📖 This week we will begin the unit 2 poetry collection. We will read and analyze three poems. The first poem we will read is “Sonnet” by Margaret E. Brunner. In this poem the speaker describes her compassion for stray cats and her desire to help them. The second poem we will read is “Nikita” by Alberto Rios. In this poem the speaker describes the care a lonely woman gives her cat and the solace she receives in return. The final poem we will read is “The Visitor” by Ada Limon. In this poem, the speaker notes the uproar caused by an encounter between a neighborhood cat and her pet dogs.
🐈 All three poems are about cats. They show very different angles of the human-animal relationship. “Sonnet” portrays cats as objects of human sympathy and concern, while “Nikita” hints at the emotional support that cats can provide to people. “The Visitor” focuses instead on the potential for conflict when wild and domesticated animals meet.
📋 In this lesson students will:
Analyze how a stanza contributes to a poem’s structure.
Cite textual evidence to support inferences drawn from the text.
Analyze the impact of word choice on tone.
Understand nuances in word meanings.
Interpret figures of speech in context.
💯 End of 1st Marking Period:
Last week students worked diligently to complete their 5-paragraph essays before the end of the marking period. All middle school grades must be finalized by Monday, November 4. If your child has not completed this essay, it can be accessed on Google Classroom and submitted by Monday morning. We will not have class time on Monday to work on this assignment, as we will be moving on to our next lesson in Unit 2.
📚 Homework:
15-20 minutes of reading from a book of their choice.
Work that students are unable to complete during class.
Work that students miss when they are out of school for sickness, travel, etc.
Test Retake Assignments
👨🏼🔬 Last week we started Unit 6. We also had some science lab fun for Halloween. We had a demonstration on density with some fun liquids. We also participated in Newton's 3rd Law of Motion lab where we made toy cars move using balloons. We all had a lot of fun with that!
🪐 This week we will continue Unit 6, "Beyond the Moon". We are learning the major classifications into which cosmos objects are organized - solar system, galaxy, and universe. We will be researching the Sun, our 8 planets and their satellites, and a host of smaller objects including dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, Kuiper Belt objects, and Oort Cloud matter. We will be exploring the objects in outer space and how gravity takes a role in their location and orbits. Don't forget, Friday is quiz day!
🏞️ Our topics for the week include:
- Identifying and describing basic landform patterns on a global scale.
- Explaining the processes of plate tectonics, including movement, uplift, earthquakes, and volcanism.
