This week was interesting because I started my chess club! More info is down below. Anyway, I also worked on Science News, and I think I’m getting better at finding stuff in articles because it’s much easier now. I also did Currents4Kids and News4Youth as language arts practice. Other than that, I finished the unit 2 NVOL Send-in Assignment! And I worked on the science learning guide. And I did Brilliant every day. I also worked on moving platforms in my Scratch platformer!
That was the plan. We met up on Zoom on Saturday and first chatted for about five minutes. Then I went and taught one of my fellow chess club members how to actually play chess, while the other two members went against each other. Then I played one round against a friend. I was white, and this is the outcome. ๐ The whole thing was pretty good and fun, and I think next week will be better because I won’t be teaching someone for half the time. The class will be an hour and a half. The first 15 mins are for a quick lesson/fun video. The rest of the class is literally playing chess against other people in the club, and at the very end, I’m going to give homework in the form of a chess puzzle.
Hi Ethan,
Congratulations on starting your chess club! It sounds like the first meeting was quite a success, and it doesn’t sound easy juggling time doing that much teaching of a beginner with also facilitating the experience of the more experienced players. Are you still accepting new members? I look forward to hearing what you learn about teaching and group facilitation from the club through the fall and winter. A theme for you this year seems to be learning teaching and leadership and organization skills, and I think it’s wonderful you’re taking on challenges in these areas.
You’re doing some very interesting learning in language arts/social studies; getting a sampling of news and current issues like this will help you become a more well-rounded citizen and help you knowledgeably follow current events and make more informed decisions about all sorts of things in the future. I have never had potato milk, though coincidentally my three-year-old and I have been rotating through the other available plant-based milks to compare their tastes; if potato milk comes to a local grocery store I’ll be sure to try it out of curiosity! Have you read anything in any of these sites lately that has really made you re-think an opinion you had, or challenged you to consider a different point of view, or made you want to change something you do in your own life? Writing comprehension and opinion responses to articles takes a lot of practice; it’s not a skill that comes quickly to people unless they’ve done it many times, and it’s great to hear that you’re working on that and making improvements.
I’m glad to hear the math and science courses continue to be valuable even though the material is easy for you. What do you like find yourself really liking about the courses? There’s a topic in the Learning Experience Library, Directed Learning, about taking formal courses; maybe there’s something in there that you’d find useful.
Thank you for your notes too Carl! It’s great to know that Ethan is doing lots of practice on reading comprehension and that the written-response answers are more helpful for him than the multiple choice in building his skills.
Thank you for your Observing for Learning.
Best,
Shannon
This is Ethanโs dad, Carl. Iโve been spending some time working with Ethan on language arts, mainly checking his work and helping him when he needs it. We noticed that Ethan was finding it challenging to infer meaning, draw conclusions or write thoughtful answers when asked to express his opinion about reading passages, so he has been working on those areas.
The Currents4Kids and News4Youth articles and questions have been good practice for Ethan in that regard. The Canadian Reader and Science News articles have also been good practice because they require Ethan to write his thoughts, as opposed to the multiple-choice questions found in the Currents4Kids and News4Youth articles. As he has practiced more, he has been steadily improving his ability to write more in-depth answers, rather than write one or two simple sentences. One additional benefit of the articles is that Ethan is learning more about current events.
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