Portfolios, Conference Preparation, and Visualization.

Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, but please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read on your Reading Journal entry form. Please turn in your entry forms on Friday, so that I can review how your reading is going. I will return them to you on Monday. I would encourage you to keep up with your reading over the weekend.

The 6th graders are all spending time getting their portfolios together for their conferences on Thursday and Friday. They are choosing works they are proud of as well as works that were challenging for them. They are then, with prompts from Sima and I, reflecting on their sense of what these works say about their learning. Self-reflection is always a challenging process, even for the most introspective adult, so for these students this work serves as the beginning of what will hopefully be a lifelong habit.

Today in language arts, learning specialist, MaryBeth Ventura was a guest teacher. She gave the students a presentation on visualization.  MaryBeth gave the students an exercise that encouraged them to use specific language to describe a picture that they could see, but she could not. She prompted them to help her create a clear sense of the picture even though it was on the board behind her. The students realized that they could not be vague in their descriptions. They had to really pay attention to what they were seeing, and the language they were using to describe it.  This was the first of a series of presentations that MaryBeth will offer the 6th grade class on strategies to help express their learning.

Discipline, Focus, and Asking the Hard Questions.

Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, but please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read on your Reading Journal entry form. Please turn in your entry forms on Friday, so that I can review how your reading is going. I will return them to you on Monday. I would encourage you to keep up with your reading over the weekend.

Monday and Tuesday are writing workshop days. Today the students worked quietly and diligently on their various projects. They were encouraged to be clear about their choice of words, imagery and form, and they were questioned about why they made the choices they did.  These questions were very challenging for some of the writers who confessed to having a vague sense of what affect they wanted their writing to have. They are discovering that asking and answering challenging questions can help create clear and focused writing.

In drama, we continue to engage in theater games that challenge the individual actors to work as an ensemble. We considered the importance of discipline in the actors work. We worked holding a freeze in tableau work, as well as using criticism as a component of improving our work.

In cultural studies the class went over our review on the First Californians. The students shared their answers, and then shared strategies for doing review tests in the future. Some of the advice given was to “read the questions carefully before answering,” and “read the entire chapter rather than guessing the answer.”

How Do Writers Work? What Does A Historian Do?

Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, but please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read on your Reading Journal entry form. Please turn in your entry forms on Friday, so that I can review how your reading is going. I will return them to you on Monday. I would encourage you to keep up with your reading over the weekend.

In writing workshop today we started the class reading Elizabeth Spires’ poem, “The Sims.” We focused on the writer’s choices concerning persona, and form. What were the possible reasons the poet chose to write the poem in the voice of a child? Why did the poet choose to have so much white space in her stanzas?

The students were reminded that poets make deliberate choices when writing. They were also reminded that as writers themselves they needed to be aware, and intentional in their own writing. They then went on to work on their own material.

In cultural studies, we continued our study of the first Californians. We discussed the idea of history being a matter of asking the right questions, and those good questions generally produce even more questions.

We noted that the vegetation and animal life of the Bay Area was much more lush and plentiful than it is today. What did that mean for the California Indians? Students began to share some of the questions that they had begun to wonder about.

Cultural Studies Homework due Monday, October 26

Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, but please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read on your Reading Journal entry form. Please turn in your entry forms on Friday, so that I can review how your reading is going. I will return them to you on Monday. I would encourage you to keep up with your reading over the weekend.

Homework due Monday, October 26: Throughout the week, as we learn about the First Californians you are going to learn things that should raise questions in you mind. Think about and record any questions that you have. Write down and bring in at least 5 questions to cultural studies class on Monday, October 26.

In writing workshop today, students worked on their current projects. Some students turned in final drafts of poems, others were working towards final drafts, and some were drafting new poems.

In drama, the young actors worked on listening, observing, concentrating and working as an ensemble. We played a wide variety of games that were fun and challenging. One of the games was, counting from 1 to 50 as a group, getting progressively louder, so that each person had to focus on the volume of the person who counted right before them. Another game challenged the students to create a space with their imagination, such as a kitchen, or an office, and then make it as real as possible by acting in that space. As members of the audience recognized and “saw” the space, they were then free to join it with an activity of their own. The activity allowed them to work on being comfortable before an audience, building meaning together, and sustaining concentration.

In cultural studies we began to study the first Californians. We discussed how the first Americans crossed what is now the Bering Strait. Sixth grader, Marina Shethar, who was born in Russia, mentioned that the strait was named for the Danish captain, Vitus Bering. Marina had done a report on Bering the year before. We brainstormed some reasons for the first Americans making that trek to the new continent. As we continue the unit, the students will be encouraged to think about any questions they have, and to eventually note that in history the more questions one answers the more questions one ends up having.

Homework due Wednesday, October 21

Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, but please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read on your Reading Journal entry form. Please turn in your entry forms on Friday, so that I can review how your reading is going. I will return them to you on Monday. I would encourage you to keep up with your reading over the weekend.

Homework due Wednesday, October 21: Please bring in your visual metaphor reflections for Language Arts class on Wednesday.

In language arts today the students worked on using visual journaling for reflecting on literature. The book we examined today was, Two Bear Cubs: A Miwok Legend from California’s Yosemite Valley, by Robert Sans Souci. Groups of two and three students were given laminated photocopies of a page, which they read and then picked out a work, phrase and sentence that they thought was crucial to, or summative of the page. Each student then shared their ideas with their other group members, explaining why they had chosen the particular word, phrase and sentence.

Each student will then draw an impression of what they read using colored pencils, colored markers, and crayons to create visual metaphors. This will help them to think beyond the obvious. The next step of the assignment will eventually be to write a short explanation of the ideas in their sketch.

826 Valencia

Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, but please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read on your Reading Journal entry form. Please turn in your entry forms on Friday, so that I can review how your reading is going. I will return them to you on Monday. I would encourage you to keep up with your reading over the weekend.

Today we spent most of the school day enjoying a great field trip at 826 Valencia in San Francisco.
The 6^th graders were quite excited and engaged as they worked with the workshop leader, Vickie Vertiz. Ms. Vertiz introduced the students to the main elements that go into writing a screenplay. She then announced that the class was going to co-create the beginning and middle of their very own screenplay. She focused on setting, character, and dialogue. 

Taking ideas from many excited contributors we were eventually able to create a movie set in a parallel universe, with a rock named JOE as a main character, a dodo bird named JULIET as a love interest, a pebble named BOBBI as a faithful sidekick, and a lawnmower named DYLAN as the dastardly villain. 

For the final part of the workshop, each student worked alone to create his or her own ending. By the end of the class we had twenty bound copies of their mini-screenplay!

Tuesday, October 13th

Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, but please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read on your Reading Journal entry form. Please turn in your entry forms on Friday, so that I can review how your reading is going. I will return them to you on Monday. I would encourage you to keep up with your reading over the weekend.

Today in writing workshop we talked about tomorrow’s field trip to 826 Valencia in San Francisco. For those of you who don’t know 826 Valencia is an organization that was, “Founded in 2002 by author Dave Eggers and educator Nínive Calegari, 826 Valencia is dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their writing skills, and to helping teachers get their students excited about the writing.”

Tomorrow’s class, which is to be a screenwriting workshop, will focus on character, but also touch on dialogue and setting. Today the 6th graders looked at the importance of character and its effect on the writer’s voice.

After our discussion, the students spent the rest of the class working on their own writing. Many of them had conferences with me, and most of them turned in typed drafts at the end of the class.



In cultural studies, the students finished presenting their group projects on the California Regions. After each presentation, the students asked the presenters questions and gave a critique focused on content, presentation, and teamwork. Apart from sharing what they had learned with their classmates, they all continued to develop a sense of what makes for good work.

Thursday, October 8th

Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, but please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read on your Reading Journal entry form. Please turn in your entry forms on Friday, so that I can review how your reading is going. I will return them to you on Monday. I would encourage you to keep up with your reading over the weekend.

Today in language arts we continued working with the R.A.F.T.S. model for writing responses to literature. The students worked in pairs to discuss the homework they did with the R.A.F.T.S. Thinking Sheet. We then discussed the homework as a whole class, and the students shared the ways in which they thought the Thinking Sheet helped them, or got in their way. We noticed how stopping to think and plan can sometimes be frustrating at first, but helpful in the long run.

Continuing to work in pairs, the students then started to write a draft based on a given writing prompt. They focused on how knowing the role that one is taking on as a writer, knowing one's audience, and understanding the format one is writing in, can affect the voice and word selection of the writer.

Language Arts Homework due: Thursday, October 8th.

I apologize for being behind on my blogging. Family stresses caught up with me a bit, but I am back on track.

Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, but please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read on your Reading Journal entry form. Please turn in your entry forms on Friday, so that I can review how your reading is going. I will return them to you on Monday. I would encourage you to keep up with your reading over the weekend.

Homework due tomorrow, Thursday, October 8th: Look over the following prompt. You do not have to start writing yet.

You are Great Spirit (Role.) and you want to command (Strong verb) coyote (Audience) to eat the crickets. Write a list of commandments (Format) to show coyote that eating the crickets is the right thing to do (Topic).

Please reread, How Coyote Put Fish in Clear Lake. Thoughtfully fill out the R.A.F.T.S Thinking Sheet, and bring it to class for discussion tomorrow.


Today in language arts the 6th graders explored ways to write about literature. The class was introduced to the R.A.F.T.S. model that helps students break writing into five components, Role, Audience, Format, Topic, and Strong verb. The students were then asked to use the R.A.F.T.S. model to look at the story, How Coyote Put Fish in Clear Lake. This work will be continued tomorrow in class.

In Cultural Studies we had our first California Regions presentation. The group that first presented listened to positive and helpful feedback, and will use that feedback to present their material a final time. This process will be the same for all four groups. In this way, the students are able to hear assessments from their peers as well as from their teacher, and are given a chance to use these assessments as a learning opportunity.

Grammar Review

Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, but please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read.

Today in language arts the 6th graders had a grammar review. The students discussed their attitudes towards studying grammar, and towards grammar’s relationship to writing. Some of the students stated that thinking about the rules of grammar was challenging, and sometimes even annoying. We all recognized that sometimes it felt as if grammar got in the way of the creative flow of writing.

Using the SMART Board, we created a piece of unpunctuated writing, and then set about punctuating it in order to get it to say what we wanted it to. In this way, we explored the role of punctuation in organizing and ordering the words we write. We then too a look at recognizing conjunctions, and the role they play as a part of speech. The students were asked to write their own sentences using conjunctions in various ways.