Greetings TMSA 8th Grade Parents,
We would like to begin by thanking you (our amazing parents) and all of our 8th-grade students for your unfaltering support during these different times. We look forward to continuing to work together throughout the school year to provide the best educational experience possible for our students. We will use TMSA's schoolwide newsletter to provide you with updates on 8th-grade current happenings and what will be coming up in the future. Happy Holidays!
Social Studies – Mr. Lotfy
We are currently finishing our unit on Georgia in the American Revolution (SS8H3: Analyze the role of Georgia in the American Revolutionary Era). Students will take their exams when they return from Winter Break. Students should dedicate 20-30 minutes a day over the break to go over their study guide, as this will ensure success on the exams. Once the students return and complete their exams, we will begin our unit on Westward Expansion in Georgia (SS8H4: Explain significant factors that affected westward expansion in Georgia between 1789 and 1840). Students will receive their unit and vocabulary study guides the week that we begin the unit. The study guides will always be posted in OTUS under the bookshelf tab. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. I hope everybody has a safe and wonderful holiday season!
Math – Mr. Bailey
In math we are currently conceptualizing real numbers, whole numbers, and integers; conceptualizing rational and irrational numbers; simplifying and factoring radicals with a focus on understanding the connection to terms in a polynomial; defining a polynomial from other types of algebraic expressions; basic arithmetic with polynomials; conceptualizing function. Post Winter Break, students will focus on algebra and learn quadratic functions for approximately one month then exponential functions for one month, and 8th grade math will be learning about linear functions and use of exponents in geometry such as Pythagorean theorem. Students recently completed their second iReady diagnostic and those results will be provided to students and parents when we return from Winter Break.
ELA – Mr. Burnam
In ELA, grades 8 and 9 will begin the cycle 3 instructional cycle: explanatory writing/the 5 paragraph compare and contrast essay, comparing and contrasting across genres, denotation and connotation, analyzing figurative language. In grammar, varying sentence structure, direct and indirect objects, pronoun case agreement, and recognizing different phrases. Students have recently completed the second iReady diagnostic in reading and those results will be provided when we return from Winter Break.
Writing Strategies’- Mr. Burnam
7 Habits of Good Writers:
- They read a lot!
- They write every day.
- They try out new ideas and strategies that they see in books they read.
- They do not edit their writing until they are finished getting their thoughts down.
- They get ideas from books, from others, and by noticing the world around them.
- They identify their audience, purpose, organization, style, flow, and presentation before they write.
- They complete the writing process in its entirety: prewrite/brainstorm, research (if needed), draft, revise, edit/proofread, and publish.
Science – Ms. Stepp
After Winter Break, we will dive in with hands-on experiences in waves, electricity, and magnetism. We will then enter our chemistry units with classification and properties of matter where students will have a project experimenting with oxidation.
iReady
It would be greatly beneficial to 8th grade students if they dedicate time over Winter Break to complete their iReady lessons. Students should dedicate 30 minutes a day to completing their reading lessons and alternate the next day to completing math lessons. This will greatly enhance their academic progress. Thank you as always for the support!