Students enjoyed time with classmates (including an incredible outdoor game of goose chase on Friday), and learned the protocols/routines of the Coonley Middle School this week. I'm excited to welcome our student teacher, Ms. Zimmerman, this semester. We are supported this year in the classroom by Ms. Martinez, Mr. Peters, Ms. Gaylord, and Mr. Lee and Ms. Hitik. I feel fortunate and honored to be working with a great 8th grade team this year including Mr. Juliot, Ms. Foreman and Mr. Gavin.
ELA - Students completed Lesson 1 of Wordly Wise this week and read/analyzed a variety of short stories/poems that looked at identity. Next week, we will begin our study of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Students will be looking at the elements of drama, character types, and analyzing unfamiliar vocabulary/Shakespearean language within this classic comedy.
Writing - Students wrote collective memoir poems about "Things I Learned This Year". Check them out at https://mrsmeegan.weebly.com/student-writing. We explored the elements of memoir and will be applying a variety of techniques to ensure our memoirs "Show, Don't Tell" the significant and important stories of our lives. We mined writing territories and brainstormed firsts, lasts, emotions, and events that are important moments in our lives. Next week, we will be drafting our first short story memoirs using Gary Paulson and Sandra Cisneros as inspiration. We will also begin our grammar studies and apply those lessons to our writing with Gum Unit 7.
Civics - This week we looked at what it means to participate and explored types of decision making in differing forms of government including authoritarian, oligarchy, direct democracy and representative democracy. Next week we will explore power and students will be interviewing parents/guardians on how they use their power as civic actors.
Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns to [email protected]. I am excited to be working with this thoughtful group of 8th graders.