Week 9 -- Yanomami mythology

Mythology remains on center stage for us this week. On Tuesday, we got our first look at our section of the annual all-school play. Our section is an adaptation of two Yanomamo myths. One tells the tale of humans stealing the secret of fire from the mouth of a great caiman, the other explains the concept of Moon’s blood. We read through the script as a class, then spent the next day making note of striking imagery in the tales (there’s plenty), as well as the clues that reveal aspects of the values of the Yanomamo culture.

We also did this exercise after a birthday-inspired viewing of the Twilight Zone episode “After Hours.” There’s plenty of striking imagery in that as well, and we examined what messages we could discern from from what we found funny and/or unnerving.

These studies are all culminating with an examination of our own culture here at Summers-Knoll. What values do we share? What customs do we have? What are useful lessons that our community passes on? We brainstormed a giant list of these along with a list of striking, Summers-Knoll related imagery. Students are now working on creating myths that incorporate some sort of S-K cultural belief or story, punctuated with striking imagery that will help reinforce the tale. If we start hearing strange stories trickling through the various homerooms in the weeks ahead, we’ll know that we’ve been successful.

We created a huge list of striking imagery and cultural values related to Summers-Knoll. This is part of it. 

Bora choosing how we will celebrate his birthday. 

Our journal prompt for the week

Math got off to an exciting start this week with our annual school Halloween parade. By the time we had marched to County Farm Park and back while admiring and showing off our costumes, there wasn’t much time for math. Instead, we watched a brief episode of the “educational” series Look Around You. Ask your child about “Maths,” and at what point they realized their math teacher was pulling their leg. The remaining days this week were devoted to Singapore work.

Hodge Podge: Week 8 in review

This was an excellent year for Eco-Fair/Homemade Halloween costumes! 

It is impossible to adequately convey everything that happens each week, which is why a lot of blog posts lately have focused on one aspect of our work. This week, I decided to try to capture a smattering of what happens from day-to-day.

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The first thing we do each Monday is attend an all-school assembly. Each week, a different homeroom is responsible for sharing something with the entire school. This helps keep our community connected with all of the interesting and exciting things that are happening around the school. This week, Spencer's group talked about projects that they're working on. The morning assemblies are only about fifteen minutes, so if you have time to spare at drop-off on a Monday, come join us! (Our class is up to lead on Monday, November 23rd.) 

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In my Math group, we spent much of the week discussing the concept of multiplication. Many of us learned the "standard algorithm," but not necessarily how or why it worked. Some of us might not have even understood that there are, in fact, many different ways to multiply numbers. 

The "standard algorithm"

Our group spent the week learning and evaluating other methods of multiplication (and also firmed up our understanding of the standard algorithm). 

The Lattice method is one that is also frequently taught. It's fairly similar to the standard algorithm, but it breaks it down into slightly smaller steps. Take a look: 

Reviews were mixed at first on this method, but once mastered, it was generally appreciated. 

Compare that with this method, which is very cool and enticing:



Everyone was instantly captivated by this one. The video above is silent (a reminder: embedded videos sometimes don't show up in the email version of this blog. Check the web version of this blog if you don't see a fascinating video of someone drawing lines to multiply above), below are two videos with verbal explanations: 

This method received high marks at first for smaller numbers, but the grouping aspect of it quickly became unwieldy for many of us with larger numbers. Many found the counting aspect of it to be laborious with larger numbers. 


Finally, here's a really cool method with many names, including Egyptian multiplication, Ethiopian multiplication, Russian multiplication, or peasant multiplication.

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Back in homeroom, we began a read aloud called Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan. The book is historical fiction, beginning in Mexico in 1926, and moving to the United States during the 1930s. In the first few days of reading, we've had conversations about social class, the Mexican Revolution, the customs and laws of inheritance ("wait, why can't Esperanza's mother inherit the land!?"), which lead all the way back to the Magna Carta. 

We'll be getting into migrant and immigration issues, the notion of organized labor, discrimination, and more. 

The book benefits from a decent grasp of North American geography, and after a brief pre-assessment, we decided as a group that we desperately needed some work on this front. 

Ella and Bora work to label their US maps. 

Completely unrelated, but I think it's funny, so here's Bora confronting Zombie Ella. 

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Of course, the highlight of the week for many was Eco-Fair/Homemade Halloween. There was a strong showing of costumes this year, both in our class and across the school! 

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We also did some writing, learned about simile and metaphor, worked with Scholastic News, made progress in our electives, had a rehearsal for the upcoming play, made Mason jar heart pump models in Science, worked on Music Cafe songs, and plenty of other stuff. A busy week!