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- 8th grade finished viewing the Coppola adaptation of The Outsiders this week, comparing their experience of the novel versus the film in short answer responses. Students also had their grammar test on Thursday, so be sure to inquire about their final scores and any test correction opportunities.
Next week, 8th graders will begin their much anticipated photographic writing unit – learning the art of photography and how it might inform creative writing! They will transition to another vocabulary, as well, with a test planned for 10/23.
Science- This week in science 8th graders used everything they have learned about gravity and kinetic energy to engineer a helmet to protect their “bean brain” from a fall off the second floor of the middle school. Once successful students were challenged to improve their design by making it more compact and using less material. Next week we will begin their Rube Goldberg projects and review for the unit test scheduled for 10/22.
Social Studies- Eighth graders will be wrapping up their work on the Federal Government and a role a citizen plays in that government. We have begun working on our project in which we are writing to our local senator about trying to change our state statues in the Capital building, which are two slave owners and men who believed in the Confederacy. Students are learning how to petition and be active members of our country by writing and asking to have the statues replaced. It is a great way to show them everyone, even teens can have a say in the government of this country!
Math- This week in math, 8th graders explored proofs about parallelograms before moving on to our assessment over unit 2. They were assessed on their ability to prove two figures congruent using given facts and auxiliary facts. We’ll continue to build on this knowledge in unit 3 -where we use all three theorems to help us prove similarity between two figures. We’ll, of course, refresh ourselves on the difference between similarity and congruence.
During our short week next week, we’ll refamiliarize ourselves with scale and dilations as a form of transformation before exploring similarity between two figures. We’ll use this to help our future discussions on proportional reasoning! They’ll also take their ERB milestone on Thursday!
