TA’s Notes:
8th Grade DC Trip Final Payments now due!
Get Your Tap On water bottles- selling out fast! $6 each (Camelbak 24oz Podium) E-mail me if you’d like any before they’re gone!
The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
Students using the iPads to scan and read their peer’s websites
This week students finished up their Narrative Writing piece. Students spent the week revising and editing their work, with the help of peer editing, as well as teacher feedback. They had an opportunity to share their work with one another in small groups. Students also finished up their Revolutionary War unit. On wednesday and thursday, they went for a walk on the digital “freedom trail”, set up in the hallway. Students used QR codes and iPad readers to scan through and read their peer’s work. If you are in the building, please feel free to stop by and take a look yourself! The “walk” is set up at the end of the hall, across from the coat hooks. Use your smartphone, and the app qrafter, to scan your son or daughter’s website!
The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room (⅞ Humanities):
Our time in class was cut pretty short this week due to SBAC testing, but I wanted to be sure to give BIG kudos to our 7th and 8th grade learning community for persevering through this testing window. We saw great work from all of our students as they worked through the Math and English/Language Arts tests and performance tasks. At this point the majority of our community has finished ALL of the testing. If students have not finished they will have time to complete their missed tests on Monday and Tuesday of next week.
At the start of the week, during our morning classes, we started our marketing and advertising unit with a few lessons on figurative language. We started off learning about similes and metaphors. We defined these terms and then took a look at some examples in pop culture. We discovered that similes and metaphors are all around us! They are in songs, television, and in movies! After singing along with some pop hits and watching clips from movies such as,The Wizard of Oz, students were able to identify many metaphors and similes from their everyday lives that they may have never even noticed! The next time we met students were introduced to 4 more types of commonly used figurative language: hyperbole, alliteration, personification, and onomatopoeia. We found many examples of these in speeches, movies, and of course advertising! As figurative language is used to create vivid and imaginative images in the minds of the audience (buyer, reader, etc.), our next step will be to actually look at some images in advertising and marketing! Next week we will be discussing the power of images. The saying, “A picture is worth 1,000 words” will be our guide as we examine the stories, sayings, and persuasion that can be told through an image or series of images. We will be looking at and analyzing logos and slogans of many popular companies.
During our afternoon time together on Monday and Tuesday, students took a deeper look at the story of, The Lorax. To start our economics unit students were asked to make connections to 3 things: humans, environment, and economy. The questions asked to the class were: How do these 3 things connect to each other? How do these things hurt each other? How do these things help each other? This discussion was the kickoff to our unit, and what better way to illustrate this than by dissecting the deeper meaning between the lines of a classic, The Lorax. Students watched the original cartoon version of The Lorax and were asked to keep track of examples of how the environment, the economy, and humans work with or against each other. Once the viewing was complete students worked with their table groups to answer questions such as:
- What are some lessons we can learn from The Lorax?
- What does: the Lorax, the Once-ler, and the Thneed represent?
- Was the Once-ler a good guy or a bad guy? How did he change or make an impact on the environment in The Lorax?
As we discussed these questions, and many more, the students were left with an ethical decision to make for the upcoming creation of their business for the Voyager Business Convention (taking place in June). They were asked to think about whether or not their business will be a “Lorax” type business or a “Once-ler and Thneed” type business? Is that good or bad? Is there a way to have both? These questions will help to lead students into thinking about the philosophy and ethics behind their business. It will also lead students to think about how their decisions may impact future business decisions, their employees, or the community/environment their business is a part of. Although the story of The Lorax has been told many times, students left class with their heads full and brains bursting with ideas, big questions, and a new perspective on what it takes to build a business and the impact it can have.
The Week from Ms. Q’s Room (⅞ Math & Science):
CMP8
Due to SBAC testing we had a very brief week of math in the traditional sense. Students worked very hard on their Math 8 SBAC summative and performance task. They showed perseverance and focus. Kudos to our 8th graders! We have been working on finding solutions to multi-step linear equations by using the distributive, commutative properties and discovered strategies for being more mathematically efficient.
CMP7
Due to SBAC testing we had a brief week in 7th grade math also, however there was a lot of math being done. The 7th graders performed the SBAC math summative and performance task. They were focused and diligence. Kudos to our 7th graders! At the beginning week, we did some more investigation into inequalities, how they are written and graphed. We looked closely at linear inequalities and compared them to equalities.
Science 7th/8th
Students set up their light stations again on Monday to finish out our investigations on the properties of light. On Tuesday, students worked on a summative assessment that pulled together their understanding of all the light concepts we explored. After SBAC testing we will be moving in a new direction.
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