For Genius Hour last week, we prepared our "pitch" for the class. Each student this past Monday presented his or her pitch - what he or she will do for the last quarter, why, and how it would be presented the last full week of school. It was like a mini shark tank when students started asking good questions about the projects. We start on this last stretch of personalized learning this coming Monday!
We have started reading Crash by Jerry Spinelli. What a hoot it is! We're trying something new (again) with this short unit - gamification. This means we are adding game elements to our reading. We are not "teaching the text," but using game elements to dive a bit deeper into the text in various ways each day we read in class. So far, so good! If you'd like to see our ever-changing points (due to group challenges, participation, side quests...), check out our leaderboard. Of course, we're doing all this in the midst of PARCC preparation and testing, so it will be interrupted for three days next week.
There is a new addition to our class - a very large branch... It is repurposed as our "poet tree," and students are hanging original poems they've written and shared aloud! We hope to have it full by the end of April, which is Poetry Month. Another aspect of our days this month is reading a page a day (if time) of Where Children Sleep by James Mollison. We are practicing "See-Think-Wonder" - an activity that makes our learning visible and alerts us to how and why we may make judgments of people and things we see. It's difficult for some 7th graders to observe and question instead of jumping to judge first. Feel free to continue this practice at home! My notes on this activity are just below here:
We have started reading Crash by Jerry Spinelli. What a hoot it is! We're trying something new (again) with this short unit - gamification. This means we are adding game elements to our reading. We are not "teaching the text," but using game elements to dive a bit deeper into the text in various ways each day we read in class. So far, so good! If you'd like to see our ever-changing points (due to group challenges, participation, side quests...), check out our leaderboard. Of course, we're doing all this in the midst of PARCC preparation and testing, so it will be interrupted for three days next week.
There is a new addition to our class - a very large branch... It is repurposed as our "poet tree," and students are hanging original poems they've written and shared aloud! We hope to have it full by the end of April, which is Poetry Month. Another aspect of our days this month is reading a page a day (if time) of Where Children Sleep by James Mollison. We are practicing "See-Think-Wonder" - an activity that makes our learning visible and alerts us to how and why we may make judgments of people and things we see. It's difficult for some 7th graders to observe and question instead of jumping to judge first. Feel free to continue this practice at home! My notes on this activity are just below here: