Welcome back, Middle School Families!
I hope all 7th and 8th graders who went on the DC trip had a blast! I can’t wait to hear about it on Monday.
We are beginning our final Character Based Literacy novel study of the year this week. The theme is Justice Requires Restraint, and in all grades we will focus on the social justice issues that our novel highlights. 5th and 6th grade will be reading Number The Stars, a Hollocaust novel that takes place in Denmark. It traces the story of a young Danish girl fighting for justice and equality in her Nazi-occupied country. 7th and 8th grade will be reading Farewell to Manzanar, a memoir that recounts a young Japanese-American’s childhood growing up in an American Japanese internment camp during WWII. All grades will engage in Common Core aligned literature circles to go deeper into the study of the novels and the social justice issues within them.
In social studies, Ancient Civilizations is continuing with Ancient India and student’s will learn about the caste system this week. In United States History, students will engage in an Academic Controversy Discourse (debate) dealing with Lewis and Clark’s encounters with Native Americans.
8th grade is continuing to work on their portfolios, and Mr. Adriano will be filming their personal statements (paragraph they wrote in January) on Thursday. These will be put into their slideshows which are due on Thursday as well. All other portfolio work can be worked on at home, so please check in with your 8th grader’s portfolio progress so he/she doesn’t wait until the last minute. All assignments are spaced out with due dates, and all instructions are together on one sheet of paper. Each student has a copy. 8th grade will also begin practicing for May Crowning this week! Please be on the lookout for an email from me regarding May Crowning details. The event is Thursday, May 3rd, and all 8th graders must attend and participate.
The 8th grade retreat with me and Mr. Molina will be all day on Friday, April 27th. Permission slips will be passed out in the next week.