I teach language arts and social studies at Community School's middle school. While this blog will pertain to language arts for most middle school students-- Emilie's, Linda's and my advisees-- I will also put up important information about my advisees' social studies class.
In language arts, we are already digging into our first project. Along with social studies research of their family backgrounds, students have written a "Where I'm From" poem and are using family photos to create a PhotoStory. These will be posted here in a week or so. Some students are creating Word documents and inserting their photos; I also hope to share some of those here as well. As we finish the PhotoStories, we will start our first novel study with Patricia Reilly Giff's House of Tailors. I will be reading this out loud to the students as we discuss parts of a story. For students interested in a bigger challenge, I will have copies of Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
In social studies, we are examining our family history and roots. We've discussed the Industrial Revolution in the United States and monopolies; we played a few rounds of Monopoly. Be sure to ask your child what they learned!
The year is off to a great start; I am so excited to share wonderful books with our students this year and watch them develop and progress as writers and researchers. Please contact me with any questions you have! And don't forget that Gatherings are this week, Thursday, September 22nd at 7:00pm. Hope to see you then!
