Literature Portfolio Project: Frankenstein

Portfolios are projects ILS students complete to showcase their learning. Students in the 7th and 8th grades complete one portfolio project each year. Beginning in the fall and extending through the academic year, students work through a nine-step process to reach their final result. Working individually with a single faculty member, students first must have their proposals approved, then develop a thesis statement and source list. Students spend much of the year in reading, studying, experimenting, and taking robust notes on their given topic. Faculty review and approve initial outlines, then students begin writing the first of three drafts. Their final products are diverse reflections of student personalities, interests, family backgrounds, and aptitudes.

Immanuel's faculty note that not all learning is best represented or imagined via written papers. However, the rigorous and creative process of working on a major project to completion guides students to value excellence and produce their best academic work. This honors the intellect and abilities of the individual student, pushing all to learn and grow, believing all are capable of such in depth work. While no student projects are ever perfect in the end, we celebrate each student's sense of wonder and delight, demonstrated through their dedicated efforts throughout the course of the year.

Science Portfolio Project- Apples: The Study of Decay

Portfolios are projects ILS students complete to showcase their learning. Students in the 7th and 8th grades complete one portfolio project each year. Beginning in the fall and extending through the academic year, students work through a nine-step process to reach their final result. Working individually with a single faculty member, students first must have their proposals approved, then develop a thesis statement and source list. Students spend much of the year in reading, studying, experimenting, and taking robust notes on their given topic. Faculty review and approve initial outlines, then students begin writing the first of three drafts. Their final products are diverse reflections of student personalities, interests, family backgrounds, and aptitudes.

Immanuel's faculty note that not all learning is best represented or imagined via written papers. However, the rigorous and creative process of working on a major project to completion guides students to value excellence and produce their best academic work. This honors the intellect and abilities of the individual student, pushing all to learn and grow, believing all are capable of such in depth work. While no student projects are ever perfect in the end, we celebrate each student's sense of wonder and delight, demonstrated through their dedicated efforts throughout the course of the year.

Literature Portfolio Project: Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison

Portfolios are projects ILS students complete to showcase their learning. Students in the 7th and 8th grades complete one portfolio project each year. Beginning in the fall and extending through the academic year, students work through a nine-step process to reach their final result. Working individually with a single faculty member, students first must have their proposals approved, then develop a thesis statement and source list. Students spend much of the year in reading, studying, experimenting, and taking robust notes on their given topic. Faculty review and approve initial outlines, then students begin writing the first of three drafts. Their final products are diverse reflections of student personalities, interests, family backgrounds, and aptitudes.

Immanuel's faculty note that not all learning is best represented or imagined via written papers. However, the rigorous and creative process of working on a major project to completion guides students to value excellence and produce their best academic work. This honors the intellect and abilities of the individual student, pushing all to learn and grow, believing all are capable of such in depth work. While no student projects are ever perfect in the end, we celebrate each student's sense of wonder and delight, demonstrated through their dedicated efforts throughout the course of the year.

What We're Reading - July 2020

We hope that the summer break is continuing to be restful and a time of intentional leisure for our students and our families. It has been wonderful to hear from and see a number of you over the past few weeks as you have checked in and shared how summer is going. In June, we gave thanks as we were able to celebrate our Class of 2020 and hold our 2020 Graduation Vespers Service. At the end of the month, ILS faculty and Staff participated in the Society for Classical Learning’s virtual summer conference, hearing from a wide variety of educators and other speakers, and engaging with educators from across the country.

The July edition of "What we're reading..." is now available, and as always, we hope that these articles will continue our ongoing conversation about how we shape our culture together at home and at school.

If you are interested in learning more about classical, Lutheran education, the Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education (CCLE) is making available online videos from their past summer conferences. Find links for that, as well as summer reading and other activities, at the bottom of this post.

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us in these ongoing conversations and for sharing items you have read that may be inspiring to others in our ILS community! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

2020 CCLE Penmanship/Calligraphy Winners Announced

A number of ILS students competed in this year’s Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education (CCLE) Penmanship/Calligraphy contests.

The CCLE penmanship competition was open to students of CCLE-accredited schools and classical Lutheran homeschools. Younger students (ages 4 to 9) were eligible to participate in either the Print or Cursive Categories, writing out Ephesians 1:3 on lined paper. Students ages 10 through 18 were eligible to participate in the Calligraphy Categories, which included both lettering only and illuminated.

Manuscript and Cursive entries were evaluated based on legibility, neatness, shape/slant/connections, spacing, and size. The Calligraphy entries were evaluated on legibility of lettering style & neatness, consistency of letter formations, spacing & size, aesthetic appearance, and creativity of illumination.

Congratulations to the following ILS students for their recognition in this year’s contest!

Print Ages 4-5 Category:

Grand Prize: Landon A.
Runner-Up: Catherine H.

Print Ages 6-7 Category:

Grand Prize: Claudia D.
Runner-Up: Joelene R.

Cursive Ages 8-9 Category:

Runner-Up: Riette R.

Calligraphy Black Lettering Category:

Grand Prize: Erika A.
Runner-Up: Ingrid A.

Calligraphy Illuminated Category:

Grand Prize: Evangeline H.
Runner-Up: Charlotte H.

Science Portfolio Project: The Power of Intention through Words on Plant Growth

Portfolios are projects ILS students complete to showcase their learning. Students in the 7th and 8th grades complete one portfolio project each year. Beginning in the fall and extending through the academic year, students work through a nine-step process to reach their final result. Working individually with a single faculty member, students first must have their proposals approved, then develop a thesis statement and source list. Students spend much of the year in reading, studying, experimenting, and taking robust notes on their given topic. Faculty review and approve initial outlines, then students begin writing the first of three drafts. Their final products are diverse reflections of student personalities, interests, family backgrounds, and aptitudes.

Immanuel's faculty note that not all learning is best represented or imagined via written papers. However, the rigorous and creative process of working on a major project to completion guides students to value excellence and produce their best academic work. This honors the intellect and abilities of the individual student, pushing all to learn and grow, believing all are capable of such in depth work. While no student projects are ever perfect in the end, we celebrate each student's sense of wonder and delight, demonstrated through their dedicated efforts throughout the course of the year.

What We're Reading - June 2020

We have reached the end of the 2019-2020 school year! Though our year ended much differently than we had anticipated when we started out back in September, we remain so grateful for this special ILS community. We give thanks for the relationships and partnerships we have with our families and for the countless ways you have worked together with teachers and staff to support your children over these last months of the year.

We are grateful for the ways that our Immanuel community came together to support one another as we navigated this new path and figured out new rhythms and routines for our families. From Zoom class parent chats, Zoom class lunches, Facebook Live events for our Science Fair and Oration Showcases, to our online virtual Auction event, we have loved the creative and fun ways that we have been able to connect and engage as a community even while physically distant.

As we head into the summer months, which we hope will be restful and a time of intentional leisure for our students and our families, we have our June edition of "What we're reading..." We hope that these articles will continue our ongoing conversation about how we shape our culture together at home and at school.

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us in these ongoing conversations and for sharing items you have read that may be inspiring to others in our ILS community! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

ILS 2020 Closing Vespers Sermon

Pentecost Vespers
Pastor Christopher Esget
Thursday after Pentecost
John 14:15-31
June 4, 2014

“Rise, let us go from here.” It’s a strange spot to end a Bible reading. But there it is. Jesus says, “Rise, let us go from here.” Go where? He is going toward His cross. Jesus is determined to obey the will of the Father.

Now we go away from school for the summer. Some, including our eighth graders, are going away for good - at least going away from school.

But wherever you go, you will be confronted by the Zeitgeist - the Age-Spirit. This age is an age of outrage. If you get swept up in this spirit, it will destroy you. The Age-Spirit is a hurricane, blowing down everything in its path.

Jesus promises a different Spirit: The Helper, the Holy Spirit. Earlier in John 14 He calls this Spirit the Spirit of Truth.

Comp. of the Week: June 1-5 (Last week of school!) Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) The Four Seasons, "Summer" - 1. Allegro non molto

It’s ILS tradition to feature Vivaldi’s “Summer” for the last week of school. The summer solstice, the official start of the summer season, is on Saturday, June 20, 2020. Vivaldi describes summer this way:

Beneath the blazing sun's relentless heat
men and flocks are sweltering,
pines are scorched.
We hear the cuckoo's voice; then sweet songs of the turtle dove and finch are heard.
Soft breezes stir the air….but threatening north wind sweeps them suddenly aside. The shepherd trembles, fearful of violent storm and what may lie ahead.

Class of 2020 Meet Us Monday: Tyler Reese

We are counting down to the end of the 2019-2020 school year, and it is a particularly bittersweet time for our 8th grade students as they prepare to graduate under very unusual circumstances. To help celebrate and recognize our ILS Class of 2020, we are again launching our “Meet Us Monday” blog series to introduce you to the members of this year’s graduating class.

Each week, we will be sharing interviews that we have done with each of our 8th grade students, in which they share more about their favorite ILS memories and traditions, words of wisdom they’ve received over the years, and other reflections from their years here with us at ILS. We hope that you will enjoy these reflections, and join with us in congratulating and celebrating these students!