Cluster 6 Newsletter (10/10)

• Make sure to send in any signed forms such as: Nurse, Chromebook, PE, Photo/Video release

• Here is the link to the specialist S'more (Music, Tech Ed, Health, Art)

Here’s to hoping everyone had a wonderfully long (and well-deserved) weekend. It’s always so nice to start the school week on a Tuesday!

So far, in ELA class, there have only been TWO writing assignments with grading values. Because of this, on the progress reports posted in powerschool, there is a comment and a grade range. As work begins to ramp-up in ELA, many more assignments will count towards the overall grade for the term, and thus there may be movement between the grade range for the progress report and the overall grade (five weeks from now) on the quarter one report card.

Students have mostly completed their second round of narrative writing. They were tasked with describing an experience in their life that defines them based on a family/cultural experience. The skill development embedded in their narrative writing for this round includes using dialogue to help tell a story. For instance, instead of writing to the reader, I woke up late and almost missed the bus, a strong writer may write, “Get out of bed,” screamed my brother from downstairs, “You’re going to miss the bus.” This will be a targeted skill that we try to reinforce in their writing throughout their 8th grade year.

Very soon, we will be starting our first whole-class novel, Warcross by Marie Lu. Students will be expected to read some of the novel independently (at home). Please try to engage in conversations about the book with your 8th grader- and encourage reading some of the novel at home. Click Here for a quick summary of Warcross on good reads.

This week in science we were focusing on evidence for continental drift. We had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with Ms. Brenon-Hodas in the Makerspace to learn about the laser-cutter and begin a puzzle project where students will make a template of their specific type of evidence for continental drift on a template. That template will then be cut out in wood and engraved with the pattern they have chosen to represent fossils, landforms, or glacial scratches on the continents.

Here’s what coming in the next few weeks:

1.4 I can explain how the spreading of the ocean floor has created new crust and contributed to plate movement.

• I can construct a model to show the process of seafloor spreading.
• I understand that oceanic trenches are areas where old crustal plates are remelted into the mantle.
• I can explain how mid-ocean ridges are locations where tectonic plates move apart and create new crust.

1.5 I can describe how different types of plate boundaries cause the formation of different types of landforms.

• I can provide evidence and reasoning to support the theory of plate tectonics.
• I can differentiate between the theories of continental drift and plate tectonics.
• I can identify and describe different types of plate boundaries.
• I can label plate boundaries on a map.
• I can understand how different densities of crustal plates affect their behavior at plate boundaries and create a conveyor belt effect.
• I can compare and contrast different types of volcanoes, and explain how they are each formed.

Both math classes have been wrapping up their unit on transformations and angle relationships. The Algebra class completed their End Assessment, and has now moved on to the Algebra-1 curriculum. This curriculum can be rigorous, and requires keeping up with assignments to accomplish full understanding. Assessments will be straightforward if the material is well understood. This is a big step towards high school, and the work done in this class will be beneficial for other courses such as high school Physics!

The L1 math class takes their End Assessment this week, and will then begin our next unit on dilations and slope/rates of change in linear relationships.

For the past few weeks, students have been 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 took a quiz on those learning targets, and learned 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!

Now, students are beginning 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.

Entering (ELD 1)

This week, our students studied the numbers in English, questions like “how much?” and “how many?”, and sequencing words such as first, next, then, and finally. Ask your students “What was your first class today?” and “What did you have next?”

Next week, we will begin working on vocabulary for food, adjectives, the present tense and commands.

Emerging (ELD 2)

This week we worked on modals: have to, need to, may, might, and could with learning about careers and jobs of community members. We also have learned possessive pronouns and adjectives, and are shifting into subject and object pronouns next week. We are also talking about time, and introducing the concept of cause and effect through readings about life cycles.

Phonics

This week in phonics we learned when to use capital letters and have mastered naming the letters in the alphabet. We are working towards mastery of the sounds of the letters, and identifying them in nonsense words. I’ve been assessing each student’s current phonics knowledge so that the students and I can identify why they already know and what vowel patterns or digraphs they need to work on. Next week we will begin the short a sound and a new set of High Frequency Words.