Busy Thursday

We started out today with our last regularly-scheduled class with Mr. Lawton. The students had worked in pairs to compose songs and song lyrics. Some of these were near perfect, while others needed more work. Mr. Lawton collected these last week, and from all these he chose a couple of the best. The students started learning these songs. It is a pity that they do not have more time to work on them, and Mr. Lawton may give the students an extra period next week so he can record their performances.

Back in the room we finished the final step in our "I-Search" paper. I started to write about this last Friday, but never had an opportunity to finish it. An I-Search paper is an alternative to the traditional research paper. Unlike the usual "research-and-write-about-this-topic" paper, students recount how they learned what they learned. The paper is written in three stages. First students write down what they already know about a topic and why it interests them. Second, students consult a variety of sources - books, magazines, personal interviews, and so forth - to find out more. They write about this in the first person. For example, "I read a book called Being a Pilot. I learned that most pilots get their training in the Air Force...." Third, after doing some research, students write a summary of what they know now and what they would like to learn about the topic in the future.

Our students have already done the first and second steps in this project. We started on the third stage today in class, and they will finish this for homework tonight. We'll review a couple of really good rough drafts in class next week, and we will also do the final draft of the paper next week. For tonight we are just finishing the rough draft.

After recess, we went to an assembly in the auditorium. This featured some man who gave an inspirational talk, sort of a Tony Robbins for nine-year-olds, and did a bunch of yo-yo tricks. It was entertaining, though I am not sure how deeply the message penetrated. I think they will remember the yo-yo tricks more. Apparently part of this program is selling yo-yos and DVDs of yo-yo tricks in case one of our students starts asking for some cash. Mrs. Lee, our coordinator, is in charge of the merchandise for this show.

After lunch we plowed through another chapter of Island. We discussed and read about the rancho period in California history. I demonstrated how to do long division, and we did a whole bunch of problems together in class. We did a simple art project. This was about the color wheel and complementary colors, and the students were supposed to design some kind of emblem or logo for the school using complementary colors. A number of these, such as the ones above, we pretty good. After they finished the art, they got to start on homework.

Homework: (1) Do the spelling scramble. (2) Complete the final part of the I-Search paper about the job or profession. That's the activity I was writing about in the second and third paragraphs of this post. (3) Do "Division," Math, pages 246-249. It is a fair number of problems, but they need to really get comfortable with division procedures fast for us to go on. (4) Do the "Growth of Ranchos" study sheet.