Hi Everyone,
I’m super excited to start 8th grade seminar on Tuesday. Here’s what to expect.
1) Here is a complete calendar of 8th Grade Seminar. It is subject to change depending on how class flows, but this should give you an overview of topics, district/state assessments, and due dates for the Spring.
2) We’ll start be reading a chapter from Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, exploring the IAT Test, introducing Jim Crow, and learning about biases we bring to our perspective.
3) As you can see, there is a BVSD district common writing assessment scheduled for Thursday and Friday this week. Students will be planning and then writing an opinion piece about social media in class on those days. All 8th graders across BVSD are expected to participate.
4) Next week, we’ll dive into To Kill A Mockingbird. The first few chapters are really challenging in that Harper Lee throws you into the middle of things and there are a lot of characters that can be confusing. To help us sort that out, we are going slow and reading the first few chapters as a whole class. We’ll also conduct our first round of book groups on Wednesday, February 26th. We’ll focus on keeping the conversation flowing (and on topic!) as we try to better understand the novel. Here’s our first book group menu fyi…
There is a myriad of ways to read TKAM. Some students may read it independently. Others may join us for “read-aloud” during class. I also have audio links here. Students are welcome (encouraged!) to listen to the story so long as they simultaneously track with a book in hand. As hard as it may be, I do ask that students not read ahead however.
Students are expected to bring the following to class:
- Writing pen(cil)
- Composition Notebook. (Students can use their existing LA notebook if they have one. All notebooks are welcome to be stored in my class)
- To Kill A Mockingbird book. (I’ll hand these out in class on Monday the 24th)
- Choice Novel
Upcoming Due Dates:
Every night: Read 30 minutes of reading their choice novel.
Friday, February 23rd. District Writing Assessment due. (Timed social media essay completed in class)
Wednesday, February 26th (next week):
- Important Passages (as modeled in class)
- Chapters 1 and 2 complete in TKAM
Thursday, February 27th: Check-in due via email by 8:30am
Thank you so much for the opportunity to teach your student!
Josh Feiger