SOLs Covered: 8.11 Probability; 8.13 Scatterplots; 8.12 Boxplots
Math Unit: 20 Probability; 21 Data Analysis
Daily Agenda: April 24-28, 2023
Upcoming Assessments: Quiz 4.02 Data Analysis (A-Wed. 5/3; B-Thurs. 5/4); Unit 5 Test (A-Fri. 5/5; B-Mon. 5/8)
Greetings! The afternoon has yet again gotten away from me, so I'm again going to try to get this update out quickly. As previously mentioned, I've tried to use the new ETEH time to get the last few students caught up on the benchmark test, but between absences, students not showing up, and a few not utilizing that time wisely, I still have a few stragglers. I'm going to try to work with them next week, but again I ask that parents/guardians help me by encouraging the kids to not only make an attempt on their own to make-up the work but to also utilize the ETEH opportunity. Of course, there are still the Thursday morning opportunities to come in early and get a little extra help.
In regard to this week's math, we started the week by wrapping up our work on probability and took the quiz on Tuesday/Wednesday. The kids were expected to do their first take on their own to see how they'd do if they were left completing it in a traditional manner, but we did the second take together with me projecting the quiz on the board and walking through it with them. Unfortunately, not all students fully appreciated the opportunity for an easy 100A+ either through their inattention or their behavior, so if you see something lower in the gradebook, please have a conversation with them about this as well. I of course have had the conversation with them as well, but I'm finding that some kids are starting to act like the year's already over when we still have 31 school days left, 18 of which lead up to our math SOL, which takes place on May 25th.
The end of the week was spent introducing the kids to our final unit of the year, data analysis, which started with scatterplots. The kids did well with the topic and most actually found the work very easy, which I know was a relief to them after seeing all the paper that came with this unit. I explained that statistics always ends up taking up a bit more paper just because all the pictures of graphs take up more space, but it doesn't translate to more work, which they were happy to hear. Because this unit actually covers two standards, there are two separate formative checks for it, the first of which the kids are expected to have already completed by Monday. At last grade update, there were still quite a few missing, so please encourage the kids to complete it over the weekend if you see the grade is still blank at this time.
Before I close this out, I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware that I've updated my class calendar to include all the other 8th grade SOL tests, so if you're not sure when those are taking place, please look at the May calendar. Now as always, please let me know if you have any questions. Hope you all have an amazing weekend!