Session 5 Week 4 in Review

Elementary Studio

Welcome to Week 4 of Session 5! This week the whole school came together to think through deep books! Andres, a high school learner, kicked off our week by leading a Socratic launch to share his tips and tricks related to deep books! On Wednesday and Friday, the Guides hosted breakout rooms to focus on writing pitches, writing reviews, and selecting books to help learners make progress with their deep books badge. In the breakout rooms, learners were able to receive more tips and tricks from the Guides and other learners, share their work to receive real-time feedback on ways to improve their work, or answer curious questions from other learners.In Quest, elementary learners merged with high school learners to participate in an environmentalism debate! All learners were divided into 2 preservationist teams, 2 conservationist teams, and 2 high school panelists. During the first round, teams debated against each other and the winner had the opportunity to debate against the opposing team. The winner of the final round, conservationist vs. preservationist, will get to create their very own Socratic launch and challenge on Monday of week five! Congratulations to David, Santino, and Sawyer, for debating on the conservationist side, and winning the final round!In Story Arts, we continued discussing writers’ rooms, focusing on interior designs! During our discussion, we thought, through what some essentials might be for a writers' room to help prepare for the challenge. Learners were challenged to create their very own writers’ room! Shout out to Mackenzie for creating a detailed writers’ room! She included a diverse selection of people, healthy snacks, comfortable furniture, encouraging words, and more for her writers’ room.In Civilization, our Nigerian learner (Aleem) was an impromptu expert while we discussed music around the world. Aleem shared a Nigerian song that he likes called “Mona Lisa”. Aleem also acted as a world-class example. Our US learners were able to see that the music we listen to around the world is different. Even though we have a wide variety of music here in the US, music around the world can be very different from our "norm". We appreciate Aleem for inviting us into his culture for this challenge!

Middle School Studio

We made it just about to the halfway point of Session 5! For such a long session, it sure is going by quickly! This week was really unique, as all three Studios met together 4 times this week for Morning Launches. We held 3 Deep Book workshops this week, where learners had a chance to join a workshop based on their current spot in their Deep Book process: choosing Deep Books, writing pitches, and reviewing Deep Books. Andres, a HS learner, led the Monday workshop with his best practices for earning Deep Book badges; Thank you, Andres!Art in Civilizations was our focus this week in Quest, with explorations into different Art Movements from 1,000 A.D. to now. Learners also viewed art artifacts from various ancient civilizations, and created an ancient art timeline to show the progression and advancement of art techniques over time.This week’s Civ was a continuation of our study on European colonization. We examined who the major colonizers were and the places they colonized. Learners then choose a region that was heavily colonized (The Americas, Africa, Southeast Asia, & Australia) to research, and looked at the effects of colonization on that region. They then shared their findings with a group, shared their notes, and discussed the similarities and differences of how colonization affected each region and their futures.Story Arts this week was all about writing! Learners started off by choosing a World Class Example of a short story to read and learn from. The choices included The Lottery, The Most Dangerous Game, To Build a Fire, The Moustache, and The Scholarship Jacket. They analyzed how the author of the World Class Example used story elements like character, setting, and plot within the short story, how they used and formatted dialogue, and how they resolved the story in such a short timeframe. Next, learners opened back up their plot diagrams from last week and began writing the first draft of their short story, which they will continue writing next week!

High School Studio

The name of the game this week in the High School studio was communication; the learner challenges focused on various forms of communication, with an emphasis on writing practice, to supplement the work learners are doing in their Essay Writing curriculum. On Monday, Andres led all three studios through a presentation on Deep Books; his tips and tricks for selecting a book, pitching a book, and reviewing a book were well-received by all learners. During our Circle on Tuesday, high school learners practiced their vulnerability and shared one thing that most people don’t know about them. All studios continued with a focus on Deep Books during Wednesday and Friday launches; learners chose mini workshops to attend based on what they needed the most assistance with: finding a deep book, pitching it, or reviewing it.The Culture Civilization unit continued this week with a focus on Music and Culture. Learners explored similarities between music traditions across the globe, then discussed the differences between dominant cultures and subcultures. Learners chose a musical subculture to research then created a mini presentation showcasing the subculture- who are its listeners? What does the music sound like? Learners included at least two clips of music in their presentations and shared their findings with the group.During Story Arts, our studio briefly went back over the basics of expository and persuasive writing, discussed how to create a good persuasive argument, then got down to work. Most learners were able to finish up their essay maps last week and begin their first draft this week. Learners were given plenty of work time to get into the flow of writing, with the suggestion to set a 15 minute timer to write, then take a 5 minute brain break, and continue until the first draft was complete. Next week, we will have a visiting expert come and provide feedback to the learners on their progress and drafts.This week’s Youth Rights Quest focused on three main topics: environmentalism, employment, and education. Elementary and high school learners worked together on Monday to learn a new skill: debate! After a brief discussion about environmentalism, learners were divided into teams and went through two rounds of debate over which was the best philosophy for saving the environment: conservation or preservation. A panel of high school learners chose our winners (congratulations to Santino, David, and Sawyer!). On Wednesday, high school learners discussed the different pros and cons of getting a job as a teenager, and compared empowering youth employment to dangerous child labor. Learners discovered what the youth employment regulations are in their state or country, and wrote a mini essay about their thoughts and opinions related to the rules. Lastly, on Friday, learners practiced even more writing, and wrote a mock letter to the superintendent of their district about why traditional education needs to change.Throughout the week, the learners got a lot of practice with writing and speaking, and just like that, we are over halfway through this session!