This week is the end of the first nine weeks. I can hardly believe we have been in school that long already. We have completed our first essay, This I Believe, and have also completed our first Foundations for Learning Unit: Sequence of Events. In this unit, we discussed how ideas, beliefs and circumstances can affect what comes next. We read two historical fiction novels, Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli and Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson.

The students took the unit test September 20th and the grades have been recorded in RenWeb.
What's next on the agenda? Last week, we began discussing our second Foundations for Learning unit: Character. This unit will also include our next essay genre, character analysis. We are reading three novels this unit, The Outsiders, That Was Then This Is Now and Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton.

Welcome Back!

Welcome to Eighth grade Language & Literature. We are embarking on an exciting journey together, the last year of middle school!

Over the course of the next 9 months we will spend a significant amount of time reading and writing, covering several genres. For those families that are new to our Parkview community, students meet with their Language & Literature teacher for 90 minutes. In the course of this 90 minutes, we may have whole class or small group novel discussions, work in our SPECs logs, hold writing conferences, etc.

Last week I sent home a syllabus for you to read and discuss with your student. If you have not turned these in, the signature page is due by this Friday, August 19^th. We also discussed literature terms we will continuously cover throughout the year. There is a quiz this Friday on those terms.

This week we are beginning our personal narratives during our Language section. I am eager to work with the students constructing this essay we will call “This I Believe…” , which is based on the popular 1950’s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow. We will also be covering  sequence of events through historical fiction in our Literature section.

I look forward to meeting each of you during the Middle School Open House night, Thursday, August 25^th at 6:00pm. Have a great week!

Science Fiction

Today, we completed our Historical Fiction/Sequence of Events unit with the test. We will begin our Science Fiction/Questioning unit next week. I'm really excited for the students to get into these novels. Mrs. Romero and Mrs. Spencer's classes have already completed the unit and really enjoyed the novels. We will be reading:

The Graveyard Book

The House of the Scorpion

Airman

We will also be continuing the research papers again next week, beginning with the rough draft.

Class Update and Research Passwords

We have been in the computer lab working on a research paper for several days now.  All students were instructed by our MS librarian, Mrs. Natalie Romero, on the research process and how to use Noodle Tools?software where students can record, organize and synthesize information using online note cards and bibliography cards. 

The research paper is a step-by-step process through which I will carefully guide your child; however, I would like for you also to get involved.  I encourage you to ask your child questions about his or her topic and monitor the progress being made.  Research topics were given to each student Monday based on the historical fiction novel (Milkweed, Fever 1793, or The River Between Us) they have been covering in F-Learn.  Please begin speaking with your child about this person or event.  The research process your child learns will prove useful throughout his or her life?far beyond the walls of our classroom.

 I'm attaching a handout that covers all of the research paper requirements for your convenience.  As always, I'm available if you have any questions or concerns.  The first section of our research process, the notecards and outline, will be due this Friday, March 4th. Students are strongly encouraged to work on their paraphrases outside of the computer lab time we have in class. Here are a list of passwords for the databases from the PBS MS Library website or the library blog (pbsmslibrary.wordpress.com):

SIRS

User: prkvubap

Pass: eagles

World Book Online

User: pbseagles

Pass: eagles09

Gale Pass: lak12

Facts On File 

User:  prkvubap

Pass: eagles

 

On another note, independent novels must be completely read by March 14^th, the Monday after Winter Break.  We will begin working on the independent novel project that day.  The students will be working to create Farcebook posters about a character from their individual novels. 

Thank you for your support and encouragement. 

Searching........and Researching

Middle of the Spring semester always brings about every students favorite time of the year. No, not Spring Carnival or Spring Break....research papers! Every computer lab is booked, the librarians are running from class to class teaching research skills and the internet databases are hopping. On of my favorite tools I have come across is NoodleTools. Teaching note cards along with paraphrasing and bibliographies has never been easier. Where was this tool when I was in school?