We had our early civilization "Wander & Wonder" and virtual museum last week! Students set up their Adobe Spark pages throughout the classroom for their peers to visit and explore. As students "wandered" to each exhibit, they recorded their new thinking and what they were still "wondering" about. This helped to identify our next step of researching the innovations and adaptations of each civilization that helped the group survive (see below for more on this topic!). Students submitted their projects and research and will receive a rubric score for each. I will send these home once they are completed for your review.
This week we started our next planner in Language & Literature-F.Y.I. For Your Information. This planner focuses on analyzing informational texts for form, purpose, and structure. We began by reading articles on a variety of topics (why leaves change color, how dogs became domesticated, the origins of food allergies, and the problem of plastic garbage in the oceans). As students read, they pulled out important evidence that the author included to help them understand the topic more clearly. Students then looked at the evidence more deeply to help them determine the author's specific purpose in writing the article and what text structure best supported that purpose.
In Individuals & Society we finished up our early civilizations planner by having a discussion about the innovations/adaptations that helped the Maya, Inca, and Aztec societies survive in their environments. We began by working on an example together and then students revisited their research to find examples on their own. At the end of the week, we took our summative assessment for the planner. Next, we will be studying exploration and the debatable question-Is all exploration positive?
In writing, we worked on adding transitional words and phrases to connect pieces of information in our Titanic essays. Students peer edited to "pump up the volume" on transitions using words and phrases that go beyond "first, next, then, and last". Next, we will work on elaboration-explaining facts to clarify the topic for the reader!
Finally, Thursday is "positive quotes" day in our classroom....students use their morning transition time to look up an inspirational quote which they write on a post-it note and keep visible all day as a reminder. Below are some highlights from this week:
