Characters Across Series, Mesopotamia and Pantomime

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we officially launched our Characters Across Series unit.  Students are expected to read at least two books within a series.  The first book should be completed by October 10th (B Block) or 11th (G and H Block).  The second book should be completed by October 28th (B Block) or 29th (G and H Block).  Students should be referring to the rubric in their notebook about the sorts of things to be jotting about while they read.

Students got to participate in an optional mini-lesson on breaking a large task into smaller chunks to help facilitate their reading of the series books.

We also took some time to analyze our reading log, and teacher feedback to create a reader profile.  We noticed what our data showed and asked if that was in line with the reader that we want to be.  We then developed a plan for next steps.

Social Studies

Social Studies this week was dominated by continuing to grab research about our Mesopotamian topic.  Students would copy/paste directly from a source, paraphrase the information into their own words and then create an MLA citation.  We will be writing a letter to Ms. O. Potamia next week about our topic and explaining its link to economy, government, technology, religion, social structure or the arts.  

Drama

Students had their first performance this week in the area of pantomime.  They were asked to create a pantomime with about 10 steps that had a beginning, middle and end as well as a problem to be solved.  We gave feedback to one another and also critiqued ourselves.  We then took this information and started creating a longer pantomime (around 2 minutes) to non-lyrical music.  Students will perform on Monday.