Dear Families,

We had a special guest visit our classroom today. His name was Hadrien and he is an assistant track coach at the University of South Carolina and a classmate of mine in my doctoral program. He came in to speak with us about his experiences as a child growing up in France as well as coming to America for graduate school. His visit was the first of many that will follow to support our inquiry into the idea of "normal" and how this is sometimes used to look down on, mistreat, or harm groups of people.

In addition to learning a whole lot about what French schools are like (four hours of physical education each week, half days on Wednesdays, free college, just name just a few things) Hadrien talked about what surprised him when he came here. One thing that caught his attention was the fact that Americans eat out a lot more than do the French - particularly at fast food restaurants. He said our diet is much different than what he was used to seeing. The other big difference for him was the diversity of people in the United States. In France people tend to be more separated in neighborhoods, cities, and so on. Here, he found, we live and work and play among one another. He spoke a little bit to the issues that he has noticed stemming from our diversity as well. It was really interesting to hear his perspective as someone who grew up in another part of the world.

Hadrien brought loaves of French bread and Nutella for the kids to enjoy. This was a big hit!

I hope you've heard at least a little about about our inquiry in normalcy. We are using this as an opportunity to help us not only appreciate the many differences to be found in our world but to be aware of the ways in which some people use these to do and say hurtful and harmful things. Yesterday we saw a video where two actors staged a scenario in which a Muslim woman was denied service in a bakery. Part of the What Would You Do series, it was designed to find out what bystanders would do when they saw the woman being belittled and even verbally bullied. In all, six of bystanders jumped in to support the hateful speech and denial of service, 11 stood up for her, and 22 did nothing but watch. Mr. Smith did a wonderful job of leading this discussion.

Soon we will be learning about non-fiction texts and then using this study to help us launch expert projects into different countries of the world. Our current study will help us avoid using judgmental speech about cultures that are not our own and make us think twice about saying things like "EWWWWW!" or "That's weird!"

Here is Mr. Smith to tell you more about the non-fiction study he is beginning with the kids...

First off, I wanted to share how well all the kids have been doing with transitioning back and forth between myself and Mr. Hass. I know it can be difficult for them to meet the same expectations when focusing on a different guy with a beard, but they have been eager and teaching me a lot.

Now on to reading. To help us find out lots of information about other countries and some of the cultures found in those countries, we are launching into a study of non-fiction texts. We started by just trying to identify some of the features we notice in non-fiction books that set them apart from some of the fiction stories we typically read. We will chart of these feature, naming them and describing how they can be used by readers. Our Nonfiction Chart will serve as a guide for ways to use nonfiction features to aid in learning new information about countries and cultures and as a guide for our writing when we go to share the things that we learned.

In writing, we will begin to explore cursive in the next few days. We will only be focusing on lower-case letters and writing letters in isolation starting with the "curve up" letters. While everyone will be excited to use cursive letters and want to try to use and experiment with a new way of writing, we will be sure to remember that the focus of writing is communicating. In other words, we will make good choices about only using cursive to write when it is neat enough to read.

Reflecting on our reading for Student Led Conferences

We are also preparing for Student Led Conferences. The kids have already reflected on their growth as readers and writers and are now poised to do the same with math, science, social studies, and as a community member. Please remember to sign up for your conference if you have not already.

Thanks and have a great rest of your week,
Chris and James