Category Archives: Grade 6

Vocabulary Log, Part 2

Posted on by
Reply

Location: Vocabulary Notebook

One new activity that we will add to this semester’s learning is the Vocabulary Log for your Yellow Lists. In your notebook, you have been keeping track of your lists and quizzes, while the activities have been stored in your OWL. Starting this semester, this is the order for your Vocabulary Notebook:

Yellow List
Vocabulary Log
Quiz

The Vocabulary Log is another independent learning opportunity. Here are some of the benefits: 

1. Extends your learning beyond the classroom
2. Helps you to decode the meaning of unfamiliar words 
3. Increases your vocabulary bank for writing and speaking

 FORMAT UPDATE: Here is what your Vocabulary Log MUST look like:

YL# – Vocabulary Log

 Number Date Found Stem or Vocabulary   Complete Sentence  Source Decoded meaning  Dictionary Definition
 Example             1/05  PRIM          ” . . . .  primary school  . . . ”   “Article Title”   & Source Name   prim means first so maybe it means the first school  “preparatory to something else in a continuing process” 
1        
2        
3          
4        
5        

 

 

 

 

 

 

** You must have at least 5 entries in your log.

** Read online newspapers or magazines so that you give yourself the best opportunities to encounter challenging words. :)

Frisco ISD Students Showcase Spelling Skills

Posted on by
Reply

Congratulations to our very own Revanth Muppana! Our class is so proud of your accomplishment!

Maus Middle School sixth grader Revanth Muppana finished in second place, falling in seven rounds with the word bacteriophage.

Muppana was defeated only by eighth grader Chetan Reddy of Plano ISD’s Rice Middle School, a four-time winner of the Collin County Spelling Bee, three-time winner of the Dallas Morning News Regional Spelling Bee and three-time participant in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

This was the first year Maus hosted a spelling bee and sent a student to compete in the county bee. Only sixth graders participated in the competition.

“Revanth’s mother quizzed him over a large list of recommended words, approximately 50 words a night and then 100 words per night,” said Ginger McClendon, Maus sixth grade study skills teacher. “We are so proud of Revanth’s hard work and to call him a friend, student and Mountain Lion.”

Read the entire post here.

Light Bearer Letter Check

Posted on by
Reply

Final thoughts from Ms. Caskey:  I hope that the Individual Letter Share and Respond activity today was helpful to you as you had the opportunity to read aloud your letter and listen to the feedback from your classmates and from me.

As you look to make your final edits and revisions for your letter, take the following into consideration:

1. Does your letter have a message that your light bearer wants to share with humankind about changing the universe? Does this message sound like it would only come from your light bearer (because it should). Is the message related to your light bearer’s life, experiences, contributions, etc. (information from your research).

2. Does the research support the message from your light bearer? Does the biographical information support the message? Do the contributions of your light bearer support the message? What information from your research led you to create the message that your light bearer wants to share?

3. Does the letter reflect the personality of you light bearer? Can you hear the voice of your light bearer? Did you have to use “old-fashioned” language, scientific language, etc.?

4. Handwrite your final copy to reinforce the idea of the art of the letter. 🙂

Moments in Lettre Writing

Posted on by
Reply

From TED Blog:

Before Twitter, before Facebook, before Gmail and AIM, there were ink and paper. There were people who dedicated time to writing correspondences, and then waited for a reply. After the jump, excerpts from five of the most delightful, beautiful or simply intimate letters we’ve come across.

* In 2009, after Barack Obama was elected for the first time, Bill Adler published a book of kids’ letters to their president. So much of the writing in this book is moving (or hilarious); one example comes from Kiana, a 12-year-old from Anderson, South Carolina.

As a Black female, I’m going to try to be the first woman president, and the first Black woman president at that—that is, if no one beats me to it.

* In an 1897 editorial in New York’s Sun, journalist Francis Pharcellus Church (anonymously) replied to a concerned eight-year-old, who had written to ask whether Santa Claus exists. This letter has rightly become famous—and inescapable during the holidays, when it’s printed and posted every year.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. […]The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. […]Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

* On a book tour in 1942, the writer Vladimir Nabokov wrote letters to his wife, Vera Nabokov. In November, on a stop in St. Paul, Minnesota, he wrote:

Yesterday after the trip into the country I went, having got awfully bored, to the cinema and came back on foot—I walked for more than an hour and went to bed around eight. On the way a lightning bolt of undefined inspiration ran right through me—a passionate desire to write, and to write in Russian. And yet I can’t. I don’t think anyone who hasn’t experienced this feeling can really understand its torment, its tragedy. English in this sense is an illusion and an ersatz. In my usual condition, i.e. busy with butterflies, translations, or academic writing, I myself don’t fully register the whole grief and bitterness of my situation.

I am healthy, eating plenty, taking my vitamins, and read the newspapers more than usual now that the news is getting rosier. St. Paul is a stupefyingly boring city, only owls at the hotel[…]but my apartment is charming.

Literary Analysis – Vocabulary Character Paragraph

Posted on by
9

Warm-up: Grammar Challenge: Find the parallel structure on p. 203. What makes it parallel?

Springboard – “Bad Boy” pp. 202-207
o In your IRN, date and title your notes “Bad Boy”.
o With your shoulder partner, share your annotations, focusing on the character and his transformation. You may also use the chart on p. 208 to guide you in the process of sharing your information. (Each person will share for 2 minutes.)
o With your face partner, repeat the same process.
o As a table group, write a sentence stating the changes that occurred in Walter’s self-perception and behavior from the beginning of fifth grade to the end of sixth grade. Write this topic sentence in your IRN. (5 minutes)
o Share-aloud. Each table group will share their topic sentences.

SAR: Review/Prep
o In your IRN, record the definition of literary analysis that is on p. 211.
o Review the information in your SB about literary analysis.
o You and your table group will now create an extended short answer response. You may use the notes about a SAR paragraph that is in your IRNs.

Vocabulary Character Paragraph
o At your tables, decide which one of the following characters for which you’d like to analyse: Walter, Meg, Charles Wallace, free-choice. ( 2 minutes) For example: Carl from Up
o Think and discuss what strong noun that you’d use to characterize him or her. Challenge: Your word choice uses a stem or stems. (5 minutes) For example:  The man from Up is old, grumpy, negative, cranky. He stays by himself and doesn’t want to be bothered by anyone and acts like he has a chip on his shoulder. When I look at theses adjectives, I think of the word curmudgeon because the definition is “ill-tempered, and usually old man”.
o Now, give this character a new first name that starts with the same letter as your noun. For example, Carl Curmudgeon. (Luckily, his name already starts with the same letter.) 🙂
o Draft 1 – A paragraph that traces the character’s change. The noun that you chowse should guide what details and commentary you provide.
o Your paragraph should include:
– topic sentence
– details/example 1 from text and commentary 1
– details/example 2 from text and commentary 2
– concluding sentence
o Draft 2 – If you feel confident, you may combine this activity into Draft 1. Add the use of AWUBIS at the beginning of each sentence. Repeat AWUBIS is necessary.

Characterization:

Sharing Learning through Social Media

Posted on by
Reply

When I read articles and research that are relevant to gifted education, I try to share the learning through a number of avenues to reach my colleagues and friends. Sometimes, I will post them here, but most of the time, I post these via tweets, which can be found on the blog. You do not need a Twitter account to access the links. I encourage to read these findings. I find them to be of immense value as both a parent and an educator of gifted children.

 

 

GT MENSA Program for Parents & Game Night for Students

Posted on by
1

From Frisco SAGE:

Tuesday, February 12, 2013
6-8 PM (Parent program begins at 6:30 PM)
Cobb Middle School Cafe (Click on link for map)
9400 Teel Parkway   Frisco, TX  75033

Those who wish to attend should RSVP to FriscoSAGE@gmail.com.  

This is a very impromptu parent meeting and game night… She will be speaking on the subject of PERFECTIONISM in the gifted student as well as talking about MENSA’s student program and the benefits for our children.

Students are welcome to attend and bring strategy games.  Because this is such a last-minute program this time, we will not be able to provide a meal, but we will have snacks and bottled water provided.  They are welcome to bring in food to eat during game night if they wish as well.  Friends and siblings are welcome as well, though siblings that are not yet school age will need parent supervision.   Students will need to remain in the game area during the meeting as the meeting is geared towards parents.  If your middle or high school student would like to attend the meeting, we can certainly accommodate that if you feel it is appropriate for them.

This is for all ages of GT students.