Hello from Language Arts at Menlo Bridge! This summer, the students have been working hard on writing summaries of and responses to informational articles. They've been learning to write with a formal structure by using a thought-out topic sentence, supporting details, clear examples, and a conclusion in each paragraph. In order to inspire this kind of writing, the students get to read interesting articles about history, science and their peers. For example. this week, they've read articles about the construction of The Great Wall of China, volcanoes, and trading cards. The students really connected with story about The Great Wall of China. T.A.s Alex Villafuerte and Gabe Huey drew a massive (but not quite life-sized!) "Great Wall" on the white board, and the students illustrated the rest of the article. The process of making this visual proved to aid a lot of students in understanding the information and connecting it back to their lives. Over the course of the discussion, a debate ensued: Some of the students became outspoken on behalf of justice, asking how an emperor could justify so many people dying in order to construct something that was supposed to protect his country, while others felt that the wall protected more people than it hurt and is a lasting addition to the world.
It is exciting to see the students enthusiastic about gaining knowledge through reading and conveying their understanding of this new knowledge through writing.