Hey folks,

We have decided to end our tenure with edublogs.  We have a new site for the grade 6 and 7 blend class.

http://grou.ps/lassclass6and7

This is actually a group site.  Students will all have their own profile page and will be able to engage with the learning of our class through the website.  It will be very private and working under a strong filter.  That means that when students interact with one another on the website, only member of the group will be able to see it.

Non-members will be able to access the homepage, which will have a weekly message, assignment due dates, and a few other useful items.

For more information, please go to the new site.  Check out the frequently asked questions (FAQ) tab.  This will hopefully answer any questions you have.  Otherwise, shoot us an email or give us a call.

Ms. Kelly and Ms. Amber

Wow! This has been a busy week getting back into the swing of things.  Everyone is busy planning our accelerate math and reading program that all students will be participating in today, getting elective classes ready to go, and planning for class!  We really appreciate your patience as updating our website should happen on Monday, but slipped our minds as we have been planning for classes!

This week we are starting a geography challenge.  We are ensuring that everyone in class increases their geographic literacy, starting with the physical and political geography of the United States and Minnesota.  Since all students are at different spots in their geographic literacy, students will work independently where they are.  It’s important to note that  this will happen intermittently when students have extra time in class and at home if need be.

Long Term Target:
I can increase my geographic literacy.

(This is what will appear on the report card.  To be secure in this target, they will have to master two of the following support targets this quarter.  If they already have a target mastered at this point, they will choose from other targets to master!)
Supporting Targets: (grades 6 and 7)

I can identify the seven continents and four oceans.

I can identify the fifty states.

I can identify major U.S. cities.

I can identify major physical features of the U.S.

I can identify major physical and political features of Minnesota.

Once this gets set up we will be moving forward in our social studies, studies for the quarter.

We are also continuing to work on writing, by getting our typed Civil War essays up on on our server so we can revise and edit them.  And we are starting a new piece of writing!

More to come on this next week.

Girls are doing a wonderful, wonderful job with their essays.  They are due tomorrow at the end of class.  We will be collecting them tomorrow as hand-written copies, grading them tomorrow night, and returning them on Wednesday.  We’ve decided to have the girls type them over the break, if at all possible.  (Good practice for the typing skills they’re acquiring / practicing in GTT!)  When we return we’ll be starting our writing portfolios and some other writing-related systems, and we’ll also do some sharing of our essays with various audiences. 

Seriously though – we’ve got some intense writing going on.  Girls are working at their own pace, and we (Ms. Amber and Ms. Kelly) are spending the entire period conferencing with individual girls.   It’s been some great work.  We are really proud, and they should be, too.  We’re excited for a writing-heavy year this year!

Thanks for checking in!   Have a great break!

This week in LASS we will be continuing our book groups.  Students will get their last chunk to read on Thursday, which will be due on Monday.  It’s okay if students don’t quite finish their books by the end of the quarter.  They will be able to finish reading over break.

This week our main focus is essay writing.  Students will work to write a thesis and support their thesis with evidence that has been collected over the course of the quarter.  Evidence can come from the books they have read and discussed with classmates, and all other learnings we have done in class.  

These essays can be typed or hand written.  They will be due next Tuesday.  Below is an outline of what we will be working on each day.

Monday-write thesis and brainstorm evidence to support thesis

Tuesday-continue work on thesis and write a draft of essay

Wednesday-continue drafting

Thursday-peer review essays and turn in first rough draft for teacher feedback

Friday-use teacher and student feedback to continue working on essay

Over the weekend-keep working on essay!

Monday-work to complete essay

Tuesday-essay due!

p.s.  Students were given rubrics in class today.  I’d post it here, but can’t quite figure it out.  If you lose your rubric, you can find extra copies in the absence files in the back of class!

Thanks to all the families that were able to make it to conferences!  Those of you we missed: we look forward to seeing you at the next round.

This is a big week in LASS.  We will continue our study of the Civil War by working in literature circles.  Students were given four options of books: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Kindred, and Bull Run.  Students will receive their books tomorrow and begin working to read the book and respond to the chunks of reading they have read.  Reading will be homework. Students will be writing their reading assignments in their planners tomorrow and they will also be posted here.  Every Monday, Thursday and Friday a chunk of reading will be due and students will meet with their book group to discuss what they have read.

Please note:  These books deal with both the suffering and perseverance of people during an incredibly harsh time in our nation’s history.  Themes of oppression and resistance run throughout.  Please support your daughter by discussing with her what she has read!

The later part of this week we will begin discussing the essay assignment that will take us through the rest of the quarter.  Students will be learning about creating thesis statements and how to develop evidence to support a thesis.

Please check this site frequently; we will update it with new information as it is presented to the students.

Spelling is due on Wednesday!

We’re glad to have our kids back in full force! 

We’re working to solidify our understanding of the reasons behind the war and how it all went down.  We will then be focusing on Reconstruction and the era of Jim Crow.  Students will examine important events after slavery ended to continually ask themselves what has been accomplished in this country, really accomplished, in the way of equality and justice for African-Americans. 

This week we’re reading an excerpt from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave and doing a shared inquiry discussion on it.   We’ll also be wrapping up the facts of the Civil War and working to establish/maintain academic routines. 

Girls are doing an AMAZING job of engaging their brains in the heavy topic of the reality of slavery in our country, and we are so, so excited to see their excitement grow as we learn about the aftermath of the end of it.

Hi, hi.  This week is kind of a short week for us, as we have NWEA testing on Thursday and Friday.  However, we’re doing some great work with the time that we have!  We are doing some check-in work (formative assessment) on the basics of the U.S. Civil War, reflection on the film, introductory learning about Frederick Douglass, and word study diagnostics.  Girls are doing a fabulous job.

Our essential question for this unit:

What did the U.S. Civil War solve?

So much meaningful learning to come.  Thanks for checking in.

Today and tomorrow we will be watching the movie, Glory. This film is about the first African-American regiment in the Civil War. We are watching it because it gives an accurate depiction of war, and also looks at racism in the North. This will give the students a more accurate picture if what attidues were prevalent during this time period. The film uses language that was common during the time period. We will discuss these derogatory terms in class, what they mean, why they were used, and the implications using them has. We will be pausing to discuss the movie and reflecting on it frequently. We will let students know when the battle scenes are coming and they will be allowed to leave the room for those parts if they feel uncomfortable. We will be watching the rated R version of the film, but making it PG-13 by fast forwarding through one more gruesome part, and one part where swearing is used. Please ask your daughter about the film! What were their reactions to it?

Last week we reviewed the time line of United States history to give us a big picture of events before we zoomed in on the Civil War period.  We began discussing the causes of the Civil War and ended our week by role playing different events that led to the Civil War.

This week we are continuing our learning of this period, as well as adding in important procedural elements to our class.  We are focusing this week on spelling, writing in our writer’s notebook, and current events using Time for Kids as a resource.

We will continue to study the mounting tensions between the North and the South and the differences in attitudes that brought about the Civil War by looking at the population demographics to better understand who held the power and analyzing political cartoons.  We will be watching excerpts of the Ken Burns documentary “The Civil War” and the movie “Glory” to get an overall understanding of what life was like during this time.

In the coming weeks we will closely examine what happened during Reconstruction, looking specifically at Jim Crow laws, and asking ourselves, what did the Civil War solve?

Welcome back! It’s hard to believe we are about to begin our second year of LJA!  We are excited to welcome our new students, to see our returning students, and to get all of this scholarly work underway!!

Along with our second year comes many great changes.  Not only do we have new bulletin boards in the hallway to display student work (very exciting), a brand new LASS room for the fifth graders (complete with a generous amount of ’soft’ seating), but we also have two new and incredibly talented LASS teachers (Ms. Emily and Mr. Jacob).

Class breakdowns:

Ms. Amber and Ms. Kelly will be teaching 7th grade LASS.

Ms. Amber and Ms. Emily will be teaching 6th grade LASS.

Ms. Kelly and Mr. Jacob will be teaching 5th grade LASS.

We will be working this week to figure out the best way to keep everyone up to date on the class happenings.  We may try to work it out to have all the updates for all three classes on this site, or we might have three separate sites. Our goal is to keep these class blogs as easy to use and streamlined as possible.  So, check back next week to see what we’ve come up with!

This week in all the LASS classes we will be watching President Obama’s address to students. We will be discussing what his message to students is, why he feels it’s an important message, and whether or not you agree with him.

Here’s to a great first week!