In middle school we have been busy completing and presenting Genius Hour projects. Students have done a wonderful job sharing their Genius Hour experiences with the DGS community and I'm excited to say we even have some budding entrepreneurs in our class! Students are already considering how they can continue the first trimester's project or what they would like to investigate next.
Students have started their dystopian literature novels and are working with the other members of their bookclub. We have identified the traits and characteristics of this particular genre of literature and students will continue to track these traits as they engage with their novels and with each other. Bookclubs members worked together to create a reading calendar. Each week students will complete a section of the novel and during reading activities. At the end of the week students will have a "checkpoint" during which they will meet with the other members of their club, discuss their novels, and complete after-reading activities.
We are continuing our poem/text of the week activities. Our first mentor poem was "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins and this week our mentor poem was "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou. For each text students are focusing on one or two literary elements and how these elements are used in the mentor text. Students are also practicing applying these elements in their own writing by creating "emulation poems". Emulation poems are essentially poems that emulate or take inspiration from a mentor text and attempt to create something similar in form, theme, structure, etc...At the end of each week students are invited to share their poems with the class.
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