Post date: Jan 16, 2011 5:43:39 PM
Dear Parents and Students,
Once again I find myself typing slowly as I search for novel ways to express my adoration and appreciation for the DCS 8th grade community. The greatest gifts have befallen me and with them comes an increased desire to pay it forward and do my best work in the precious remaining months that I have with this group of 8th graders and their families.
Another fantastic week under our belts. With the semester change approaching many students have become a bit more attentive to their grades. Although they are important, lets keep in mind that grades are only one indicator of student learning and achievement. My thoughts are detailed ad nauseam on the grades page of my website. This weekend I will be entering scores for any late assignments as well as extra credit and then next week I will be entering scores for the book projects as well as recent science test. Please keep in mind that the grades the students are currently earning are the result of 4 months worth of work (or sometimes lack thereof) and so, despite last minute panic on the part of some students, large increases in percentage points at this late date in the semester are possible but (mathematically) unlikely.
Review of the Week:
English:
The biggest, and almost exclusive task for this past week was the completion of two book projects that were due Friday (no extensions this time, due to the impending end-of-semester). If my walls, draped with colorful and creative projects, are any indicator, these are excellent summative assessments of the students' understanding and analysis of their books.
The second thing that the students produced was a one-page on-the-spot writing assignment about "A Natural Change" or "An Exhilarating Experience". Those writings were superior to the ones I received last week, which is very encouraging. I especially enjoyed reading those from Mrs. Stuart's class that used expressive and accurate figurative language to engage the reader. For the Heumannoids, the Ship's Log (from Age of Sail) will provide another example of writing. I'm impressed by just how well some of the students could formulate thoughts at 3:00 AM and put them down on paper in the wet and dark conditions aboard the ship.
Age of Sail: Great weather, amazing kids, powerful program -- what more can I say? Lots, of course. I sent out a separate email about that subject on Saturday night and posted pictures here. I have about 40 minutes of video that I'll edit down and post as well.
Science:
For this chapter on energy and energy resources, I put the students in charge of their own learning quite a bit. Working as table groups they did and "each one teach one" scenario in which each student learned one section from the chapter and then taught it to the other three. Instead of just copying each other's notes, I encouraged them to teach with explanation, diagrams, examples, and mini-assessments. I also handed out the publisher's test stems for this chapter so that they could assess their own comprehension levels. On Wednesday they met as section groups and wrote and refined test questions of their own. The test on Thursday was a combination of publisher as well as student-created questions and I'm expecting very high scores. No essay questions this time.
This Coming Week:
In the four remaining days for this first semester I intend to have the students view each other's book projects and give constructive feedback, I'm also hoping to have new books chosen by Friday -- I will likely be giving them a choice of books but they will have one theme in common. I would like us to gain some experience with some of the classics that are common to the 8th grade curriculum.
In science we will be covering heat energy and thermodynamics. Just as this semester was dominated by physics, next semester will be dominated by chemistry.
Until Tuesday,