8th – Film Study

Posted on 16th March 2020 by nkaufman

Hello all. What a strange way to open up a week. Never would I imagine being home during a school day….although I have probably done more computer work this morning so far than the last few weeks.

We are moving forward with our film study, especially as it relates to the Civil Rights Movement. First, students must learn the three main focuses of film: literary, dramatic, and cinematographic aspects of film. Each of these components help make movies the amazing, enjoyable, and educational pieces of entertainment that they are. We started looking at the literary aspects of film on Friday, but have since started doing so on the computer (I have a Google Slides presentation I shared with the students, in addition to a brief video explaining what everything means).

We will continue to explore all parts of film and their definitions and important components. As we get closer to films, below is a list of the films students will watch when we reach our main area of focus: Civil Rights.

Hidden Figures
Long Walk Home and The Rosa Parks Story
All the Way
Selma
Loving
The Blood is at the Doorstep

If you have further suggestions or recommendations, please do provide them. I will make sure each student has access to these films during our extended home study.

8th – Civil Rights

Posted on 5th March 2020 by nkaufman

Our last major unit of focus for this school year will be that of the Civil Rights Movement; examining it from a historical and current perspective. Students will be examining the origins and impact of the Civil Rights Act. Our study will take us from the 1950’s and 1960’s all the way to today, looking differently at at our city compared to a national perspective.

One way we are going to examine this topic is by viewing numerous films. We will start our unit with a brief film-analysis activity, focusing on increasing the ability of our students to read and understand film from an academic perspective. After developing and understanding the skills required to “read” film, we will begin watching films; analyzing them for their historical value and the message they are trying to get across. We will watch numerous films as a class, across a wide-array of time periods and focuses, all with the hope of better understanding the impact of the Civil Rights Act. The list of films will be provided as we move closer into our unit (all films are rated PG-13 or lower).

This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to continue to explore a topic of extreme importance in today’s world while gaining additional skills to set them up for future success (media literacy, critical thinking, discussion skills).

8th – Soapbox Speeches

Posted on 28th February 2020 by nkaufman

We finished out speeches! We developed an idea, wrote a 1-2 minute speech on the topic, peer-edited, practiced, and finally delivered our speech to friends, classmates, and community members. Click on the link below to find all of our student speech presentations.

Hats off to all our students for working so hard at delivering their speech. Really amazing job!

Link to speeches.

8th – Soapbox Speech

Posted on 21st February 2020 by nkaufman

We gave our Soapbox speeches yesterday and it was a blast. Our students got to interact with students from other schools, share ideas, and listen to some speeches about topics many of us never considered. It was a wonderful event; eye-opening for many. Our three presenters did a wonderful job with their speeches. Our other students were respectful and engaged audience members. It was a great time.

Our three Soapbox presenters (gave their speeches in front of a room of about 75 people).

Part of the warm-up of events where students had to interview other students from different schools.

One of our speakers giving a passionate speech about climate change.

One of our speakers giving an intelligent speech about electronic addiction.

One of our speakers giving an informed speech about the unfairness of our dress code.

All students, from four local Middle Schools (including ours) that attended Soapbox.

Our group…all in their t-shirts showing that Democracy is a verb!

Had to include the one of the falling down!

8th – Soapbox Speeches

Posted on 12th February 2020 by nkaufman

Things have moved along fairly well. Students have selected their speech topic (everything ranging from gun control to bullying to dress code) and worked on their speeches (they are still in the rough draft mode). Aside from a complaint or two about my lack of editing their speech and fixing it for them (which was obviously followed by a conversation about personal responsibilities and how they need to work to make their speech better (the best part about this was when a student explained how if their speech was bad, it was their fault and not mine…go figure)).

We have started to finalize our speeches, polishing off some of the rough edges, and moved into the presentation part of our speech. Each student has started to present their speech to a different class partner; hopefully receiving (and using) feedback along the way.

We will have our final presentation of our speeches on one of three days: 3 students will present at our Soapbox event on February 20, a good chunk will present on February 21, and the remainder will present on February 24.

The speeches are coming along. Certainly ask for any of our students to share their topic and/or their speech. All speeches should be no longer than 2 minutes so you can get it done real quickly if you would like.

8th – Soapbox Speech

Posted on 28th January 2020 by nkaufman

We finished (for now) our immigration unit; culminating with students creating an introductory paragraph (thesis included) designed to answer the question: in what ways are immigrants treated differently in the 1900’s compared to today.

Yesterday, we started our next area of focus: Soapbox Speeches. In coordination with the Mikva Challenge, an organization focused on developing a voice within our younger students to live lives of active citizens, we have introduced Project Soapbox. This curriculum is designed to get students thinking about something in their lives they are unhappy with (in school, their community, their country). From there, they research that topic and ultimately develop a speech advocating for change as it relates to that topic.

Students did a preliminary selection of their topic yesterday, and it was amazing to hear some of the items that are of interest to our students. We will continue to develop our speeches and passion. This project culminates on February 20, when some of our students will present their speech at a local speech competition.

Feel free to ask any/all of our students about the topics they are interested in participating in.

8th – Thesis Creation on Immigration

Posted on 14th January 2020 by nkaufman

It has been a long journey for our 8th graders and their study of immigration patterns to the United States; comparing the early 1900’s trends to today. Students are now working on answering the question of comparing how immigrants were treated in the 1900’s compared to today. We worked on citation of sources, creating a thesis, and soon; how to create an introductory paragraph of an essay.

Ask your student their opinion on immigration and how people were treated and I am sure you will get non-stop answers!

8th – Thesis Creation

Posted on 7th January 2020 by nkaufman

We have spent the better part of a month before winter break looking at primary source evidence related to how immigrants were treated when coming to America in the 1900’s. Students continually analysed those documents and recorded information that would be relevant to that topic.

Since returning from break, we are picking up where we left off. Now, students are researching primary source evidence as it relates to how immigrants are treated today when coming to America. Students will analyze documents, record relevant information, and use that to inform their thesis, which will be developed soon thereafter.

Ultimately, students are working on the skill of creating a thesis statement, which is just a fancy way of say “claim, evidence, and reasoning.” Students are nearing the completion of their research. Soon, they will develop a claim, answering the driving question of “how were immigrants treated differently in the 1900’s compared to today.” They will then use the evidence they gathered over a month of researching to support their claim.

Feel free to ask your student how they have come along on this activity thus far.

8th – Guest Speaker

Posted on 19th November 2019 by nkaufman

We have completed our first major unit of the year: the Constitution. Just because we are done formally studying it does not mean we will not look at it throughout the remainder of the year. We are now moving onto our next unit of focus: immigration. We will use this time to look at immigration through two historical lenses: immigration trends in the 1900’s and immigration trends today. Students will examine this topic while enhancing their skills at document analysis and thesis creation; all skills that are heavily utilized in high schools. This process will take time so no need to rush, right?

Today, we were fortunate enough to have a guest speaker grace us with his presence. Dr. Panszi, formerly of Mexico City and grandfather of one of our students, came to speak with our students about his experiences as an immigrant. He shared his personal journey thus far, starting with his early life in Mexico to his gaining American citizenship and what that means to him. It was amazing to get another perspective in the room to share with the students why this topic matters (don’t worry, I had a lot of questions as to why we were spending time looking at immigration).

Thank you Dr. Panszi for taking the time to talk with our students.

7th + 8th – Veteran’s Day Guest Speaker

Posted on 12th November 2019 by nkaufman

As our students read, Veteran’s Day is about showing appreciation for living members of our community that served in the armed forces. We do our best to say thank you to them for their service, dedication, and commitment to our safety. In order to say thank you though for the service these members have provided, we need to come to understand what they did and why it means so much to us. We brought into school a former Marine (who currently works at the VA) to share a little of his story and to answer questions. This opportunity provided many students with the answers to their questions and shed a light on some of the great acts this service member (and many more) did and do for us.

It was great to get the entire 5-8 grade together to be able to share in this question and answer session. Our guest was incredibly kind, thoughtful, and certainly shed a light on some of the questions our students had. Afterward, I had a discussion with the 8th graders about their experience with this guest. Their reactions were mixed, but it was amazing to hear them analyze and critically think about this visitor, pointing out things they liked and did not like (all respectfully of course).

Overall, thank you veterans for your service. Hopefully our students now have a better understanding of some of the sacrifices you have made.