In ELA this month, we will finish our Juvenile Justice unit where students learned about the justice system in the United States, participated in a discussion with District Attorney Rachael Rollins, and read the novel Monster, where the main character is a teenager who is on trial and being tried as adult. To conclude their learning from this unit, students will spend the first couple of weeks in March reading, discussing, and analyzing two nonfiction and current event texts about juvenile justice in the U.S. before synthesizing their understanding in an analytical essay, drawing on and practicing their writing skills. After wrapping up with the Juvenile Justice unit, students will begin to build background knowledge for their next book, Night by Elie Wiesel, which will at the end of the month.

For the month of March, students will take their observations and definitions of percentages and begin to apply them. Tax and tip are real world examples that will allow students to connect what they have been learning about to the life examples. We have spent some time deconstructing the word "per-cent" (for every, one hundred) as well as translating percent increase/decrease scenarios into expressions. Afterwards we will begin a trip into Rational Number Arithmetic. Students will get exposure to the opposite side of the number line (negatives) and will do by exploring how to add and subtract rational numbers.

For the month of March, students will begin their exploration of Ancient China. They will start the unit by looking at how China's physical boundaries, including mountains and deserts, allowed Chinese civilizations to developed in isolation for thousands of years. From their study of early Dynasties, students will then look at the three Chinese philosophies of Taoism, Confucianism, and Legalism. Through these philosophies, students will grapple with one of our year-long essential questions "How should we live?" Finally, we will close our study by looking at the construction of the Great Wall of Ancient China and debating whether the benefits outweighed the costs?

Student will explore Chinese history and three Chinese philosophies. They will be able to describe the origin, core beliefs and spread of Confucianism, Daoism and Legalism. They will apply the teachings of Chinese philosophies to modern situations and issues. They are supposed to write essay, dialogue or short drama as the form of unit project.


Students will begin their unit on roller coaster. We will explore speed and motion along with manipulating materials from our science kits to create roller coasters. Other concepts we will cover is calculating speed, kinetic and potential energy, and conservation of mass.

Students will continue to work on their organization skills - task initiation, time management, class preparation and self advocacy. These skills will be particularly important for those who are transitioning into hybrid learning. Student will continue to meet in small groups to work on their individual goals and objectives in regards to reading, writing, math, and organizational skills. They will continue to practice learned math strategies in order to solve word problems and build their math fact fluency. In reading group, they will work on re-reading and finding evidence within the text to answer comprehension questions find the central idea and theme. In writing small group, students will continue to work on paragraph structure in order to write two body paragraphs.

During the month of January students will be reading Monster, both in class and independently. Students will have an opportunity to "act" out different roles, as this novel is written as a movie script. Students will also be completing their second aRead screening to see how much growth they have made as a reader thus far.

This month in Math students will wrap-up their introduction to proportional relationships. Up next we will extend their knowledge of geometry with a study of circles. What makes a circle a circle? Why and how is it different from other shapes. They have been building their understanding of proportional relatinships which will now include "pi" (a circle's circumference divided by its diameter). Unit vocabulary will continue to be emphasized as a solid foundation here will allow students to develop strong reasoning. Area and circumference formulas will also give students a bit of pre-algebra exposure and this usually gets students pumped! Stay tuned.

This month we will start our exploration of West African societies and kingdoms. We will look at the geography of the region and its resources. As we go further into this region's history we will look at the accomplishments of the Kingdoms of Mali and Ghana especially the leaders of Sundiata and Mansa Musa. We will see the influence of Islam in the region and the development of the great libraries in the city of Timbuktu. Throughout this unit, we will look deeper into the year's theme of looking beyond a single story and explore how Africa is often subject to this singular world view.

Students will complete their project on Monothesim and start to research West Africa. They will explore the history and civilizations of Africa, includes West African kingdoms, the religion, culture and trade. Students will choose to make posters or design Africa mask to show their understanding of the civilizations of West Africa.

This month, we will be exploring the mechanics of seasons and what causes them as well as exploring our solar system. We hope to create physical models of the solar system and then begin to dive into a little bit of chemistry. Students will continue to demonstrate their knowledge of our Science concepts through a UDL style of teaching.

Students will continue to work on their organization skills - task initiation, time management, class preparation and self advocacy. Students will continue to meet in small groups to work on their individual goals and objectives in regards to reading, writing, math, and organizational skills. They will continue to practice learned math strategies in order to solve word problems and build their math fact fluency. In reading group, students will build their annotation skills by making text connections and inferences in order to find the central idea and theme. In writing small group, students will work on breaking down the prompt and continue using graphic organizers in order to create solid body paragraphs.

In ELA students just completed their first academic discussion about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan and discussed the water issue they read about in A Long Walk to Water. In November, we will be working on our counter-narrative series and students will explore the danger of a single narrative and the importance of perspective.

In Math, students are getting ready to end their exploration of Unit 1 (Scale Drawings). The unit contained two major components (scale factor + scale drawings). Students will continue to build their vocabulary and sense making as they journey forward. "Real life" connections include a lesson on using scale and estimation to hypothesize the dimensions of the Apollo Lunar Module, comparing scale and non-scaled maps of the MBTA transit system, as well as creating a scale drawing of a triangular plot of land in Philadelphia.

Students are wrapping up their exploration of the 2020 presidential election and will begin to look at religious understanding through the unit - Monothesim: Beyond the Single-Story. Here students will explore the major beliefs of these religions, the founders and figures of these faiths, and how these religions impact their worshipers’ lives. Students will end the unit with a choice project to promote continued understanding of one aspect of religion and share with the larger Cambridge community.

Students will complete their unit one project on Identity and write their reflections. They will start to explore religions. They will learn how religion influences people's lives and think about how belief shapes our life. They will explore the teachings of Judaism and how it guides the life of the Jewish people. They will also start to explore the teachings of Christianity.

Students are beginning their exploration of astronomy. They are studying how ancient cultures created structures to watch the sky and philosophies about our world and outer-space. Students have also learned about the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei and how his discoveries opened the door to further knowledge about our solar system due to his invention of the telescope.

In our pull-out sessions we have been working on organization skills, as well as learning to manage schedules in and outside of school. In Math we have been working on strategies such as t-charts, double numberlines and tape diagrams, which will be important as we focus on problem solving this fall. To build our reading skills we will be using the RAP reading strategy and RACE writing strategy to build students reading and writing skills.