Wisconsin School for the Deaf - The Wisconsin Times Vol. 134 No. 4 Summer 2013 | Page 5

Middle School News

By Maryann Barnett

Pirates! Arg!

compared to the current events in Somalia.
Science teacher, Amber Havers’ students
The WSD Middle
learned about marine archaeology and
School planned another
how weather affected the ship and people.
interdisciplinary topic
Language Arts instructor, Karen Copeland,
this spring, using the
worked on projects with students in groups.
special pirate exhibit at the
All students kept a ‘Captain’s Log’ and
Milwaukee Public Museum
included comments about the daily weather,
and the book, Pirates, by
along with maps. Each day, students
Barry Clifford. Mrs. Karen
randomly chose a card that contained
Copeland and Mr. Brian
questions to write about in their log.
Lievens shared the book
In addition to the classroom instruction, there
by Barry Clifford and
were three written group projects: famous
numerous pirate facts.
pirates, weapons, various people and their
Mr. Lievens, who also
roles on a ship. Upon their return from the
teaches history, taught
museum, each student was asked to write a
about ancient pirates of
report about what they had learned, or what
Rome and Greece, ‘buccaneer’pirates, known in the Caribbean had piqued their curiosity.
for taking gold, and independent/‘privateers’, who can be

Animals that Transition
With the popular buzz word transition,
most often people think about students
getting ready to graduate from high scho