Feb. 13th - 17th
The 8th graders are writing argumentative essays each week to practice for
the writing test coming up in February. Please practice at home using this
procedure: Consider a topic. Make claims for the topic, as in a debate.
Give evidence for these claims. Then make claims against this topic. Give
evidence for the against claims. For example, Why would one want to be in a
gang? Present evidence for doing so. Why would one not want to be in a
gang? Present evidence for not doing so.
We are approaching the end of the year. Please make sure your student has
plenty of pencils. We are having a problem with students coming with nothing
to write with. I give "0's" for this behavior, because it is the only item
that I require students to bring to class. I provide everything else. It is
completely irresponsible for any student to come to a writing class without a
pencil.
Last week, we got away from our Daily 5 process, so I could introduce the
students to a unit over health. I have a personal mission to teach all my
students about nutrition and taking care of their bodies, because I believe
it is extremely important. I know from my students that you parents feel
that way, too, and that many of you are doing a wonderful job teaching them
to eat well and to exercise.
This week we are going back to work on the Daily 5, recognizing fragments and
run-ons in our writing and reviewing the basice parts of speech.
Tuesday, the test will be matching and fill in the blank over the discussion
points from our health unit and the 8 words that we defined and discussed
last week: (Feb. 14th) 1) cardiovascular 2)aerobic
3)voluntary 4)involuntary 5)calorie 6) carbohydrate 7) hydrated 8) toxic.
