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Week Nine: Friday, October 28, 2022

Welcome: 

Nine weeks down! I can't believe that we are already at the end of the first quarter and that the students will be taking their Civics Exam on Friday! This past week we were able to watch a great video from Goalcast that talks about the wisdom of a third grade drop out and asks the students "how ya living?" The video is a longer one (almost 10 minutes) but is well-worth the time to watch and I pick up new things each time I watch it. I hope you enjoy! 


Social Studies (Periods 1, 4 & 5) 

This Past Week:
  • Tuesday: The students did an activity called Iron Chef today. They worked in groups of 4 to create a presentation about 4 amendments in the Bill of Rights and then presented before leaving class. Check out some of the slides they were able to create here. 
  • Wednesday: We started to look at some of the responsibilities American citizens have today by discussing the process by which we elect our presidents. After playing a bit of a review game for next week's Civics Exam, the students began their work on #039-Electing a President Cyber Sandwich. The students watched a video and then read and took notes before leaving for the day. 
  • Thursday: The students opened class with a 13-question quiz on Quizizz (which does not count for a grade) to see what they remembered about the Electoral College from yesterday. After discussing some of the more commonly-missed questions, the students were given time to meet with their partners for the Cyber  Sandwich so they could contrast/compare & clarify information on the Electoral College before they worked on writing their summary of the election process on their own. 
  • Friday: We spent time today getting caught up on any of the work that wasn't finished throughout this week. Some students needed just a little more time to complete their writing pieces for #038-Electing a President Cybersandwich and others were able to use most of the time to review for the upcoming Civics Exam. 
This Upcoming Week:
This week will be geared towards two things--preparing for the Civics Exam and starting to learn about evaluating sources of information and the research process. The students will be given a study guide to complete on Monday and will continue to have access to the review materials on the Google Classroom throughout the week. They will also be asked to find, evaluate and summarize some sources of information about rights granted to them as American citizens in the Bill of Rights. 

Honor's Social Studies (Periods 2 & 8) 

  • Tuesday: The students started to look at the rights granted to them as American citizens by creating a Thick Slide all about the first amendment in the Bill of Rights. Check out some of their work here--they did some great stuff. Once finished, the students were given one more time to practice for their "More Just Middle School" Presentations they will deliver this week and into next. 
  • Wednesday: We started the "More Just Middle School" presentations this week--it was great to see some of the ideas and plans the students had and how comfortable many of them seemed to present already! The students were then broken up into groups to complete an activity called an Iron Chef--they were asked to create a presentation about 4 key amendments to the Consitution in a short period of time. 
  • Thursday & Friday: Both days were all about the Bill of Rights and their "More Just Middle School" presentations. We had a few groups present their plans in class and then the students worked independently or with a partner to create a "Netflix Docuseries" about the bill of Rights. 
This Upcoming Week:
This week will be geared towards two things--preparing for the Civics Exam and starting to learn about evaluating sources of information and the research process. The students will be given a study guide to complete on Monday and will continue to have access to the review materials on the Google Classroom throughout the week. They will also be asked to find, evaluate and summarize some sources of information about the Electoral College & whether or not they believe we should continue to use it. 

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