SOOO, the end is near!
This next week in Life Science will be devoted to working on the lapbook. Students will be expected to work diligently in class... there has been a LOT of talking and disruption the last few weeks :) so I will be grading student conduct and participation over the next three days of class. 15 points per day--These points will be a large part of their participation grade for the semester. On a positive note, most students have done a REALLY good job on their lapbook men so far! I have posted complete instructions for the lapbook on the Documents page, and students are welcome to work at home on their project as much as they want. It is worth 108 points. Much--if not all--the information they need is available from their homework questions, lab worksheet pages, in class handouts, and Powerpoint slides, so take advantage of those. A few diagrams are in the textbook too. They should not need to scour the internet or outside resources for anything. Also, 9 students did not turn in the final chapter of homework, Chapter 23, so please get that in before the end of school--it is worth 31 points.
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This week in class, we had Dr. Nordberg and Dr. Darrow come to teach us about CPR and life-saving mindsets. They were fabulous, and I am so thankful for their time!
Homework is chapter 22, Nervous System, due Monday. There will be no homework officially assigned next week, so If students want to get ahead and finish Chapter 23 as well (Health), they will finish the textbook for the rest of the year! Don't forget the vocabulary :) Lab worksheets are almost finished, grading-wise. Please encourage your students to do those well during class time. Some are poorly done. Some students are opening their books but just chatting and putting off doing the work. If they get home and have trouble, or are missing what they need--or if they are overwhelmed with other assignments--they don't finish the pages. The benefit of the lab worksheets is that they reinforce all the important concepts, body parts, and functions they read about in the text, and are worth a good number of participation points.... so encourage them to make good use of class time. I will be checking labs one more time before the school year is over. Final Test Grade is going to be another lapbook instead of exams. This one will be worth at least 100 points and will summarize all the human bodily systems that we have been working on. Students will be making a cut-out man with bodily system drawings that go on top of him. All the important organs, structures, and processes will then be written out and included on the side. I will also have them create some more templates for structures that are not easily diagrammed (ear, eye, heart, brain, skin...) We began this process on Monday, but some students were absent for standardized testing so I wanted to give you the heads up that they will need to work on this at home sometime before May. I have the Man Template up on this website, and the list of organs they need to draw. Most diagrams are very well drawn in the textbook, lab manual, or they can use the Internet for help. Points will be given for neatness and accuracy, so organs need to be drawn and colored carefully. We will work on them in class during the last week and a half of school, and all lapbooks will be due at the end of the last day of class (or before, if you desire). Quick Update:
Quick Update:
Details: CLASS: Monday's class time was spent doing lab worksheets, Chapter 17A-D. I handed out an extra credit worksheet near the end, which students were allowed to work on in class on Wed. We also did Lab 17E together on Wednesday. Then I handed out directions on the lapbook assignment and showed some samples. We began the project, and I asked students to print out the templates they wanted from home (if possible). They will need these, scissors, glue, markers or other coloring tools, all next week in class. NOTE: While I want them to use the textbook while creating their project, only partial credit will be given for using pencil and copying definitions or information right out of the textbook. I really want them to go beyond the minimum here. On the other hand, they should not be taking the project home to type it up, print/paste professional diagrams, etc. Just help me encourage your students to focus during class time. It can be tempting to just sit and talk in groups, and to push off the work given, to do later at home. But if students work well during class, they should be able to cut, color, and paste away in class...and not have to do any homework. I have allotted 200 minutes for this assignment, total :) HOMEWORK: We are skipping Chapter 18. Chapter 19 questions are posted online, and they will be due right after Spring Break. If students want no homework over their vacation, they are welcome to work ahead now... We will be studying the human body until the end of the year! Yes!! No quizzes on the horizon. GRADES: Midterm grades will be coming out soon. Most students have been doing well, and we have had a lot of bonus point opportunities so far to cover any disappointing quizzes, etc. A portion of the class has been lax during lab time, and not completed the lab pages well/at all. This will be reflected in their participation grade, as will distractibility in general. A few have also missed the vocabulary parts of the homework this semester. Overall, though, most students are doing well, and no work missed due to sickness will be counted against them. You are more than welcome to contact me to discuss their grade further after I send them out. Quick Things:
Details: Quiz: The quiz on Wednesday went well. I did not curve it (or the last two quizzes) because I've had a perfect score and several close to perfect scores in each batch. But do not worry if your test scores are not as high as you'd like. The chapters are going relatively fast, and it is more important to just stay on top of the homework and the labs/worksheets we're doing in class. This unit on animals has been really fun, too! Homework: We are skipping Chapter 16 and moving onto 17, which will ensure that we get through the textbook this year. Chapter 17 homework will be due on Monday, Feb 26. Most students are getting into a rhythm with the vocabulary, but a handful are still forgetting that part. You want to make sure they are getting those words either handwritten, typed up, or put on cards along with their chapter homework questions. Vocabulary work is considered part of the homework grade and is worth quite a number of points--sometimes half or as much as the textbook questions. Note about labs: Some students are skimping on their lab manuals as well. I am grading these this semester--which I did not do last semester--to motivate students to stay focused in class on lab days. We do almost all of these worksheets out loud together, or in small groups on lab days, but students are always welcome to take them home to finish up as homework. This week, they were responsible for making sure 15A, 15B, 15C, 15D, 15G were completed, with 15F done at home with a parental signature (the back of 15A was extra credit). I checked books the other day and very few students are really taking the time to do those well/completely. So if you could help me encourage them to do that, it will not only boost their grade but it will help them get the most out of the class. Just as a reminder, my late policy is to take off 25% of points when work is completed late, but it is still worth doing after the fact if your child is missing lots of points. No deduction is made when homework is late due to sickness or excused absence--they can turn it in at any time, or you can work out with me the ability to skip work completely if they have had prolonged sickness. I totally understand that this winter has been crazy!! Coming up: If your student wants to work ahead, they can work on Chapter 19 for homework, which will be due the Monday after Spring Break, Mar 19. (We are skipping chapter 18 too.) If they work ahead in this way, they could have no homework over the break. Also coming up: is a new class activity: we're going to create a lapbook! This Monday we will do some lab worksheets to discuss the content of Chapter 17, and then students will be asked to summarize key concepts visually, in a lapbook/folderbook. For those who have never done one before, no worries: I have created a worksheet with basic directions (now on the Documents page under Chapter 17), and shown them a few examples in class already. I am asking that students bring their Textbook, scissors, glue/paste, and any other artistic elements they want (markers...) this week, so they can work on this project in class. They are certainly welcome to take it home too, if they want to work extra! If you could help me out by downloading/printing some of the templates they would like to use, that would help me save a LOT of paper/ink. I have included these templates on the Document page as well, and it is worth going through and pre-selecting some you like. I will have some templates in class, but with 25 students, I just can't provide enough for all of them Each student will need between 3 and 12 templates, depending on the way they want to summarize the information. I would suggest 5-6. (Or they can design their own, if they'd like to. My boys preferred that since they love origami.) The lapbook is going to be worth 30 points, and take the place of a quiz grade before Spring Break begins. I will be awarding up to 10 extra credit points for going beyond the minimum--for extra quality, effort, and neatness. Quick update:
Monday's class was great. We started Chapter 14 on Birds and Mammals.
I spent some time updating this website, especially the calendar, so you would all know what was going on in February. I also updated the Excel calendar at the bottom of that page. I was sick for a week, as were many other students, so some quizzes and assignments were shuffled around. I apologize for any confusion! The updates for today are:
Today, we reviewed a lot of the information we've been learning, as well as introduced the upcoming chapter, by doing an in-class activity on Vertebrate Classification. Students broke up into small groups to organize animal features into the correct categories. They then recorded this information into a chart. Some of this was meant to review information they needed for the upcoming quiz, which we took immediately following. Students should complete Chapter 14 homework for Monday. Don't forget the vocabulary work which needs to be written/typed, or put on flashcards which can be turned into me in class. Quiz on chapter 13 (fish, amphibians, reptiles) is Wednesday! Make sure your student brings their flashcards, if they did not already turn them into me!
Today we moved classrooms to #201, and it was really fun. Everyone was a great sport about it :) |
AuthorMrs. Riddle teaches Life Science, Biology, and Earth Science at Brighton Academy for 2017-2018. She homeschools four children and has 10 years of co-op teaching experience. Her family is part of Radiant Church in Overland Park, KS. Archives
May 2018
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