News from Team 8L

October Blog – Team 8L

Health:  Health is gaining knowledge about Decision Making, Goals and Goal Setting, and Communication Skills!

Academic Literacy:  In Academic Literacy class students are continuing to discuss themes surrounding "age" such as discrimination, stereotypes, cultures and their views on coming of age, along with various time periods or ages in history. In support of the informational texts students are reading, they have been determining and summarizing the central idea and applying text analysis concepts and skills to analyze news articles and web articles. Students are beginning to think critically about what they are reading by using humor, irony and/or delivering a message in the development and creation of their own cartoons that are related to themes or ideas pulled from text.  This is an introduction to teaching bias and opinion as we begin to look closely at the difference between subjective and objection ideas and details the author is using in informational text.

Math:  The Honors Algebra students will be studying Patterns & Functions and learn how to Write & Graph Linear Equations.  They will have the opportunity to use the graphing calculator to see a linear function graphed, find the line of best fit for a scatter plot, and obtain the linear equation in seconds!  Of course knowing how this is done will make it more meaningful.

Algebra 1A classes will be focusing on how algebraic equations (including absolute value ones) are solved.  We will work with 1-step, 2-step, and multi-step equations, as well as review concepts of proportions and percent of change, and conclude the unit with Rate problems.

PreAlg2 students will also be learning to solve equations, as well as how to write an equation to represent a real-life situation.  The Distributive Property will be a main focus for us, as this is one of the most occurring concepts throughout an algebra course.  As time permits, we may also begin studying Inequalities and their solutions.

English:  In English class, students are getting ready to publish their "Dream Essay."  After a grammar and punctuation review, students are practicing good editing as they work through the essential steps in the writing process.  Students will then be creating an Animoto video. This will be an opportunity for students to showcase the information in their essays while also demonstrating their understanding and use of technology.

Towards the end of October, the students will be ready to begin a literature unit on short stories. Students will be reading some classics, and analyzing the use of literary elements and devices.

Science:  We are currently finishing up our mineral unit.  In this unit we learned what a mineral is and how to identify them.  After learning how to identify the minerals, students did a mineral hunt quiz where they identified 12 minerals out of a box of various minerals.  They also identified one mineral and then wrote an essay explaining the process they used to make the identification.  The essay is graded by the state standards of focus, content, and organization.  We also learned about the resources that minerals provide and the different processes it takes to excavate them.  We culminated the information with a Cookie Mining Activity.  Students mined for chocolate chips and were paid for the ore (chip).  In the end they also had to pay to put their cookie back to the same state it started just as the land needs to be put back in its original state.  It was a great activity about mining as well as business.  They truly learned that it takes a lot of money to start and maintain a business.

Social Studies:  England just doesn’t understand why their colonies in America do not want to pay their taxes.  J  We are learning the reasons why England was taxing the 13 Colonies and the reaction of the colonies toward these taxes.  Some colonists pay them loyally while others openly voice their displeasure through protests and petitions.   We will also be going on a Mission to see what it was like as a printer’s apprentice during the Pre-Revolutionary Era who faced the choice of becoming a patriot or staying loyal to the crown.

Also, ALL students on Team 8L know their individual EdLine username and password and have their account information saved in their Google Drive.