NEW IXL ASSIGNMENT!

When you finish the assignment given in the previous blog post (the one about the seven books, the videos, and the Google Forms), you must next return to IXL.  Sign in at https://www.ixl.com/signin/hsoovercs.  GO TO FOURTH (4th) GRADE and complete exercises S.1, S.2, S.3, and S.4, which deal with pronouns.  Here is a chart with the pronouns:

Getting Ready for Literary Circles Project

Our next project involves nonfiction books.  Each student will CHOOSE AND READ A NONFICTION BOOK in which the author details a major event (or several major events), usually from his or her life. Such books are called "memoirs." Often the events they describe are so significant that they make news around the world. For example, after the September 11, 2001, attacks, many of the people who were directly affected wrote memoirs of their experiences in that difficult moment.

In our class, you will choose one from a list of seven books. Each of these books deals in some way with social injustice. Social injustice occurs when a society has laws or customs that prevent people from reaching their positive potential. In each of the seven books described below somebody had to fight against a system that was threatening him/her or holding him/her back.

These books have varying levels of reading difficulty. Some are easier to read than others. Mr. Stephens will be sure that the book you choose is right for you.  IMPORTANT: Don't choose a book simply because your friends have chosen that book. Choose a book based on your interests and on your reading ability.

Now, in order to introduce you to these books, I will link below some videos that describe them. You are to watch the videos and then complete a brief Google Form on each of the books.  So here we go!

First video.  About the life of Malala Youfsazai, author of the book I Am Malala: http://bit.ly/1ubGrph
Now, fill out the Google Form to respond to the video:
http://bit.ly/1ql54Z5

Second Video. About the book All But My Life by Gerda Weissman Klein:
http://bit.ly/Z663aD
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the video:
http://bit.ly/XUff0n

Third Videos. About the book Imperfect: An Improbable Life  by Jim Abbott:
http://bit.ly/1mooYHA  (and here's one more you'll need to watch)
http://bit.ly/1p8MWlX
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the two videos:
http://bit.ly/1uVLrwi

Fourth Videos.  About the book Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals. 
http://bit.ly/1sSovKH (and here's one more you'll need to watch)
http://bit.ly/1uQ7qWq
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the videos:
http://bit.ly/1uQ88Tt

Fifth Videos. About the book The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson.
http://bit.ly/1B01Gcv (and here's one more you'll need to watch)
http://bit.ly/1rf3TzC
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the videos:
http://bit.ly/1rqX6n0

Sixth Videos. About the book Getting Away with Murder by Chris Crowe.
http://bit.ly/ZA27Pe  (and here's one more you'll need to watch)
http://bit.ly/1jv6Inv
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the videos:
http://bit.ly/XHNIiu

Seventh Video. About the book Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.
http://bit.ly/XUkHjL (and here's one more you'll need to watch)
http://bit.ly/1C1tlMB
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the videos:
http://bit.ly/1uVUXQ7

Please Help Language Arts Teachers Evaluate the Field Trip

Please go to this link http://tinyurl.com/on4s2zn and answer the four questions in order to evaluate your field trip experience.  This will help us in planning next year's field trip.  Thank you very much.

Getting Ready to Take Photographs and Interpret Them

A required element of work that you will do next week after the field trip is to choose a photograph that you will have taken on the trip.  It needs to be a photograph of historical significance (not a selfie of you and your peeps!). To model this for you, and to get you ready for this, I, Mr. Stephens, walked last Sunday from my place to where we will be (only about two blocks) and took ten photos.  You are going to look at them, choose four, and write a response to each.  You will do this on a Google Form which you can reach by CLICKING HERE.  Good luck.

Being 13 years old in 1963

Today, you will go to the following Google form and explore some of the popular culture that surrounded the events of 1963 that we're studying. Follow the instructions in the Google form. Then, after you've finished, use your Chromebook's Google search to find a fact about 1963 that is not covered by anything you've looked at so far.  PRESS HERE to go to the Google form.