The Weekly Update #4

Our Deal team made great progress this week as they work to receive official approval for our World Language Trips. Our trip to Taiwan received their final approval, and we anticipate the other trips will receive their final approval very soon.

For students taking Chinese, you should have received an email from Ms. Liang and Mr. Zhi this week with information about how to register for the trip to Taiwan. If you did not receive that email and would like the registration email, please reach out to yan.liang@k12.dc.gov, yanming.zhi@k12.dc.gov, and yanmingz@msn.com.

For all other trips, we will share registration information as soon as we receive final approval from DCPS. Please note: the registration deadline will approach quickly, so families will need to move quickly to sign up for the trip and submit all forms.

The number one thing families can do to prepare for this trip is ensure their student has a current passport (valid through November of 2025). If your student does not yet have a passport, we strongly recommend your family move quickly to obtain one.

All students requesting a recommendation for high school must complete the following steps:

1. Have a personal conversation with your teacher to request a recommendation.
2. Complete the recommendation request form (linked below by team).
3. Share your teachers' email on the school's application site.
4. Send the teacher an email to let them know you completed the form and thank them for their time.

As Deal teachers receive many recommendation requests, all requests should be submitted at least two weeks prior to the application school's deadline and will be completed in the order they are received. Recommendations are completed at the discretion of the teacher. Students are responsible for maintaining positive relationships with their teacher and meeting high academic expectations.

While completing this form, students are required to submit complete, thoughtful responses that reflect the time and energy they expect from their recommending teacher. Incomplete or insufficient responses may result in the teacher not submitting a recommendation.

Recommendation Request Links:

• Team Havana Recommendation Request Link

• Team Woolloomooloo Recommendation Request Link

• Team Izu Recommendation Request Link

• Team Kendrick Recommendation Request Link

• Off-Team Teacher Recommendation Request Link

If your student needs a recommendation from a teacher not on these form (including 7th grade teachers), please email that teacher directly.

Each year teachers on our team come up with a list of items we need for our classroom to make your child's learning experience enjoyable and more dynamic. Linked below you will find our team amazon wish list. If you decide to buy through this portal, items will be sent directly to the school and distributed within 48 hours to teachers. We collectively thank you for your support and any contributions.

Attention, all Deal scholars! The National Junior Honor Society has officially launched for the school year 2023-2024. This is a national academic organization that serves to foster and recognize excellence in academic scholarship and community service in our nation’s youth. Every spring, hundreds of our 7th and 8th grade students are inducted into Deal chapter of NJHS and it is amazing to see how hard they work and the profound impact that their service has on our community. In order to participate, students must successfully complete each of the action steps noted below by all due dates.

Nov. 8-Digital application to join NJHS is due. Link is in the newsletters and also below.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=7kagKk6zM0qSt5md8rwKMg3E4iKM63JHqyuRN_j1E6lUQ1BLS0M2RzFaRTlVWFBPNEhTNlNQRDkzWC4u

Dec. 13-Students will be formally invited to register for NJHS via Canvas

May 20-All community service and extracurricular club forms are due. Link for community service form is below. Canvas course will close for processing and late submissions won’t be possible.

Fillable_Community_Service_Hours_Form.pdf

June 10-NJHS Induction and Recognition Ceremony at 6:30.

Seventh graders- In order to be inducted in June, you must complete a minimum of 15 community service hours and submit your forms/evidence in Canvas. You must also be on A/B Honor Roll or Principal’s Roll for terms 1-3. Finally, you must participate in at least one extracurricular club and submit your form/evidence of this in Canvas.

Eighth graders- In order to be recognized as an active NJHS member for SY24-25 in June, you must complete a new set of 15 community service hours and submit your forms/evidence in Canvas. You must also be on A/B Honor Roll or Principle’s Honor Roll for terms 1-3. Finally, you must participate in at least one extracurricular club this year and submit your form/evidence in Canvas.

If you have any additional questions, please reach out to me at stephanie.lienemann@k12.dc.gov via email.

Deal will be hosting a virtual High School Night (HSN) Thursday, November 21, from 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm. This is a great opportunity to hear from DCPS application high schools. Additionally, a DCPS Enrollment team representative will speak to families about the high school application process and how to navigate through myschooldc.org. More details will be shared in team newsletters as we get closer to this event.

Last week in science, Monday (10/28)- Friday (11/1)- students constructed arguments differentiating between heat and temperature. Students also learned to calculate temperature conversions and showed mastery by completing an IB Formative Assessment C.

Next week, Wednesday (11/6)- Friday (11/8) Students will:

• define heat transfer and differentiate between conduction, convection and radiation

Last week students were able to discuss the events leading up the American Revolutionary War. Students began the week by analyzing who they thought was at fault for the Boston Massacre after reading two primary source accounts of the event. On Tuesday students were able to explain the reason for the Boston Tea Party and what the effect of the events were on the colonies. On Wednesday students read and annotated a text about the first continental congress. On Thursday we did a 'Halloween' lesson on the Salem Witch Trials. I was out on Friday, but students should have completed a Nearpod assignment on the first battle of the war, Lexington & Concord. We have a short week next week; the schedule is below.

• Wednesday: Election Debrief
• Thursday: Declaring Independence & 2nd Continental Congress
• Friday: Close Read - Declaration of Independence

Upcoming Field Trip!

On December 3rd Team Kendrick will go to the Spy Museum. We have a large number of students this year and in order for this trip to be successful we are asking for your help! If you are able to chaperone this trip it would be greatly appreciated. You will be in charge of 10-15 students throughout the day. Chaperones need to be at Deal by 9:30 and we will be back by 2:45-3:00. Chaperones need to have DCPS clearance in order to attend the trip. I have attached the guidance on how to obtain the clearance if you do not have it already. Please email me at Marlena.Wikander@k12.dc.gov if you are able to chaperone this trip. Thank you so much for considering!

Next week in ELA students will begin their final project for A Raisin in the Sun. We will begin by discussing the emergent theme of "dreams" in A Raisin in the Sun. Then we will compare that to modern conceptions of the American Dream from informational texts/articles as well as TEDx talks. Starting on November 12th, students will have dedicated class time to work on their project. They will have the option to show their understanding of the themes presented in A Raisin in the Sun through a Multi-Genre Project. Students will be able to choose what genre they wish to use – a speech / TEDx Talk, poem, artwork, song, journal entry – and from whose perspective it will be from: their own, that of a character from the play, a President speaking to her/his citizens, or a community leader speaking to the world. They will work to weave in ideas that were present in the texts we read to show your understanding. This project will be due November 15th.

Homework:

Due Nov 6th: Finish Act 3 Annotations (question guidance in canvas) & ARITS Theme Chart (located in Canvas).

Reminders:

Unit 1 is coming to a close. To prepare for Unit 2, we are asking that all families purchase a copy of "145th Street Short Stories" by Walter Dean Myers. This is a change from the message at the beginning of the year, however, to support our annotation efforts, it is important that every student has a copy of the novel that they can write inside.

Purchase a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/145th-Street-Walter-Dean-Myers/dp/0307976106

*If you would like to purchase an additional copy to donate to the class, please contact me.

This past week Math 8 students learned about similarity and how to determine if shapes are similar through a sequence of transformations that compares angle measurements. This coming week students will learn more about angle-angle similarity in triangles and also take an IB formative on similarity this coming Friday. A link to that unit can be found here.

Algebra 1

This past week Algebra 1 students focused on reading and interpreting functions as they relate to graphs. Students also created graphs to describe situations and word problems. This coming week students will take an IB formative on creating and describing graphing stories and end the week with an exploration into describing the domain and range of a function. The link to the current unit can be found here.

Remind

It is very important that you and/or your student subscribe to my Remind Alerts. Remind is how I communicate information to students about their homework. Notices go directly to their phone and are mainly received through a text message (or the app if you download it from the Google Play Store or the App Store). At times I will also attach the assignment in Remind as well. The other useful quality of Remind is that students can ask questions through the app about their homework. These questions go straight to me, so there is no need to feel embarrassed about asking a "dumb question". Most of the time students just need a quick point in the right direction to finish their homework.

If you are not currently receiving Remind notices from me (I've sent several), please make sure you join the correct class by clicking on the link below. You can sign up to receive messages through email, or as text messages through your phone.

• Algebra 1 pd 1: https://www.remind.com/join/g9b97b
• Math 8 pd 3: https://www.remind.com/join/d6gh2c4
• Math 8 pd 4: https://www.remind.com/join/3gfae3k
• Algebra 1 pd 6: https://www.remind.com/join/chcg862
• Math 8 pd 7: https://www.remind.com/join/gc6fcgb

If you would like to contact us, please feel free to do so using the links below. Expect a response from teachers, during school hours, within 1 to 2 business days, of the time your communication was received.

Teacher Email Addresses:

• Science: Charmaine.Thompson@k12.dc.gov
• History: Marlena.Wikander@k12.dc.gov
• English: Catherine.Cunha@k12.dc.gov
• Math: Brandi.Anderson@k12.dc.gov

Website: alicedealmiddleschool.org
Location: 3815 Fort Dr NW, Washington, DC, USA
Phone: 202-939-2010