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Week Four: Friday, September 22, 2023

Welcome: 

Another week in the books! This week the students took their Linkit benchmarks for the first time of the year so Monday-Thursday was a bit different. The students also received information about the Pink Out Gear being sold to help the Unite For Her foundation and flyers about ordering yearbooks. A word of advice--order your yearbooks early-they are easy to forget about and sold out last year. 

This week's video is kind of odd since only one class has actually watched it at the time I'm writing this (the rest will watch it when we return on Tuesday). This video is a great one--it's from a TED talk delivered by the somewhat less-famous Bezos brother, Mark. Mark is the head of a non-profit called Robin Hood in New York City, but this video is about a great lesson he learned as a volunteer fire fighter. 



Social Studies (1, 5 and 6):

This Past Week: 
  • Monday: I was out today and the students worked on a few different activities. The students started the day with a content burst about the first few taxes and acts passed by the British after the French and Indian War. I wanted to get an idea of their listening comprehension so I embedded some multiple-choice questions in the video and graded it. The students are able to re-watch the video and fix any of the answers they missed the first time through. After the video, the students did a quick Sketch and Tell activity about the Loyalists and Patriots before finishing class by working on completing their ✅#008-War for Independence Timeline assignment. 
  • Tuesday: The students got to work with the content they learned yesterday by doing our first "Iron Chef" presentation of the year. The students were given a brief period of time to complete simple tasks on a slide and then present them to the class. 
  • Wednesday: We spent some time diving into the term "massacre" today in class when the students completed our first "Word Up Wednesday" assignment. We also did a content burst about the rising tensions in Boston in the late 1760. All of these activities are meant to help the students gain some background knowledge for the Boston Massacre Philosophical Chairs assignment we'll start this week. 
  • Thursday: We dove into the Boston Massacre today by doing a Pear Deck that forced the students to analyze Paul Revere's engraving called "The Bloody Massacre." The students then worked on their own to see what they could learn from other primary sources from the trials following the Massacre. 
  • Friday: We had no class per se today, the Chester County Intermediate Unit had presenters come and deliver presentations to all 8th-grade social studies classes today. 
Next Week:
  • #020: Boston Massacre Eyewitness Chart: The students will continue working their way through the eyewitness accounts from the Boston Massacre. The students should have the chart completed when they leave class on Wednesday. 
  • Boston Massacre C-E-R Writing: The students will use the sources we investigated to complete a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning writing assignment (worth 40 points) in which they decide which side, the British or the Colonists, deserved more of the blame for the violence that unfolded on the night of March 5, 1770. This is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday and will be done in class. 
  • Mastery Check: The students will take a 12-question mastery check on the key content from the first part of the quarter. It will be all multiple choice and worth 10 points (the students will be able to get 2 questions incorrect free of charge). There is a blooket review game on our Google Classroom for the students to use if they want to brush up on the content at home. 

Accelerated Social Studies (3 and 8):

This Past Week: 
  • Monday: I was out today and the students dove headfirst into "doing" authentic history by investigating a series of primary source documents about the Boston Massacre. The students will complete the Eyewitness Accounts chart this week before we spend some time with a class discussion and finally writing a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning piece about the events that unfolded on March 5,1770. NOTE: Period 8 did not meet today, they had an NJROTC presentation instead. 
  • Tuesday: The students spent nearly the entire period working on completing their Boston Massacre Eyewitness charts today. 
  • Wednesday: The students had two jobs today--to complete the Boston Massacre Eyewitness Account chart and to help review for the mastery check we'll do next week. Period 3 is a little ahead of period 8 because of Monday's assembly so they got to mess around with AI-generated images through Canva to help them with the question they missed the most in the review game. 
  • Thursday: We spent today discussing what the students believe happened on the night of March 5, 1770, after investigating the primary sources in the Boston Massacre Philosophical Chairs activity. The students also spend time planning what they will write on Tuesday (many chose to fill out this graphic organizer) before finishing class with a quick Blooket to help them review for Tuesday's mastery check. 
  • Friday: We had no class per se today, the Chester County Intermediate Unit had presenters come and deliver presentations to all 8th-grade social studies classes today. 
Next Week:
  • Boston Massacre C-E-R Writing: The students will use the sources we investigated to complete a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning writing assignment (worth 40 points) in which they decide which side, the British or the Colonists, deserved more of the blame for the violence that unfolded on the night of March 5, 1770. The students will do this on Tuesday when we return.  
  • Mastery Check: The students will take a 12-question mastery check on the key content from the first part of the quarter. It will be all multiple choice and worth 10 points (the students will be able to get 2 questions incorrect free of charge). There is a blooket review game on our Google Classroom for the students to use if they want to brush up on the content at home. The students will also do this on Tuesday when we return.
  • The Declaration of Independence: We'll dive into the preamble to the Declaration of Independence this week since it plays such a key role in setting forth the founding principles of our nation and government. The students will work in collaborative groups to rewrite the preamble and do small presentations in class this week. 

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