Eighth+Grade+Weekly

=Weekly Point of View... May 5=

Teachers in attendance: Donny, Pace, Whisenant
Students are preparing for the PASS reading test. Students are using the PASS practice booklets from HOLT and the packets from the state department. Students in Mrs. Pace's class are also doing a multi-genre research project. =Weekly Point of View - April 28, 2011= Teachers in attendance: Whisenant, Pace Students are preparing for the PASS reading test. Students are using the PASS practice booklets from HOLT and the packets from the state department. Students in Mrs. Pace's class are also doing a multi-genre research project. =Weekly Point of View... April 14, 2011= Teachers in attendance: Whisenant, Shelley, Sumter All students are preparing for the PASS reading test in three weeks. We have practice passages from the state department that we will begin next week. Students in Mrs. Shelley's class are studying poetry and are writing an extended metaphor poem. Students in Sumter's class have just finished "The Diary of Anne Frank" and will be beginning a multi-genre research project. Students in Whisenant's honors classes are studying poetry and will be starting the play "The Diary of Anne Frank". Regular students have just finished their poetry web-quests and are sharing their poems with the class. Next they will begin reading The Wave. We are encouraging students to attend the Language Arts parent night "Poetry Slam" in the media center tonight from 6-7 pm. =Weekly Point of View... March 31, 2011= Teachers in attendance: Whisenant, Pace, Shelley Whisenant's regular students are composing poems about their past, present, and future for a web quest. Honors students are creating skit based on various parts of the novel. Pace and Shelley's students are also studying poetry. When we return from break, we will be preparing for the Language Arts night on April 14th. =Weekly Point of View... March 24, 2011= Teachers in attendance: Whisenant, Pace, Sumter Pace's students will finish Anne Frank and complete the WWII multi-genre project next week. Sumter's students are reading the Diary of Anne Frank in Literature Circle groups. Once they have finished, they are going to be doing a multi-genre essay. Whisenant's regular students will be studying poetry and figurative language. They will be reading and writing poetry next week. Honors students will be finishing Tom Sawyer and finishing their novel guides. Groups will be writing scripts of their favorite scenes to present. =Weekly Point of View.... March 17, 2011= Teachers in attendance: Shelley, Whisenant, Pace, Sumter, Donny We are preparing for the PASS writing test that will be on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. We are using NCS Mentor to evaluate student essays using the PASS 15-point rubric. We are reviewing various grammar skills as well. Pace's classes will be presenting Novel Projects next week. They are going to start a Multi-Genre project about WWII. Shelley's students are composing essays about their thoughts about the events from 1920-1940. Sumter's students are presenting novel projects and will finish next week. They will be starting Anne Frank next week. Whisenant's regular students will be starting The Wave next week. Honors students will be finishing Tom Sawyer next week.

=Weekly Point of View.... March 10, 2011= Teachers in attendance: Shelley, Whisenant, Pace, Sumter, Donny 8th grade ELA teachers are busy reviewing for the PASS writing test. In addition, we are MAP testing this week. Students in Whisenant's honors class are presenting Writing Lessons based on their individual writing needs. Donny's honors students are finishing Anne Frank and will be starting The Wave. Regular students are reading The Wave and Tears of a Tiger. Shelley's students are reading The Wave. Sumter's classes have finished The Wave and will be starting Anne Frank. Pace's students are reading Anne Frank. We will be using our MAP data for Benchmarks.

=Weekly Point of View... March 3, 2011= Teachers in attendance: Shelley, Whisenant, Pace We are still working on PASS practice tests. The students are also completing the packets for Hidden Talents. Whisenant and Pace are reading Anne Frank (Whisenant finishing with Regular. Pace with all). Shelley's students are working on research and The Wave. =Weekly Point of View... February 24, 2011= Teachers in attendance: Shelley, Whisenant, Donny

Next week we will begin the PASS practice tests ....blacking out the answers from the answer key first! We will pick two days a week to do it. We also will be reading Hidden Talents up to page 77 by Wednesday and then we will have the read aloud for Read Across America on Wednesday, the 2nd. With regular students, Mrs. Whisenant will continue the grammar practice and finish Anne Frank. Honors will continue working on their Writing Lessons to present beginning Thursday and continue reading Tom Sawyer. Shelley's students are working on a research project on Museum Box. Donny's students have finished their multi-genre projects and are finishing poetry.

=Weekly Point of View...February 17, 2011= =Teachers in attendance: Sumter, Whisenant, Shelley=

We discussed this summer's professional development opportunities.
Sumter finished The Wave. Whisenant's regular and advanced classes are reading Anne Frank and reviewing grammar to prepare for the PASS writing test. Honors is reading Tom Sawyer and working on their Individualized Writing Lesson project.

We need to read to page 77 of Hidden Talents before March 2nd. =Weekly Point of View...= February 10th, 2011 Teachers in attendance: Sumter, Pace, Shelley, Whisenant, Donny

Shelley and Whisenant are reading "Anne Frank" and Pace and Sumter are reading __The Wave__ first. Donny is reading Tears of a Tiger and poetry. Honors classes are reading __The Adventures of Tom Sawyer__. Shelley is going to use Museum Box as her students research elements of the WWII timeline.

We discussed how we will be reading the beginning 77 pages of the progressive read.

We are going to start preparing and reviewing for the PASS writing test. We miss Skills Tutor as it was diagnostic and differentiated for each student's need. USA test prep is great for PASS Reading prep, but it does not have writing. Heli is going to look into the cost of Skills Tutor for just writing and the 8th grade only since the 8th grade is the only grade level that takes the PASS Writing Test. We will have the progressive read AND MAP testing between now and then. They have the PASS writing test on 22nd and 23rd and then the Benchmark the next week. We are hoping we can use the MAP test score as our benchmark as we feel they will be in test overload!! :)

=Weekly Point of View...= January 27, 2011 Teachers in attendance: Sumter, Pace, Shelley, Whisenant, Donny We have finished the PSAs. Now we are selecting class winners for the State Superintendent's Essay Contest. We discussed next Wednesday's plans. We have ideas to do a socratic seminar, museum box, newspaper, or and idiom activity.

Shelley and Whisenant are starting "Anne Frank" while Pace and Sumter are reading __The Wave__ first. Honors classes are starting The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. =Weekly Point of View...= We discussed the PSA competition. We would have liked to have known about the competition sooner than we did, but we are enjoying them! We will need to get the final videos to Lorena by Tuesday so she can get them to Dave Foster by Wednesday, January 26th. We will have our class winners for the State Superintendent's Essay contest to Mrs. Carter by the 28th.
 * January 20, 2011**
 * Teachers in attendance: Whisenant, Pace, Shelley**

We are working on the Public Service Announcements and then will finish the State Superintendent essays. Some classes have started The Wave (regular and advanced) and Tom Sawyer (honors) and others will start those once the PSA competition and essay competitions are finished.

Mrs. Swetnam shared with us the PSA (Public Service Announcement) competition information. We will need to do it next week in order for the school winners to be chosen by the 20th. We discussed how to share the flip cams and bringing in our own cameras since there will not be enough for everyone. For the Schools to Watch visit, students will be working on various parts of the PSA. Therefore, some may be recording voice overs for the movie and some may be editing. Ideally, video taping will be done so that Thursday is an editing day.
 * January 6, 2011**
 * Teachers in attendance: Whisenant, Pace, Shelley, Sumter**

All teachers are currently working on the State Superintendent's Essay Competition. We were planning on finishing it next week, but with the PSA, we may need to move the ending until the next week. We will aim to get the class winners to Greta by the 21st.

Teachers in attendance: Sumter, Donny, Pace, Shelley, Whisenant We discussed how we will be handling doing the MAP Survey for our Benchmark test on the 7th. We will need a computer lab. We will be giving a grade for completing it and not grading it for correction. Donny will need to give it earlier due to computer lab availability. Mrs. Shelley taught us how to log in to MAP.
 * December 16, 2010**

Right now in 8th ELA: Donny is teaching theme and genre through short stories. She will be starting Nightjohn and Tom Sawyer next. Whisenant and Pace are finishing Multi-Genre projects. Whisenant is doing short stories and Shafter Method with short stories. Mrs. Shelley has finished Nightjohn, reading short stories and working on the Shafter Method. They are also recording Podcasts for their book projects.

We will all be doing the State Superintendent's Writing Awards Essay the first week back and then will have our Benchmark on Friday.

Teachers in attendance: Date: October 14, 2010 Donny, Jenkins, Pace, Whisenant

Where are you on your long-range plans, pacing, and content standards? We are finishing Max the Mighty, working on characterization, reviewing for benchmark, presenting novel presentations, and writing daily. Please share minutes from your discussion. Be sure to include feedback on the levels of bloom’s being utilized in your classes/assessments each day. Exit slips are used daily to analyze student comprehension. For honors the next novel unit has been discussed and researched. Socratic seminar is being used with all classes. Persuasive/critical writing is used daily. Comments ~ Concerns ~ Needs (resources) We need the Tears of a Tiger novel ASAP.

** *Post a completed electronic copy of this form by the end of the school day on Thursdays. ** ** Teachers in attendance: Donny, Pace, Shelley, Sumter, Whisenant Date: October 7, 2010 ** Honors are reading "Flowers for Algernon" and will be or have been discussing medical testing in Socratic Seminars. Please share minutes from your discussion. Be sure to include feedback on the levels of bloom’s being utilized in your classes/assessments each day. 2. Discussed long-range and short-range plans. ** 3. We will not be publishing with Studentales this year. ** 4. We discussed writing ghost stories in October.
 * Where are you on your long-range plans, pacing, and content standards? **
 * Regular/Advanced are continuing Max the Mighty. We are studying sentences, fragments, and clauses. **
 * 1. Revised Benchmark - Donny will type. All levels of Bloom to be included.**

Comments ~ Concerns ~ Needs (resources) We are concerned about our large class sizes especially with new students enrolling.

=Weekly Point of View... OCTOBER 22, 2010= Teachers in attendance: Donny, Pace, Shelley, WhisenantWhere are you on your long-range plans, pacing, and content standards? Please share minutes from your discussion. Be sure to include feedback on the levels of bloom’s being utilized in your classes/assessments each day.Comments ~ Concerns ~ Needs (resources) ** *Post a completed electronic copy of this form by the end of the school day on Thursdays. ** 1. Everyone discussed where we are on our plans. 2. Honors classes will be starting Tears of a Tiger. We will be doing a Multi-Genre Research project with it. 3. We have decided to also do a Multi-Genre Research project with the regular/advanced classes. 4. Whisenant will e-mail everyone Multi-Genre information, Technology Project, Reading Log project, Research handouts, and Nightjohn information 5. Whisenant will get copies of Nightjohn study guides for Pace and Donny. 6. Pace will copy her Tears of a Tiger information for Donny and Whisenant 7. We requested the Tears of a Tiger study guide from Sumter. 8. Shelley shared that we can use Noodle Tools with our classes for our research projects because Lorena has purchased a site license. 9. Regular/Advanced will be reading Nightjohn next. 10. Harriet Tubman is in Holt Reader and will be a rigorous supplement to use with Nightjohn.

=Weekly Point of View... October 28, 2010= Teachers in attendance: WhisenantWhere are you on your long-range plans, pacing, and content standards? Honors students have finished "Flowers for Algernon" and will be participating in a Socratic Seminar tomorrow based on the text. Students in Regular and Advanced will be finishing Max the Mighty tomorrow and will be turning in their final study guide for the novel on Monday. Students will review all grammar taught during first nine weeks and will be taking a test that includes the grammar content and their literature next Friday. Students will be taking a vocab test Friday. Students will be meeting with Mrs. McCoy next week during an entire period to discuss guidance. Please share minutes from your discussion. Be sure to include feedback on the levels of bloom’s being utilized in your classes/assessments each day. Students are analyzing texts through study guides and Socratic Seminar discussions. The vocabular tests ask students to apply their knowledge of word meanings by figuring out which words would fit into sentences.Comments ~ Concerns ~ Needs (resources) ** *Post a completed electronic copy of this form by the end of the school day on Thursdays. **

= Weekly Point of View... November 11, 2010- Veterans Day = Teachers in attendance: Sumter, Pace, Whisenant, Donny, Shelley Where are you on your long-range plans, pacing, and content standards? Honors students are reading Tears of a Tiger. Regular/Advanced are beginning Nightjohn, some are finishing Max. Depending on the teacher, students are working on or will soon be beginning a Multi-Genre Research Project.Please share minutes from your discussion. Be sure to include feedback on the levels of bloom’s being utilized in your classes/assessments each day.Comments ~ Concerns ~ Needs (resources) BENCHMARK DISCUSSION: We felt that we should have choice in when we test and what we test. In Language Arts, we cannot teach the same novel at the same time because we do not have enough novels for all of us. Therefore, our Benchmarks tend NOT to be exams based on literature that we read during the nine weeks, but based on short stories we find for them to read and then answer questions about based on the skills. This provides PASS practice as the Benchmarks are PASS-like, but the unit tests we give are also PASS-like. Often the Benchmark interrupts a unit we are in. MAP testing provides feedback for skills we need to focus on for preparing for PASS.

**December 9, 2010**
Teachers in attendance: Whisenant, Sumter, Pace, Donny, Shelley; Where are you on your long-range plans, pacing, and content standards? We are working on multi-genre research projects. Some students are presenting novel projects. Pace has started Tom Sawyer with honors. Donny is doing a Ray Bradbury author study and teaching genre and themes through his various short stories including The Flying Machine. Mrs. Shelley is finishing Nightjohn. Please share minutes from your discussion. Be sure to include feedback on the levels of bloom’s being utilized in your classes/assessments each day. We discussed ways to get students to understand various types of genres so they can name the genre and then explain why. We also discussed some of the challenges of the Multi-Genre project. We discussed the State Superintendent's Essay Contest, and we have decided to work on it the week after break. We also discussed using the Shafter Method for answering short answer questions. Comments ~ Concerns ~ Needs (resources) We need more novels... some local stores do not have copies of them available. ** *Post a completed electronic copy of this form by the end of the school day on Thursdays. **