring 20s by learning how to do The Charleston; the kids really loved this activity, by and large. We pushed all the desks and chairs up against the walls of my classroom, looked at a bunch of different pictures of flappers, wrote and discussed dance today and how it reflects our culture and society, and later compared and contrasted that to how dances like The Charleston reflected American culture and society in the 1920s. Then we watched some youtube clips of Ginger Rogers dancing The Charleston, and tried to follow written directions to learn to dance it; we had some adept and brave students (who are dancers themselves) perform a much better demonstration for the class than anything I could've ever cooked up! So thank you to those students!
Then we did a stock market simulation, where students got to familiarize themselves with some basic stock market vocabulary, design a company and product, and invest fake money in other peoples' companies; the next day they got to find out which companies failed in the Crash of '29, and which succeeded. This transitioned us nicely into watching a PBS documentary entitled, The Crash of 1929 (from the series The 1930s); students responded to critical thinking questions during and after watching the film.
With the substitute today and yesterday, 7th graders continued reading about life for German people during the rise of the Nazis in the memoir, On Hitler's Mountain; they also read two chapters from our Hakim textbook-- "Down and Out", and "Economic Disaster", both about The Great Depression-- while recording most important facts from each chapter and Heard, Not Heard, Hero, Villain for each chapter.
When I get back tomorrow, I plan to play the song, "We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover", from the musical, Annie (Fun Fact: I was Annie in my high school's production when I was a senior in high school. If you read this far, let me know and I'll give you a prize :) ) We'll have a brief discussion about "Hoovervilles" and look at some primary sources from The Great Depression; the primary source set that I have is from a company called Jackdaw, if you want to google search that...
Once we finish up with The Great Depression and the New Deal, we'll spend the remainder of the year learning about WW2 at home and abroad. With that we'll read Linda Sue Park's, When My Name Was Keoko.
8th grade: We are nearly finished reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which is about life in a Soviet gulag (prison/work camp in Siberia).
We have also learned quite a bit about McCarthyism and the controversy sparked by Senator Joseph McCarthy's methods of "hunting" alleged communists in the U.S. government and media. Along with this we learned quite a bit about the life and work of journalist Edward R. Murrow and his producer and friend, Fred Friendly. We watched an A & E Biography of Murrow, read a chapter in the Hakim text about McCarthyism, and watched the movie Good Night, and Good Luck, which I highly recommend if you haven't yet seen it yourself, parents and guardians. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Murrow and Friendly story, they worked for CBS and basically exposed McCarthy on national television, and are credited with effectively ending his influence in the Senate; it was a highly controversial undertaking at the time.)
Since I've been gone this week the 8th graders have had time to do Geography Choreography for their map quiz tomorrow over major world deserts, and today are reading two chapters from the Hakim textbook called, "Liking Ike", and "Houses, Kids, Cars, and Fast Food", both predictably about life in the U.S. during the 1950s, post-WW2 (the Baby Boomers and all that). They are doing the same partner-read/note-taking activity as the 7th graders, though they are studying a different time period.
We have a lot to do in this last month in 8th grade! We'll learn briefly about the Korean War, then spend more time on JFK's presidency (including the Space Race, Sputnik, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, assassination), the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. (including Malcolm X and MLK Jr.; we'll be doing A Raisin in the Sun as a readers' theater along with this); the 1960s and the counter-culture movements (i.e. hippies); we'll spend a few days learning about the Vietnam War, mention the fall of the Berlin Wall, and try to discuss the 1980s very briefly at the end of the quarter. Whew!
So that's a more in-depth version of this week's newsletter, for those of you who are interested. Now I will return to trying to sleep off this pesky bug...
Thanks for reading,
Leah Hood
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Legislative Draft Update: Final Phase!
We are in the written analysis stage of our year-long project. Below are the questions to which students must respond for each article, bill, or law that they are choosing to include as a part of their project. Students can have any combination of articles, bills, and laws, provided all have something to do with the natural environment. Students are required to do a written analysis for three articles, bills, or laws from each of their three states-- for a total of nine write-ups.
Here is what the form looks like:
Name:
Legislative Draft—Written Analysis
--*STAPLE THE ARTICLE, BILL, OR LAW TO THS BACK SIDE OF THIS PAGE.*--
Directions:
*Thoughtfully respond to the questions below.
*Use complete sentences.
*Use the space provided; no one word or one sentence responses.
*If you don’t understand something, it is your responsibility to ask for help.
1) What is the main idea of this document (the article, bill, or law)?
2) Summarize this document.
3) What is the problem described? (Or what are the problems described?)
4) Do you think this is an important problem? Why or why not?
5) What solution (if any) is being proposed in this document?
6) Do you think the proposed solution is a good solution or not? Do you think it is going to solve the problem? Why or why not?
7) What do you think the best way to solve this problem would be?
8) Do you think this problem will still be around fifty years from now? Why or why not?
Here is what the form looks like:
Name:
Legislative Draft—Written Analysis
--*STAPLE THE ARTICLE, BILL, OR LAW TO THS BACK SIDE OF THIS PAGE.*--
Directions:
*Thoughtfully respond to the questions below.
*Use complete sentences.
*Use the space provided; no one word or one sentence responses.
*If you don’t understand something, it is your responsibility to ask for help.
1) What is the main idea of this document (the article, bill, or law)?
2) Summarize this document.
3) What is the problem described? (Or what are the problems described?)
4) Do you think this is an important problem? Why or why not?
5) What solution (if any) is being proposed in this document?
6) Do you think the proposed solution is a good solution or not? Do you think it is going to solve the problem? Why or why not?
7) What do you think the best way to solve this problem would be?
8) Do you think this problem will still be around fifty years from now? Why or why not?
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Q4 Supplementary Resources
Please copy and paste the following web addresses into your browser bar; then explore and enjoy!
7th grade:
American Experience, The 1930s http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/collections/1930s/
Holocaust Museum http://www.ushmm.org/
Anne Frank House Museum http://www.annefrank.org/
PBS Children of the Camps Internment History http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html
Library of Congress WW2 resources http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/WW2/WW2bib.html
Newseum http://www.newseum.org/
Smithsonian National Museum of American History http://americanhistory.si.edu/
8th grade:
Gulag Many Days, Many Lives http://gulaghistory.org/
The Cold War Museum http://www.coldwar.org/
Library of Congress Cold War Archives http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0010/coldwar.html
JFK Presidential Library & Museum http://www.jfklibrary.org/
Truman Library Korean War http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/koreanwar/index.php
PBS Battlefield:Vietnam http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/
Library of Congress Voices of the Civil Rights http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civilrights/
Newseum http://www.newseum.org/
Smithsonian National Museum of American History http://americanhistory.si.edu/
7th grade:
American Experience, The 1930s http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/collections/1930s/
Holocaust Museum http://www.ushmm.org/
Anne Frank House Museum http://www.annefrank.org/
PBS Children of the Camps Internment History http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html
Library of Congress WW2 resources http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/WW2/WW2bib.html
Newseum http://www.newseum.org/
Smithsonian National Museum of American History http://americanhistory.si.edu/
8th grade:
Gulag Many Days, Many Lives http://gulaghistory.org/
The Cold War Museum http://www.coldwar.org/
Library of Congress Cold War Archives http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0010/coldwar.html
JFK Presidential Library & Museum http://www.jfklibrary.org/
Truman Library Korean War http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/koreanwar/index.php
PBS Battlefield:Vietnam http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/
Library of Congress Voices of the Civil Rights http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civilrights/
Newseum http://www.newseum.org/
Smithsonian National Museum of American History http://americanhistory.si.edu/
Trip to Science Museum to see King Tut
Hello everyone!
I’d like to let you know about the next outing I’m planning for the Minnesota Historical Society Club.
I will be at the Science Museum of Minnesota to see the King Tut exhibit and Omnimax movie, Mummies, at 2:00 PM, on Sunday, May 1st, 2011.
(Technically this isn’t a part of the Minnesota Historical Society, but it’s historic, and I want to go :) )
I will plan to arrive at the Science Museum in downtown St. Paul at about 1:30 on Sunday, May 1st, in order to view the movie at the 2:00 show time prior to going through the exhibit.
This one is a bit pricier than the other tours I have arranged this year, but so it goes.
You can view some information about this exhibit and movie at the websites below:
http://www.smm.org/tut/
http://www.smm.org/mummies/
https://www.smm.org/tickets/buy/
If you would like to join me at the Science Museum on Sunday, May 1st, please reply to this email and please include the number of people you will be bringing with you. Depending on the number of people committee to coming, I may or may not be able to arrange some group rates and seating in the theater. You are also more than welcome to make your own Omnitheater ticket reservations online (see above).
As always, please remember that this is not required, that all students must be accompanied by an adult other than myself, and that you are responsible for the cost and your own transportation. (If you’re interested in car-pooling, I can try to put you in touch with others who would like to carpool; I live in Minneapolis, so I will just meet everyone there.)
Hope Q4 is starting out well for you!
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Hope to see you there!
Thanks,
Leah Hood
I’d like to let you know about the next outing I’m planning for the Minnesota Historical Society Club.
I will be at the Science Museum of Minnesota to see the King Tut exhibit and Omnimax movie, Mummies, at 2:00 PM, on Sunday, May 1st, 2011.
(Technically this isn’t a part of the Minnesota Historical Society, but it’s historic, and I want to go :) )
I will plan to arrive at the Science Museum in downtown St. Paul at about 1:30 on Sunday, May 1st, in order to view the movie at the 2:00 show time prior to going through the exhibit.
This one is a bit pricier than the other tours I have arranged this year, but so it goes.
You can view some information about this exhibit and movie at the websites below:
http://www.smm.org/tut/
http://www.smm.org/mummies/
https://www.smm.org/tickets/buy/
If you would like to join me at the Science Museum on Sunday, May 1st, please reply to this email and please include the number of people you will be bringing with you. Depending on the number of people committee to coming, I may or may not be able to arrange some group rates and seating in the theater. You are also more than welcome to make your own Omnitheater ticket reservations online (see above).
As always, please remember that this is not required, that all students must be accompanied by an adult other than myself, and that you are responsible for the cost and your own transportation. (If you’re interested in car-pooling, I can try to put you in touch with others who would like to carpool; I live in Minneapolis, so I will just meet everyone there.)
Hope Q4 is starting out well for you!
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Hope to see you there!
Thanks,
Leah Hood
Monday, April 11, 2011
Welcome to Q4!
Hello everyone!
I hope you all enjoyed your Spring Break! I certainly did. I didn't do too much this time, which was perfect. Visited family in Iowa, read a lot, and did some spring cleaning.
This quarter in Social Studies we will be studying lots of different units! We will also be finishing our This I Believe projects, and the Legislative Draft project.
In 7th grade we will begin this quarter by finishing up with the Dust Bowl, Great Depression, and New Deal; then we will end the school year by studying WW2. Today we already began reading a memoir entitled, On Hitler's Mountain, by Irmgard Hunt. It is her account of growing up in war-ridden Nazi Germany; I think this work of non-fiction is an important piece to teach about empathy and perspective. The author has some profound insights as to how we can avoid repeating the horrendous mistakes of that era. I highly recommend that parents and guardians read this book along with us! After we finish reading the memoir, we will read the novel, When My Name Was Keoko, about the Japanese occupation in Korea during WW2.
In 8th grade we will continue our study of the Cold War, focusing on McCarthyism in the U.S.; we also began reading the Forward and Introduction to the Nobel Prize winning work of historic fiction, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. (Families, please recall that there is some swearing in this book; however, we will not be reading the swear words aloud here at school. It's perfectly easy to just skip over them when we read aloud as a group. An informational email went out about this last quarter.) Later in the quarter we will study the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, at least up until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. We will also read A Raisin in the Sun as a readers' theater piece, and Iqbal; I am hoping to listen to sections of Nothing to Envy and Three Cups of Tea, but I'm not sure we'll have time for all of that!
Map quizzes will continue as usual throughout the rest of this year.
If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thanks and take care,
Leah Hood
P.S. Don't forget about due dates and assignments on Twitter! MsHoodsHoodlums@twitter.com
I hope you all enjoyed your Spring Break! I certainly did. I didn't do too much this time, which was perfect. Visited family in Iowa, read a lot, and did some spring cleaning.
This quarter in Social Studies we will be studying lots of different units! We will also be finishing our This I Believe projects, and the Legislative Draft project.
In 7th grade we will begin this quarter by finishing up with the Dust Bowl, Great Depression, and New Deal; then we will end the school year by studying WW2. Today we already began reading a memoir entitled, On Hitler's Mountain, by Irmgard Hunt. It is her account of growing up in war-ridden Nazi Germany; I think this work of non-fiction is an important piece to teach about empathy and perspective. The author has some profound insights as to how we can avoid repeating the horrendous mistakes of that era. I highly recommend that parents and guardians read this book along with us! After we finish reading the memoir, we will read the novel, When My Name Was Keoko, about the Japanese occupation in Korea during WW2.
In 8th grade we will continue our study of the Cold War, focusing on McCarthyism in the U.S.; we also began reading the Forward and Introduction to the Nobel Prize winning work of historic fiction, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. (Families, please recall that there is some swearing in this book; however, we will not be reading the swear words aloud here at school. It's perfectly easy to just skip over them when we read aloud as a group. An informational email went out about this last quarter.) Later in the quarter we will study the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, at least up until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. We will also read A Raisin in the Sun as a readers' theater piece, and Iqbal; I am hoping to listen to sections of Nothing to Envy and Three Cups of Tea, but I'm not sure we'll have time for all of that!
Map quizzes will continue as usual throughout the rest of this year.
If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thanks and take care,
Leah Hood
P.S. Don't forget about due dates and assignments on Twitter! MsHoodsHoodlums@twitter.com
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