Plans Week of April 7, 2014

Last week was fun. We had a contest to see which group could best translate the poem, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere," into kid-friendly language. Leah and Ricky from the Golden Owl Tavern and Pete and Maya from the Dark Horse Tavern each tied for the most accurate and easy to understand translation. Congrats to all who tried!

Here is the plan for this week:

Reading: We'll continue reading about the American Revolution. We didn't get to this last week, so we'll be reading about Molly Pitcher, the mythical woman who supplied the patriots water and then later worked the cannon to continue fighting the British at Monmouth. 

We'll be trying a new reading strategy this week called Reciprocal Teaching, where the students become the teacher in small groups. Students will rotate among the roles of Summarizer, Questioner, Clarifier, and Predictor. 

Writing: We'll write a summary of another important revolutionary battle in the form of a news article, focusing on the "who, what, where, when, and why" of the event.

Math: This week we finish up adding and subtracting fractions. We'll conclude with a lesson on solving fraction word problems using algebra. Then we begin reviewing concepts for an assessment. Students should know how to:

• Find a common denominator for two fractions, especially the least common denominator
  
• Make equivalent fractions using a common denominator
  
• Add and subtract fractions
  
• Write a fraction in simplest form
  
• Convert improper fractions to mixed numbers and visa versa
  
• Subtract fractions that require borrowing from the whole
  
• Use algebra to solve word problems that require two instances of adding or subtracting fractions

Social Studies: We continue studying the American Revolution through reading and writing. We'll watch short clips of famous revolutionary battles from the excellent PBS documentary, "Liberty". See the Class Project below.

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In Class Project: The American Revolution

In this project, students will work in a mix of cooperative groups and partnerships on a range of activities that explore the following:

• The causes of the American Revolution, such as the French & Indian War, the Stamp Act, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Intolerable Acts. 

• Important figures such as John Adams,  Benjamin Franklin,  King George III,  Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson,  James Madison, and George Washington.
  
• Major battles such as Lexington and Concord (1775), Bunker Hill (1775), Saratoga (1777), Valley Forge (1777-1778), and Yorktown (1781).
  
• The meaning of the American Revolution and the founding of our modern democracy.
  

In their teams, students will earn Revolutionary Dollars for the successful completion of activities and assignments. They will also earn Revolutionary Dollars for dressing in colonial attire and using colonial language. The team with the most Revolutionary Dollars at the end of the project will be praised as the Leaders of the Revolution.

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