but also:

1.  Social Studies:  this is where your focus should be for the rest of the term. The graphic organizer we started this week (four words to describe your person, etc.) is due Tuesday.  If you lost it or forgot to bring it home, a copy can be found here: graphic organizer.  Use this document to help guide your thinking about the work below.

Review the project outline for the African-American History Altered Book project: SOCIALS African American History project.  Please note the changes we discussed in class: the required elements are now Cover, Timeline, Story, Poem, Bibliography; all other items are solely for extension.

Pay close attention to the final pages about Applied Design – this is where we are at now.  In your comp books or in a stapled together prototype, draft out your altered book. Remember that each page of an altered book should be a finished piece of art.  Think about words, objects, layering, balance, color, and mood.  The juice is in the details.  If you have neglected to research altered book techniques, hop to it!

Things to think carefully about and to do quick sketches of before your doing your drafts:

What form will your timeline take?  Vertical on one page?  Horizontal across a two-page spread?  Spiral?  Other?  It’s your choice, just so long as you are meeting all of the criteria as described in the timeline section of the outline.

How will you tell your story?  Essay?  Storybook?  Pop-up?  Abstract collage? Other?  Will you tell the whole story of your person’s life or go into depth about a particularly important moment?  How can you capture the essence of your person and share the big ideas, important details, ethical issues, and how they broke the established rules governing society and/or their field of work?

Poem – will you do a blackout poem or cut and paste? 

If you do not yet have a book to alter, I strongly suggest going to a used book store or checking out the sale shelves at your local library.  Remember: hard cover, stitched binding, visible signatures, not too thin or small.   I only have about a dozen books to give away; it is much better to have a book that you have personally chosen than to have to work with a book you that has been forced upon you by the Random Deck of Terror.

If you have a book, begin to look for the pages that you will use for your platforms. Look for interesting words or images that can help support your theme.  Put a sticky note on the pages you think you’d like to use.

Remember: you have a responsibility to the person whom you have invested so much time in getting to know to tell their story with respect, care, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail.

2. Goals: you should have created a key/legend for the two tasks you are going to do daily and the one task you will do weekly in order to work toward your social-emotional goal.  The legend goes into the empty boxes in the bottom right of the February calendar.  Your job this weekend is to enter your code/abbreviation into each day of the remaining dates in February (starting Tuesday, February 14) and all of March.  This is due Tuesday.

3.  Math.  Grade 7s, your assessment on Circles, Triangles, Parallelograms, and Circle Graphs is on Tuesday.  Grade 6s: those of you who were working on the lesson about perimeter, that work is due Tuesday, too.

4.  Lit Circles.  Remember what we learned this week about the value of coming to your meeting armed with thought-provoking ideas and deep thinking, based on textual evidence, and the importance of building off others’ ideas in order to create a rich, flowing discussion.  Remember, too, the revised schedule due to the short week:

                    –  Wednesday: One Crazy Summer and Chains
                    – Thursday: March and To Kill a Mockingbird 

5.  Tell each member of your family something you like about them.

6.  Tell yourself something that you like about yourself.

And finally, because no one demanded it: