Cluster 1 Newsletter

Hello,

I hope all of your students had a relaxing April vacation week. We are in the homestretch of the school year with under 40 days left in the year. We are quickly moving through our curriculum and just started Unit 7 on Positive and Negative Numbers this week. We will be describing locations on the number line using positive and negative numbers. Then we will compare and order positive and negative numbers and absolute values. Next, the focus will move to representing inequalities using symbols, words, and graphs while identifying solutions to inequalities. At the end of the unit, we will solve problems by graphing points with positive and negative coordinates.

Here is a useful link to the Unit 7 Desmos Family Resource which focuses on Positive & Negative Numbers. This helpful resource will enable caregivers to learn about our content and concepts while supporting their students.

Thank you,

Ms. Palermo

Our Eclipse Party was a hit! Thank you to everyone who came out - We had a blast!

This month, students have been working on visualizing the Sun-Moon-Earth system, building models and looking at simulations to understand the phenomena of phases, eclipses and tides.

Looking forward, we will be going back in time to the start of the Universe, to check out the Big Bang Theory! We will wrap up your Astronomy discussion through modeling and graphing our expanding Universe.

After that, it’s on to fossils and Pangaea!

Unit 6.3 Sub-Saharan Africa

Essential Questions

1. What evidence and methods help social scientists understand Africa’s past, and how does point of view affect their interpretations?

2. How much do people shape their environment and how much does the environment shape people?

3. What makes a society stronger, preserving tradition or adapting to change?

4. How do societies organize themselves to distribute power or resources?

Enduring Understandings

Students will begin to understand:

1. Africa’s complex societies engaged with oral and/or written literacies to preserve knowledge and pass along beliefs, creating continuity. At the same time, societies of ancient Africa showed notable flexibility to adapt to new influences. Many African societies contributed to and benefited from exchanges with other world regions and with neighboring and distant societies inside the continent. Openness fostered developments in art, religion, language & material culture, among others.
   
   

2. A diverse array of societies flourished in ancient Africa, characterized by distinct forms of organization and governance. In many societies known to historians, the power of leaders was moderated by communities’ ethical and religious traditions and the influence of social and occupational groups. Urban, agricultural, and localized societies were part of the mosaic in every region and affected one another.

Learning Targets:

1. Explain the point of view in three interpretations of Africa’s ancient history.

2. Analyze the characteristics of four complex societies of ancient Africa by applying relevant questions to four sets of primary and secondary sources and composing short answers.

3. Analyze the characteristics of four complex societies of ancient Africa by applying relevant questions to four sets of primary and secondary sources and composing short answers.

4. Explain and compare the characteristics of ancient societies in sub-Saharan Africa by citing evidence in a written paragraph.

5. Describe written and oral traditions of literacy in several societies of ancient Africa and analyze, in verbal and written responses, the power of scribes and storytellers.

6. Describe written and oral traditions of literacy in several societies of ancient Africa and analyze, in verbal and written responses, the power of scribes and storytellers.

7. Analyze civic values from diverse African societies by interpreting evidence from the oral tradition.

8. Analyze and make a judgment about the contributions of specialized occupational roles in ancient West African societies by applying questions to probe sources.

9. Analyze and make a judgment about the contributions of specialized occupations in ancient West African societies by applying questions to probe sources.

10. Argue a position about an occupational specialty of ancient West African societies by citing evidence to create a praise poem.