Middle School Language Arts
Middle school Language Arts students began the new year by thinking about how to create deep and sustainable goals in their lives. They completed an activity called “One Word,” which required them to choose one word as an anchor for 2020. They were tasked with thinking about how their words of choice could help them make desired changes in multiple areas of their lives. The words now frame our classroom door.
On Thursday and Friday of last week, students learned about affixes and root words. In addition to learning the meanings of common prefixes and suffixes, students deepened their learning by exploring online resources to find and define additional affixes. This task empowered them to apply the skill of breaking a word into its parts to predict meaning. As a culminating activity, students faced the challenge of breaking down words without the use of the internet. With only a dictionary and a partner, students identified and defined roots and affixes. This week, we will wrap up our learning with a study of “Frankenwords”–words comprised exclusively of merged words from different languages.
Our roots/affixes work will support students in a cross-curricular unit called “Thinking Like a Physicist: Discovering the Laws of Motion,” which will be ongoing during math and science classes. Later this week, we will practice effective annotation strategies using physics excerpts as our sources. I’m excited to see students applying the skills learned in Language Arts to other content areas.
Beginning next week, our learning will shift back to writing. Students will build real-world composition, revision, and editing skills by creating the product of their choice. Students will select a genre/product of interest from the LAD Fair options for 2020.
High School English
Last week, high school students also engaged in conversations about the social practice of celebrating the new year and making resolutions. It was interesting to hear a variety of perspectives and to note the markers of growth mindset in many students’ contributions to our discussion. Like middle school students, high schoolers also focused on one word to guide their goals for the year.
On Wednesday, anticipatory writing and discussion for our upcoming novella, Anthem, began. Students explored the concepts of equality, control, and conformity as they exist in our world today. In upcoming classes, they will be challenged to think about the idea of utopia by attempting to plan their own “perfect” societies. This learning will allow us to segue into conversation about dystopia, which is Anthem’s genre. Next, pairs will research specific parts of the author’s background and philosophy and share their findings with the class. This collective effort will help us establish context before we begin reading. I look forward to our journey through the text, which always provokes deep thought and intellectual conversation among students.
