Dear Families,
Can you believe it is already Thanksgiving? I'm putting a good long train ride to D.C. to visit family to use by writing another update.
I have many things to be thankful for this year and one of them is the most amazing group of parent volunteers! Thank you for all your help with bulletin boards, notebook covering, chaperoning, fundraising and more!
Important Info:
Screenagers
On November 9th, grades 6-8 viewed the documentary Screenagers which explores the impact of our screen-focused lives (social media, phones, video games etc.) on teens. Some of you had a chance to view this at the parent night as well. The class had an extended and very thoughtful discussion following the film. Some of the topics that the students themselves brought up:
As a teacher, I left the discussion feeling very heartened by how much students had taken away from the film, and hopeful that they will move into middle and high school with a heightened awareness of the potential drawbacks of too much screen time. I also am noticing more when my own phone pulls my attention away from the people I am physically with and trying to ignore that screen more! That text message or email can wait! Ask your child about the film or any of the above issues. It might open the door for a good family discussion.
Reading
This week we finished the book Wonder. There are so many relevant themes in the book, the most obvious being bullying. In general, this year’s sixth grade class is pretty inclusive and kind, but we do have our moments when these issues arise, and it is helpful to have the shared experience of reading this book to talk about bullying and exclusion. We do not tolerate bullying at Chesterfield School, and strive to create a safe environment for all students. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you hear of an issue. Teacher’s eyes and ears can’t catch it all!
In Reading the class is also learning about three levels of comprehension questions: reading for detail (fact/literal recall), Inferential (reading between the lines, using clues to figure out what is going on), and critical thinking (questions which may have more than one possible answer and must be supported with evidence). While students have been answering these kinds of questions since the beginning of the year, we are now focusing on understanding the distinction between these types of questions and writing our own questions. This is “thinking about our thinking,” or metacognition. When students have to craft their own questions it pushes them to look deeper into a text. Of course, students still need to answer the teacher’s questions too!
Math
In math, the class is wrapping up our study of greatest common factor (GCF) and least common multiple (LCM). These are two concepts that develop a lot of number sense- how numbers are connected to each other. They are also useful in many real life situations and more complex math that students will do when they take courses such as Algebra. Ask your child to show you some of the strategies for finding LCM or GCF (lists of factors/multiples, prime factorization or factor ladders). You might learn something new! Check out this video the students saw in class for an example of a real life application of GCF: The Pinata Dilemma
Science
In Science we wrapped up our unit on light with a final assessment, but will revisit these concepts in future units and experiments. For now we are focusing on our Social Studies mapping unit and taking a brief hiatus science.
Social Studies
In Social Studies we are now deep in our study of mapping. In addition to exploring legends, students have learned about birds-eye view and scale. We created a scale drawing of our classroom by taking a variety of measurements and transferring them to graph paper. Students have also been practicing using the scale on a map to calculate the distance between two locations. This involves a lot of math!
Last week we transitioned into a study of location. In geography there are two ways to think about location: absolute and relative location. Relative location defines an object’s location in comparison to another landmark (ex. South of the school, on the right of the post office, under the chair). Absolute location is different, using two measurements on a coordinate grid system to define the exact location of something. Students explored these concepts by describing the location of a little plastic animal (nicknamed Mousy) on the rug relative to other objects, but then realized that if they were asked to place the location on the scale map we had drawn, they would have trouble being accurate! “Near the bookshelf” was not good enough. They then figured out they needed a minimum of two measurements to be able to place an object on the map exactly. These two measurements are really just a coordinate pair and the class had basically created its own coordinate grid system! We then reviewed coordinate graphing. This is all preparation work for a study of latitude and longitude, which has been introduced this week with the use of our GPS units and will be more formally studied after the Thanksgiving break. You too can learn about GPS by watching the video we saw in class: How GPS Works
We are very lucky to have the support of Scott Semmens, a former teacher who is now supporting classrooms with mapping projects thrnow works with the NH Geographic Alliance. With grant monies from the NHGA, he is able to help support schools with mapping projects and is training our staff (and a few parent volunteers) on some technology the kids will soon be using. He will be joining some of our classroom lessons as well!
In addition, this week our technology teacher, Kristen Warner, introduced students to some of the features of ArcGIS, state-of-the-art, online, professional, mapping software that costs thousands of dollars, but is available free to schools. Each student now has an account and has experimented with some of the features of this software, exploring a map and then recreating this map from scratch by importing various layers of data and formatting them. Ask your child about the Hawaiian volcano map they made! This technology will have a lot of uses in the classroom. We can use it for some really cool map analysis activities across the subject areas. We can also use it to make our own maps, adding a creative element.
Writing
In Writing, we have worked on story arcs. First we took a couple days to analyze the story arcs of several picture books, noticing how the problem builds and builds and then gets resolved. Next students planned out their own arcs for their realistic fiction stories, attempting to make their problems get worse and worse before they got better. I am pushing them to picture a series of scenes on their plan, that are specific, not general descriptions of things that happen in the story, and when they write their scenes to write them bit by bit as if they were right there, instead of summarizing. This is hard for some students.
We have also worked a little more on constructed response (answering a question in a paragraph). In particular we have focused on how to include supporting details from a text in your response. Students are often vague, or skip this altogether, answering the question with some other opinion they have, and thus not showing any comprehension or analysis of a text. We are practicing this by a very structured activity in which the class is given a response that is mostly written, and they must fill in the blanks with specific details or quotes from the text that make sense. In sixth grade I expect students to elaborate on each point they make; in this case that means to further explain a quote or example, connecting it back to your topic sentence. We have also continued to work on grammar, learning about the “how” and “where” predicate expanders, and how they can move around in a sentence to add variety and mood. For example:
Like satin ribbons unfurling across the sky, the rainbow glistens in the misty sunlight.
vs.
The rainbow glistens in the misty sunlight like satin ribbons unfurling across the sky.
Here’s to hoping some good, relaxing family time unfurls on your Thanksgiving,
Laura White
Can you believe it is already Thanksgiving? I'm putting a good long train ride to D.C. to visit family to use by writing another update.
I have many things to be thankful for this year and one of them is the most amazing group of parent volunteers! Thank you for all your help with bulletin boards, notebook covering, chaperoning, fundraising and more!
Important Info:
- All pizza orders are due Thursday, Nov. 30th. This is our best fundraiser. Thank you for helping! Please let me know if you can help the morning of Thursday, December 14th to sort the order. Also make arrangements to pick up your child’s order the afternoon of December 14th.
- The Book Fair is November 27th through December 1st. You should have received information about volunteering. If you want to sign up you can contact Jill Dumont.
- Parent conferences are December 1st or Tuesday December 5th. You should have received an email with your conference time. Contact me if you still need to schedule. Please remember to bring your child with you!
- Wonder Film Field Trip: Grades 3-8 will be going to the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro on Thursday, November 30th to see the screen adaptation of the novel Wonder which we just finished. Please send in the purple permission slip and the $2.50 fee as soon as possible. This trip is supported by a grant from the Chesterfield Public School Foundation.
- Except for students who have been absent, retest packets for the absolute location quiz are due on Monday, Nov. 21st. No exceptions!
Screenagers
On November 9th, grades 6-8 viewed the documentary Screenagers which explores the impact of our screen-focused lives (social media, phones, video games etc.) on teens. Some of you had a chance to view this at the parent night as well. The class had an extended and very thoughtful discussion following the film. Some of the topics that the students themselves brought up:
- Many students felt that “kids won’t reduce their screen time themselves, so parents will have to control it for them,” though by the end of the discussion, some students were feeling like they had the self-discipline to limit their own screen time.
- During the viewing, a short clip of someone attacking a woman was played from the video game Grand Theft Auto. The reaction in the middle school audience was a wave of laughter. There was significant discussion afterwards about this and that it was disturbing that kids could find violence like this funny, which led into a discussion about how video games “desensitize” players to violence- in fact many games marketed to the public were designed by the army to desensitize soldiers to violence so they could to do their job, a fact also covered in the film.
- Screens are addicting and the biological effects on the brain (release of the hormone dopamine) are the same as for other addictive substances such as drugs.
- Girls and boys use screens differently. Girls tend to be hyper-focused on looks in their social media usage. There was some discussion around whether looks really matter, and what makes girls focus on their looks.
- The impact of screen usage on success in school and grades came through loud and clear, as several vignettes in the movie focused on teens who had excelled and then struggled. Also, the film described studies that showed that 1:1 computer policies had the unexpected result of lowering academics scores instead of increasing them. The class caught onto this both in the discussion and later in their written reflections done for homework.
- The film shared that studies show that self-control is the biggest predictor of success! We wondered- can you limit your own screen time yourself?
- In the film, one girl argued that screesn are good because they allow you to avoid awkward social situations in which you don’t know what to do by faking being busy on a screen or just withdrawing into the screen. We discussed the value of having to work through difficult situations in person.
- A final idea explored in the movie, that most of the class agreed with from their own experience, was that the parents spend a lot of time on screens too, and are sometimes distracted away from their kids by screens. There was conversation about adults needing to role model positive screen usage- Maybe not just with a kid screen contract- but a whole-family screen contract! Basically, practice what you preach.
As a teacher, I left the discussion feeling very heartened by how much students had taken away from the film, and hopeful that they will move into middle and high school with a heightened awareness of the potential drawbacks of too much screen time. I also am noticing more when my own phone pulls my attention away from the people I am physically with and trying to ignore that screen more! That text message or email can wait! Ask your child about the film or any of the above issues. It might open the door for a good family discussion.
Reading
This week we finished the book Wonder. There are so many relevant themes in the book, the most obvious being bullying. In general, this year’s sixth grade class is pretty inclusive and kind, but we do have our moments when these issues arise, and it is helpful to have the shared experience of reading this book to talk about bullying and exclusion. We do not tolerate bullying at Chesterfield School, and strive to create a safe environment for all students. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you hear of an issue. Teacher’s eyes and ears can’t catch it all!
In Reading the class is also learning about three levels of comprehension questions: reading for detail (fact/literal recall), Inferential (reading between the lines, using clues to figure out what is going on), and critical thinking (questions which may have more than one possible answer and must be supported with evidence). While students have been answering these kinds of questions since the beginning of the year, we are now focusing on understanding the distinction between these types of questions and writing our own questions. This is “thinking about our thinking,” or metacognition. When students have to craft their own questions it pushes them to look deeper into a text. Of course, students still need to answer the teacher’s questions too!
Math
In math, the class is wrapping up our study of greatest common factor (GCF) and least common multiple (LCM). These are two concepts that develop a lot of number sense- how numbers are connected to each other. They are also useful in many real life situations and more complex math that students will do when they take courses such as Algebra. Ask your child to show you some of the strategies for finding LCM or GCF (lists of factors/multiples, prime factorization or factor ladders). You might learn something new! Check out this video the students saw in class for an example of a real life application of GCF: The Pinata Dilemma
Science
In Science we wrapped up our unit on light with a final assessment, but will revisit these concepts in future units and experiments. For now we are focusing on our Social Studies mapping unit and taking a brief hiatus science.
Social Studies
In Social Studies we are now deep in our study of mapping. In addition to exploring legends, students have learned about birds-eye view and scale. We created a scale drawing of our classroom by taking a variety of measurements and transferring them to graph paper. Students have also been practicing using the scale on a map to calculate the distance between two locations. This involves a lot of math!
Last week we transitioned into a study of location. In geography there are two ways to think about location: absolute and relative location. Relative location defines an object’s location in comparison to another landmark (ex. South of the school, on the right of the post office, under the chair). Absolute location is different, using two measurements on a coordinate grid system to define the exact location of something. Students explored these concepts by describing the location of a little plastic animal (nicknamed Mousy) on the rug relative to other objects, but then realized that if they were asked to place the location on the scale map we had drawn, they would have trouble being accurate! “Near the bookshelf” was not good enough. They then figured out they needed a minimum of two measurements to be able to place an object on the map exactly. These two measurements are really just a coordinate pair and the class had basically created its own coordinate grid system! We then reviewed coordinate graphing. This is all preparation work for a study of latitude and longitude, which has been introduced this week with the use of our GPS units and will be more formally studied after the Thanksgiving break. You too can learn about GPS by watching the video we saw in class: How GPS Works
We are very lucky to have the support of Scott Semmens, a former teacher who is now supporting classrooms with mapping projects thrnow works with the NH Geographic Alliance. With grant monies from the NHGA, he is able to help support schools with mapping projects and is training our staff (and a few parent volunteers) on some technology the kids will soon be using. He will be joining some of our classroom lessons as well!
In addition, this week our technology teacher, Kristen Warner, introduced students to some of the features of ArcGIS, state-of-the-art, online, professional, mapping software that costs thousands of dollars, but is available free to schools. Each student now has an account and has experimented with some of the features of this software, exploring a map and then recreating this map from scratch by importing various layers of data and formatting them. Ask your child about the Hawaiian volcano map they made! This technology will have a lot of uses in the classroom. We can use it for some really cool map analysis activities across the subject areas. We can also use it to make our own maps, adding a creative element.
Writing
In Writing, we have worked on story arcs. First we took a couple days to analyze the story arcs of several picture books, noticing how the problem builds and builds and then gets resolved. Next students planned out their own arcs for their realistic fiction stories, attempting to make their problems get worse and worse before they got better. I am pushing them to picture a series of scenes on their plan, that are specific, not general descriptions of things that happen in the story, and when they write their scenes to write them bit by bit as if they were right there, instead of summarizing. This is hard for some students.
We have also worked a little more on constructed response (answering a question in a paragraph). In particular we have focused on how to include supporting details from a text in your response. Students are often vague, or skip this altogether, answering the question with some other opinion they have, and thus not showing any comprehension or analysis of a text. We are practicing this by a very structured activity in which the class is given a response that is mostly written, and they must fill in the blanks with specific details or quotes from the text that make sense. In sixth grade I expect students to elaborate on each point they make; in this case that means to further explain a quote or example, connecting it back to your topic sentence. We have also continued to work on grammar, learning about the “how” and “where” predicate expanders, and how they can move around in a sentence to add variety and mood. For example:
Like satin ribbons unfurling across the sky, the rainbow glistens in the misty sunlight.
vs.
The rainbow glistens in the misty sunlight like satin ribbons unfurling across the sky.
Here’s to hoping some good, relaxing family time unfurls on your Thanksgiving,
Laura White