Greetings and welcome back from the weekend.
Notices:
* All quizzes from Friday have been graded and will be entered on Monday, September 22.
* MAPS testing this week. Please get a good night's sleep and eat a healthy breakfast:)
* This is a research-heavy week, meaning we will wrapping up the information search and move into writing thesis statements and using Inspiration (software) to map outlines. Parents, please ask students how their American Indian papers are coming along! Ask to see their notes. If a student misses a research day, please see the teacher for ideas on how to catch up!
Agenda:
Monday -- Today, students will be taking the reading portion of their MAPS test in History classes. For our classes, this will happen in the media center's tech center. The test is used, in part to measure progress through the grades in reading, writing and math.
Tuesday: Yazz' classes are in the media center, we will be developing thesis statements in class by looking at several examples and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses as the critical statement of example topics. Students will also be able to continue research online, using media center licensed databases and reference tools.
Also: All students conference individually with the teacher to evaluate progress and suggest how to move forward with our first, big project:)
HW: Bring in a first-draft thesis statement for peer evaluation. This will be checked for a HW. grade at the start of Wed. class.
Wednesday: An important day to take advantage of the media center's huge American Indian collection. Media center staff has put in many school years collecting a variety of create primary and secondary textual sources that appeal to middle school kids. Use you time wisely - only 2 media center days left:) Students must have 3 non-internet sources documented/cited by the end of class today.
Thursday: We will use part of today's class to catch up with Student News and the historic election! The approach is to identify and delineate the major issues and clarify candidates' positions. We will be using the following web resources to take a closer look at the election: procon.org, teachingtolerance.org, http://www.google.com/educators/elections_tools.html as well as cnn.com/studentnews
Friday: We have reserved the whole media center!