As we have been digging into our historical events featuring people who have found their voices, I've been thinking a great deal about what historical figures and other heroes are choosing to say in order to create change. This has provided me a lens for looking at several conversations I've had lately in a really interesting way. Here's what I'm reminding myself: when we have information to share, especially if we hope others will learn from what we share, it is vital that we figure out what parts to include and what parts to leave out of our message.
For us as fifth graders, we have lots of things we can use to help us determine what to include and what to leave out. We could choose to pay attention to information that connect to who we are and what we like. We learn to develop a sense of ourselves as learners and ourselves as community members when we do this work. As we grow as learners, developing the aspects of who we are as students matters as much as knowing how to learn. Knowing what to pay attention to in a given setting can help us be successful.
When we are working in academic settings, like school, we have so many things that help us determine what is important for us to attend to: our passions, our families, our teachers, our friends, and even academic standards. As we grow as students, we have to find the delicate balance between our personal connections and passions and the expectations set by standards.
We are at a point in the school year where I will be expecting students to focus more on the mechanics of being a student than we ever have before. We will be focusing on the specifics of note taking as a class, how to study at home with or without another person, and the kind of effort and attention necessary to really show what we know on a quiz. Because we are really working on the mechanics of note taking right now, I am modeling the notes for students and expecting that they write exactly what I do. We have discussed how we must focus our lens for note taking so that we don't simply write down everything that a source provides for us. Knowing what to look for can help us learn and share information more effectively, and our note taking in class will help us with patterns for what kinds of information to seek.
There will also be an emphasis on keeping our spaces neat, keeping up with materials, and getting materials to and from school so that they can be used well. There are some ways you can help with this. First, the agenda book should come home and come back to school each day (even over the weekends). The take-home folder should also go home and come back to school each day (even over the weekends). Students SS or science notebooks should go home and come back to school each day (even over the weekend) so that your family may include study time when it is convenient even though quizzes will not happen each day. Your asking about these items will be so helpful in making sure that we have what we need in all of our spaces. It would also be helpful if we could keep anything extra out of the backpack, so that we are only using their backpacks for getting academic assignments to and from school.
In this same vein, our project research for this first week has been a process of collecting as much general information as possible. This coming week's research will be much more focused. I have collected a set of sites and a short description of each event, that we will call our Foundational Information. We will focus this week (at least) on making sure that each of our learning partner groups gets the specifics of each event that the standards and I expect them to have. We will also be learning about the Foundational Information of each event as a whole class, and this is the information that we will feature on our quizzes together. We will eventually branch back out to find some of the more peripheral interesting facts that will help us as writers of history. However, right now, we are narrowing our focus to help us make sure that certain aspects of each event are covered. In order that you all have access to these sites (even though the project will be done at school), be on the lookout for a recently updated project sheet. I will be sending this home early in the week with our math packet, and will be looking for it when students turn in math packets on Friday. Thank you so much for your help with this!
I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and is getting geared up for a wonderful week!
Dates to Remember:
Curriculum Night (discussing Middle School Magnet Options with Dr. Mueller) - Thursday, Nov. 13 night 7 pm
Our 5th Grade Thanksgiving Gathering - Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 2:15pm
Thanksgiving Break - Wednesday-Friday, Nov. 26-28
Early Release Day - Friday, Dec. 5
Winter Holiday Break - Dec. 20-Jan. 4
