What's Happening in Cluster 5?

Hello Caregivers!

-Here is a link for our YEARLONG SCHOOL CALENDAR

Nov 23, 2024

We have been focusing on types of cell division and learning about Henrietta Lacks and her cancer cells that have been used by researchers to study diseases, vaccines, medications, and how cells grow and function. Her contributions to modern medicine are innumerable and her story is an important one to study and share.

To review cell division before the quiz, students participated in a debate and defended their “castles” with evidence about the similarities and differences between mitosis and meiosis. See the pictures below of our champions!

In the next few weeks, we will be studying Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics. Students will complete a lab during which they will discover whether or not they are a “super-taster,” a characteristic controlled by our genes.

The learning objectives are below. We will continue our weekly quizzes with practice work being assigned on Mondays through Thursdays and assessments taking place on Fridays.

3.1 Mendel’s Work

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  I can describe how Mendel’s experiments with pea plants demonstrated patterns in heredity.

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• I can compare and contrast genotypes and phenotypes for a variety of traits.
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  I can show that many traits have dominant and recessive alleles that lead to different phenotypes for individuals.

3.2 Probability and Heredity

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  I can use Punnett Squares to predict the probability of offspring having a particular genotype and phenotype.

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  I can understand that there are multiple patterns of inheritance.

November

Students are continuing with their whole class novel, Warcross by Marie Lu. I would ask that, if possible, you please check-in with your student regarding their at home reading progress and commitment to keeping up with the daily reading. We are hoping that students will arrive to class each day, prepared for class, by having completed the reading. Click here to see a graph explaining the positive impact of reading just 20 minutes each day.

As we continue reading through our novel, students are working on developing their strength in CER writing. They are using (direct) evidence from the text to support their claim and trying “to reason”- the skill of explaining to the reader how their evidence proves the claim that they have made in their writing. It is a skill that we will practice throughout the year in preparation for high school and persuasive/argumentative writing.

As students are reading, they are focusing on character and setting- but the focus will soon change to include deeper elements of the plot (including conflicts). They have done a fantastic job learning from the mini-lessons included in the unit and hopefully this enthusiasm continues with their learning. I’ve very much enjoyed their engagement during our classwork.

We will continue for the next few weeks with Warcross and finish with a CER for the students to show their mastery (or improvements) in their writing.

Please be aware that grades are updated on PowerSchool. If there are any questions or concerns, please encourage your child to set up a time to speak to me. As students are preparing for high school, it is important that they are taking ownership of their work habits, including submitting assignments on time and being prepared for class each day.

I wanted to take a moment to post the ELA policy regarding the method by which grades are tracked through the semester. All assignments are assigned through google classroom. Each student is a member of a specific (class color) ELA roster in the classroom. The assignments are all graded on a scale of 0-4 and the grades are represented as follows in GOOGLE CLASSROOM:

4.0= Mastery/Exceeds Expectations

3.0= Proficient/ Meets Expectations

2.0= Approaching Proficiency/Partially Meets Expectations

1.0= Developing/ Some Understanding (with support)

0 Not Meeting Expectation (often an assignment that hasn’t been completed).

-When the grades are transferred into the powerschool portal and calculated into an overall grade, the “Marzano” grade conversion is used to turn the 0- 4 into a percentage. This is not simply changing the fraction into a decimal (not ¾= .75), but rather assigning a percentage to each number. The conversions are as follows: 4.0= 100%, 3.5= 95%, 3.0= 90%, 2.5= 80%, 2.0= 70%, 1.5= 65%, 1.0=60%, 0= 50%.

***In this grading policy, a student will not receive a grade less than a 50% on any assignment- thus making the grade ranges more level in value.

-As always, if you have any questions or concerns about your 8th grader in ELA, please initiate a conversation by emailing me at daniel.skop@watertown.k12.ma.us

I wish you all wonderful end-of-November and here’s to hoping we finish 2024 STRONG!

Take care.

Algebra: Students have been working on how to make different data displays. We have been talking about histograms, box-and-whiskers, dot plots and stem and leaf plots in class. As we progress through the rest of this unit we will be discussing how to graph systems of equations and how to graph various equations that the students may or may not have encountered before. A couple of examples of this are absolute value equations and square root equations.

November 2024

In our current media literacy unit, students have been practicing their digital literacy skills and expanding their ability to understand news articles and evaluate them for bias and reliability. Students have learned to use different news education websites, including Ad Fontes Media and Allsides Media, in order to make informed choices about the news sources they use. We have learned about the standards of professional journalism, the different types of news articles, and the difference between fact and opinion. Students are finishing the unit by completing a short project where they analyze an editorial or op-ed about the ban on TikTok, the ending of MCAS as a graduation requirement, or the use of AI in schools. Ask your student what their opinion is about their topic! After Thanksgiving break, we will be getting ready to participate in our school’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. essay contest, sponsored by the local organization World in Watertown.

Current Learning Targets:

• I can understand vocabulary related to media literacy.

• I can demonstrate my understanding of a news article.

• I can define media/news literacy.

• I can differentiate between genres of news media.

• I can explore reliability and political bias in the media.

• I can evaluate the source and content of a news media article.

• I can use information from different perspectives in the media to learn about a current event in the news

• I can identify the level of bias in a news media source.

• I can demonstrate mastery of media literacy skills by completing a group project.

Click this link for more information on the English Language Development classes.

Edward.Cafua@watertown.k12.ma.us - MATH

Karen.Kline@watertown.k12.ma.us - CIVICS

Sheila.Gilmartin@watertown.k12.ma.us - EL

Brian.Donato@watertown.k12.ma.us - SPECIAL EDUCATION / MATH

Megan.Griffin@watertown.k12.ma.us - SPECIAL EDUCATION/ELA

Daniel.Skop@watertown.k12.ma.us - ENGLISH

Christine.Sorenson@watertown.k12.ma.us - READING

Elissa.Willoughby@watertown.k12.ma.us - SCIENCE

Amanda.Skypeck@watertown.k12.ma.us - GUIDANCE COUNSELOR

Website: https://wms.watertown.k12.ma.us/