1. If you wanted to send your children to the best schools in the world where the pursuit of scientific thought was considered the highest form of learning - then Islamic schools from Spain to Baghdad would offer your children courses in chemistry, botany, Greek and Roman philosophers, as well as legal systems from around the world, just to start.
2. If you had the money and wanted the most advanced medical care, or to live in cities with modern hospitals, libraries, museums, schools, and universities, then Medieval Islamic civilization between the 800 - 1200s was the apex of civilization that offered the highest standard of living in contrast to other areas of the world at the time.
3. There is much to unravel as we study Islamic Civilization, as well as try to understand the rise of modern Islamic nationalism, fundamentalism, and for a very minute part of the Islamic world population, the radicalism that seems to flood our headlines.
In Language Arts 7 we will start to compile our writing portfolio and use this process to create student centered work throughout the rest of the year.
We will continue on to our next novel, The Outsiders, which examines the mid 60s in Oklahoma through the eyes of the hero who lives with his older brothers after his parents died in an accident.
As part of our writing portfolio we will pursue two different avenues this month:
1. Examine poetic forms through a packet that I use that offers a variety of forms and perspectives on theme and voice.
2. Start to build the persuasive essay through research into the I-search/We-search project.
- Develop research and note taking strategies
- Build a complex argument in support of one side of a controversial topic
- Write a research paper
- Learn to speak extemporaneously about this topic
- Optional - work with a partner to create a presentation to demonstrate in depth understanding of the topic through the efforts of two students
3. In grammar we will start to focus on paragraph building strategies.
No comments:
Post a Comment