The Cooper School Daily
March 7, 2024
Self-Assessment Celebrations
The end of a trimester, or the end of any period of time, can be hard and stressful work, but I knew going into self-assessment that the TCS middle schoolers would deliver and, boy, did they deliver! As I’m sure you saw while watching your child’s presentation, our students put so much effort, thought, and intentional reflection into their self-assessment presentations. We should be nothing short of extremely proud of them. Taking time to look back and reflect on growth can be a challenging and sometimes uncomfortable process, however reflection is vital if we want to set realistic and attainable goals for ourselves. The Cooper Kids are always striving high, and I hope this period of reflection encourages them to continue doing so!
-AG
What’s happening in Social Studies?
This week we dove further into the beginnings of fascism! Students learned the differences between communism and fascism and the start of the Fascist party in Europe.
Next week, we will take a look into the appeasement of the other major European nations with an appeasement activity that asks the students their opinions on different scenarios. Students will then dive into the differences between fascism in Italy and Germany, and the communists party in the Soviet Union. Students will be partaking in a jigsaw activity to master and teach their peers how each of these countries looked at the time.
What’s happening in ELA?
After a strong round of self-assessment conferences, 8th grade poets continued to build their sonnets, incorporating metaphorical language into their second stanza while still abiding by the syllable and rhyme scheme rules. We saw that our sonnets “shifted” or presented a twist in the third stanza before reaching a thought provoking conclusion in the couplet. We also considered some of the themes behind Hamlet as we traced the plot to its tragic end.
Next week, 8th graders will finish their sonnets and Shakespeare study. In tandem with studying some stage and film performances of Hamlet, we will work on performing our completed sonnets as we look forward to presenting them to parents next month.
What’s happening in Science?
Eighth graders began their heredity and adaptations study this week. They looked at different fossils to consider how they formed and that paleontologists use the law of superposition to date them. They looked at a bunch of different animals to discuss the biodiversity around us on earth and how the differences have come about throughout history. They all choose one of the animals and they will research more about them. Next week, they will learn about inherited traits and lines of descent.
What’s happening in Math?
This week, 8th graders finished up their quadratic functions unit by reviewing for our test that we took on Thursday. Next week, we will begin our final unit of study where we combine all of our Algebra 1 knowledge and put it all together!
Important Dates:
March 23-April 1: Spring Break
-AG
What’s happening in Social Studies?
This week we dove further into the beginnings of fascism! Students learned the differences between communism and fascism and the start of the Fascist party in Europe.
Next week, we will take a look into the appeasement of the other major European nations with an appeasement activity that asks the students their opinions on different scenarios. Students will then dive into the differences between fascism in Italy and Germany, and the communists party in the Soviet Union. Students will be partaking in a jigsaw activity to master and teach their peers how each of these countries looked at the time.
What’s happening in ELA?
After a strong round of self-assessment conferences, 8th grade poets continued to build their sonnets, incorporating metaphorical language into their second stanza while still abiding by the syllable and rhyme scheme rules. We saw that our sonnets “shifted” or presented a twist in the third stanza before reaching a thought provoking conclusion in the couplet. We also considered some of the themes behind Hamlet as we traced the plot to its tragic end.
Next week, 8th graders will finish their sonnets and Shakespeare study. In tandem with studying some stage and film performances of Hamlet, we will work on performing our completed sonnets as we look forward to presenting them to parents next month.
What’s happening in Science?
Eighth graders began their heredity and adaptations study this week. They looked at different fossils to consider how they formed and that paleontologists use the law of superposition to date them. They looked at a bunch of different animals to discuss the biodiversity around us on earth and how the differences have come about throughout history. They all choose one of the animals and they will research more about them. Next week, they will learn about inherited traits and lines of descent.
What’s happening in Math?
This week, 8th graders finished up their quadratic functions unit by reviewing for our test that we took on Thursday. Next week, we will begin our final unit of study where we combine all of our Algebra 1 knowledge and put it all together!
Important Dates:
March 23-April 1: Spring Break