Hello Putnam Avenue Sixth Grade Community, and welcome to the 2014 - 2015 school year! The beginning of the
school year has been full of community building, getting acquainted with new teachers and new peers, and preparing
ourselves for an awesome and challenging school year. During our first month together, we have: started to build
positive and supportive advisory communities, cheered for our school and ourselves, learned new routines and
expectations, and explored what it means to be a sixth grader at the Putnam Avenue Upper School. Our advisory
theme for this year is, "identity." This theme, coupled with our sixth grade theme, "growing together," are framing
ideas for what we will do and who we will become this year. The sixth grade team knows that in order for rigorous
learning to occur, all members of the sixth grade community must feel known and celebrated for who they are, and
must feel safe to take risks, make mistakes, and learn from these mistakes.
A strong focus on "identity," means that we are challenging students to get to know and share about themselves as
students, and as young people who have much going on in their lives. This work is enhanced by the idea of our sixth
grade theme, "growing together," as we are committed to being educators who push all sixth graders to think from
a growth mindset in which we push students to identify themselves as capable of becoming smarter and capable of
greatness. At our first all-school town hall meeting, the sixth graders demonstrated both of these themes with gusto!
They cheered wildly for their teachers and other students, they were attentive and engaged, and they took risks by
sharing ideas in front of our entire school community.
In classes, we are hard at work learning about sixth grade expectations, routines, and of course, science, math, ELA,
and social studies! We know that learning occurs in classes that feel safe and structured, so we have started the year
focused on setting up environments in which students understand what is expected of them, and know where to go
with any questions they may have. As we move into our second month of school we have focused on exposing our
students to rigorous and meaningful learning. The sixth grade team of teachers have been meeting about how we can
have common practices that push students to become more critical thinkers. We will be asking students to analyze
problems, texts, and information by making a claim, citing evidence, and be able to explain their reasoning to
support their claim. Pushing students at home to think critically about decisions and information in terms of claims,
evidence, and reasoning will help students to become better problem solvers, writers, and investigators. These skills
will help our students to find success far beyond Putnam Avenue Upper School.
Please take the time to check in with your student about his/her agenda book (where they should be recording all
homework assignments each and everyday), and about what they are learning in school. In addition to regularly
checking agenda books, we suggest also asking your student about what he/she is learning at school. Sixth graders
should be reading each and every night, and a quick five minute reading check-in will help to build accountability
for this expectation! All sixth grade advisors serve as the point person for communication between families and our
school-should you have any questions or ideas regarding your sixth grader, we encourage you to reach out to his/her
advisor through email!