Flashdrafts and Research

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, students looked at the overt and covert lessons that different types of cultural stories teach.  They were able to identify the lesson(s) and then give evidence as support.  We also took some time to categorize all the books we've read so far in order to draw some larger conclusions.  We organized by characters, archetypes, story type, plot type etc.  We then looked at what this was telling us overall about cultural storytelling.  

We also took some time to flashdraft our family folklore.  Students then evaluated themselves and asked for feedback to move to the next drafting phase.  Students found a mentor sentence in their at home text and emulated that sentence by copying the writing technique in their own work.

Social Studies

In Social Studies this week, students spent time researching the beliefs, rituals, sacred texts, norms, taboos and traditions of a world religion.  On January 24th they will present their information in a scored discussion.

Drama

Students presented their 2-minute pantomime in class this week and created an artist statement reflecting on their learning throughout the unit.  We have transitioned into our puppetry unit and began by looking at puppets in general and then looking at hand shadow puppets.  

2019 Welcome Back!

Good morning,

I hope everyone had a great Winter Holiday!  We had family in town and enjoyed playing "tour guide" and showing them around Muscat!

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, students were given time to work on one of the many learning targets that had been introduced since the beginning of the unit.  We also talked about how certain words have tone or emotional value.  We looked at sentences from a variety of texts, identified words that had tone and then asked questions like: What effect does this word or phrase have on the section of text?  What might using this word or phrase get me to think and feel about the story, a character or event?  What other words could the author have used, and why DIDN'T they use them?  What is so perfect about THIS word or phrase?  It really caused students to zoom into the text rather than looking for broader ideas.

We also started to prepare for our expository writing piece.  Students reminded themselves of their family interview and then asked what additional research/questions were needed?  For example, what time period was the story set?  Were there important events going on in the setting/world that would affect the story?  How can we be true to the clothing, manner of speaking and technology of the time, while also being true to our family story?

Next week, we will do a flash draft to move these ideas into a rough draft that we can revise and edit.

Social Studies

In Social Studies this week, we launched our mini-unit on Religion and Beliefs.  The purpose of this unit is to promote understanding of a belief system different from our own and to identify important rituals, norms, taboos, sacred texts, beliefs and traditions of that religion.  In this way, we can become more effective global citizens.

Drama

In the Trimester 2 Drama class, students created a 2-minute pantomime to non-lyrical music that had an obstacle to overcome.  This builds upon the pantomime that they did before break and received feedback on.  Students took that feedback and used it as part of the planning for this next presentation.  Students will perform on Sunday and then we will transition into puppetry.

From Fairy Tales to Myths

Good morning everyone!

The excitement is certainly building for the Winter Holiday!  Nonetheless, we were hard at work!  Here's the week in review:

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we spent some time doing self-evaluations of our Wonder Women! quick writes from last week.  Students were given the rubric and an exemplar which we graded together.  Then, they needed to look at their own work and decide what descriptors from the rubric they were able to demonstrate.  Then then developed an action plan where they thought of next steps for reading entries they could create to show mastery.  Once they had developed their action plans, I gave them my copy of the rubric.  They could then compare how I evaluated their work versus how they evaluated their own work.

We also transitioned from fairy tales to myths.  We read a book called Icarus at the Edge of Time and then compared it to the original myth.  We used our read aloud to inform our predictions and expectations for the original myth and can apply a similar structure when making connections between mythological references in modern culture.

Social Studies

In Social Studies this week, we viewed the Animaker videos that students had created.  We also added a new entry to our online timeline Tiki-Toki.  We had to find an archaeological artifact that matched our topic/essential question and put it into our timeline.  We can then share these events with others to make comparisons.

Drama

In Drama this week, students talked about consistency in pantomime and how we make sure our invisible props like cups, phones or other items stay the same size and shape throughout a scene.  We also talked about how when we put an invisible prop down, we need to pick it up in the same spot.  We started talking about ground plans as a way to organize ourselves and our movements.  We also started talking about answering the questions: Who is the character? What is the emotion? What is the place? during a pantomimed scene.  Students will be creating their first performances in class today that will be performed next week.

Wonder Women!

Good morning everyone!

Here's what's been happening this week:

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we have been watching a documentary called Wonder Women!   The Untold Story of Female Superheroines to add to our understanding of cultural storytelling.  We spent some time before watching the video explaining the difference between an archetype, a word we have been using a lot in our fairy tale work, and stereotype.  As they were watching the documentary they were looking for: 

Are female superheroes the archetype of a hero, the stereotype of a woman or a combination of both?  What is the perspective/opinion of the documentarian and how do you know?  What connections can you make between this documentary and fairy tales you have been reading?  If the authors are NOT in agreement, why might this be?

We then did some quick writes to respond to the questions above.  Students will be evaluating their responses to plan for next steps in our unit with skills mastery.  

Next week, we will start in on the research and writing portions of our family folklore piece.  Hopefully, your student has found some time to interview at least one family member to get some ideas for stories.

Social Studies

Students have been working feverishly on their Animaker movies about Ancient Egypt.  We will compile our Works Cited today and then start watching one another's work.  This will allow us to add to our broader understanding and add some events to our timeline next week.

Drama

The Trimester 2 drama students have transitioned to our pantomime unit.  We made sure we were secure about audience etiquette and stage directions before looking at some pantomime samples.  We defined pantomime and listed techniques used.  We will doing a series of activities that will help us practice these skills before we perform for others to receive feedback.

After the National Day holiday...

Good morning!

I hope everyone had a lovely 5-day weekend.  My family spent some time in London and enjoyed the cold weather and seeing Aladdin on the West End.  Here's what we've been up to since we got back:

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we launched our Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends unit.  In this unit, we will be looking at different types of cultural story telling and how they reveal a cultures values while also identifying archetypes, stereotypes and social issues within a text.  There are no formal books to be taken home this unit.  Instead, students are asked to read books of their choice at home and I will check in with them about those books at various points.  

This week we talked about what makes fairy tales, myths and legends different from each other and made a Venn diagram to show our thinking. We also defined archetype as a "typical type of character found in a story".  We looked at familiar archetypes and started to identify them in the stories we are reading.  We also looked at the role that culture plays in how archetypes are portrayed.  Next week, we will put our archetype skills to the test by watching a documentary called "Wonder Women! The History or Female Superheroines".

I also introduced our next writing piece which is going to be family folklore.  Students have been asked to interview one or more family members in order to get some family history.  They will then take that history and create an expository nonfiction piece (a nonfiction piece that reads like a story).  Those interviews need to be completed by the end of next week.

Social Studies

In Social Studies this week, students have been working diligently on their Animaker projects.  They are making an informational cartoon based upon the research they have done about Ancient Egypt.  They also need to answer one of our essential questions that have been the foundation of our class discussions.

Drama

Students shifted to a new Wheel class this week.  I now have a new group of students.  We have started the class by creating Theater is... posters where we define what we think this genre of performance is/is not.  We will revisit these posters over the course of the trimester to make changes or add things.  We will be talking about different jobs in the theater and will also begin talking about stage directions.

It's Been a Few Weeks!

Between Parent/Teacher conferences and Discover Oman, it has been a few weeks since I've posted.  Here's what we've been up to:

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we took time in the revising/editing phases of the writing process to make changes to our essays.  We looked at the feedback from Mrs. Kuti as well as our peers to guide our work.  We also used checklists and rubrics to remind ourselves of expectations.  During this work time, I offered optional mini-lessons about in-text citations, transitional phrases and paragraph reasoning for those students who wanted clarification.  

Next week we will be celebrating our hard work with some bonus read aloud and giving each other "Golden Tickets" complimenting our writing craft.  We will then start our nonfiction unit on Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends after the long holiday.  This will be paired with an expository nonfiction piece about Family Folklore.

Social Studies

Students were introduced to their next project, an animated cartoon, using research on an Egyptian topic of their choice.  Students will need to link their topic to either religion, science/technology or art.  Students spent this week researching and paraphrasing the information they have found.

Drama

In Drama this week, students reflected on the puppet performances they gave to the Kindergarten students.  They reflected on their puppetry technique, collaboration as well as overall performance.  We then started our last mini-unit of the trimester about theater critique.  Students are watching Newsies, the movie from 1992 and Newsies, the musical from 2016 and comparing/contrasting these performances.  

Wrapping things up-LA, Egyptian Economy, and Puppetry Practice

Language Arts

We are quickly coming to the end of the reading portion of our first unit.  Students should be completing their second series book by early next week.  Last week we talked about theme and this week we talked about how to extend our thinking about theme to touch on other areas of our reading work.  One idea was to take the theme and then as "What about" this theme.  For example, if the theme is perseverance, what about perseverance is the author trying to say AND do we agree?  Another thing we could do is make personal connections with the themes to our lives.  How do we see the ideas of themes from our story alive here in Muscat in 2018.  Lastly, we looked at comparing and contrasting themes to see if there are patterns the author was trying to make us aware of.

We also worked on writing our introductions and conclusions.  We looked at starting globally at the beginning of our intro and then moving to our very specific claim.  For our conclusion, we do the opposite.  If students turned in their paragraphs on time, they should have a completed draft of an essay with feedback on EACH paragraph from me.  We will revise and edit early next week and finish up after DO.

Social Studies

This week in Social Studies we looked at the economy of Ancient Egypt and how dependent they were on the Nile River for survival by doing a simulation.  We also looked at the role that taxes paid on our ability to buy supplies from merchants and craftsman.

We also started to look specifically at four memorable pharaohs.  Students chose one to read about and will create a trading card next class.

Drama

Students in the Drama class will be performing for KG on Monday of next week.  We spent this week getting to know our scripts and practicing with our group.  We were also introduced to vocal scoring as a way to add variety to the way we read our lines.  We are excited to perform!