NEW !! : Welcome
to Room 20 at Piedmont (Presentation Below) OR View as a PDF
file | Presentation
Mr. Curry's 6th Grade
Language Arts/Social Studies Class
Piedmont
Middle School
955 Piedmont
Road, San Jose, CA
95132
Berryessa Union School District
Technologically Enriched
Cooperative Learning
Standards Based Project Based Learning
Welcome to 6th
Grade.
View
our new GooglePage and our Class Wiki
View a Power Point Slideshow about our Classroom
Procedures
(If you do not
have power
point on your computer, you can download the free power point player here
) See our web page for Class
Procedures, Rules and Parent Communication
We will also be using Cooperative
Learning
activities throughout the school year and across the curriculum
to enhance student learning and self-esteem.
Share Photos and use for
projects
Sample for use on unit
on child
poverty
Creating A Better World
Project. Starting in November, student groups will be
exploring
problems in the world today such as Child Poverty, modern day slavery,
gun violence, drug addiction and many other possibilities.
Students
will choose a problem, research it and then do a class presentation on
the issue, using the photo resources of www.FlickR.com in their Power
Points. The groups will include ways in which we can all do
things to
help encourage resolution of the problems. While
this project is part of
Social Studies, it will incorporate Language Arts Expository and
Persuasive writing standards as well as standards for Oral Language and
Listening
Project websites for each group will be created by the students which
will feature their group Presentations. The projects will be
presented in mid-January as we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. and
recommitt ourselves to his dream of a better world.
During the week prior to Thanksgiving break, students will create a
Thanksgiving poem as a single slide power point, which we will then
save as a jpeg image file and post on a special website.
During
October, student cooperative learning groups created a collaborative
Halloween themed story as a Power Point presentation.
Students
have finished and
uploaded their cooperative learning groups Halloween
Short Scary
Story which they created as a Power Point.
The finished projects can
be viewed at our Harvey
site.
Below are a few examples of a project we
didlast year and will again do in the Spring, integrating writing and
technology. Haiku
Project
Also,
students will write narrative stories and make short films or power
point shows. We will do this in October in time for
Halloween as part of our Scary Story Project
. See an example
of student work.
During
Trimester 2, we will focus on expository writing, including a "how to"
assignment. See a delightful example of how to make a Strawberry
Smoothie.
Samples below of just a few of the
many Project Based Learning units we do each year.
In May-June,
student teams created a narrative story about
traveling through the various civilizations we have learned about this
year. They then created either a Power Point or an
i-Movie chronicling their journey through time. Example
This was our
culminating project for the year.
Some Great websites related to our 6th
Grade Curriculum
Besides
the Travel
through Time group
projects, students will choose one other individual or 2 person project
to work on, mostly at home.
Those
projects may
include:
An illustrated Greek or Roman Myth
(see links
below)
or a Power Point version of a myth
A model of a significant Greek or
Roman building
A biography of an historically
important person
of
the Greek and Roman eras (Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Alexander,
Pericles, Ptolemy, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Marc Anthony,
etc.) in either written form or as a power point presentation.
A replica art work of the Greek or
Roman era
(Such as
the art work uncovered in Pompeii)
Creating an Architectural Model Students
can create a model of an architecturally important Greek or Roman
building. Web
Link
During
the first trimester, students will use art to create visual
representations of cave
art and or facsimilies of ancient artifacts.
During Trimester 2,
students will do either a detailed research paper/creative project on
one of the ancient civilizations we study in 6th grade OR chose a
modern country to do a report on. Students will then present
their project orally using their presentation media in front of the
class. See our Country
Report Project Site and examples of outstanding student-made Power Pointand Web
Site Reports which were developed after
the research paper was completed..
PDF
file | 
Presentation
Travel
Through Time Project
During Trimester 2,
students will do either a detailed research paper/creative project on
one of the ancient civilizations we study in 6th grade OR chose a
modern country to do a report on. Students will then present
their project orally using their presentation media in front of the
class. See our 
