Book Clubs are back!! Pick a NEW book to read as part of your literature study! This book needs to be completed in the next two weeks. This will be your work at home in the evenings. You might be asked to do a vocabulary study, write a connection, or complete a book report, so BE PREPARED by doing your part in reading 30 minutes each night.
**All Classes: Finish any remaining Author’s Chairs.
Sixth Grade
We’ll start studying the civilizations of Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt this week!
1. But first we’re going to try our hand at writing limericks about what we already know
about Ancient Egypt.
2. We'll take a short test on Ancient Rome
3. Finish up Iready Testing
4. Bring your book club book to school each day.
Seventh Grade
We will begin studying the Renaissance.
1. Short test on Macbeth
2. Browse the collection of the Museo del Prado
and find and carefully examine three pieces from the Renaissance period.
Listen to this podcast on the Medici family
3. The class will divide into five groups, each of which will be responsible for researching
one of the following topics:
a. Describe the way in which the revival of classical learning and the arts fostered a
new interest in humanism (i.e., a balance between intellect and religious faith).
b. Explain the importance of Florence in the early stages of the Renaissance and the
growth of independent trading cities (e.g., Venice), with emphasis on the cities’
importance in the spread of Renaissance ideas.
c. Understand the effects of the reopening of the ancient “Silk Road” between Europe
and China, including Marco Polo’s travels and the location of his routes.
d. Describe the growth and effects of new ways of disseminating information (e.g.,
the ability to manufacture paper, translation of the Bible into the vernacular,
printing).
e. Detail advances made in literature, the arts, science, mathematics, cartography,
engineering, and the understanding of human anatomy and astronomy (e.g., by
Dante Alighieri, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo di Buonarroti Simoni, Johann
Gutenberg, William Shakespeare)
f. Detail advances made in literature, the arts, science, mathematics, cartography,
engineering, and the understanding of human anatomy and astronomy (e.g., by
Dante Alighieri, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Johann Gutenberg, William
Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes).
Groups will make a 10-minute presentation to the class on Friday summarizing their
findings (40% of your grade and can be done in a song or rap, so long as it is accurate). Each student will write a one-page essay on a subtopic within his or her group’s topic (subtopics must be approved by me) (60% of your grade).
4. Finish up iready testing
5. Bring your book club book to school each day.
Eighth Grade
Westward Expansion, continued (next week: life in the Antebellum South)
1. Test on Huckleberry Finn.
2. Listen to this podcast on the California Gold Rush.
3. The questions on the Huck Finn worksheet will be apportioned between groups. Each
group will discuss the questions with one another, and then students will answer the
questions assigned to their groups in short individual essays. (Hopefully, you have already
worked on these questions a bit.)
4. The class will divide into six groups, each of which will be responsible for researching
one of the following topics:
A. Discuss the election of Andrew Jackson as president in 1828, the importance of
Jacksonian democracy, and his actions as president (e.g., the spoils system, veto of
the National Bank, policy of Indian removal, opposition to the Supreme Court).
B. Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with
westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny (e.g., the Lewis and
Clark expedition, accounts of the removal of Indians, the Cherokees’ “Trail of Tears,”
settlement of the Great Plains) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned
numerous decades.
C. Describe the role of pioneer women and the new status that western women
achieved (e.g., Laura Ingalls Wilder, Annie Bidwell; slave women gaining freedom in
the West; Wyoming granting suffrage to women in 1869).
D. Examine the importance of the great rivers and the struggle over water rights.
E. Discuss Mexican settlements and their locations, cultural traditions, attitudes
toward slavery, land-grant system, and economies.
6. Describe the Texas War for Independence and the Mexican-American War,
including territorial settlements, the aftermath of the wars, and the effects the wars
had on the lives of Americans.
Groups will make a 10-minute presentation to the class on Friday summarizing their
findings (40% of your grade, this can be done in a song or rap, so long as it is accurate). Each student will write a two-page essay on a subtopic within his or her group’s topic (subtopics must be approved by me) (60% of your grade).
5. Finish up iready testing.
6. Bring your book club book to school each day. 
