Trying on Character Traits

We’ve been reading The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo. While being on the challenging side for many of my ELL students, we’ve become totally engrossed with the characters and storyline she’s weaving.

As we read, we continue adding to our character trait wall and  building theories about the characters.  What’s interesting is that the characters are so complex, and it’s awesome to watch as the kids analyze their motivations and personalities as the book progresses. This book really is a page turner, and gives us great strategies to use as we work on developing our own characters in our writing. Happy reading!

Ms. Rachel Gabbert

Get ready, it’s Bazaar Day!

Now for the most fun day of the year! Bazaar day! Every year, American Collegiate Institute and SEV Elementary and Middle School team up for one, giant, service project known as Bazaar day. This year, the students raised money for a children’s hospital called Izmir Hasta Cocuk Evleri, to help fund operations for children in need.

In our advisory, we did more research into the who and what. What needs do we see in the community? Ok, sick children. How can we help them? How can we research and gather information about who and what already help them?   Oh, this hospital? How can we best help the children in this hospital? In other words, I was trying to align my Cathy Berger Kaye Service Learning approach with the canned edict from our school “You have to sell something and it’s going to go to charity.” Baby steps. (Side note, if you haven’t tried Cathy Berger Kaye’s MISO method for research, you should check it out. It’s awesome).

We wanted to maximize our time and minimize our effort, so we decided on a raffle. We ended up making 304TL to donate towards the childrens hospital. We hope to have plans to visit the children for whom we raised money, and to continue working together in the future. Overall, it was a fun, successful day for all of us.

What you’ve all been waiting for: The English Fair!

Portfolio day! Learning Journeys! Exhibition Unit! Combined!

This was what the English fair turned out to be. And it was AWESOME! For each major project in the semester, we worked to make a process presentation. Was it a documentary? Was it a presentation? Was it a bulletin board? The kids decided their mode of presentation and got to work documenting the learning, the steps, and the work behind  the project. The students then chose their favorite project to present at the English fair in the end of March.

The community of parents, teachers, and friends were invited to the middle school to participate in this event. Over 350 people came to take part in the learning. It was sheer madness, sheer inspiration, and sheer excitement around every corner. The kids were able to reflect on and showcase their best work, and the community ate it up!

Our awesome colleague and docu-wizard Doğukan compiled an incredible video showcasing the collective learning of the students. Enjoy!

Ms. Rachel Gabbert

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Reader’s Theater

At the end of our Charlie and the Chocolate factory unit, we focused on demonstrating our understanding of fluency through a reader’s theater project.  We asked questions like, “What do good oral readers do? What makes an oral reader interesting and understandable? What do good readers have to pay attention to?”

The kids worked through the questions together, and decided on some important descriptors of good readers. We then clarified and grouped these characteristics as accuracy, expression, pacing, and phrasing.  The next step was to choose one scene from the play we had read and performed as a class and in small groups. They practiced the scene, paying close attention to the areas we determined. They then staged the scene, choosing their characters and set. The final projects were creative and a blast to watch.

We hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoyed creating them!

Sincerely,

Ms. Rachel Gabbert