Cluster 6 Newsletter
March 17, 2023
Hello families and caregivers!
Happy almost spring!
Student-led Caregiver Conferences: Use this link to sign-up for a conference with a Cluster 6 (8th grade) teacher: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a44aca622abf85-cluster4#/
Thursday, March 23
1:00-3:00pm (virtual)
5:00-7:00pm (in-person)
Tuesday, March 28
1:00-3:00pm (in-person)
6:00-8:00pm (virtual)
Cluster Field Trip: Our Cluster is taking a field trip to the Edward Kennedy Institute for the Senate at the John F. Kennedy Presidential library on Friday, March 24. Please see the Civics section below for more information about the field trip.
Best,
Cluster 6 Team
English
We are well into the month of March and are ready to welcome spring with open arms. As the weather improves and our daylight lengthens, we are all encouraged to enjoy some of the simplicity of the outdoors.
In ELA class, we are really impressed with our students' Narrative Writing Unit. For several weeks, we will be asking students to read mentor texts, complete prewriting activities (as a means to brainstorm for their own writing), draft a short writing piece, and share our work with others. This process has been working well and students are building their skills around narrative writing components. Please ask your child about their “mini-writes.”
The mini-write unit will last for the next few weeks- culminating in a “Cross-Cluster ShareOut” in the auditorium. Students crushed this format with our Mini-Sagas last month so we are thrilled to have the opportunity to do it again with our narratives.
ELA MCAS for 8th grade will be held on Wednesday, April 12, and Thursday, April 13th. We really stress the importance of these tests for our 8th graders- it is the last time our students will take the MCAS before their official MCAS testing during 10th grade. It is vital that students show their true academic self on the tests and receive scores that most represent their abilities. We will be discussing test-taking skills and the importance of the tests- and also some MCAS practice- in the weeks leading up to the tests.
Please reach out with any questions or concerns about your student.
Civics
We can’t stop learning about our Founding Documents! One reason this unit is so long is because students are demonstrating their academic writing skills. At WMS, we call our formal academic essays “CERs” which stands for Claim, Evidence and Reasoning as you might remember from your child’s work in 6th and 7th grade. Students practiced reading difficult sources and writing an essay before February break with our “Indigenous Influence on the Constitution” essay. We gave your students specific feedback so they know if they are meeting or exceeding 8th grade writing standards or if they still need to work on their writing skills, but it did not count very much into their grade since it was practice.
This week, students are writing another CER formal persuasive essay that will be a bigger part of their 3rd term grade. Students have read about founders of the United States and their views on enslaving other human beings. They also read narratives from enslaved people and then planned their essay. Students are finishing their essays by the end of class on Monday 3/20. Phew, it is tough!
We are also taking a field trip this week. We are excited to visit the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate on Friday, March 24 to learn how we make laws. It is located by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and we will get to be senators for the day in a replica of the United States Senate. The museum is free but the bus costs $10 a student. Your student brought home a pink permission form, so please return the permission slip and $10 to Ms. Shock as soon as possible. Thank you!
Math
The 8th grade math group is currently working on exponent relationships and rules for simplifying expressions involving terms with exponents. They just completed a quiz on Wednesday, and we will now start working on scientific notation. Scientific notation allows us to represent and calculate huge and small quantities, such as the distance from Earth to Pluto, or the diameter of an atom.
The Algebra class is also learning about scientific notation, but will spend most of their time over the next couple weeks learning about functions. Can you be in two places at once? If you sell 4 t-shirts at a fundraiser, is it possible to have made $50 on that sale and simultaneously $70 on that sale? Students will learn what makes a function, and what makes a relationship NOT a function.
Science
We are just wrapping up the Evolution Unit. The cumulative test for this unit will be next week: Tuesday, March 21 for Orange Class and Wednesday, March 22 for Green, Blue, and Purple classes. It will cover all the content from the entire unit, from Darwin’s theory to extinction. Students will have some time in class to review for the test, and will need to do some additional review at home. Supplementary review materials (websites, vocabulary sets, and videos listed by topic) can be found here: Review Materials for Evolution Unit.
Following the test, we will start a mini-unit about Weather, Climate, and Seasons, which will take us through to April Break.
Links to other Smores
Specialist Smore
Use this link to see updates from your students' specialist teachers on their classes!
Reading Smore
Use this link to see updates from the reading teachers on their classes!
Wilson Reading Smore
Here is the link for the Wilson Reading Smore with Ms. Sorenson
English Learner Smore
Check here for updates from our English Language Development teachers Ms. Rix, Ms. Gilmartin, Ms. Campos, and Ms. Schoenbeck.
Contact Info
Mr Cloherty, Guidance: thomas.cloherty@watertown.k12.ma.us
Ms Kiernan, Special Education: kathleen.kiernan@watertown.k12.ma.us
Mr Manoukian, Math: aram.manoukian@watertown.k12.ma.us
Ms P-K, Science: katherine.poulinkerstien@watertown.k12.ma.us
Ms Rix, English Language Development: zara.rix@watertown.k12.ma.us
Ms Shock, Civics: laura.shock@watertown.k12.ma.us