8th grade just completed their reading of the classic coming of age novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton this week. Many of you may remember crying over Johnny and growing up with Ponyboy around this same age. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, the long and short of it is two boys losing their innocence to systemic violence that goes too far, only for them to fight for their childhood anyways. The book (and film) are littered with a kind of tug-o-war between childhood and adult imagery – the same kid who has left school for a full time job to support his brothers loves having chocolate cake as a meal. These juxtapositions are poignant reminders of the child that lives within even the most hardened or “experienced” kids. Johnny’s final reminder to Ponyboy is the iconic line based on a Robert Frost poem – “Stay gold, Ponyboy.” Johnny challenges Frost’s poetic thesis that all youthful things fade away and “nothing gold can stay.” Johnny implies that one can hold tight, even fight to stay golden, innocent, and young.
I’d say the Cooper School soundly agrees with Johnny. We love the tension that exists between expecting higher and higher levels of skill from our students while also knowing there is so much childhood to hold tight to. Our talent show was such a great example of that this week – what could be a festival of nerves and judgement was pure play, celebration, and fun. Our kids are gold to their core, and we will continue to honor and preserve that gold as long as we can. To the adults reading this, I believe we’ve all got a lot of gold left in us, and if you’ve any trouble finding that, just try looking to your very own middle schooler.
-MK
ELA- 7th grade finished reading Gather this week, discussing the impact of the story’s conclusion and looking back on how the title connected to important parts in the novel. We also completed literary conflict trading cards, competing in a battle royal tournament on Friday, until the final cards standing were ____ vs. _____, with _____ taking home the win.
Next week, 7th graders will move into a literary essay writing unit – be sure to keep copies of Gather close by so we can begin exploring essay topics based on our reading. They will also transition to the next vocab unit with a test planned for 10/23.
Science- This week 7th graders explored the question “Will the Earth experience a major impact in the near future?” Students used their knowledge of craters of lunar formations to identify craters that were not flooded and used this data to answer the questions of frequency of impact. Students then explored NASA’s DART mission and how we can use its success to protect our planet in the future. Next week, 7th grade will continue beyond the moon to explore the rest of our solar system.
Social Studies- Seventh grade is wrapping up their study on Mesoamerican empires and the introduction of Europeans to the new world. This will lead up to our test next Friday on this unit and study guides have been given to all students and has also been posted onto google classroom.
Math- This week in math, 7th graders continued exploring congruence and its relation to slope and similarity. We took our first stab at slope (rise/run) by translating triangles to help us understand where slope comes from, what it is, and how we find it.
Next week, we’ll use equations for lines using our newfound knowledge of slope. We have a short week due to fall break, so that’ll be all we focus on before we also take our ERB Fall Milestone on Thursday!
