da Vinci Arts Middle School
Assignments
This will be the place to check for assignment handouts, blank reading logs, directions for current events, and useful Internet links.
Signed home reading logs, documenting at least three hours of home reading per week, are due on Mondays, beginning Monday, September 12. The home reading represents the main homework assigned in Core. The logs are very important and account for between one-fourth and one-third of the term grade.
Each student gives a current events presentation three times per year, with grades posting in the second, third, and fourth quarters. The dates for student presentations are on my calendar page by students' initials. Feel free to use print or online news sources such as OregonLive.com or those managed by other major news organizations.
In Social Studies, we are learning about ancient India. The unit begins with lessons about India's geography and also teaches students about the city-state of Mohenjodaro, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Mauryan and Gupta Empires. For assessment purposes, I divided the unit in half and gave the first test (over geography, archaeology and Mohenjodaro, and Hinduism) on Tuesday, February 7. Here is the Study Guide. Now, we are turning our attention to Buddhism and early Indian empires. To complement our study of India, we are taking a field trip to the Omnimax Theater to see Mystic India on Friday, February 24. Ancient China will be our next topic. We will take a field trip to the Chinese Garden on Friday, March 16.
In Language Arts, we working on a long-term project on personal writing, which will feature three formal projects: a brief expert speech, a personal narrative, and a persuasive essay that convinces the reader that he/she should care about and agree with the student's position on an issue the student finds important. Speeches concluded on Friday, January 27. The third draft of the persuasive essay is due between Tuesday, February 14, and Wednesday, February 22, and the final copy is due on Friday, February 24. We will do the personal narrative in March, following the Direct Writing Assessment at the end of this month. Our literature study will support the writing projects as we look at models of persuasive writing and personal narratives/memoirs. Next week, we will begin novel groups featuring novels with themes of social justice. The groups will meet on four consecutive Wednesdays: February 22 and 29, and March 7 and 14.
The Winter Novel Project is due on Friday, March 9. I distributed the directions the second week of January and I will post them here soon.
