Preparing for the Last Weeks of the School Year: May 15 to 21 on ReadWriteThink

The school year is soon coming to a close. Students will make their way to summer camps, family vacations, and nearby pools and parks. Before you face that room of empty desks, spend a few minutes thinking about the resource that worked best for you this year, make plans to reflect with students on all you’ve done during the year and encourage families to keep students learning during the summer months. Check out the calendar entries, lesson plans, and classroom activities below for this week and the approaching last weeks of the school year on the ReadWriteThink site. Have a great week!

New Resources

• Create digital scrapbooks to reflect on the story year with the grades 6–8 lesson Making Memories: An End-of-Year Scrapbook.
• Celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month with lessons and activities from Thinkfinity.org.
• Explore lessons and activities about the Freedom Riders and challenge your students’ thinking about race relations in the 1960s vs. today.
• Make the most of summer. Use the Verizon Thinkfinity resources to kick off a summer of learning for students.

From the Calendar

• May 16: The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929. Students make lists of their favorite and least favorite movies and brainstorm qualities that make a film good or bad. Next, students write a movie review for a film they have seen. (For grades 5–12)
• May 18: Raymond Carver was inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1988. Students identify characteristics of Carver’s work and compare them to other authors, as well as to literary minimalism. Students then write original poems or short stories in minimalist style. (For grades 7–12)
• May 19: Malcolm X was born in Nebraska in 1925. Students write about the origin of their name and explore the names that Malcolm X used during this life. (For grades 5–12)
• May 20: Charles Lindbergh began his transatlantic flight in 1927. Students consider what is meant by the phrase “Human Hero,” think of people who fit into the category, and read a biography of a selected hero. (For grades 3–12)
• Look ahead to next week for lesson plans and activities on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the Brooklyn Bridge, astronaut Sally Ride, and authors Ralph Waldo Emerson, Scott O’Dell, and Rachel Carson.

Connecting with Other Teachers

• As a teacher, how do you inspire students to learn more during the summer? Share your ideas on the Thinkfinity Community.
• Follow, friend, and connect with all the Thinkfinity partners with this collection of links to where to find us online.
• The end of the school year is fast approaching. What do you do in the classroom to help students mark their accomplishments—and keep them focused on the work that remains?
• What resource rocked your classroom this year? Share a resource that most surprised you and sample a few that other teachers have shared.

If you have feedback or questions about ReadWriteThink, all you have to do is contact us.

 

[Photo: More empty classroom stuff, UMBC by sidewalk flying, on Flickr]