Cluster 2 Newsletter
September 23, 2022
Hello Parents, Guardians, and Caregivers,
Over the past two weeks, students have been settling into our school routine and we've begun some excellent learning. Make sure to be on the lookout every other Friday for our biweekly newsletter. A few notes for the upcoming weeks:
All students now have their Chromebooks! Please be sure they are being charged every evening so that your learner can access course materials and complete assignments.
Students may bring a small snack to eat during advisory (please no candy/soda).
The first round of progress reports will be available the first week of October.
As soon as it may seem, conferences are coming up at the end of October! We will be sending more information on how to schedule them in future Smores. The dates will be Thursday, October 27th and Tuesday, November 1st.
Here is a link to the specialist Smore.
Best,
Cluster TwoELA
Ms. Conceison ELA
We are underway! We have started the year learning The Notice and Note Fiction Signposts. Signposts are a close reading strategy that help students dig deeper into texts, and provide a springboard for discussion. Kylene Beers and Robert Probst identified 6 types of scenes that recur in fictional works. A quick note on the signposts from Heinemann:
”Through research, they located six moves fiction authors make frequently in commonly taught intermediate and middle grade texts. These features were highly noticeable and, upon reflection, offer readers something that helps them connect deeply with texts. ‘We think that these signposts show up in novels,’ write Kylene and Bob, ‘because they show up in the world.’”
In order to practice the skill of identifying signpost moments, students read the short story “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan. “Fish Cheeks” is a story about a young girl struggling with her cultural identity. We also visited the library, and all students should now have an independent reading book. Next week, we’ll begin reading our first whole class novel “Inside Out and Back Again,” a story about a Vietnamese family’s desperate move to America when the war comes close to home.
Ms. Murphy ELA
This week students have been continuing their learning utilizing the Language Live program. As a class we have discussed informational text features then identified them within our nonfiction text. Students have also completed lessons in word training, Unit 1. We have discussed and reviewed the differences between homonyms, nouns and verbs. This past Thursday, our class visited our school library and selected an independent book. Monday through Thursday, all students should be reading their selected independent book for at least 15 minutes per night.
ELD
Welcome or welcome back middle school students! Expanding ELD is the last level we offer before students move on to general English classes. This week, ELD 4 students brainstormed classroom norms, introduced themselves to me and to each other, and reviewed class schedules and school norms. Next week, students will take the first of three i-Ready reading diagnostic tests they will take this year, and they will do a short writing assessment for me.
Math
We would like to extend a special thank you to all Parents & Caregivers who attended our Cluster 1 Back to School Night presentations. We enjoyed seeing some new as well as familiar faces. This week in math we started our Unit 1 Lessons in Desmos on area & surface area. The students worked hard in class and during meaningful discussions in class to understand that the term base refers to one side of a parallelogram and the term height refers to the perpendicular distance between that side and the opposite side. Students learned how to calculate the area of a parallelogram using the length of a base and the corresponding height. We wrapped up the activity by determining the best way to find the area of a parallelogram (A = B ∙ H)! Stay tuned as we learn about the area of triangles next week. Here is a useful link to Family Resources which will enable families to learn about our current unit on Area and Surface Area.
Science
How much space does a plastic doll take up (volume of irregular objects)? Sixth grade scientists were given a bucket of materials including beakers, water, graduated cylinders, and pipettes to solve this problem. Ask them about it! Previously, students found the volume of regular solids and liquids. Next, Sixth Grade Scientists will be solving a mystery involving baking ingredients. Can we tell salt from sugar or baking powder from flour using only observational skills? We will find out next week using the measuring skills learned previously.
Social Studies
This week we’ve started to investigate the world’s imaginary lines, Latitude and Longitude. We’ve practiced labeling them on maps and learning the vocabulary associated with this unit. There will be a vocabulary quiz on these words (Parts of a Map) on Monday 9/26. Study materials are on Google Classroom. Next week we’ll embark on building our globes where we plot the coordinates of continents.