WEEKLY BULLETIN: GRADE 8 LEARNING SUPPORT

JANUARY 27, 2012

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL MANILA

This Week in Grade 8

ENGLISH: Students have completed two sessions of literature circles (for either the book Night or Maus) and are completing weekly roles, such as identifying vocabulary, theme, character description, literary terms, etc. They will continue this for two more weeks. Ask your child about the book they are reading - the class discussions have been rich! They should also be working through reading their independent book for their upcoming Book Talks and completing a book report type template to guide them through their discussion (either in Feb. or March). SOCIAL STUDIES: This week continued with students watching videos of

the People Power Revolution of 1986 here in the Philippines. Note-taking skills are being practiced, with a focus on main ideas and details. All of this will lead to students writing a persuasive 5 paragraph essay answering Was the People Power Revolution a success or failure? On Feb. 6, former President Ramos will come and give a speech for the students about that time period.

for details) and are in the building stage of the process. Next week they will complete the building and see if their machines work. They are all really enjoying this process and activity! MATH:

Graphing and Interpreting Data have been the focus this week in math class. Students are analyzing data in order to nd more information. Important SCIENCE: terms such as mean, mode, Students are into the median, range, rst quartile, building stage of their third quartile, and Transformation Unit interquartile range are all performance task on simple terms they are learning and machines. They have utilizing in class. A designed (drawn) a simple statistics unit assessment machine/rescue machine will be coming up next they believe will be week - date yet to be successful in completing the determined. task (see Mr. Pasambas blog

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER: *

UPCOMING ASSESSMENTS & DUE DATES: * English - reminder for students to stay on track with their group assigned reading sections * Social Studies - students should have 18 read & responds completed in their google.docs for Mr. Willey.

IMPORTANT WEBSITES USED IN CORE CLASSES: Google Docs brainpop.com Noodle tools - research skills & notecards

Strategy Instruction Class

Skill & Strategy Areas of Focus: Vocabulary Development: - Developing strategies to help determine meaning of new vocabulary & expanding students vocabulary base - Using context clues - Categorizing/Classifying - Understanding words with Multiple Meanings - Prex & Sufx meanings using these to help determine word meaning - Root Words/Base words - for meaning The Writing Process: - We are beginning to look at the structure of a persuasive paragraph or essay - how to support your opinion with valid reasons and organize them into a strong persuasive paragraph Research Strategies: - using templates to organize information - Noodle tools online - Paraphrasing skill practice Study Skills: - Note-taking strategies: we are using the Cornell method which is the 2 column notes method (main ideas on left side; supporting details on right) - difference between facts and opinions
child will be learning, practicin g and implementing throug hout this year! e templates on my class . I will be posting thes strategies that your These are some of th e many

1.
Note- Taking Strategies 2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Study Skills Time Management Self - Advocacy Paragraph Writing Summary Writing Editing Strategies Interactive Reading Learning Styles

Time Management: - chunking long term/ large assignments into smaller due dates

you can access them piercec.ism-online.

blog so

org