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.