Wednesday, December 5th, 2018

Early Release Day 2/4

Since today was an early release day, we did not switch for blocks.  We began with math and the students who needed to re-test did that while others worked on other assignments.  Then we did science, where students finished up copying the rest of the notes.  The study guide for the energy unit can be found HERE.

For reading, we continued with primary source documents and interpreting them using the skill of inference (reading between the lines; taking a limited amount of information and drawing conclusions; explicit text + existing knowledge = inference).  

Below is the text from another colonial era child's diary:

​April 5, 1706 -

What a long day! By seven o’clock, I had been awake for two hours and had washed and dyed fleece for spinning wool. Afterward, I milked the cows and ground some grain. At eight, I served up breakfast, and then set to simmering a stew.

Then, taking advantage of the daylight, I did my sewing and needlework. I mended a gown for Mistress Walpole, tatted lace for the minister’s cuffs, sewed buttons on my brothers’ breeches, and darned a multitude of stockings.

The stew I made turned out extremely well, and the entire family enjoyed a hearty dinner at midday. Mother showed me more about using herbs to make medicines. If I were permitted to attend school like my brothers, I would pursue the healing sciences. I hope Mother’s lessons will allow me to someday help people in need.
 
After spinning the yarn I had dyed earlier, it was time for a light supper. Just before sunset, I read aloud a sermon to the younger children. When it got too dark to read, I was finally able to crawl into bed and end my day.

What did students notice?  This is an open-ended question since there are multiple ways that this can be seen and interpreted.  I noticed that she isn't given a formal education ("If I were permitted to attend school like my brothers.....).  However, I can infer that she has gotten an education at home or otherwise, how else could she not only write this down in her diary, but to also write coherent sentences.  That also allows me to infer that she is pretty intelligent and has a strong desire to learn.  See how amazing that is???  We took a small sample of text and yet we were able to get an insight into this person.