Weekly Update 5/5-9

IMPORTANT REMINDERS/EVENTS:

PROGRESS REPORTS GO HOME FRIDAY, MAY 9th.

8th Grade Eng-of-Year Activities:
Friday, May 23—Schlitterbahn and Activity Fest
Wednesday, May 28—Academic Celebration
Thursday, May 29—Promotion Ceremony at Butler Field House


English:
We are continuing to read The House on Mango Street. There is a quiz on Monday and Tuesday, May 5-6 over the first 4 vignettes. We are also beginning our poetry unit this week. Students will write bio-poems. Friday brings our second literature circle discussion group—students should be completely done with the book by now. Testing week should have given them ample time to catch up. I still have students without a parent approval from on file. They will not receive credit for book-related assignments until I receive the form or a note signed by a parent approving their book choice. No emails or phone calls will count; I need a hard copy with your signature on it please.

I will send home class-specific reports before or on the day of progress reports for you to review. This is a break-down of what you’ll see on the school-generated report. Please look at it and encourage your child to remedy missing assignments and low grades by turning in missing work, and by staying on top of assignments and due dates. I will not offer extra credit this grading period.

Important Dates for Independent Reading Unit 4: FREE CHOICE
Literature Circle #2 (over the second half of the book)-Friday, May 9
Projects Due MAY 12-13 (these dates may get shifted due to LTF testing…TBA. Until then, students should count on projects being due on these dates)

History:
TAKS is over! It seems as it has gone on for months with students taking tests at different times. We now hope for improvement in all the scores. The students will test this next week over the Civil War and Reconstruction. All Civil War Battles maps and Chapter 16 study guide are now past due and need to be submitted immediately. These will be included in the Progress Report grade. All students should be working on the Landforms project assigned last month. This project is due May 12/13. Students will receive a grade in science and history; it may be one of their early project grades in Bellaire High School PreAP classes this next fall. However, in order to receive an acceptable grade in all of these classes, the students must follow the directions very carefully, the work must be of very high quality, and the assignment cannot be late.

Science:
Please email Mr. Scott for information about Science.

Math:
Algebra 1:
LTF Testing will be next week between the 5th and the 9th of May. The final date is pending. We are shooting for May 8th, but this has not yet be confirmed. Students will learn the exact date on Friday May 2nd. The Chapter 9 exam is temporarily cancelled. With TAKs and LTF testing, students need a break. The test for Chapter 10 will include Chapter 9 material. We will begin Chapter 10 this week.

Students are diligently working through Chapter 9 and will begin Chapter 10 on Tuesday. Sections to be covered are 9.6, 9.7, 9.8, 10.1, and 10.2. We are continuing the study of factoring, finding intercepts of quadratics, and graphing them. Because of the upcoming Boston trip, the assignments have already been given to the students. Please confirm that your student has written down the assignments.

Pre-algebra:
Students will begin Chapter 10: Equations and Inequalities. Students will focus on sections 10-1 & 10-2. Vocabulary for Chapter 9 is due on Wednesday, May 7th. Students should also begin learning the vocabulary for Chapter 10. The Chapter 9 test is cancelled. The Chapter 10 test will include questions from Chapter 9. I think the students have had quite a few tests in the past week, and that they need a break.


Foreign Language Department BLOG: See link below

http://pomsfl.wordpress.com