Can you believe we only have 21 school days remaining this year?! It's gone by so quickly! Here's the lowdown on the final unit of study for Humanities 6!

  • Ancient Greece
  • We'rewell into our Ancient Greece SERP packet. The SERP packet issimilar in style to the Egypt unit packet. Students have been diving into two essentialquestions:Was it better to be Athenian or Spartan?andWas Alexander the Great a wise leader or power-hungry tyrant?They have been analyzing timelines, graphs, charts and historical sources to debate and make claims around these two essential questions. We'll wrap the unit up with some traditional culture investigation. We'll be learning about the infamous Greek architecture as well as the Olympics! The packet is linkedbelow inthe assignments, although it is broken into 3 parts due tothe size.
  • ​Novel Study
  • ​​For our current unit, The Identity & Government, we are reading a popular novel by Rick Riodan, Percy Jackson's Greek Gods. It's a short story-style novel that uses thefamed Percy Jackson as a narrator for origin stories of several of the Greek mythology stories.Students are reading the novel independently in class during ourdaily SSR time. They will not be allowed to take the novel home, so if yourstudent wishes to read this book at home, you will need to procure a copy independently.

February 16th
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We are moving full-steam ahead into 2nd semester! Grades are updated and severalstudents are missing the chapter response packets from our novelThe Revolutionof Evelyn Serrano.​Not only are these chapter responses the summative comprehension assignments for our novel study, but they are assignments that were given ample in-class time to complete. If your student is missing any of the response packets, please see the assignment section below to be linked to the Google assignment. It is in Google Form format which might feel odd,but it allows students to submit their assignments at their leisure. Again, if access to internet is an issue, they can print out the chapter response packets in class and work on them as a hardcopy.

  • Conferences Next Week: February 22nd and 23rd
  • Conferences are an excellent opportunity to check in with your student's teachers to discuss a broad view of behavior, performance and talk about next steps (if necessary). I highly recommend scheduling time slots with teachers prior to conferences to ensure an opportunity to chat.If youwould like to schedule a conference time, pleaseclick here.
  • ​Novel Study
  • ​​For our current unit, The Power of Voice, we are reading a wonderful novel by Sonia Manzano (from Sesame Street) entitled "The Revolutionof Evelyn Serrano". It's a coming of age story following a Puerto Rican migrant family in the 1960sliving in Spanish Harlem. The themes of personal identity, political activism, and social inequality arerich and easy for middle school students to both access and understand. We are exploring the power of individual and collective voices throughthe analysis and explorationof LatinAmerica and political discourse/activism.
  • While students will not be allowed to take the novel home to catch up on reading (if need be), they have access to digital copies. Please email me if your student does not know where/how to access the digital copy.
  • Novel/Unit work is posted below with deadlines and/or dates that we completed the task in class. Please refer to your student's planner andStudentVue/ParentVue for assignments. If your student is missing work, you'll find it below in the "Assignments" section of this page. Most all are download-able PDFs or Word Docs, with a few URL links to be completed online.If internet access is an issue, please have your student print the assignment from school and take it home with them to be completed.

Wishing you all a wonderful President's Day weekend-
Miss Rainwater

January 27th

The end of first semester is already upon us! The wintery weather the last month or so has made for an interesting return from the holiday break. Students and staff alike are welcoming the first "normal" week of school since December 5-9th if you can believe that!! As we wrap up the first semester I have several critical deadlines and updates Iwould like to share with you:

•Semester Grades will be posted by February 2nd.

To make sure grades are finalized and current, I will be posting final semester grades on Thursday, February 2nd. The district cut-off for posting in the following day (February 3rd). I do this in order to ensure no technological mishaps. If you are concerned about your students grades, please contact me prior to the 31st of January so that I may investigate the issue and communicate back to you with time left to amend and post grades as applicable.

Because "humanities" is taught as one interconnected class, the grade earned in "Language Arts" will be mirrored as the grade earned in "Social Studies". If you have further questions, feel free to contact myself or Casey Petrie, our assistant principal for clarification.

•Late Work will be accepted through Tuesday, January 31st.

In order for me to have grades updated and ready to load on February 3rd, I will only be accepting late/missing work until Tuesday, 1/31. This cut off will allow me the time necessary to grade with integrity, thus your student's grade being a fair score.

•Novel Study

For our current unit, The Power of Voice, we are reading a wonderful novel by Sonia Manzano (from Sesame Street) entitled "The Revolutionof Evelyn Serrano". It's a coming of age story following a Puerto Rican migrant family in the 1960sliving in Spanish Harlem. The themes of personal identity, political activism, and social inequality arerich and easy for middle school students to both access and understand. We are exploring the power of individual and collective voices throughthe analysis and explorationof LatinAmerica and political discourse/activism.

While students will not be allowed to take the novel home to catch up on reading (if need be), they have access to digital copies. Please email me if your student does not know where/how to access the digital copy.

Novel/Unit work is posted below with deadlines and/or dates that we completed the task in class. Please refer to your student's planner andStudentVue/ParentVue for assignments. If your student is missing work, you'll find it below in the "Assignments" section of this page. Most all are download-able PDFs or Word Docs, with a few URL links to be completed online. If internet access is an issue, please have your student print the assignment from school and take it home with them to be completed.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend-

Miss Rainwater

•December 9th

Winter break is just around the corner!

Since I last updated, we have finished our first novel study of the book "Weasel" and are now moving onto analyzing how Native Americans were treated by the U.S. Government. We will also be looking at how land was a powerful motivator to both sides. We have watched a PBS documentary on the Shawnee Indian tribe and how their chief, Tecumsah, brought together several individual tribes to create a pan-Indian resistance in the early 1800s. Next, we examined the U.S. Government's reaction to Native Americans and learned about Native American boarding schools. Yesterday, students were able to take their learning and connect it with the current events unraveling in North Dakota with the Sioux Tribe, Standing Rock and the Dakota Access Pipeline.Finally, we engaged in a verbal philosophical chair activity that asked the fundamental question: Who is in the right:DAPL or the Sioux tribe?

Next week, students will have the opportunity to step into someone else's shoes and imagine what it is like to have such a special, meaningful place threatened. We will be working on our first narrative essayand writing from a Native American's perspective as to why Standing Rock is such a sacred, powerful place to them. Students will have ample time in class to brainstorm, create, revise and finalize their essays, which will be due on Friday, December 16th. It is my hope that students use their class time wisely so that they do not enter into Winter Break with homework from humanities! (However, if the essay is not completed in class, it will need to be finished at home during break and emailed to me via GoogleDocs)

** On December 16th, we will be celebrating our impending Winter Break with a class potluck and movie. If your family is able to contribute a nut-free snack to share with the class, that would be most welcome and appreciated! **

October 21

Thank you for taking the time to come visit during conferences! It was wonderful to get to meet so many of you!

We wrapped up our unit focusing on the Power of Me and We, as well as the unit about Elements of Maps. This week we dug into the book "Encounter", a story about the initial encounter between the Taino tribe and Christopher Columbus. Students have been digging into history and considering this event from the perspective of the Native tribes-people, and have been flexing their creative muscles by writing poems and letters while taking on the persona of a historical figure. I have been impressed by all of the creative and perceptive thinking!

Next week, all 6th grade Humanities classes will dive further into the history of our country by exploring the Indian Removal Act and speeches given throughout the tenure of Andrew Jackson's presidency. Students will be reading maps, examining primary source documents, and guided web-quests exploring the Cherokee Trail of Tears, in addition to a guest speaker sharing about their Cherokee roots and experience with Native American land claims.

In addition to this rich content, next week students with signed permission slips will be bringing home District-issued Chromebooks. The kids are really excited about this exciting responsibility and new opportunity! Please contact the counseling office if you haven't yet returned a technology contract for your student yet-- we don't want anyone left behind!

I would also appreciate your help this week reviewing grades with your student. Many students are falling into a common 6th grade trap of failing to complete classwork and turn it in for a grade. Additionally, several students have chosen not to review their notes prior to quizzes. This has resulted in failing grades for several students.

All of my grading is current-- all late work, missing work, and current assignments are graded and entered into the gradebook. Please review StudentVue/ParentVue or Blackboard with your student. They will benefit greatly from encouragement to complete their work and study for quizzes! (With a two-week window to turn in missing work and still receive credit, and no retakes for quizzes, it is absolutely critical to student success to stay on top of their daily classwork and make sure to review notes prior to a quiz!) This three-day weekend is an ideal opportunity for students to focus on catching up on missing work without being overwhelmed by late/missing work and daily work all at the same time.

Thank you for your support! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend-

Miss Rainwater

•September 23rd

We're three weeks in now, and students are starting to feel a bit more settled in their new routines. We spent the first two weeks of class focusing on personal identity and what contributes to shaping the people we are, and then focused on what it means to be a community with shared purpose and responsibility to each other. I am incredibly proud of the work that the 6th grade students did reflecting on their experiences and laying a strong foundation for moving forward as a class!

Additionally, we finished our first round of MAPS testing. This is a helpful tool for me in better understanding the present levels of each student, and help me teach each student well. I'm thankful to have this valuable information, but am even more excited to be done and moving on to our next unit!

Your student should have brought home a district technology agreement on Thursday evening. Please read through this information with your child, and make sure that your student understands the responsibility that comes along with the gift of personal use of technology. Please sign and return these forms prior to October 10 in order to have a Chromebook assigned to your student.

As you may have noticed, grades are current on StudentVue/ParentVue and Blackboard, so you'll always know how your student is doing in class. (Grading is done promptly for work turned in when it is due, while late-work will be gradedas time is available through the week.) Now is a wonderful time to review grades with your sixth grader-- what's working? what needs to change?-- in order to ensure a successful year.

Thank you so much! Wishing you and your family a restful weekend soaking in the beauty of the fall season!

•September 16th

This week was the first full week of school and the students are still adjusting to middle school life. We completed our first mini unit "The Power of Me & We" by defining the term community, recognizing our class as a community and formulating a shared goal we all want to work towards for this school year. It's a powerful and veryimportant piece of classroom management- realizing we are all working towards the same goal and clearly defining exactly what that goal is. It's equally asimportant that families be made aware of not justourhumanities shared goal, but the shared goals of our school. Below you will find the 6th grade student learning goal,the high school readiness goal (what we hope students willhave achieved by the time they graduate 8th grade) and the communitygoal (what we hope students are feeling when they are here at CVMS).

•- 6th Grade Foundation Goal: Students will read and comprehend complex text using higher order, critical thinking skills.

•- High School Readiness Goal: Students will exhibit academic behaviors linked to college and career readiness, including self-awareness, self-monitoring and self-advocacy.

•- Community Goal: Our goal is that every student who entersthe building feels loved, respected & confident that theyhave a special place inthe school.

We are still fine-tuning ourhumanities goal, but I will post it once we finalize it! Ask yourstudent about goals and see what their opinions are community, goals and shared responsibility!

•September 9th

Starting next week grades will be kept current through ParentVue so you'll always know how your student is doing in class. (Grading is done promptly for work turned in when it is due, while latework will be gradedas time is available through the week. Also, all student grades for 'Language Arts' and "Social Studies' will be recorded under one class listing in ParentVue. Our teaching is a completely integrated Humanities model, and combined grading of work reflects this.)All other class resources, including copies of assignments/duedates andweeklyupdates, can be found on the website. I won't send weekly remindersto visit the website-- I don't want to clog your emails!

Lastly, please help me remind your student to bring a novel to school next week. We're kicking off our regular schedule, and will have a time for sustained silent reading. I appreciate your help!

~ Miss Rainwater