Educating Our Eagles - 11/2021

Educating

our Eagles

EDUCATING OUR EAGLES

1

CONTENTS

4

Introduction - Curriculum Director, Julie Dolan

6

6

8

10

Middle School Visual Arts - Visual Art teacher,

Stephanie Graham

Middle School English Language Arts - English

teacher, Julie Barros

Ninth grade Independent Reading Ads - English

teacher, Kevin Wolgemuth

11

12

14

17

16

Tenth Grade Transition from Korean Dynasties

to Feudalism in Japan - Social Studies teacher,

Alex Izatt

First Grade Tradition Studies - First grade

teacher, Christina Carlson

The Incredible Journey/Storm Water Runoff

Simulation - Fifith grade teacher, Claudine

Mallory

Three Act Tasks - Third grade teacher, Jane

Schur

Tenth Grade Centroid Studies - Science and

math teacher, Timothy Schwartz

8

10


2 EDUCATING OUR EAGLES 3

INTRODUCTION

From SBRSD’s Director of Curriculum

and Instruction, Julie Dolan

Julie Dolan

Director of Curriculum

and Instruction

Welcome to our first edition of

“Educating our Eagles.”

Our vision at Southern

Berkshire Regional School

District is to provide a

rigorous educational environment that prepares

and inspires all students to be resilient, curious, and

ethical global citizens who embrace the challenges

of an ever-changing world through a commitment

to our core values of opportunity, excellence,

character, and community.

Once a month we will be highlighting our students

and teachers as they work together to grow and learn.

The goal of this newsletter is to provide you with a

window into our day-to-day experiences and an

opportunity to see into our classrooms. Each day we

strive to create interactive and highly engaging lessons

that support and inspire all learners.

Monthly, we will post this newsletter to our District

webpage at www.sbrsd.org. It will contain a sampling

of what our students experienced this past month,

including the student goals and the teacher’s

observations of the lessons. Many thanks to Ms. Kari

Giordano for all the work she has put into designing

this beautiful document.

Please feel free to contact me jdolan@sbrsd.org any

time you have questions or would like to discuss

curriculum. I am always available.



MIDDLE SCHOOL

Visual Arts:

PICASSO PORTRAITS

Description:

Using the reduction process in printmaking, sixth grade students create an abstract

portrait inspired by Pablo Picasso.

Student Learning Goals/Outcomes:

As a result of instruction, students will...

• apply knowledge of Cubism in the abstraction of facial features and the human head.

• learn how to create a 3-part reduction print.

• use the reduction process to print an abstract portrait composition, focusing on the

elements and principles of line, shape, and pattern.

Review:

Students really enjoyed the reduction print process. They were excited by the materials,

and understood how critical it was to follow the procedures. After demonstration, students

practiced how to draw a realistic human head and face. They enjoyed making the final

portrait an abstraction, and drew from the lesson about Picasso where they saw his

evolution of style and technique in portraiture.



MIDDLE SCHOOL:

CHECK OUT 6TH GRADE RAP VIDEOS:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUz0ABRf0g8

English Language Arts:

PARTS OF SPEECH RAP

Description:

Sixth grade students are to use the eight parts of speech learned in class in a creative,

original rap. They can choose to work in a small group, partners or alone.


As a result of instruction, students will be able to...

• create a rap whereby they name the eight parts of speech correctly

• use each part of speech and give examples

• create end rhyme

• perform and articulate in front of the class

Review:

Students not only had fun with this project but they exhibited bravery by performing in

front of their peers. Students did a great job memorizing the eight parts of speech but

struggled with creating rhyming words and patterns without the help of a computer.

MA Frameworks

CCSS.ELA SL1, 5; L1



HIGH SCHOOL:

Ninth grade Independent Reading Ads

After selecting and

reading a novel independently,

ninth

grade students wrote a

sixty-second review to

sell the novel on radio.

Anonymous first drafts were shared onscreen

for peer critique and to generate

a list of best practices and corrections.

Second drafts were revised and refined

for impact. Students also created a visual

ad with a selected quote from their independent

reading.

As a result of instruction, students

will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge through summary

and review at the end of selfpaced

reading

• Peer critique to establish best practices

and norms

• Generate rules of recorded public

speaking

• Deliver work spanning two forms of

public media.

Observations:

Although many students enjoyed the

opportunity to read for the pleasure of

reading, some students can focus on

developing motivation, time management

and other self-regulating skills.

Particularly useful was for students to

review anonymous peer work on-screen,

identifying successes as well as mistakes

that became an editing checklist for their

own work. Students who are uncomfort-

able with front-of-class public speaking

appreciated the opportunity to record

audio.

Anchor standards:

Reading 2: Determine central ideas or

themes of a text and analyze their development

(47)

Reading 10: Read and comprehend

complex literary texts independently

and proficiently (47)

Writing 2: Write informative/explanatory

texts to examine and convey complex

ideas (53)

Writing 4: Produce clear and coherent

writing in which the development, organization

and

style are appropriate

to task,

purpose and

audience (53)

Writing 6: Use

technology ...

to produce and

publish writing

and to interact

with others (53)

Speaking and

Listening 1:

Prepare for and

participate effectively in a range of conversations

(60)

Speaking and Listening 6: Adapt speech

to a variety of contexts and communicative

tasks (60)

W

e start off with

an activator on

a map of the Korean

peninsula.

Tenth grade students

labeled the

blank map of Korea with the 3 kingdoms

we discussed in the previous class. Next,

I introduced our supporting question for

the lesson: “How has Korea served as both

a cultural bridge and a battleground between

China and Japan?”. Once we have a

discussion about our supporting question

we transitioned into a slide-show on our

new content (Feudalism in Japan). Each

student receives an outlined version of

the notes they fill out on their own as we

go. Once we get to the societal structure

of Japan’s feudal age the students fill out a

pyramid of the social hierarchy (Emperor,

shogun, samurai, etc.). After the pyramid

we watched a Ted Ed of “A Day in the

Life of a Samurai”. We discussed the video

and moved onto our Exit Ticket, a guided

reading about the new content they’ve received

during the lesson.

As a result of instruction,

students will be able to:

• Be able to access prior knowledge on

the geography of the Korean peninsula

• Be able to understand the relationship

Korea & Japan have together.

• Be able to explain Feudalism in Japan,

including details on the social hierarchy

as well as the characteristics of the

samurai

Observations:

Students enjoyed filling out the map and

the pyramid diagram. Students enjoyed

the video on the samurai and enjoyed

when I lectured on the samurai’s characteristics

(weapons, armour, Bushido,

seppuku, etc.). Students were not so enthralled

with lecturing on the semantics

of Japanese society during the Feudal Age.

Frameworks:

HIGH SCHOOL

Transition from Korean Dynasties

to Feudalism in Japan

Physical and political geography of East

Asia [7.T2a]

On a political map of the region, demonstrate

map reading skills to distinguish

countries, capitals, and other cities and

to describe their absolute location and

relative location (relationship to other

countries, cities, or bodies of water); use

knowledge of maps to complement information

gained from text about a city,

country or region

c. Ancient Japan and Korea, c.300 BCE–

1300 CE [7.T2c] Supporting Question:

How has Korea served as both a cultural

bridge and a battleground between China

and Japan?

The Kamakura Shogunate (c. 1185–1333

CE) in Japan, feudal military rule, invasions

of the Mongol Empire, restoration

of temples destroyed in war, Buddhist

sculpture, calligraphy influenced by Zen

Buddhism



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:

First Grade Tradition Studies

The first-grade celebrated traditions by learning about the Macy’s

Thanksgiving Day Parade and how it came to be. Many employees at

Macy’s were immigrants and missing their homeland, so the parade

originated to celebrate all the different cultures and traditions. The

students shared their own traditions and did STEM activities with

marionettes and balloons.

District wide Pre-K-2, the FUNdations phonics program is being used to provide

systematic, explicit phonics instruct, a core skill needed for reading and writing.

Observations:

Students were engaged in traditions activity, were able to compare traditions in

stories to their own traditions. Students are applying skills in FUNdations in their

every day writing and making growth.



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:

The Incredible Journey

Storm Water Runoff Simulation

Description:

Incredible Journey: In the Incredible Journey, fifth graders pretend that they are droplets

of water and go through a series of stations based on the roll of a die. As they travel to

each station they collect a bead to make a bracelet. The stations include Cloud, Animals,

Plants, Stream, Soil, Ocean, Mountain, Glacier, and Rivers. Depending on the number

that they roll, they either stay in that station and collect a bead or journey to another

station and collect a new bead there. This simulation helps students to understand how

water travels around the earth.

Storm Water Runoff Simulation: In this lesson students work in small teams with storm

drain models to simulate how our water is most commonly polluted today. Then students

learn about and apply innovative technologies, like roof top gardens and porous asphalt to

help lessen the amount of pollution that ends up in their storm drain.


As a result of instruction, students will be able to...

• use a model to describe the cycling of water through a watershed through

evaporation, precipitation, absorption, surface runoff and condensation.

• obtain and combine information about ways communities can reduce the human

impact on earth’s resources.

Review:

Students were highly engaged and participatory in both simulations.



HIGH SCHOOL:

What is a centroid?

or How to find the center of gravity

of a triangle.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:

Third Grade Math

Three Act Tasks

Mr. Schwartz’s

tenth grade Geometry

students

were taught to

mathematically

find the center of

any triangle. Student proved their findings by

balancing it on their fingers.

As a result of instruction, students will be

able to:

• calculate the centroid of any triangle.

• Find medians of the segments.

• Discover the centroid divides each median in the

ratio 2:1

Observation:

Students began to discover that one really must only find

where two of the medians intersect to find the center of

gravity since the medians only intersect at one point.

Third grade classes recently did a 3 act task that

required students to figure out how many chocolate

chips were used in a recipe. They needed

to estimate, ask questions ,and problem solve in

groups. Part way through the lesson, they were

given additional information and then expected

to come up with an answer. The students really enjoyed working

together and problem solving.

Student learning outcomes:

• problem solving

• questioning

• multiplication

• addition

• working in groups

Observation:

The students were very engaged and asked great questions.

They loved the open ended process and were able to articulate

not only what their guess was, but how they came to arrive at

their answers.




18

Educating Our Eagles - 11/2021

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