| | This class loves to write! After studying pirates off the east coast of the American colonies in 1717, each student was tasked with creating a pirate map, complete with all the standard map properties. We took a quick look at some antique maps, and we discovered some of the unique features added by cartographers - tall ships, sea monsters, mermaids, and scrolly framework. Of course, we had to add some of these to our own maps. We also "aged" our mapss by ripping the edges and wadding the papers until they were wrinkled and felt more like fabric or animal skin. Everybody worked through some creative reasoning in making chronological stories to go along with their maps. I love watching my 2020/1 class of Hoggatteers at work. They surprise me every day with their work ethics, their kind demeanor, and their light and positive attitudes. Some of these kids will give their best effort on any writing project I assign, with no complaint, no whining, and no backtalk. It's not hard to love this job when you have such a wonderful collection of students in your classroom. |
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Life in the 18th Century (the 1700s) was a bit different from our life in the 21st Century. Some work that existed then no longer exists for us. Other work might have been more difficult. At the same time, this type of hands-on, physical work might have also been more fulfilling.
I finally got my hands on the last book on the 2021 Mark Twain award nominees, but I can't say it was worth the wait. I'm not sure why this one made the list. As much as the premise works, the execution of the story simply doesn't work.
If you're waiting for a raccoon to eat a donut, or doughnut (as the cover implies), you can just keep waiting. The raccoon doesn't even show up until the end, and then is only written off as something that matter-of-factly occurs as Tristan gets his products to market. In fact, there are multiple things that have nothing to do with the story and are never resolved. While the story is not a bad one, surely this one does not merit a state award.
After studying the plantations at Jamestown, Virginia, in the early 1600s, we discovered that the main, money-making crop was tobacco. We know this to be a hazardous substance when smoked in the forms of cigarettes, cigars, and pipes (and also when taken in other forms). However, to make the lesson bleed into another area of our curriculum, we decided to utilize the large leaf for a pre-pre-writing exercise. I cut the "leaves" from large sheets of brown construction paper and drew simple "veins" onto one side. For a finishing touch - and to push it over the edge - I sprayed each leaf with a pumpkin-scented air freshener. We had watched a video about tobacco farming - including a good deal of conversation about the dangers of tobacco use - so students seemed to instinctively pick up their leaves to smell them. The subtle scent brought them to life and added a little extra interest to do well in the upcoming assignment.
The assignment? It was pretty open-ended actually. Students were to choose a topic - an object with multiple parts. On one side of the leaf, each was to write his topic. On the side with veins, they were to write the parts of their chosen topics, one for each vein. The next day, we discussed writing an organized paragraph. Students eagerly took to writing their own sentences, and finally rewriting them in paragraph form.
This is a report from our "fall" NWEA assessments. It shows which students achieved high scores on the tests, as well as how well they did or did not improve since the battery of tests they took a year ago. Not all students had previous scores to justify their placement on this chart, so they are not on this report. The green plusses indicate math scores, while the purple squares represent reading, and the gray pentagons are language scores. Ideally, we want as many students in the green quadrant, showing that they have achieved high scores and increased by a significant amount. Those students in the pink zone are the ones with the most concern. The ones in yellow have decent scores, but did not make much progress in the last year, and the orange section is for students who improved, but still did not score high enough.  Everything here is based on the 50th percentile, meaning the yellow and green quadrants are for individuals who scored higher than the half of the students who took the test nationwide, and the green and orange quadrants display students who improved more than half of the students who were tested.
Here are some observations:
Life in the 18th Century (the 1700s) was a bit different from our life in the 21st Century. Some work that existed then no longer exists for us. Other work might have been more difficult. At the same time, this type of hands-on, physical work might have also been more fulfilling.
On Wednesday, our class hooked up with Michaela and Ben at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. The emphasis was on storytelling and the storytellers of historical events, and students were able to contribute through an online program called Pear Deck. Though our audio connection wavered for us, students still surmised the main points of the presentation:
I was pleased with my students when they were patient with the sound issues, when they responded appropriately to the presenters, and when they asked better questions at the end. Some of them thought it was pretty cool that they were interacting with people in Washington, DC.
Pay attention to the details. Three burials were surrounded by coffin nails and discolored soil. Students were led by the details to infer that one was a soldier, sporting a blue sash and injured by a musket ball. Another was a respected and loved citizen who had a debilitating disease. The third was an important religious leader. The last three burials included a Native American, buried with wheat and sea shells and sporting some animal bite marks. Another was the victim of survival cannibalism, and the last was an example of human sacrifice. We only spent about 15 minutes making their original observations before we shared a classroom discussion about their findings. We talked about the soil and the nails, and students helped their teammates interpret the evidence they had already gathered. Then, they each recorded a correctly formed paragraph, complete with a main idea and three supporting details. I did discover that the class is deficient in simple paragraph writing. Some even told me they did not know what a paragraph was, and they hadn't heard of indenting.
 The events of the grievous terrorist attack on our nation in 2001 can be seen from many points of view. Five years ago, I wrote down some of the memories I still have of that infamous day. Those thoughts appear again, with minor edits, in the left column below. In the right column is a report about the presentation from my friend, a retired Air Force colonel, last week. Colonel Lane was in Strategic Air Command with President Bush on September 11, 2001. His perspective is resoundingly different from my own.
To write may be the most valuable feedback. Students know more than what is "on the test". If I simply ask them questions, I only find out if they know about what I ask about. After a presentation that interests them, my students can probably remember and tell me more information about a subject than I can. While it is sometimes difficult to tell if students are listening intently during a presentation, a person has but to open up the floor to free conversation to hear about their interest after the presentation. This was certainly the case in last week's meeting with Colonel Lane. I opened things up by having students write creatively or reflectively using what they learned. Some needed words spelled, and others freely offered to help their peers with facts directly from the colonel.
When students entered the classroom on Tuesday, the stage was set with some special lighting and sound effects. A campfire flutters and audibly crackles in the center of the room, while the ceiling is illuminated with a chilling, blue glow, a cold, whistling wind blows through the place, a slight fog fills the air, and students wonder what is in store for them. What they didn't know was they were being set up for a writing assignment as as introduction to the history lesson about the Starving Time in Jamestown.
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