Oct 20-24

Events this week:

• Eighth Grade Picture Day Tuesday, October 28 at 10:50. 
• Middle School  Fright Night Halloween event on Wednesday, October 29 from 5:30-7:30.  Cost will be $3.00 and includes pizza, costumes, games and music!  Tickets on sale after school this week.
• Halloween is this Friday.  Students may dress up. Please no masks, weapons and respect others' cultures race or ethnicity when deciding what to wear.
• Recycling Drop off Friday mornings curbside or any time in room 509. We can take cans, plastic or glass bottles .

We are now using Fresh Grade for student portfolios.  You can see assignments, photos and assessments here.  I will update weekly by Sunday evenings.  Access it in "Links I Like"


In Math, students practiced using slope and y-intercepts in linear equations.  By now, students should be familiar with:

• Identifying slope and y-intercept from a graph.
• Writing a linear equation from a graph.
• Writing the equation for a line in the form y = mx + b given only slope (m) and y-intercept (b)
•  Identifying the slope and y-intercept given a linear equation.
• Using a table to find slope by looking at the change in y values and the change in x values.
• Determining the slope given two points.
• Determining the y- intercept given a point and the slope.
• Determining the y- intercept given two points

During Writers' Workshop,   students read short stories including Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day." They used a template to write summaries of the stories by stating how a character did something in the story in order to accomplish a need and what he/she learned because of that action. They will use Bradbury's story to write intro paragraphs this week, with the goal of a full essay by the end of the month.  See tips on how to write an introductory paragraph here

We kicked our new project, 'Where's the Water? From Drought to Deluge'.
This week included gathering information.  We watched a documentary, "Drought To Deluge", a film that examined life in one of the wettest places on earth as well as one of the driest places on earth.  We were able to learn how people can survive with minimal water, as well as with an abundance of water. We discussed reading technical writing while reading an article about the 1934 Dust Bowl. Click here to view the article. We also used the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) to create questions about 8 topics we plan to learn about while participating in this project. For information about the QFT, scroll to the bottom of this post. This coming week we will gather information about El Nino, La Nina and other weather patterns that effect California. 

Our Friday fun day included a morning meeting with our Kinder/First grade buddies.  Buddies interviewed each other about some of the things they like.  Friday Sci-day included a discussion about matter and its different phases, solid, liquid, gas and plasma.  We learned about an anomaly called a non-Newtonian fluid by creating oobleck.  How many substances do you know of that has both solid and liquid characteristics?





Our class has taken over the recycling program at our school.  The proceeds will go toward our 8th grade trip.  Please collect cans, plastic and glass bottles and bring them to school!  We are working with an organization who gives high payback for our recyclables. Our students are collecting recyclables curbside on Fridays as well as going from class to class at the end of every school day.

Have a safe week!




WHAT IS A QFT?



Source: The Right Question Institute




The QFT applies to all levels of schooling and can be employed "to introduce students to a new unit, to assess students’ knowledge to see what they need to understand better, and even to conclude a unit to see how students can, with new knowledge, set a fresh learning agenda for themselves." The QFT basically validates students' natural inquisitive sense when starting new research or beginning to write an essay. It formalizes in a helpful way what can sometimes become rushed or quotidian.

Source: The Right Question Institute, ASIDE

The essential QFT process is student-initiated, with the teachers as facilitators. The six QFT steps, as originated by The Right Question Institute, are as follows:

1. Design a Question Focus (or QFocus) - With a prompt, a dilemma, or a guiding statement, the teacher frames the inquiry to point the children in a beneficial direction.
2. Students produce questions - Using a set of guidelines (listed above), the children generate questions based on their own curiosity and wonder.
3. Students improve their questions - The groups of students then refine and modify their lists based on an understanding of open- and closed-ended questions.
4. Students prioritize their questions - Through discussion and debate, the students choose specific questions they would genuinely like to probe further.
5. Students and teachers decide on next steps - As a group, the kids and adults together decide how to use these core questions to guide the coming days and weeks of classes.
6. Students reflect on what they have learned - By looking back over the process they have just pursued, students explore the value of self-initiated experimentation.