After a week in the Marin Headlands, and a week of standardized tests, the students are back to their academics. In Language Arts, most of the students have turned in the first draft of their essays and are breathlessly awaiting corrections so that they can get started on their second drafts. The Literature Circle groups have finished reading their books and are working on choosing ways of presenting their books to the rest of the class. Ideas so far include, murals, skits, power point presentations and songs. 

In Cultural Studies the students are about to return to their Ancient Civilization projects on Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Language Arts homework due, Wednesday May 25th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

All students should be either finished, or close to being finished with their research for their essay. They should be working on their outline. Tomorrow we will discuss how to create effective leads for an essay.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Language Arts homework due Tuesday, May 17th. Turn in the first draft of your essay. (Draft should be between 250 and 750 words. 12 point font, double spaced.)

Language Arts homework due Thursday, Wednesday May 11th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, May 13th. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

Time to Step Up

Wednesday, April 27th is step up day, so the 6th graders will be spending the morning in the upper middle school, getting a taste of what school will be like next year. Spelling will be done during Language Arts on Thursday.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Language Arts homework due Thursday, April 28th. Either complete Step 2, or continue working on Step 3 of writing your essay.

Language Arts homework due Thursday, April 28th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, April 29th. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group.

The sixth graders are well into their student led literature circles. Using the novels, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and The True Meaning of Smekday, the students have been taking charge of their own learning.  They have been assigning their own homework, agreeing on amount of pages to be read, and discussing the texts together. This unit will culminate in a presentation in which each group will find a way to share the novel they read with the rest of the class.

Lit Circle at work.

In Writing Workshop the students are about to start the collecting information phase of their writing. We have explored different places to find information, from books, the internet, questions readers may ask, interviews with family members, just to name a few sources. After this step the young writers will go on to create outlines for their essays.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Cultural Studies homework due Tuesday, April 26th. Read the Geography of Northern Africa handout. Complete questions 1 to 4. 

Language Arts homework due Tuesday, April 26th. Either complete Step 2, or continue working on Step 3 of writing your essay.

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, April 27th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, April 29th. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group discussion.

Today in Cultural Studies the students used the Code of Hammurabi as a spring board to a discussion on the relationship between rules, laws, and consequences. Dividing into groups they worked on creating their own rules. The students were generally struck by the fact that while coming up with rules was generally easy, creating appropriate consequences was much more difficult.

In Language Arts the sixth graders are working on coming up with essay topics. Their first assignment was to write down 20 questions that wanted to know about their topic. 

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Cultural Studies homework due Wednesday, April 20th. Read the Ancient Israelites handout. Complete questions 1 to 4. 

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, April 20th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, April 22nd. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group discussion.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Cultural Studies homework due Tuesday, April 19th. Finish reading Conquests and Empires handout. Complete questions 1 to 4. If questions are not completed for homework, they will be done in class tomorrow.

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, April 20th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, April 22nd. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group discussion.

Homework:

Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Cultural Studies homework due Friday, March 11th. Do review questions for section 2 Populating the Earth handout.

Cultural Studies homework due Wednesday, March 9th. Prepare for Cultural Studies test on Sections 1, 2, 3.

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, March 9th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, March 11th. Hand in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

A Midsummer Night's Dream in March

In Language Arts this morning the sixth graders got on their feet and presented some tableaux based on their reading so far of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. While many of the students are chomping at the bit insofar as wanting to start acting out scenes, we are still cementing their understanding of the characters’ delemas, and how those conflicts drive the play. Today the in class assignment was for the students to show their understanding of the relationship between the four lovers, Hermia, Demetrius, Lysander, and Helena. A couple of the groups added the character, Egeus, into their tableau. The students were asked to try their best to be disciplined in their presentations, by holding their freezes, as well as concentrate on expressing their understanding of the text.

By working with silent tableaux the students were able to tackle the play while taking a break from negotiating Shakespeare's language. The tableaux were well thought, and the comments and suggestions by the students who were audience members were quite constructive. When they return to the text they should be better equipped to recognize the humanity of the characters behind Shakespeare's dialogue.

Homework:

Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week.

Cultural Studies homework due Tuesday, March 8th. Populating the Earth handout.

Cultural Studies homework due Wednesday, March 9th. Prepare for Cultural Studies test on Sections 1, 2,3.

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, March 9th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Language Arts homework due Friday, March 11th. Hand in Reading Response Letter to Norman.

Silent Sustained Reading, Redux

Throughout the year in Wildcat we have taken many opportunities to emphasize reading. 

Reading buddies in Temescal

Whether in Silent Sustained Reading, Literature Circles, or Reading Buddies, the sixth graders have been encouraged to read, and to think about their reading.

In Language Arts today the students and I talked about how to strengthen the commitment they have been showing to reading, and we started a new program that will them stay on track, and help me assess their progress. The students have been given a folder which they will use as a reading packet. In this packet will be the letter that parents have been asked to sign, that outlines the SSR (silent sustained reading) program. There will also be a copy of your personal reading log, as well a copy of your reading response log, where you will record the letters you have sent and received. 

Homework:

Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week.
Cultural Studies homework due Tuesday, March 8th. Populating the Earth handout.
Cultural Studies homework due Wednesday, March 9th. Prepare for Cultural Studies test on Sections 1, 2,3.
Language Arts homework due Monday, March 7th. Write a list of Midsummer Night's Dream characters in the scenes we have read, and state, as specifically as possible, what they want.

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, March 9th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Introduction to William Shakespeare

In Language Arts some of the students have turned in the first draft of their mystery short stories. Others are still working through their plots and selecting the details necessary to make their writing interesting and effective.

We started a short unit on Shakespeare by looking at a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. The students sat in a circle and read from act 1, scene 2. As they read they noted any words or expressions that they were unfamiliar with.


In Cultural Studies we have been following the early hominids journey to becoming hunters and gathers, and the establishment of social groups that were the precursors of the ancient civilizations to come.

Read for thirty minutes.

Cultural Studies Homework due Tuesday,February 15th. Complete all review questions for the handout on Hunters & Gathers. Use lined paper.

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, February 16th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Becoming Human

In Cultural Studies the sixth graders are learning about the early hominids and their journey to becoming human. We have been watching and discussing, Becoming  Human, the  Nova video of the same name. Today we also discussed strategies to stay active as a learner, and the responsibility of each to student to use these strategies. The learning tool we used today was exit cards. Each student, at the end of class, wrote on an index card a comment or question that they had after watching the video. This activity helps the student stay alert and intellectually active during class.

In Language Arts the students continued giving presentations on their Literature Circle presentations.

Homework:

Read thirty minutes.

Language Arts homework due Monday, February 7th. Bring in Personal Spelling List with at least 20 words.

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, February 9th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.
Language Arts homework due Thursday, February 10th. Finish 1st draft of Mystery short story.
Cultural Studies homework due Tuesday, February 8th. Complete C.S. handout.

It's A Mystery To Me

In Language Arts today the students worked on either their Literature Circle presentations, or their Mystery Packets.


The packets are part of a unit on writing a short mystery that the sixth graders are all working on. Writing a good mystery takes creating a working outline, having an eye for specific detail, and giving readers what they need to follow the story. These are actually qualities of effective writing in general.


In Cultural Studies the students watched the Nova video Becoming Human. In discussion the students noted the qualities exhibited by early humans that tied into our earlier study of Identity and Community. For instance when early humans gained control of fire that became a powerful component in creating community. It was something that was larger than any one individual that the group could gather around and value.

Homework:

Read thirty minutes.

Language Arts homework due tomorrow. Finish Mystery packet.

Language Arts homework due Monday, February 7th. Bring in Personal Spelling List with at least 20 words.

Language Arts homework due Wednesday, February 9th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.

Back for the New Year.

The sixth graders started the new year by revisiting questions that all writers should be asking of themselves. Can you see it? Can you hear it? Can you feel it? We looked at Elizabeth Bishop's powerful poem, The Fish, paying particular attention to the imagery. Each student went through the poem and noted when the poet wrote something they could see, hear, or feel. We discussed what it was Bishop did to create such vivid imagery.


Homework:
Read thirty minutes.
Language Arts homework due tomorrow. Read the poems that were given as handouts, look for any images that you can see, hear, or feel, and underline them. We will discuss your annotations tomorrow in class.
Language Arts homework due Wednesday, January 12th. Bring in five words for your spelling quiz. Also bring in five sentences using your spelling words in a way that shows their meaning.
Literature Circle homework due Thursday, January 13th.
Write a book review for your Lit Circle novel. Use book review handout as a resource. Please type your review; 12 point Times Roman, double spaced.