8th Grade Parent Letter

September 8, 2010

Dear 8th Grade Parents,

I have enjoyed the first days with this class! It has been wonderful to see the growth of the students I had last year and to meet the new students as well. I'm sure we will have a wonderful year!

There are a lot of big events for your child this year! This year will be filled with many firsts for your 8th grader, but even more lasts as they finish up their elementary education at St. Matthew and we want each of these "lasts" to make a positive impression on the students. I feel privileged to be a part of their final year as the 8th grade homeroom teacher.

"Back to School Night," is scheduled for Thursday, September 16, however; I will be in Northern VA for a burial at Arlington Cemetery. So, I'm holding a separate 8th grade parent meeting on Tuesday, September 14 at 6:30 pm in the 8th grade classroom. In addition to talking about the "Back to School Night" content, we will discuss Camp U-Nah-Li-Ya (which is 9/23 - 9/24), our Shakespeare play, and graduation. If you cannot attend, please contact me with any questions.

This school year, I will have the 8th graders for Literature and Language Arts (grammar, writing, and spelling). We will meet 10 times a week for these classes. I will be weighting grades (participation 10%, homework 20%, quizzes 30%, and tests/projects 40%). Please see the Student Handbook for the grading scale.

In literature, we are beginning the year with several short stories that we will use to review reading strategies. Then, we will begin work with novels. Throughout the year we will read a variety of genres. We will also spend time taking about how to read different types of writing and taking notes on the various types as well. Students will be required to read outside of school as well and will complete three in-depth book reports as well as independent book chats with me.

Some of the work we will read includes; Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. In addition, we will read a American author short stories by Hawthorne, Poe, and Irving, complete a poetry unit, and read and perform a Shakespeare play.

In Language Arts, we will be doing a lot of writing this year. The beginning of the year will focus on writing a 5-paragraph essay and writing a report with several sources. Later in the year they will learn to write persuasive essays, "how to" papers, eyewitness accounts, and more. Students will also have the opportunity to do some creative story writing.

Our study of grammar will begin with reviewing the basic parts of speech and spending a significant amount of time on sentence and paragraph structure. Our English textbook will be used to teach students to apply their grammar skills in their writing. Proofreading and editing skills will help students grow in their use of grammar.

Finally, students will have a spelling unit most weeks. The words for these units will come from their vocabulary in Literature, Science, Social Studies, and Math as well as other 7th grade level words. There will be a pretest each Monday followed by a test of Friday. Work will be given each week and graded on Wednesdays. The first trimester, all students will follow the same track; however, I will have a challenge track after the trimester for students who show mastering on the pretest.

Again, if you have any other questions that I can answer, please feel free to email me at lgoldman@stmatthewschoolgb.org or call the school office and leave a message for me.

Sincerely,
Liz Goldman