Dear Parents

Dear Parents,

We just finished our 8^th grade integrated unit on the Progressive Movement and the Roaring 20’s. In English we learned about writing with elaboration such as anecdotes, indirect quotes, direct quotes and descriptions; we also wrote two essays. After watching the Disney movie the Newsies, we read about, wrote about and acted out anecdotes about the real newsies from Kids on Strike by Susan Bartoletti and the New York Times newspaper articles from 1899. Students then put their new knowledge and writing skills together by writing an anecdotal essay about the newsies. This essay was done with a fair amount of teamwork and teacher guidance. Finally, we wrote an essay on the Roaring 20’s, students choose a topic, researched it and wrote an essay with less guidance and teamwork. 

Our next integrated unit is the Great Depression. We are going to use the theme of the Great Depression to anchor our writing and our literature. In English students are going to be working on word choice, figurative language, sentence fluency, conventions and parts of speech. They will also be learning how to write an analytical paragraph and essay. In class we will use excerpts from Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand as a model text of great word choice. In Literature we will use clips from the movie Seabiscuit to learn about literature elements such as symbolism, motifs, themes and allusions. Students will also be reading either Out of Dust by Karen Hesse, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, A Long Way to Chicago,  by Richard Peck, Hitch by Jeanette Ingold or Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis and doing a packet of activities with classmates to gain a further understanding of the literature. A reading calendar is on sms8students@blogspot.com. Also, I purchased extra novels this year, so that parents could check one out to read along with their child.

During the 8^th grade year I would really like the students to read every night. I do not give students much time to read their novels in class, so it is helpful if they read their assigned novel at home or another novel, magazine, graphic novel when they do not have an assigned novel. Students learn to be better writers, gain more vocabulary, and become faster readers by simply reading. I really strive to not give students homework, so that they have time to read for twenty minutes at home.