It may be a short week, but don't tell
that to our diligent and hard-working students! (Remember, no school on
Friday). Since I missed the last update, I'll include a bit of what we
did last week as well.
6th Grade Social Studies
We're
getting near the end of our Inca study and about to head into an
exploration of the Aztec. Last week, we looked at primary source
drawings made by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, a man who lived in Peru
during the first decades of Spanish colonial rule who recorded a 1400
page "letter" to detail the treatment of the Inca by the conquistadors.
Included in his letter were depictions of children at work and play--we
did some observations, analysis, synthesis, and comparisons between the
lives of Incan children and our own lives. This week, students are
working collaboratively to demonstrate their knowledge of
characteristics, structures, and systems of civilizations by creating
their own mock-civilization; the creativity and collaborative work has
been great as students decide when and where their civilization is
situated, its government structure, level of technological advancement,
language system, and much more! This mini-project also serves as a great
speaking and writing assessment tool as students will give
presentations on their civilization as well as hand in some written
"studies" of their self-created civilization.
7th and 8th Grade Social Studies
Last
week the 7th and 8th graders took a brief look at one part of the Civil
Rights movement in support of some work that Ms. Ferris has her
Language Arts classes completing around Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech. Specifically, we looked at school segregation in the South in the post-Brown v. Board of Ed. era.
We then had a thoughtful discussion about whether or not segregation
has been abolished in the United States and differences between de facto
versus de jure discrimination. All powerful topics that we'll return to
this spring as we continue to use the Constitution as a common thread
through our studies. Last week students also participated in their first
entirely student-led Socratic Seminar as they used direct text
reference and analysis to answer the question Was the Revolutionary War truly revolutionary? Mrs. Meeuwsen came in to view some of the seminar and was quite impressed with our students' abilities--well done!
This week, students are preparing for our
Constitutional Convention simulation in which the delegates include
groups not invited to the original convention (women of various social
classes, free and enslaved African Americans, Native Americans, and poor
farmers). Should be interesting to see what freedoms are granted to
which groups in our mock-convention and then compare to the actual
Constitution and subsequent Amendments.
Oceans Elective
7th
graders went home this week with various permission slips for our
upcoming OMSI overnight experience. Sorry for the redundancy of
permission slips, but there should be three for you sign: one for SIA,
one medical release for OMSI, and one photo-release for OMSI. Let me
know if you have any questions.
Everyone
This
year the Sauvie Island Plant Sale is being put on by our very own
middle-grade students! As 6th grade has been busy organizing a food
drive and 8th grade organizing a fundraiser to help fund our dances,
the initial planning has been taken on by the 7th graders. We're hoping
to make this year's plant sale the best yet! Students have been busy
making fliers, setting up a website for advertising, and calling local
nurseries for donations (almost all have said yes and our 7th graders
have been quite professional on the phone!). This year's sale will be on
March 9th--mark your calendars!
Best,
Mr. Radich
