Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: In a shortened session, we reviewed our flash cards, this time demanding the definition of our vocabulary words after the word is given. This exercise helps students identify the various meanings of our words. We then wrote in response to the following prompt: What are 3 good books or movies that you would recommend to a friend? Give detailed reasons why these books/movies are worth reading/watching. Students are encouraged to include as many of the vocabulary terms as they can.

RELIGION: Students wrote the Session 9 quiz.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  To bolster the themes and fine points of yesterday's lesson on early empires, today we. played. Risk! In explaining the rules, students really got an opportunity to apply strategies to some of the problems of conquest that were outlined in our section. Additionally, students performed this task in assigned groups, forcing them to communicate clearly, efficiently, secretively and effectively in order to accomplish their goals. I am hoping to bring this game back in to our lessons at various moments to help students make sense of the many challenges global conquest poses.

Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: We started our vocabulary lesson with our flash cards once again. From there we practiced identifying sentence errors through the Sadlier website. Afterwards, we tested our vocabulary knowledge in timed multiple choice questions. This week it was the 2nd English class that won this competition with a score of 27,000 - 26,200.

RELIGION: Today we summed up the week's lesson by reviewing the key concepts. Students will write an open-book test tomorrow for the session.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Today we read the last sections of the Chapter on ancient Mesopotamia, the First Empires. Students learned the distinction between a battle and a conquest and how through conquest and trade, cultural borrowing happens. Students were assigned questions 1-4 on page 86.

MATH: (8:00 class) accelerated Math finishes Nov 9th for the 1st trimester (9:00 class) pg 125 1-34

Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: Today we started with Flash cards and the quickly transitioned to our first of two activities: Vocabulary in Context. Here students see their words used in their proper context and help to define their use. In the next activity, Passage Based Reading, students read to understand nuance in language use.

LITERATURE: Students applied a different pre-writing technique today when writing about an animal encounter they have previously had. We then talked about the pros and cons of the different graphic organizers. I have few opinions on which is the best, truth is that there isn't a "best" overall method, but rather there are several "bests" that each student needs to identify for themselves.

RELIGION: Today we talked about King David and Ruth as examples of making ethical decisions. When asked to write about a serious decision that the students have had to make, some were dipping a bit shallow to find inspiration, while others dug deep to respond to the prompt. I encourage all students to answer honestly and conscientiously in their reflections.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Today students took their clay tablets and had them translated by 2 peers. After this they responded to the following reflection prompts:
-What was the most challenging aspect of writing clay tablets? Why?
-Why do you suppose ancient Mesopotamians used this method?
-Do you think this method will come back some day? Why?
If the reflection questions and translations were not completed, students are required to finish them for homework.

MATH (8:00 class) Ws 2-6 & 2-8  (9:00 class) Accelerated Math

Today in 6A & 6B

ENGLISH: Today we start a new vocabulary week, Unit 5. In class we defined each of our 20 words and established some associations with those words. I think this week's word list is my favorite to date.There are some really good words on there and some words that link directly to words we have already learned. Students are already beginning to notice some of the connections and this is highly valuable.

LITERATURE: We started a new story in class today, "The Lady and the Spider." This story is told from different perspectives which helps the reader to identify the difference between facts and opinions. Students identified as many of each from this short story as they could and then wrote a short opinion of their own about spiders, a surprisingly polar issue for our class. In the student sharing we had an excellent conversation about supporting an opinion with facts and how not doing so may serve to present opinions AS facts.

RELIGION: Today's lesson, "Being Faithful to God," students reflected on how making good (or bad) decisions in the many aspects of their lives, affects the different relationships they have with others, including with God.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Today's lesson was centered on applying what we learned about the development of writing as students created their own clay cuneiform tablets. Each student chose a meaningful quote to translate into cuneiform, and then transfer that message on to clay that they themselves had to prepare. We only had about 40 minutes for each class to complete this task, and while many did in fact complete it, some did not. This must be completed for homework as the clay is self-hardening in 24 hours. If students brought their work home, it must be returned tomorrow.

MATH (8:00 class) pg 109-110 1-29  (9:00 class) pg 117 1-49 Chapter 2 Test Tomorrow