12/3/18-Monday:
Audrey-Monday was C day, and section Y had a double period of Quest Science. We were the last section to complete the catapult challenge. It was a difficult task to complete. We had to make a basic catapult and see which team of two could make it onto the red mat. The winners got a cup full of mini marshmallows which we also used as the item we launched. In Quest Science, we also worked on the graphing packets about Graphing and Analyzing Data that we had to hand in on Friday.
In Humanities on Monday we were working on annotating our Brown Girl Dreaming books. We have been reading the book for a while now and we are almost finished the book! Our class started peer editing our African American history essays. Using highlighters, we noted where we found claims, evidence, analysis, and summary sentences. The result were rainbow colored rough drafts to allow us to see what we needed to add for the next draft.
12/4/18-Tuesday
Hannah- Tuesday was a D day, so Sections X and Z had a double period of Quest Humanities. In the first period of Quest Humanities, we worked on reading and analyzing the book Brown Girl Dreaming. Brown Girl Dreaming is about Jacqueline Woodson, who is the author. In the book she talks about her childhood memories and family memories. I asked a student to give me their opinion about the book and they said, “Brown Girl Dreaming is an interesting book because it teaches us that life will never come easy and that events in our lives happen for a reason.” In the second period of Quest Humanities, we continued peer editing student’s African American Research Papers. After we were done editing we had a conference with the writer whose work we edited, we discussed what they needed to add or fix on their essay. I asked a student to give me their opinion on the paper and here is what they said, “I liked how it wasn’t just a biography of the person. We had to focus on a few particular events that affected our topic. I think it was hard to find enough facts to make it interesting. I think a lot of people had a hard time with that but it was a good project overall.”
In section Z’s Quest Science class, we worked on our graphing packet and got ready for our check-in (quiz) about graphing the next day. In the graphing packet, we looked at different graphs and answered questions about the information on the graph. We also needed to draw a line graph and a bar graph with the given information.
12/5/18-Wednesday:
Katherine– Wednesday was E day. Section X’s first Quest class of the day was Quest:Science, in Ms. Bruvik’s room. None of the Quest teachers were here that day because of a meeting they all attended to plan our next projects and units. As a result, Wednesday was a day to get everyone caught up with what we were learning. In Quest:Science, we are learning about different types of graphs. We were allowed to work on our graph packet, lab reflection (about our catapult engineering project), and our graphing study tool.
Next period was Quest:Humanities. Section X started in Mr. Greenberg’s room. Since we are working on a big research paper, the African American Research Paper, we helped one another with the project. We did this by peer editing each other’s essays. The whole period was dedicated to fixing or finishing our essay and bibliographies.
Section X had Quest: Humanities in Mr. Gornto for last period. In Mr. Gornto’s room we worked on finishing “Brown Girl Dreaming”. We had to finish section three, or chapter three, of that book by Thursday. Some classmates rushed to finish the chapter, while others took their time and annotated each page. Only a few students were able to finish the section assigned by Thursday.
12/6/18- Thursday
Hannah- Thursday was an F day. Section Z had a double period of Quest Science, but we had Meeting for Worship so we missed one of the periods. In Quest Science we worked on our graphing packets again. If we finished the packet we were allowed to do other homework such as our Basic Catapult-Engineering Challenge Reflection. In Quest Humanities we did any final editing to our research papers. If we finished editing we were allowed to read Brown Girl Dreaming or help peer edit other people’s essays.
12/7/18-Friday
Audrey– Friday was A day. Friday was very hectic for the seventh grade. We had four different log questions to chose for our log #17 on the year, reflecting on the African American History Essay. We had to answer two of them. The questions were:
-What goal(s) did you set out to improve in your writing? Do you feel you made improvements toward your goal(s)? If so, how? Explain.
-What did you learn about research and using various sources? Why might sources from similar or different time periods reflect different attitudes towards the same person or event?
-What new skill, tool, or technique did you learn during this project that you feel that will be most useful to you going forward? Explain.
-What challenges did you face while writing this essay and how did you overcome them?
We had to turn in our African American History Essay, we have been working on this essay for about a month and a half now and it’s finally over. Here are some of the 7th graders thesis statements.
Avani:
Multiple sources in the 1860s claimed that these groups targeted African Americans and Jews. In the 1940s, the KKK were described as one of the worst domestic terror groups in the history of the United States.
Grace:
We all learned a lot more about African American History, it was a great way to practice our research skills and it taught us how to write thesis statements and citations. Mr. Greenberg showed us how to submit our essays.
For Mr. Gornto’s class he introduced our new Quest Humanities project. It is based on a poem in Brown Girl Dreamign called “What I believe.” Also, we listened to “This I believe” from NPR. We have to think of a topic, and write about something that is meaningful, honest, and personal. Next Wednesday we will submit our drafts and being revising and then recording.
This blog was edited by: Avani , Maisah , Marina, Elise, and Mr. Greenberg