In Language Arts, students have been working through Unit 4: Argumentative Writing. Students are continuing to practice and will apply the skills they have learned on an upcoming formative on January 30^th. So far, students have learned about elements of argumentative writing and have continued to practice pronouns.

Over the next week, we will continue to prepare for our upcoming formative and summative assessments. Students will receive a study guide next week for our Unit 4 summative. Students will continue to use their “MyPerspectives” workbook to read argumentative articles that pertain to the topic of technology. We are finishing up BEACON testing and will have our last day of testing on February 1^st.

Special notes:

If a student has not submitted their work, then it will remain as a “missing” in the gradebook until it is turned in.

Spiral reviews will be taken as individual formative grades this semester.

Upcoming assessments:

Argumentative formative part 2— 1/30

Unit 4 part 1 summative— 2/3

We will kick off the month of February by celebrating World Read Aloud Day. Students will have the opportunity to listen to a book from guest readers. This month we will be focusing on the genre of historical fiction for book recommendations as students work toward their goal of 8 genres for the year. Students should be working on reading book 16 in order to be on pace for their school year goal of 25 books.

Students have been working on Unit 5 on Rates, Ratios, and Proportional Reasoning (to include Percents). We are currently finishing up spring BEACON testing. Our Unit 5 Summative will be on/about February 7. Following our current unit, we will begin Unit 6 on Geometry.

Students are learning all about the rock cycle and will have a formative over the type of rocks and rock cycle on Friday, January 27th. We are finishing the second part of Unit 3a (Earth’s Changing Landscape), which covers rocks and minerals. A summative over rocks and minerals is scheduled for Wednesday, February 1^st. After the students take the summative, we will begin Unit 4 (Water, Water, Water) where we will discuss how water moves throughout the water cycle and how limited our freshwater supply is on Earth.

Social Studies is wrapping up their Latin America Geography Unit this week. Students will be taking their unit test on Friday, Jan. 27. Next week we will begin Latin American History.

GENERAL CONNECTIONS/PE NEWS:

Just a reminder that Quarter 3 connection courses are underway. Please remind your child to check his or her grades for this nine weeks.