2/20/23 - President's Day - No School
2/23/23 - Tentative Author Visit
3/5/23 - FOC Family Bowling Event @ Waveland
3/16/23 - Q3 Report Cards sent home
3/17/23 - School Improvement Day - No School for Students
3/22/23 - Graduation Picture Day
3/24/23 - CPS High School Offers Released
3/29/23 - Parent/Teacher Conferences - No School for Students
4/3-7/23 - Spring Break
8th Grade Announcements & Information
Thank you to Ms. Zehr for her assistance at our Valentine's Day Party and to our homeroom reps, Ms. Gould and Ms. Putnam for organizing. The students had a fun time playing Kindness Bingo and enjoyed an afternoon of treats and hanging out.
Homeroom/Advisory -
During Advisory this month, we are beginning Unit 2 of the 7 Mindsets Program: Passion First. We will work on lesson 2.3 Take A Stand this coming week. Explore your Interests.
ELA - We will begin our novel study of Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night, this coming week. Students have engaged in reading and analyzing a range of texts to provide context to our Unit 3 Theme: The Challenge to Make A Difference. They will be sharing their Golden Shovel Poems from our Poetry Collection which focus on one of the texts they read. They selected words/phrases in the poem to share their narrative focusing on point of view, extended metaphors, descriptions (show, don't tell), and theme.
Writing - Our Golden Shovel Narrative Poems were due on Friday, 2/17/23. Students are also submitting their four poem collection as part of this work. We will begin working on Young Authors Manuscripts. For this study, students will write a manuscript of their choice. They may go back and revisit and expand their thriller/suspense pieces from early this year or begin something new. We will also be reviewing our writing to date and selecting and reflecting on a piece to add to their writing portfolios. These portfolios represent their work at Coonley. Two pieces have been added each year so they have have an impressive collection. We will continue to work with Quill, our grammar program on a daily basis.
Civics/Social Science - Thank to Ms. Humphrey, who took time out of her busy schedule, to meet with the 8th grade students to discuss power in schools. The students developed questions about power in school including how power is distributed within the school, how it is used by community members with many questions about our schools budget, and how students can use their power to advocate for issues they care about. The interview was a great opportunity for our students to see how our school leaders think about, prioritize, and make decisions for the common good. Students are continuing to draft and develop their project proposals for a Civic Action Project with a focus on making a change/impact within their community. Students are finishing their school power murals in small groups (mock ups) this week and looked at a message they want to communicate and how they can share that message through a mural. They will present their murals in class and complete research of a non-for-profit community organization to create a mini-directory of Chicago/neighborhood organizations.
Have a wonderful week-end.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].