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.