Newsletter: February 4th

Dear Families,

This is such a cool time of year. After being together for a year-and-a-half and maturing into increasingly independent and engaged learners, the kids truly are doing some powerful work in the classroom as readers, researchers, writers, mathematicians, and social scientists. I'm so proud of the deep thinking and rich discussion growing out of so much of the work the kids are doing. Check out the photos below to see what we're up to.

Much of this second half of the year will be dedicated to an analysis of how history is
written - with a focus on how historians choose who to include and who to exclude. As part
of this ongoing inquiry, Ms. Myers and I have asked each of the kids to prepare a poster
teaching us about someone of historical importance they feel we don't know about but should.
I started by sharing my own poster of Elie Wiesel. As you can see, they need only include a photo,
name, dates, and a few bullet points they can speak from when presenting to us. There is a schedule
detailing each child's due date (we're spreading these out over the course of five weeks).

Speaking of important people, we're now engaged in an inquiry into biographies in our
Reading Workshop. We've read some great books about ordinary people who have truly made a
mark on their communities.

The kids are now set to begin Book Clubs in which they will read a short chapter book
with friends to learn more about important historical (and present) figures.

This began with a day of browsing all the selections and making choices as to who they would like
to learn more about. Our final choices included: Malala Yousafzai, Martin Luther King, Jr, Rosa Parks,
Harry Houdini, Thomas Edison, etc. 

In writing, we are learning about opinion writing. This will include opportunities to explore the role of
structure, research, introductions, transition words, supporting our arguments with data, and using
persuasive language. The chart above (sorry about the orientation!) lists the topics
each of the kids chose to address. It demonstrates such a lovely diversity of issues.

Currently, the kids are engaged in deep research. To write a persuasive speech or letter they need to
first make sure they understand the issue to which they are speaking. This includes information that
supports their intended arguments as well as information that might challenge their present
understanding. 

To research, many of the kids accessed news articles from the past few years speaking to
their topics. The kids highlighted key information, listed these separately, then worked to sort
their findings into subcategories to begin thinking about how their pieces might take shape.

Other groups interviewed people within the school who are an expert on their topic (in this case,
how lunch schedules are set and why our lunch period is shorter than we wish it were).

There are so many important literacy skills and strategies at play in this work. From determining
importance to summarizing to finding patterns across the data, the kids are being called upon
to really stretch their thinking and learning.

In math we just finished up an inquiry into elapsed time and then spent a bit of time
revisiting our multiplication facts. If you're not already, PLEASE make a nightly practice of reviewing
a few of these together. Just ten minutes a day goes a loooooong way!

And finally, we've been working to get ready for our Student Led Conferences next week. The kids
will be excited (and maybe a bit nervous) to share with you all the ways they've already grown over the course
of this year.