Social Studies Information

Week of May 18th to May 22nd

6th Grade Knowledge Bowl will take place from Wednesday – Friday

We will continue to work on Facing History and Ourselves – Identity & Community: An Introduction to 6th Grade Social Studies unit. This past week we had discussions about, ‘What Makes Our Identity?’ This next week, and remaining days, we will continue with ‘What Makes a Community?’

Week of May 11th to May15th

The students received this writing assignment on Tuesday, May 12th. It is due by Thursday, May 14th. We read two excerpts from two books and discussed the situation and the person. the first one is listed below and the other was from Farewell to Manzanar. Each student received a sheet of paper with the excerpts, the writing topics, and the due date on Tues of this week. The students have to choose one of two topics given:

My Name
House on Mango Street by Sandra Cusneros

Esperanza ponders the meaning and pronunciation of her name, which means “hope” in its English translation from Spanish. She is named after her great-grandmother, who was also born during the Chinese Year of the Horse. Although she never met her, she would have loved to get to know the wild woman who was her namesake, who never wanted to marry or be tamed, until her grandfather carried her off as his object.

“And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn’t be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window.”

Topic Tracking: Family 3
Esperanza does not like the way people pronounce her beautiful Spanish name at school and likes to keep it whole – without a nickname – like her sister Magdalena (Nenny). She secretly wants to baptize herself under a new name more suited to her private personality, for she does not like the mumbled English sounding name of Esperanza.

Write four paragraphs (three paragraphs for 1st period) on one of the below topics:

1) Have you had an experience like Esperanza or Jeanne? How did you feel? How did you handle it? Would you have handled it differently now?
OR
2) Experiences help us define who we are and who we are not. Identify an experience that shaped your identity. Describe this event or experience and then explain the impact it has had on how you answer the question, “Who am I?”

We are finished with the social studies book and will spend the remaining 13 days of sixth grade with Facing History – Identity & Community: An Introduction to 6th Grade Social Studies unit.

This past week we had discussions about what makes our identity. The students did an activity on characteristics about them that they could share with the class if they wanted and wrote a Bio Poem. We are still learning and finding out things about each other.

We will continue with in class activities, homework writing assignments, and reflection of various poems, a movie, and a book we will read together. I will continue to take, at least, two grades a week, if not more. Please do monitor your student’s grades because some students think that summer has already begun.

Spanish Worksheet and Spanish Grade: The students will complete their last worksheet for Spanish during social studies this week. The students know to put the worksheet in their Spanish folder for the Spanish teacher to check for a grade in Spanish. Each student’s final Spanish grade is included as 10% of his or her social studies grade at the end of the nine-week period. The Spanish grade is listed separately, on Power School and on the interim, for parents and students know how they are doing in their Spanish class.

MISSING WORK: I do not give a lot of homework. I only give homework on Monday, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. I need the students to do the work when I do assign homework. Their grade is not affected as much for not doing their homework since homework is 10% of their grade. If they do not read the sections assigned and complete the study guide for homework, they will do poorly on the test, which is 40% of their grade.

BONUS POINTS: I will add an additional 10 points bonus to their lowest test grade when a student brings, emails me, or reports any interesting, informational, and educational information to share.

The social studies information given is general information and is subject to change for various reasons. I put something on the board under homework EVERYDAY. I want the students to get in the habit of writing in, referring to, and using their agenda book EVERYDAY. Please be sure that your child is writing something under Social Studies everyday.

Please do not forget that the social studies book is available online. Please email me if you cannot remember your User ID and Password or if you are having any problems with the website.

Each student should spend 10-15 minutes daily to review what was covered and the notes taken that day during social studies class. This can involve reading the assignment, reviewing the notes given that day, studying the vocabulary words, and using the resources available with the book online.

I encourage every student and parent to check Power School, at least, once a week. You should have received your Power School information in the mail and your student received it from their homeroom teacher. At least, two grades will be posted each week. Also, there will be graded papers in their weekly Tuesday folder. You can click the grade for a subject and it will show you the breakdown of the grade.

Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions, comments, or concerns at: vwhittington@scsk12.org