Colonialism in the African continent, Black Panther (the film), apostrophes, composite shapes

On Friday, the Grades 4-8 classes will be traveling to watch the Marvel's Black Panther film.  While I cannot explain the layers of discussion we had in class today, I can summarize part of the discussion through a photo I took and two videos I used.  I will be using this as an entry point for discussion with the other classes.

For those of you who read this, the point on the right side of the board is very important.  It was prompted by having the students think and respond to the first three paragraphs of this article from Time magazine:  http://time.com/black-panther/

The magical power of Vibranium, found in the fictional country of Wakanda, is supposed to be a contrast to the plundering of resources from the African continent. 

http://www.myafricanow.com/map-of-africa-before-colonisation/

This short video attempts to summarize a short history of Colonialism in the continent.  The main idea, in relation to the movie, is that Wakanda was never colonized by any European power and has used the resource of Vibranium to run the technologically advanced civilization.

The conversation was weaved together during Media Literacy class by looking at some of the key concepts and making connections with the film.

Here are a few of the key players who were involved in the creation of the film and the potential they see:

It seems that apostrophes can be a point of confusion for a lot of students.  I went to school during an era where Grammar was taught and we picked up on some of these important lessons.  It is my hope that the students will take something away from this.

I was very pleased to see the effort that Justin and Hom put into completing these two Math questions.  Actually, the only one that is made up of parts is the one with the triangle and square.  Hom, showing her persistence and hard work, solved it with some coaching.