Getting Ready for Our Diffendoofer Day!

 In prepration for our state testing classes Clarkia through Cedars read a Dr. Seuss book, titled, "Hooray For Diffendoofer Day!"  In my previous post I wrote about the the book and the assignment our Cedars did.  This week I would like to post their responses the questions.

"Miss Bonkers made this quote: “We’ve taught you that the earth is round, that red and white make pink, and something else that matters more We’ve taught you how to think.” Discuss the meaning. Does thinking matter more? WHY or WHY NOT? How have you been taught to think this year? What strategies can you use when you must think about answers you don’t have?"

Learning to think through problems is more important because no matter what we do in the future we are always going to have to think through problems and use our brain. It is so much more important than just doing worksheets and taking notes off powerpoints. -8th grade student

If you can think, you can find a way to solve any problem. When I am faced with a problem that I don’t know the answer to, I usually try to find out more about what I need to do. -Abbey 8th grade student

Thinking is the sum of brain activity, so being able to think is more than just thought. In all classes I have learned to think. Make connections in your brain, that way your dendrites connect more, which in turn will allow you to make connections between the lobes of your brain. Think, that’s how you can learn to find answers you don’t know how to solve. -Jeremiah 8th grade student

Learning how to think through problems is more important in my opinion. This year our school has done a really good job of teaching us how to think and not just being able to answer questions on a sheet of paper but to really understand what we're doing and how to think through problems. Its very important to be able to think through problems and challenges that we might face. -Lola 8th grade student

Learning to think is important. If we don’t know how to think, we could only solve the problems that we have practiced. Like Mrs. Quinlan said, you have to know how to think critically in order to solve problems. This year, we have learned how to think. When we see problems that we don’t know, we can use the skills and knowledge that we have to solve the problem.- Chloe 8th grade student

Thinking matters more than knowing all of the facts because if you only know facts, then you could run across something that you don’t know, and get tripped up by it. I know facts, but I try to not think everything that I know is definitely right. I try to think from a questioning type of learning perspective, and thinking over what you believe and is right is a big part of that. You just have to choose what is correct to you. If we were to base all our knowledge off of what we have already discovered, than we might not try to discover new things.-Morgan 7th grade

I think that thinking matters more because it helps you to think through your decisions and to not just know but to be able to think in your own mind. I think it helps you to grow as a learner to be able to think through situations than just do something you are not sure of. I have been taught to think wisely and do what I think is right and just go for it. The strategies I use is to think of the outcomes of all possibilities and choose the best possibility. We all need to choose what we think is right. -Molly 7th grade

Dr. Seuss Week

We had a fun week celebrating the great Dr. Seuss through our dress up days, stories, and fun activities.

The Trillium discovered who Dr. Seuss was and his job as an author and illustrator.  Then we read Fox and Socks and found rhyming pairs.  We had a great time making up rhymes.

The Huckleberries read, Oh, Say Can You Say and also worked on creating rhyming pairs.  We discussed our favorite rhymes from our Dr. Seuss books and then worked on fun coloring activities.

The Clarkia classes had lively discussions about how our land has changed over time since the Oregon Trail days.  We read The Lorax and what purposes Dr. Seuss may have had for writing a book like this.  Did he see our land changing?  Do we see our land changing?  Is this a good thing or bad thing?  What do we notice about the land changing around us and what are we doing to improve it or not to improve it?  It lead to some very interesting questions, comments, and dialogue about our small town of Molalla and the way it has used the resources and land around it.  It was an intriguing discussion as the students wrapped their minds around the dilemma it creates when we want to use resources and create jobs and what happens when we lose those resources or jobs.  We learned that this book caused some controversy when it was first published.  It was inspiring to see these young minds strive to create solutions for proper care for our land and each other.

The Alders read The Sneetches.  The story about star-bellied Sneetches and those without and what happens in their community as one tries to become like the "other" and the other trying to not to become the "other".  In a shared google doc we explored questions quietly through our typing..."What causes one group of people to think that they are better then others?  What makes someone "cool" ?  What causes fads to happen?"  This book was written after World War II with the purpose of making others see what happens when we discriminate.  The Alders had well thought out responses to the questions and it was a fun way to enter into a class discussion without the use of verbal communication.

The Cedars read Hooray For Diffendoofer Day!  This fun story is written about a school who has to take a test to show the world what they know.  If they don't pass the test they will all be sent to dreary Flober town where there is no fun in learning at all.  This was perfect timing with our state testing coming up in the next month.  We discussed the question through a shared google doc, "Miss Bonkers made this quote: “We’ve taught you that the earth is round, that red and white make pink, and something else that matters more We’ve taught you how to think.” Discuss the meaning. Does thinking matter more? WHY or WHY NOT? How have you been taught to think this year? What strategies can you use when you must think about answers you don’t have?" We were so engaged in our responses that we are still working on them. I hope to post their answers to this questions next week.