READING
Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Memoir by Geoffrey Canada
Eighth grade will begin reading Geoffrey Canada's memoir about growing up in the south Bronx for their "culture of violence" unit. Learn more about Geoffrey Canada by watching the 60 Minutes Special above.
Students will also begin reading a memoir or autobiography of their choice. They can access these books via the library, borrowing from a friend or family member, finding it online, or ordering from a book store.
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT LINKS
60 Minutes: Geoffrey Canada Harlem Children’s Zone
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di0-xN6xc_w
NPR: Examining the Reasons for Chicago's Violence
Link: http://www.npr.org/2016/09/03/492549546/examining-the-reasons-for-chicagos-violence
NPR: What's Driving The Violence in Chicago?
Link: http://www.npr.org/2016/12/29/507436720/what-s-driving-the-violence-in-chicago
VIDEO: PBS: Why Chicago Hasn’t Yet Escaped an Epidemic of Gun Violence
Link: http://www.pbs.org/video/2365837205/
VIDEO: 2016 Chicago Person of the Year
Link:http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2016/Chicagoans-of-the-Year-2016-Tamar-Manasseh/
NY Times: Map of Segregation in Chicago
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/08/us/census-race-map.html
Life of Pi by Yan Martel
We began the year by reading Yan Martel's Life of Pi! This award-winning novel is a great foundation for us to talk about how we form and develop our beliefs, especially as 8th graders prepare for Confirmation.
Life of Pi is split into three parts.
In Pt. 1, we discussed Pi's belief system. He combines Catholicism, Hinduism, and Islam to create his own system of beliefs, so we explored a little bit about each of these religions in order to better understand Pi.
Pt. 2 of the book focuses on survival! Eighth grade students learned about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which tells us that a person cannot focus on building positive relationships, or figuring out who he or she is without first fulfilling physiological needs such as eating, staying hydrated, and sleeping. We watched an NBC special about Aron Ralston, a real-life survivor, and listened to him recount his tales about the will to survive!
Learn more about Aron Ralston, the hiker who was forced to amputate his own arm in order to survive, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R04oMySbBjQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObPb01zGYRA
Pt. 3 is about finding parallels between two stories and choosing the "better story" in which to believe. Martel not only makes a strong argument for the beauty of religion, but also the necessity of creativity.
Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Memoir by Geoffrey Canada
Eighth grade will begin reading Geoffrey Canada's memoir about growing up in the south Bronx for their "culture of violence" unit. Learn more about Geoffrey Canada by watching the 60 Minutes Special above.
Students will also begin reading a memoir or autobiography of their choice. They can access these books via the library, borrowing from a friend or family member, finding it online, or ordering from a book store.
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT LINKS
60 Minutes: Geoffrey Canada Harlem Children’s Zone
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di0-xN6xc_w
NPR: Examining the Reasons for Chicago's Violence
Link: http://www.npr.org/2016/09/03/492549546/examining-the-reasons-for-chicagos-violence
NPR: What's Driving The Violence in Chicago?
Link: http://www.npr.org/2016/12/29/507436720/what-s-driving-the-violence-in-chicago
VIDEO: PBS: Why Chicago Hasn’t Yet Escaped an Epidemic of Gun Violence
Link: http://www.pbs.org/video/2365837205/
VIDEO: 2016 Chicago Person of the Year
Link:http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2016/Chicagoans-of-the-Year-2016-Tamar-Manasseh/
NY Times: Map of Segregation in Chicago
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/08/us/census-race-map.html
Life of Pi by Yan Martel
We began the year by reading Yan Martel's Life of Pi! This award-winning novel is a great foundation for us to talk about how we form and develop our beliefs, especially as 8th graders prepare for Confirmation.
Life of Pi is split into three parts.
In Pt. 1, we discussed Pi's belief system. He combines Catholicism, Hinduism, and Islam to create his own system of beliefs, so we explored a little bit about each of these religions in order to better understand Pi.
Pt. 2 of the book focuses on survival! Eighth grade students learned about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which tells us that a person cannot focus on building positive relationships, or figuring out who he or she is without first fulfilling physiological needs such as eating, staying hydrated, and sleeping. We watched an NBC special about Aron Ralston, a real-life survivor, and listened to him recount his tales about the will to survive!
Learn more about Aron Ralston, the hiker who was forced to amputate his own arm in order to survive, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R04oMySbBjQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObPb01zGYRA
Pt. 3 is about finding parallels between two stories and choosing the "better story" in which to believe. Martel not only makes a strong argument for the beauty of religion, but also the necessity of creativity.
GRAMMAR
Topics covered in Trimester 1:
- Types of verbs: action, linking, helping
- Verb phrases
- Subject / verb agreement
Topics covered so far in Trimester 2:
- Pronoun/antecedent agreement
Topics covered in Trimester 1:
- Types of verbs: action, linking, helping
- Verb phrases
- Subject / verb agreement
Topics covered so far in Trimester 2:
- Pronoun/antecedent agreement
VOCABULARY
In unit 1, we made flash cards to practice writing, saying, and testing our memory of the vocabulary words.
In unit 1, we made flash cards to practice writing, saying, and testing our memory of the vocabulary words.
WRITING
During trimester 1, students wrote creative pieces that mimicked the style of Martel's writing. First, they wrote pieces about their identities by "showing" the reader images from their pasts that were important to them, rather than "telling" the reader about themselves. Then, they created dialogues that imagined how the conversation would go if real-life survivor, Aron Ralston, and Pi met! Students looked for parallels in Aron and Pi's survival journeys that they might discuss, and analyzed how each character would describe and think about his journey. Then, in their summative assessment, students combined their skills of "showing" the reader what happens and analyzing parallels by creating a "better story" (a term pertinent to Life of Pi) by retelling moments from their pasts using new characters (and even animals!) and settings to parallel the real story.
During trimester 1, students wrote creative pieces that mimicked the style of Martel's writing. First, they wrote pieces about their identities by "showing" the reader images from their pasts that were important to them, rather than "telling" the reader about themselves. Then, they created dialogues that imagined how the conversation would go if real-life survivor, Aron Ralston, and Pi met! Students looked for parallels in Aron and Pi's survival journeys that they might discuss, and analyzed how each character would describe and think about his journey. Then, in their summative assessment, students combined their skills of "showing" the reader what happens and analyzing parallels by creating a "better story" (a term pertinent to Life of Pi) by retelling moments from their pasts using new characters (and even animals!) and settings to parallel the real story.