Cluster 6 Newsletter

April 26 2024

Hello Cluster 6 families and caregivers!

Our cluster is taking a field trip on Friday, May 3 to the Edward Kennedy Institute for the Senate, right next door to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Your child will be a senator for the day! Students have paper permission slips but there is a copy available on our Cluster 6 Google Classroom if you need to print one. Please pack a lunch and a drink and make sure your child has returned their permission slip and $12 to Ms. Shock as soon as possible.

Students just received Course Request Verification Forms, which need to be completed and returned to advisory teachers by Friday, May 3. More information can be found here:

https://www.smore.com/n/d81vs

Yearbooks are available for customization and order. The deadline to place your order is Friday, May 10. Follow this link to order: www.treering.com. This service allows guardians to create 2 custom pages for their student. It’s a great way to include personalized photos from the past year! It’s also totally optional and you can still order a regular yearbook too. Thanks so much and feel free to follow up with Mr. Allen, the WMS yearbook coordinator, with any questions.

Students completed the ELA MCAS this past week! They will take 3 more MCAS tests next month:

Civics MCAS on May 7 and 8
Math MCAS on May 14 and 16
STE (Science, Technology, Engineering) MCAS on May 21 and 22

English

Wow, we have made it to the home stretch! I have been so thrilled with the focus and stamina students have shown as we have made our way to MCAS season. Book clubs concluded with a group project and a showcase celebration with Cluster 5 students. Students also wrote a final CER which focused on the themes of their coming of age novels. As we finish up MCAS and head into the end of the year, we will do one more round of book clubs, this time with a dystopian genre. Students will also be hard at work creating a portfolio of the plethora of writing they have completed this school year that they will take home with them in June.

Civics

In class, our Civics students have been continuing their work on their Civic Action Projects. 8th graders will be writing emails to people who have the power to make the change they want to see. We will create slideshows highlighting our background research, email results and action plans for the future. Your student has the chance to inform and empower their classmates to take action to make our communities strong! Students will make their final CAP presentations May 28th - May 31st.

For the next two weeks, we will be taking a break from Civics Actions Projects to focus on Justice in Action. Students are reviewing their knowledge of the Supreme Court and the judicial branch, and will learn about the impact of court decisions in case studies involving segregation, including Roberts vs. City of Boston (1849), Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), and Brown v. Board of Education (1954). We are also learning about other landmark government actions including laws and Constitutional amendments. Students will practice their slideshow creation and speaking skills, getting ready for their bigger CAP presentations later at the end of May.

Civic Action Project learning targets:

I can demonstrate the skills of lateral thinking and reading while doing research
I can work together with my group to plan research topics and questions
I can create an actionable plan for change
I can write a formal email to an appropriate contact about the change I want to make
If necessary, I can identify the role the government plays in the change I want to make
I can create a formal, professional presentation showcasing my CAP work, including writing a script and designing visuals
I can demonstrate strong public speaking skills in my CAP presentation

Justice in Action Learning Targets:

I can review key vocabulary and concepts related to the judicial branch.
I can describe how the Supreme Court operates and makes its decisions.
I can analyze the outcome and impact of the Roberts v. City of Boston case.
I can understand the context of the Roberts case in the larger fight for equal rights for African Americans in Massachusetts.
I can summarize the purpose of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments by writing headlines.
I can explain the outcome of the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, and identify the impact it had on the rights of American citizens.

Math

Both the 8th Grade Math and Algebra classes are entering their final units of the year. 8th Grade Math learned about exponents, scientific notation, and square/cubic roots before vacation, while the Algebra class also spent time learning the same standards, while mixing in variables with exponents.

8th Grade Math is now using their understanding of rotations, area of 2D shapes, and square roots to learn about The Pythagorean Theorem, to find side lengths of a right triangle. For example, how long is the bottom of a 65” television screen? Nope, it’s not 65”.

The Algebra class has moved into factoring quadratic expressions/equations, with the end goal of finding roots/solutions/x-intercepts and vertex/max/min of these relationships.

Science

We are working at a fast pace through the Physics Unit. Next week we will wrap up our final topics of the unit: motion and gravity (2.1), Newton’s Laws of Motion (2.2) and momentum (2.3). After we quiz on those topics, students will review for the Physics Unit Test, scheduled for Thursday, May 9th and Friday, May 10th. The unit test will cover all the content from this unit, starting with how to measure and describe motion, through forces, and ending with Newton’s Laws of Motion and momentum. The content covered this term should give students a strong foundation to help make their transition to 9th grade physics a successful one.

Extra study materials for the unit test can be found here: Review Materials for Physics Unit

This calendar summarizes the next month in science class: