Reading: One Last Word
Subject: One Last Word
Students will start reading One Last Word and learning about the Harlem Renaissance. Students have analyzed the historical significance of the Harlem Renaissance. Students have been introduced to Shuffle Along, the first all black musical on Broadway.
Ask your child:
- What was life like in the 1920’s?
- Why is Shuffle Along so important to the Harlem Renaissance?
- Why is art (music, visual media, stories) so important to share?
Writing: Informative Writing
Students pick an epidemic/pandemic topic from the book Patient Zero.
They learn critical research skills to help study and analyze topics.
Using their research, they draft and revise informative essays.
Later in the unit, they will adapt their informative essays into scripts and create podcasts.
Learner Profile: Inquirer
Due Dates / Summative:
Students are currently adapting informative essays into podcast scripts
Please watch for an email regarding due dates on the summative
Students will soon transition to our next module focused on the Harlem Renaissance
Ask Your Child:
How is your podcast script coming along?
Global Systems: Russia and Eastern Europe
Subjects: Russia and Eastern Europe
Students have completed our inquiry into the causes and effects of the Russian Revolution, as well as what life was like under communist rule in the Soviet Union. We will wrap up this portion of the unit with a summative quiz and written CER response on the legacy of Joseph Stalin. In the remaining weeks of Quarter 3, students will work as a class to explore and present on different topics related to the Cold War to understand that period of history and make connections to our world today.
Coming up soon:
Mar 11-18: Summative Quiz on the Russian Revolution, Joseph Stalin, and the Soviet Union.
Mar 20-28: Full class investigations and presentations on Cold War topics.
Ask your child: How life in communist USSR (and Russia today) differs from our lives in the United States.
Math: Unit 6 - Expressions, Equations, and Inequalities
In this unit, students deepen their algebraic reasoning as they write and solve equations. Students also work with equivalent expressions that are more complex than what they have seen previously. This builds on grade 6 work with equations and with simpler equivalent expressions. Students will build on this work in grade 8 when they solve equations that have a variable on both sides of the equal sign and when they work with systems of equations.
Science: 7.4 Metabolic Reactions Inside Our Bodies
Students are finalizing the flameless heater design, building and testing summative assessment based on concepts learned in unit 7.2 Chemical Reactions and Energy. Once that is completed, we will move on to the next unit- 7.3 Metabolic reactions inside our bodies. This is a life science unit that builds science ideas around chemical reactions and human body systems. Specifically students examine a real case study of a middle schooler struggling to keep food down. As students examine her symptoms, they piece together her unusual condition.
Below is a live link of our unit agenda. All materials to be used in class are embedded in the agenda including assignments and due dates. The link to this agenda is also posted in Schoology.
Agenda #3 -Chemical Reactions & Matter 2024/25
Agenda #4 -Metabolic Reactions Inside Our Bodies
Ask your child:
Why is it important to follow lab safety expectations?
What is one new concept/idea you learned in science this week?
Spanish: Units 2B and 3A
Students have been working diligently on committing to memory the subject pronouns, regular -ar verb conjugation, and the verbs SER and ESTAR (to be). I am very impressed with their progress and I am about to assess them on their knowledge. They will begin to memorize the prepositions of location and expressions with TENER (to have) and we will put it all together in the context of foods, meals, and healthy behaviors.
Coming up soon: Formative on pronouns, -ar verb conjugations, and the verb ESTAR with prepositions of location.
Ask your child: What is the difference between a verb in infinitive and a conjugated verb? For not native-/heritage speakers, also ask them to tell you 5 (or more) -ar verbs in Spanish and what they mean in English.
