Mid September Check In

We are off to a great start! I am very impressed with the focus, dedication, and kindness everyone is showing.

History: 
We are well on our way to understanding the foundations of our government. So far we have learned why we need government, how you define government, and what types of government exist. 8th graders  have also learned how to take notes, how to retell using their notes, how to highlight information from a history text, and how to apply what they've learned. 

Writing: 
We have now completed two writing assignments. The first one was a short biography piece based on glyphs completed in class. Students reviewed how to create a KWO, how to do a retell, and then effectively used dress ups and sentence openers to write a single paragraph. We discovered that many people struggled with creating effective topic sentences, so this will be something we focus on! The second assignment was a persuasive essay based on the reading in our Scholastic News. In this essay we focused on quoting the text to support our thoughts. 

This week's writing assignment is a persuasive piece. Students are to design a t shirt that represents our 8th grade class. After designing their shirt, students will write and film a 30 second commercial selling their shirt. The commercial should contain all of the dress ups and sentence openers. 

• Due Date - Monday, September 22nd, 2014

Required Materials - Students may use their own filming equipment if they would prefer, or we will film in class on Thursday, September 18. The finished project must be a wmv or mp4. 

Expected Time Requirement - 1 - 2 hours including t shirt design, KWO, rough draft, final draft, and filming. 

The final products will be watched in class and the final 3 will be uploaded to our blog and used to vote on which design will be our official 8th grade shirt!

Reading:
We have not begun our first novel yet, that will come at the end of the month. For now, we are working on reading non fiction text and have been utilizing the Scholastic Weekly Readers and the Newsela web site. Newsela is an online reading program that allows students to read news articles at their reading level. After each article, there is a quiz that tests for comprehension, allowing the student and the teacher to see immediately how the student is progressing. Students may sign on at home to read articles and take quizzes as well. There's no such thing as too much practice. 

Science: 
Last week was our first week of science. Tuesday we took notes on the lecture about relationship between mass and acceleration and how they in turn relate to force. Students were asked to illustrate the equation F=ma to prove understanding. These illustrations are posted outside our classroom. On Thursday we worked in the lab on our first lab. We walked through the lab write up process and then students were asked to finish the conclusion at home. Over the weekend I heard from several students that they had forgotten their notebook, didn't have the data, etc. Thankfully, the lab write up isn't due until Tuesday! This week we will be working on the different types of forces. 

Upcoming Dates:
September 16th (Tomorrow) - Picture Day! Uniforms required
September 25th - All School Assembly (8th grade hosting)
September 25th - VIP Day 8:00 - 9:30
September 25th - NHS Induction
October 9th - Jog A Thon
October 9th - Physics Field Trip (3 more chaperones needed!)
October 13th - 23rd - MAP Testing
October 16th - Harvest Festival
October 24th - Field Trip (5 more chaperones needed!)