Cluster 6 Newsletter

September 28, 2023

Greeting Cluster 6 families and caregivers!

It has been great getting to know your children this year.

We are looking forward to our field trip to Blue Hills on Friday, October 6th. Be sure that your child wears appropriate clothing and footwear, brings a lunch (or orders a school lunch), and brings plenty of water! It’s going to be a great day.

The PowerSchool portal will be opening for students and families this week. Please be on the lookout in your email for a login and password. PowerSchool is a great tool for communicating progress and missing work, and should be checked regularly by your child.

Conferences are quickly approaching and will be held on the following dates:

Thursday, October 19, 2023

12:15 -2:15 pm

Virtual

5:00 - 7:00 pm

In-person

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

12:15 - 2:15 pm

In-person

5:00 - 7:00 pm

Virtual

Be on the lookout for an email in early October to find the SignUp Genius link to schedule your conference. Conferences will be held with your child’s advisor and another cluster teacher.

Have a wonderful weekend!

English

It was an awesome start for our returning 8th graders. There was lots of energy and excitement filling the classroom to an excellent beginning of the year.

After the first few days of technology set-ups, team building, and getting to know our community members, we began our first writing assignment. The About the Author assignment gives students an opportunity to share with others a bit about themselves. It's also a chance for us to get a quick writing sample (focusing on point of view, verb tenses, and organization.) We’re hoping the students had fun with the writing, and we were impressed with their willingness to share with their classmates.

After our About the Author writing, we read a sample narrative called “Being Mean” by Gary Soto and studied the techniques he uses for effective writing. Students then wrote their own narratives about a time that they caused mischief in their own life. Ask your student to share their writing with you, you might get a good laugh!

Next week we will be completing the iReady reading diagnostic in advisory. This is a great tool to use as a “piece of the puzzle” to see where students are at for reading.

Have a great weekend- looking like it is going to be a beautiful one.

Civics

This year in Social Studies, your child will be taking Civics, which is the study of how citizens and residents of the United States use their rights and responsibilities to solve problems in our communities. We learn about American government and US history, and we focus on helping students become informed and empowered to make the change they want to see in the world!

In the past month, we have learned the routines and expectations of class, and have thought about our own individual identities and our identity as a country. In each section of Civics, we worked together as a class to create a huge U.S. Identity Map, and they came out great!

We’re now in the middle of our unit on the Structure of Government, and students have started learning about some of the basics of government. We’ve explored the purpose of government, the definition of democracy, and the relationship between democracy and community. Students also learned about the paths to citizenship, and the duties and responsibilities citizenship carries. They are taking a quiz on those learning targets on Friday, September 29th, and learning the routine and procedure for how to retake quizzes and revise their work. My goal is for all students to get in the habit of regularly revising their work all year long to best show their mastery of our content and standards!

Next, students will begin to learn about the levels and branches of government, which will prepare them for our non-partisan mini-unit about elections coming up in the next few weeks. Eventually, students will create a presentation about a member of government to share with the class.

Current Learning Targets:

I can define government and explain what its purpose is.
I can define democracy and reflect on its meaning.
I can explain how democracy and community are related.
I can explain the two ways people can become citizens of the United States.
I can name the duties and responsibilities of citizens.
I can name the levels and branches of government, and identify people who work in them.

Math

All math students have begun the year learning about rigid transformations and congruence, including rotating, reflecting, and translating points and figures on a coordinate grid.

The Algebra class will now transition to our Algebra curriculum, beginning with expressions and eventually equations in our first unit. The course becomes rigorous rather quickly, but the challenge will be met by all of our Algebra students when they put in the work. We use the CME Algebra text, which is the same text that Watertown High has been using for years.

The 8th Grade Math classes will continue our Desmos curriculum for around 2 more weeks, learning about dilations of points and figures, and scale. This leads us directly into steepness, or “slope” of linear relationships, which display patterns that are constant (think of water dripping from a sink repeatedly, or a steady rain filling a bucket).

Doing our practice/homework is absolutely crucial to doing well in math. There are many, many skills to understand and apply. I urge you to check on your 8th-grader to be sure they are completing their practice/homework on a nightly basis to keep up with our classwork.

Please reach out to me if you have any concerns or questions.

Science

We have gotten off to a great start in 8th-grade science using lessons to bond us together as a class and create a culture of trust and respect that will prepare us to be a strong learning community this year. Ask your child about the Construction Challenge they did with a partner a few weeks ago!

We have begun our study of the Earth Science unit and our objectives are listed below. We have already completed several labs to investigate the density of liquids and the role of density in convection currents. A paper copy of Science Policies for 8th Grade should have come home several weeks ago — please read and send it back with your student, if you haven’t already done so.

Please help your students remember to bring the following supplies for science class each day:

a one-subject notebook (spiral or composition)
a section of a larger binder or a folder
a charged Chromebook
pencils/pens

Learning Objectives for Unit 1: Earth Science

1.0 I can explain why we use models in science and analyze models for accuracy

I can explain why models are useful tools for scientific phenomena that are too big, too small, or too complex to study in actual form.
I can give examples of scientific models.
I can identify strengths and weaknesses of scientific models.

1.1 I can identify and describe the layers of the Earth

I can identify the layers of the Earth.
I can describe the characteristics unique to each layer of the Earth.
I can understand how the layers of the Earth formed based on their differing densities.

1.2 I can describe how convection currents in the mantle are the driving force of plate tectonics.

I can describe how objects or materials of different densities can interact with each other.
I can use models to explain how convection currents cause plate tectonics.
I can describe how heat can be transferred through convection, conduction, and radiation.

1.3 I can use models to show that the continents have moved and continue to move over time

I can explain who Alfred Wegener was and what evidence he used to support his theory.
I can provide evidence and reasoning to support the theory of continental drift.
I can refer to climate, landform, and fossil evidence to explain how continents moved.