As we continue to prepare our Soapbox speech, we are working on increasing our comfort with public speaking. Students are randomly selected and randomly select their topics. They get on our “soapbox” and give a speech, ranging from 30 seconds to 45 seconds. This is providing experience for many students to give speeches in a public setting with less stress. It has been awesome to see the growth in our students and their comfort with public speaking.
Earlier this year, each student in 8th grade worked on a cross-curricular activity involving Veteran’s Day. Students interviewed a veteran of the US Military; working on their listening and interview skills. They then wrote a biography of their veteran; using many of the writing skills learned in ELA. From there, they used knowledge of the Constitution to write a persuasive essay to answer the prompt of “The Bill of Rights and Me.” The essays they wrote were entered in an essay contest with the Fleet Reserve Association; which is a part of the local VA.
Two of our students who entered into the contest placed in the finals. One student took 1st place (and is now onto the regional judging which will be decided later this month) and another student took 2nd place. I have linked each essay below (but that does not even tell the whole story). If you look at each document, please start from the bottom and work your way up. You will be able to notice the editing and revision process throughout this writing. These essays were a culmination of weeks of revisions and peer editing; a lot of work went into them. As you can see, the hard work has paid off.
Earlier this year, in collaboration with Jewish Studies and ELA, our students researched inequalities in our world, our country, and our community. During this exploration, each student selected a topic they felt passionately about. We have put that topic on the backburner for now…until now.
We are starting our next area of focus: Project Soapbox. Project Soapbox (linked here) is part of a nation-wide organization that encourages youth to voice their opinion on a topic they feel strongly about. Students identify a topic, write their own brief persuasive speech on the topic, and then present that speech to an audience of their peers and community.
This year is obviously different…no in-person speeches. But, we will still be preparing our speeches on our topics, as well as delivering them to our community and beyond. We started our speech process yesterday by identifying what makes a speech good and what makes a speech bad. Stay tuned for more.
As part of a cross-curricular Tu BiShvat activity, students spent some time examining healthy vs. unhealthy food options, as well as pricing related to those items. We then examined healthy implications of unhealthy food choices; coupled with the recent increase in unemployment.
Lastly, we planted seeds into water bottle planters we created so that we can partake in healthy, inexpensive food in the future. The planters are easy to do feel free to make your own at home. I have plenty of extra seeds if needed.
The transition back to physical school has not been completely seamless. There have been a few bumps in the road. One area I have noticed we as a class (not any one individual student, but something across the board) have struggled is that of shouting out, talking over each other, and generally not listening.
Today, we did some mini-debates. Students got different topics, had to prepare some research on those topics, and then “debated” with a classmate. They had to follow strict rules of listening and asking questions, not interrupting, and respecting everyone’s opinion.
It turned out to be an awesome activity and a way to get the kids to listen to their classmates and be respectful.
President-Elect Biden was sworn in yesterday, becoming our next President. Much of the news that followed after his inauguration was on what he was doing next. The term “executive order” was thrown around a lot, which prompted numerous questions from kids on what that meant.
Never fear, we covered what an executive order is and some historical examples (click on the link here). We looked at how some presidents have used those orders to enact wholesale changes. Afterward, students looked at some of the executive orders President Biden signed yesterday (linked here). Check out the list and start a dinner conversation tonight with your child concerning their thoughts on some of the actions of President Biden.
Regardless of political ideology, a Presidential Inauguration is an interesting and exciting time. There is lots of pomp and rituals surrounding the peaceful transfer of power.
Today, we will participate in the inauguration in our own way. First, students will come up with their own, briefer version of the inauguration address; which is designed to bring people together. Students will write their own version and hopefully, deliver their speech to their classmates (a copy of the assignment is linked here). Next, we are going to be watching whatever part of the ceremony happens to be on during our class (linked here). During this time, students will be playing a bit of an I-Spy game in which they need to find different people, places, and things along the way. The activity is linked here. Finally, students are going to be reading an article which highlight some of the plans President Biden has for the 1st 100 days he is in office (article linked here). From there, they will put forth some issues they believe the President should address right away while in office (the activity is linked here).
We now have a new president in power in our country (I am writing this before the inauguration so hopefully I did not jinx anything). My hope is that students can disregard whatever party allegiance they have and start to focus on working together to solve some of the issues that plague our country. Please discuss with them some of the things you and they can do to help make our country and world a better place.
As the House of Representatives moves to debate impeaching President Trump for the second time, we are left with the question of: should President Trump be impeached or not?
As difficult as it is, it is not my place to say to the students what I truly believe on the impeachment process. My job is to provide them with the information they need in order to make an educated decision and have an educated discussion. We as a class discussed the pros and cons of impeachment, as well as the actual structure of the impeachment process. All of that work culminated in the students answering the question: should we impeach or not impeach President Trump.
Students posted their opinions on our class Flipgrid (linked here). The next day, each student was asked to respond to their classmates, as well as students in other grades. The idea behind this posting is for students to share their informed opinion, provide evidence to support their claim, and question what others think is a respectful manner. Please feel free to check out our Flipgrid discussion and start your own at home.
The events from last week set off a firestorm of great learning opportunities for our class. One of the biggest touch points for our students thus far has been the banning of President Trump from numerous social media sites. Regardless of politics, this action by these companies creates an amazing debate and learning opportunity for students.
We started our discussion with a simple question: does social media have the right to ban President Trump? Students wrote their answers onto a semi-public platform (our Google Classroom discussion board). From there, we examined the actual 1st Amendment text, focusing on who/what entity the 1st Amendment focused on (the amendment is linked here). This alone created a wealth of conversations for our students, ranging from terms of agreements to bias in the media.
Lastly, we started to dip our toes into some more nuanced topics related to the 1st Amendment, specifically Section 230 (this has been popularized in the news as of late and some students were asking about it). Students watched a video and answered questions related to Section 230 (the video is linked here).
We will come full circle with our conversation by doing our best to applying Section 230 to media companies and try to answer the question of who has and who should have the right of censorship/controlling what people are saying. Is the power of censorship currently biased and in the right hands?
Regardless of your political leaning, I implore you to broach these topics with your child. Ask them what they think and press them when they give their answers (which are generally vague and without supporting evidence). By doing this, you are helping them develop numerous important skills and further expanding their thought process and opinions.
I am sure the events of Wednesday in Washington DC were surprising to many of you. I know our students were taken back by the events and rhetoric being used. This should not take away from the opportunity we have to work with out students to better understand this historical event, but also to ask questions and discuss civilly.
Since we are virtual, it is very difficult to have a large group discussion whereas each student is given equity of voice. I set up small breakout rooms for students to discuss and debrief about the events in DC. If they needed resources and information to better understand events, they could use this resource guide (linked here). Students were able to use each other, myself, and the resources available to better understand these historic events.
Please continue to speak with your child and to take the time to answer any questions they have. A lot of them are scared, which stems from not knowing everything that is going on. Give them your time, listen to their concerns, and help them understand more about why things like this happen.