Smooth Sailing into September
Having finished a whirl-wind of a curriculum night, gotten into the thick of our first units of study, and settled into our routines, back-to-school to-dos feel like they are finally complete. While back-to-school can be a stressful time for parents, teachers, and students alike, there has been something in the air at The Cooper School for the past several weeks that has made every day feel more exciting and adventurous than the day before. With students taking risks in their learning, engaging in meaningful conversations, and building intentional friendships, this first (almost) month of school has been anything but stressful.
Although I’ve only been on board at The Cooper School for about a month, I can whole-heartedly feel and see what makes The Cooper School so special. I have high expectations that every month at The Cooper School will feel as exciting and adventurous as this first month has.
-Allison Gold
What’s happening in Social Studies?
This week, the eighth graders began their week by taking an assessment on the world in 1750. This led them into their new unit, Revolutions! Student’s began to learn about the different ideas that revolve around the idea of Enlightenment. Student’s were also visited by Ms. Henslee, who was able to show them effective research strategies to carry not only in this class, but throughout their lives!
Next week, the students will dive deep into the Revolutions all around the world. Students will begin by looking at the economic and material causes of revolutions before completing a jigsaw activity on the Atlantic Revolutions. This will allow us to expand into West Africa and Haiti as well.
What’s happening in ELA?
This week in 8th grade, students discussed the variety of ways ‘power’ is expressed or negotiated in a novel– through microaggressions, codeswitching, gender norms, and more. We began new contemporary ‘social issue’ novels and continued to map out shifts in power for the characters within them. 8th graders also began grammar, reviewing prepositions while layering on new studies in the function of prepositions in sentences.
Next week, we’ll conclude our first critical literacy reading unit, presenting the elevated reader’s notebook work we’ve been working on across our novels. Grammar will push into the concept of ‘preposition’ deletion to leave subject and verb standing in a sentence. We’ll sharpen our understanding of the various verb forms we could identify, from infinitives to auxiliary verbs.
What’s happening in Science?
Eighth graders finalized, presented, and watched the performance of their helmets this week. They discussed the engineering process and how their own experiences compare to commercial development of products. Eighth graders also learned about speed and how to calculate and graph it. By comparing the speed of their walking pace over two different distances, they were able to identify the relationship of position over time. Next week, they will observe, document, and calculate acceleration and how it impacts collisions.
What’s happening in Math?
This week, students explored data representation and analyzed them via measures of center and measures of variability, like mean and standard deviation. This wraps up their one-variable statistics unit!
On Tuesday, September 12, students will take their Unit 1 test. Then, they will be introduced to linear equations through table patterns.
Important Dates:
Friday, September 15th- Parent Coffee (8:15-9:00)
Saturday, September 23rd- Charleston Battery Family Fun Night
Monday-Tuesday, October 9-10 Fall Break
