Hi, families - our school year has started smoothly, students are now familiar with their schedules, and our Core class has already finished reading The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Phew! THANK YOU for all the classroom supply donations, and also thank you for coming to Back to School Night.
For those of you who couldn't make it to Back to School Night, please take a look at the Conferences Schedule (click on the link) and let me know by email which appointment works best for you and your student. My email address is vturner@pps.net. If you'd rather call and leave a message, the school phone number is 503-916-5610.
LANGUAGE ARTS
We finished reading The Pearl by John Steinbeck, and had class conversations about themes such as poverty, oppression, and the role of education in preventing both. Students have experienced two styles of vocabulary/spelling/grammar assignments and quizzes, and they have written a "Letter to Myself" for their portfolios. Coming up next: reading the historic fiction novel Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, as well as an essay explaining how and why the main character in the novel changes, using evidence/quotes from the text.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Students created personal timelines and will soon apply those skills to creating "Time Books" in class. For each major unit of U.S. history we study, students will make timelines showing ten important events. Students will learn about early European explorers and their impact on people already living in the Americas, what "colonialism" is all about, and the rise of the Transatlantic slave trade. Students will role-play a mock trial of Christopher Columbus, et al to emphasize that history has multiple points of view, and what textbooks portray might not be the entire story. By the end of October, students will have covered several hundred years' worth of early colonial history, and we will be on track to learn about the American Revolution.
