Our week began, as it usually will, with our “Monday Chat.” We gather in the breakout room and hear things people want to share about their weekend. We are working on getting to know all of us more deeply as we learn about what people are doing and dealing with outside of school, and we are also working on developing more elaborated language. Tell the story. Give us some details. Describe instead of list. And we want questions and comments from the group — what did that make you wonder about? What else would you like to know? Do you have something to share that seems related? This is something that parents can help to support at home, too. Some of our children are very good at speaking fully and extemporaneously, but others need some help with making their narrative interesting, coherent, and complete.

 

The trip to the Franklin Institute was a high point of the week. Jonathan wrote about it this way:

So the other day I went to the Franklin Institute with my classmates and Mark and the new science teacher, Sue .  My class and I took two vans to downtown Philadelphia. When we got to the museum, we got our tickets and went to the exhibit.  When we got to the exhibit, there was a lady at the gate. She took us into a room. In the room there was a intro being played off a projector. The intro was so amazing!  It had John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan , and more. It talked about spies in World War II. It also talked about the Central Intelligence Agency, also known as the CIA. They  talked about the FBI and Secret Service. I would go back any time!

 

Spelling has become an integrated part of our week, and we will start customizing the practice lists next week. Students who miss a lot of words won’t be asked to work on all of them. Students who get most of the pre-test right will practice only what they missed and perhaps a few challenges that we add in just for them. Whatever the assignment, students should SPREAD OUT their practice over the four days so that frequent recall with breaks in between will make the learning more durable. This is really important and may need parental reminding — you want to know these words a month and a year and ten years from now — not just for the week. Frequent short practice is the way to achieve that. We do give some class time for it, but it’s also an ongoing part of homework. Right now, most of the words in the list are ones children need to write for social studies. We spent time this week looking at the list and noting some of the rules and patterns that one or more of the words represents. The biggest stumbling block for some of our group is really a reading rule. The difference between HOPPING and HOPING or DINNER and DINER should be a solid concept by now, but we have some for whom it remains elusive. They tend to assume that what they meant is what it says instead of really reading it to check. We’re going to be working on these kinds of things all year. and everyone will move along from where they are.

The biographical posters of our wagon train individuals and families are up in our center hallway. They’re delightful. Please stop up and see them when you have a chance.