We are learning one way to respectfully exercise our freedom of speech, with a debate. Our current debate topic is whether or not a student in our school district should be able to skip a grade if they can pass a knowledge test. We have developed our written arguments for and against the topic. After revising and editing, we will use our written arguments to have a respectful debate (just like in Congress). This is just a debate in our class. No one in the district would actually propose such an idea!!
We are finalizing the results of our science investigations into the performance of systems. We identified a specific system of interest and then, using controlled experiments, we predicted how certain variables might affect the system, used a written procedure to gather data related to our hypotheses, analyzed data and then compared our data with our hypotheses. We will share the results of our experiments in displays.
In math, we are using our knowledge of graphs and Excel to summarize the data from our controlled experiments.
We are also in the middle of a new read aloud, Esperanza Rising, a rich book by Pam Munoz Ryan. So far, the story has allowed us to explore the meaning of privilege, hard work, and prejudice, as well as the fortunes and challenges of living in the USA as citizens and as immigrants with freedom of speech and the freedom to debate.
Would you believe, we've been able to squeeze this learning in between an average of 14 hours of state mandated testing per week? Thank you for helping your student be successful with the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) by:
- Making sure your student is rested.
- Making sure your student is properly nourished and starts the day with a good breakfast.
- Making sure your student gets to school on time.
- Making sure your student is in attendance during the next two weeks.
