PIERCE SCHOOL
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

Teaching and Learning in Grades 7 and 8
February 2008
Volume XIII, Second Edition

Some Words from the Administration:

It is hard to believe that we have passed the 100-day mark in the school year. While the first two terms have moved with lightning speed, the pace will seem even more rapid for the remainder of the year, especially now that the February vacation has passed. Here is some of what is happening and what is ahead.

Performing Arts Program :

We are pleased to continue the performing arts program begun several years ago for grades K-8. The PTO sponsors this program and its performers are selected from the Brookline Arts Council group. Pierce is represented on this town-wide council by parent, Deborah Swedberg and guidance counselor, Kim Manasevit. The Berkshire Hills Academy will be bringing a unique musical presentation to Pierce on Thursday, March 6 at 9: OO am for grades 7-8.

What's Up for 8TH GRADE?

High School Planning Orientation and registration for Brookline High School begins right after February vacation. Look for a very important letter with the details from guidance counselor, Kim Manasevit. Students will receive course catalogues, begin meetings with their teachers to help make course selections, and work with Kim Manasevit and the 8 th grade teachers to complete the course registration process. Ms. Manasevit has visited with students in their Social Studies classes to orient them to the BHS curriculum. Just before February vacation students and faculty from Brookline High School came to Pierce to provide our 8 th graders with a preview of offerings in Foreign Language and Performing Arts. After vacation former Pierce students who are currently 9th graders at BHS will also share their perspectives with our students. They will speak about their experiences not only with the curriculum but also with the transition process itself.

Parents also will have opportunities to meet with BHS faculty and administrators to be able to learn about the various options, as well as life at the High School. The various information sessions are very helpful to ease parents' transition experience. The information you gain can help you more successfully guide your child in making good course choices as well as making a smoother transition.

You should have received a letter from Ms. Manasevit and the high school headmaster, Dr. Weintraub, detailing this process as well as a schedule of all transition meetings. We want to particularly stress the importance of completing the course selection forms in a timely manner. The timeline for this process is strictly enforced. Should you have any questions along the way, please feel free to contact Kim Manasevit, or any of your child's teachers. We're happy to set up meeting times should you need them.

New York Trip: Plans for this annual 8 th grade trip are moving forward. Collections for the fees for the New York City trip began a few weeks ago, and the first two rounds of payments are nearly complete. The final payment is due by Friday, March 28. We’ll be having dinner at an Italian restaurant called Cucina and Co. We will be seeing the Broadway musical, Hairspray at the Neil Simon Theater. The Apollo Theater, Ellis Island and the Museum of Natural History are also places students will experience on this trip. We are also working on community service and academic connections for this experience to ensure that it is educational as well as fun. The trip is scheduled for June 5-6, 2008.

Parent Committees for End of Year Activities:

If you signed up last fall at the Open House to volunteer for end of year activities, now is the time to begin planning. We have the names of a few parents but we are in need of several more that would be willing to organize the various end of year activities for 8th graders. A series of committees need your membership for the Dinner Dance and Awards Ceremony Reception:

Decorations Committee

Food Committee

Music Committee

Flowers Committee

Set Up Committee

Finally, 7 th grade parents have traditionally organized and hosted the 8 th grade graduation reception immediately following the graduation. The graduation is scheduled for June 16 th at 4pm.

Please contact vice principal, Josh Frank, if you are interested in helping with any of these committees.

What's Up for 7th GRADE?

Thanks to all seventh grade parents who attended the breakfast on Wednesday, January 23 rd. This was a great opportunity to view student work and greet staff. It was great to see you all there, celebrating your children’s accomplishments. They have done well overall in their transition to seventh grade. We are very pleased with their adjustment.

Seventh grade parents held a parent-sponsored discussion at Pierce in the morning on Wednesday, January 30. We strongly support parents in their desire to come together and support each other for the benefit of their children as they tackle the many challenges of young adulthood. This is an ongoing networking opportunity for all parents/guardians of seventh graders. Effective communication with each other, sharing perspectives and creating common expectations are key elements of a supportive adult network.

Sincerely,

GRADE SEVEN

English, Ms. Kra and Mrs. Lyons

We are completing our study of George Orwell’s, Animal Farm. Students learned about the context of The Russian Revolution before reading this famous allegory. We examined Orwell’s life in relation to the issues he raises in the novel. Students had daily comprehension exercises to prepare for class discussion. They are now completing this unit by writing five paragraph expository essays in which they examine a particular theme in the novel. Students will apply their understanding of the use of allegory in literature by writing their own original Fables, in which they will exploit a “burning issue” about society or human nature. They are required to write their fables using animals, vegetables or household items. They will illustrate and present their fables to the class.

On completing their Fable projects, we will begin our study of William Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Students will learn how to read verse by studying Shakespearean vocabulary, verb conjugations (thou canst, thou art), and two forms of poetic meter. Each night, they will respond to their reading by writing a plot summary, recording examples of figurative language, and examining five lines of writing. Students will memorize and present ten lines from the play along with a close textual study of their respective passages.

All seventh graders will be taking the long composition portion of the MCAS exam at the end of March. Students will continue their study of vocabulary, punctuation and grammar.

Each student will be reading an Independent Reading book and students will write seven paragraph responses in which they discuss appropriate themes.

Having learned nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs and basic sentence structure, students will continue to develop strategies to improve their writing by applying their understanding of proper grammar.

Students will embark upon a five week unit on poetry in which they will study, read and write poetry. Included in this unit will be a comprehensive study of metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, rhyme, meter, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and symbolism. Students will take on the challenge of writing two formal poems: the Villanelle and the Sestina. We will close the unit with an in class Poetry Slam.

Social Studies, Mrs. Lyons

Students in quarter three have wrapped up their study of the Constitution, and will spend the bulk of this quarter learning about the early presidents, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. Emphasis is placed on the precedents sets, and the challenges the new nations faced. In addition, students will be doing an in class research project on Native Americans, with an emphasis on how the westward expansion of the 1800's impacted their varied cultures.

Social Studies, Dr. Tegnell

In the 3rd quarter students will investigate the United States Constitution by learning about the problems with the Articles of Confederation, staging several debates at the Constitutional Convention, and engaging in a close reading of the Constitution itself. Next students will look into the conflict between Jefferson and Hamilton concerning the foreign and domestic policies of the national government, examine the Lewis and Clark expedition, and delve into the controversies surrounding the War of 1812. Students will conclude the 3 rd quarter by selecting an important antebellum American about whom to write a biographical report.

Math , Ms. Galolo, Mrs. McCarthy and Mr. Mears

In math, students used real world situations to study statistics. After the statistics unit, the students analyzed relationships using scatterplots. In Mathematics of Motion, students used the slope to describe an object’s speed and solved problems for distance, rate, and time using proportions. After Motion, the students learned the Integer Song and practiced adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers. Most recently, seventh graders have begun to solve simple algebraic equations. They will continue their study of algebra by solving multi-step equations and using tables of values.

Science, Ms. Hintzman and Ms. Takayanagi

Students have completed their study of the six kingdoms of life, concluding with comparisons of the fungus and plant kingdoms and the infectious disease reports. Students worked very hard on their research and we were thrilled to see so many parents enjoy the displays of boils, rashes, and wounds at the parent breakfast.

We have now jumped into our study of genetics. We will begin by investigating the structure of DNA and learning how that structure allows all living things to pass on information to subsequent generations. From this beginning, students will move into the study of human genetics. They will determine what genes they inherited from their biological parents for some of their own facial characteristics, and use this data to project what their future offspring might look like.

In the next few months, we will perform synthetic blood testing to determine what blood transfusions hospital patients can safely receive and will construct pedigrees that trace the inheritance of fictitious traits through three generations of a family.

We are also fortunate this year to have Pierce parent Francesca Pignoni sharing her genetics expertise with the class. Francesca studies fruit fly genetics, and will be guiding students in collecting their own data on crosses between actual fruit flies from her lab. We are very grateful to have this opportunity to engage students in cutting-edge science right here in the Pierce classroom.

Spanish, Sra. Megias

Our seventh graders did a fine job on their library research projects. Each student researched a particular country, prepared a written report and gave an oral presentation. Parents were able to view the finished products at the Gr. 7 breakfast.

Our next focus will be on Mexico, its history and culture. Four Mexican teenagers on video and in our text will guide us around Cuernavaca and Mexico City. Students will learn how to express their likes and dislikes, be able to discuss what they do in their free time and talk about a typical school day. Grammar functions include talking about class schedules, using the definite articles los and las, telling time, the verb ser, de to show possession, and adjective/noun agreement.

Mandarin, Ms. Sun

After the big celebration of Chinese New Year, this quarter 7 th graders will continue to learn how to talk about where they live, the members of their family, their pets, their ages, specifically their family relationships. We will also be working on the various measure words for each individual objects.

A highlight of the term will be an interdisciplinary project with the library staff. Students will select a theme from a list of different topics. They will spend several days in the library utilizing research skills to achieve their goal: a written report, which will be complemented by an oral presentation. Preceding this project will be pictures, which will involve learning the themes including: current events, environmental issues, food, historical events, politics, and government policy; geography, special events.

Art, Mr. Rae

The seventh grade now taking art class has begun a new clay project. This group of students is busy working on a Monogram Tile project. Students were asked to create an series of personal monograms that fit inside a 5 inch square. The best monogram is chosen and then students create the actual tile by pounding the clay into a tile mold. Once the design is transferred to the surface of the tile, carving a foreground, middle ground and a background is the next step. Surface treatment and textures are required for each tile. When the project is completed the tile will be glazed and fired. These new tiles will most definitely be on display in the showcases when they are completed.

Music, Ms. Sheridan

The 7th graders have completed a thorough review of music theory through playing, reading, writing, composing and improvising music independently and in small groups. We are several weeks into our unit on guitar and they have already learned so much! We begin our study by finger picking individual notes to perform familiar melodies. Next week we will begin learning basic major and minor chords. In addition, we will begin our exploration of traditional American music as we learn about Blues, Jazz, Gospel and Country music.

GRADE EIGHT

English, Ms. Kra

Students are finishing their study of William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet. They will perform scenes in acting troupes and write five paragraph essays in which they explore a character flaw in a selected character from the play.

After completing Romeo and Juliet, students will begin to read John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Students will be introduced to the background of the Depression era to preview the setting of the novel. In addition to class discussion, students will examine characterization, descriptive language, relationships as well as issues around race and gender in their journal responses. To conclude the unit, students will write a final five paragraph essay in which they will explore a theme of their choice from Of Mice and Men.

Social Studies, Ms. Rathgeber

In social studies, students are finishing up their work on Industrialization. They have studied some of the "Robber Barons" of the business world, and are finishing up their work on craft unions, the American Federation of Labor, and the Knights of Labor.

In our next unit, students will study immigration into the U.S. and the short and long term effects of mass immigration. Students will study different groups of immigrants and the time periods they came to America. We will also look at the "closing of America" and laws that were created to slow, and in some cases, stop mass immigration. Our big project for this unit will be to choose an immigrant group, study their move to America, and write a "letter home" as if they were emigrating from that country themselves.

We will continue our study of current events, specifically looking at the upcoming presidential election.

Math/Science, Tracy Bare/Amy Hintzman/Dawn Galolo/Chris Mears

We are presently working on an introduction to Physics in both math and science classes.

Here’s what we have been and will be doing:

• In science, during this unit, students will have the opportunity to explore concepts relating to motion and forces (kinematics); this is the foundation for students’ year long study of physics in 9 th grade. This is a popular unit as lessons involve activities such as rolling marbles down ramps, accelerating toy cars, constructing balloon rockets, calculating one’s own “hang time” and dropping an egg into the parking lot. Through all of these experiments students have the opportunity to collect data and use their algebra skills to draw conclusions about the forces in the world around them.

• In math, kinematics presents the perfect opportunity for us to review what we have learned about linear equations and begin to learn about quadratic equations. For instance, we are currently learning that the relationship between time and velocity for an object in free fall is linear, but the relationship between time and distance for the same object is quadratic. Similarly, we are going to learn that the relationship between velocity and momentum is linear, while the relationship between velocity and kinetic energy is quadratic. We also have used kinematics as an opportunity to review the 7 th grade concepts of speed-time and distance-time graphs and proportionality. In addition, we have learned a variety of physics formulas and have used them to practice our substituting skills. Our hope is that this has made math class more meaningful and relevant and that it will really help students in both math and science class next year.

Spanish, Sra. Megias

Our eighth graders have just finished a unit on Ecuador and Latin American food. They wrote original skits with the theme “ En un restaurante” which were videotaped. Students enjoyed making menus and using props in their scenes. Assessments included accuracy in grammar and pronunciation, creativity and presentation. In April we will be going out to lunch at Casa Romero, an authentic Mexican restaurant in Boston. Students will be writing a review in Spanish of this experience.

Texas with its Mexican influence will be the cultural focus of our next unit. Students will learn how to talk about giving gifts, shop for clothes, make comparisons, express preferences, read advertisements and make purchases. Grammar functions include indirect object pronouns, demonstrative adjectives and the present progressive tense. The preterite tense will be introduced.

In March fifteen students will be participating in the National Spanish Exam. This committed group will be spending extra time after school preparing for the competition. The exam, which will be administered in the computer lab, is over an hour long and includes listening comprehension, reading and grammar skills.

Mandarin, Ms. Sun

This quarter, students will be learning how to tell time, express a.m. and p.m., describe their daily routines, ask by what means of transport someone goes somewhere. We will also learn about the 2008 Olympic in Beijing and some current events about politics and government policies. Students will continue to practice the Chinese typing and some on-line courses to improve their listening and speaking skills.

We are continuing our hard work in reading and writing, and will specifically be working on the oral proficiency of the language.

8th Grade Music, Ms. Sheridan

We have completed a thorough review of music theory through reading, writing, playing, composing and improvising music independently and in small groups. We are several weeks into a unit examining Blues music in America. Students are critiquing musical examples, analyzing poetry in the lyrical Blues form, studying the historical significance of this style, examining common themes in Blues music, and practicing typical 12-Bar Blues chord progressions in G Major, D Major and A Major. In the coming weeks, each student will write their own song to be performed for the class in a final assessment.

Health, Ms. Kra, Ms Hintzman, Ms. Bare

In Health, students are in their third rotation. They are either studying: 1) sexuality; 2) alcohol, tobacco and sexual harassment; or 3) nutrition and drugs. All students will cycle through all three topics by the end of the year .

Physical Education, 7/8, Ms. Grindstaff and Mr. Miceli

The seventh and eighth graders continue to work well in Physical Education. The students have just completed a floor hockey unit where they worked on their skills and played games. Currently the students are participating in a volleyball unit. The volleyball unit is well liked by our students and continues to develop strong players, as evident by our back to back to back town wide championships! Following volleyball, we will be teaching gymnastics and strength training. This provides the students an opportunity to work on various gymnastics equipment and/or exercise with weights, medicine balls and resistance bands. As mandated by the state, we will also be screening the students for scoliosis.

The boys and girls have qualified for the 7/8 basketball playoffs. The girls finished the season with a 6-1 record and the boys finished at 5-2. Congratulations to both our girls’ and boys’ teams.

Art, Mr. Rae

The eighth grade currently taking art this semester is deeply involved with their Kaleidoscope Name Design paintings. The design aspect of this project has lead this group to creating some very strong designs. Many of the colors that are already being used show excellent color mixing skills and a strong understanding of color combinations. These final paintings will be on display as soon as they are completed.

PIERCE AND BEYOND

Pierce faculty and staff are busy beyond the classroom. Annice Kra is participating in a “Teachers as Scholars” workshop studying poets E.E. Cummings, Robert Frost and Elizabeth Bishop. Jamie Lyons is attending a “Teachers as Scholars” workshop entitled "The Many Meanings of Freedom: Destroying Slavery, Remaking a Nation."

Amy Hintzman and Tracy Bare will be attending the national conference of the National Science Teachers Association on March 27-28. Norma Steinberg is attending year-long workshops on Mel Levine’s “Schools Attuned,” and on using Kurzweil reading technology software for helping support student classroom accommodations.

As part of Pierce’s ongoing professional development opportunities, bi-monthly staff meetings have been dedicated to the pursuit of professional development activities. During this time, staff participates in small group and independent work on an issue or area where they have an interest and/or is part of their required Professional Development Plan. Below is a brief summary of some of the work our 7/8 teachers and staff are pursuing.

Jamie Lyons , Annice Kra and Norma Steinberg are working to learn the EmPower writing program. Ms. Steinberg has taken the lead in participating and attending the workshops. When they meet, they look at existing writing assignments for both 7 th and 8 th grade and adapt them to fit the EmPower model. In addition, they are reexamining the way they approach teaching students to attack questions. The EmPower program teaches students to break down complex questions and will help them respond to questions in all subject areas as well as on MCAS tests.

Amy Hintzman, Dawn Galolo, Tracy Bare and Sandy Sicard

have planned and implemented two interdisciplinary units to-date.

1. They began by teaching students to use Excel to calculate grades and averages, to analyze correlations of stride length and height, and then to review planetary data.

2. Students then learned to evaluate and measure satellite images and then (again) analyze the data.

3. They are beginning a five week math/science unit.

These projects are reinforcing the students' understanding of quadratics. The team has the following plans for the remainder of the year:

The seventh grade science genetics unit will support the math probability concepts. Students will use real-time GIS (geographic information systems) data to analyze and explain tectonic activity.

Students will build houses first researching and then incorporating energy efficient components (go green).

The teachers have found that their use of common language has been extremely helpful for all students. Finally, they're asking fewer questions about "when will we have to use this?"

Steven Rae is working on developing a web page for the art department at Pierce. He has been gathering images of completed work as well as students at work to use on the page. This project ties in with the Professional Development day that the art department sponsored and is one of Pierce’s school improvement goals.

Mike Miceli and Amanda Grindstaff have been working on modifying and expanding the Physical Education curriculum. This fall they developed and implemented a Team Building/Challenge unit in grades 3-8. They are also currently working on two other new units; dance/rhythm and yoga. They hope to introduce these in the spring and build on them next year.

Yaping Tang has been using a variety of technology in the ELL classroom to help students learn English. Her hope is that students will be more motivated and more interested in their second language acquisition. She used a digital camera to take pictures and used certain software in their fall projects. The students did a holiday research project, which required them to find information from the internet. Right now, they are completing a winter poem project. Students need to type their poems and find pictures from the internet. They also need to learn how to apply the pictures to their writing project. They'll be working on this inquiry project throughout the year.

Mary Megias, Joan Hamilton, Deborah Levine, Kim Manasevit, Josh Frank and Pipier Smith-Mumford continue to work on Equity Team issues during small group faculty meeting time. They have read related articles and present their own experiences in an attempt to make "courageous conversations" an integral part of their work.

Important Upcoming Dates

MARCH

5 Berkshire Hills Assembly

7 Midterm Progress Reports

6 -19 MEPA Testing for LEP students

12 PTO Meeting /Principal’s Forum, 6:30 PM-School Council-Parent Input Night

19 Special PTO meeting on Fundraising, 7 pm, staff room

21 No School—Good Friday

25 7 th Grade--MCAS Language Arts Long Composition

28 and 31 7 th Grade MCAS, English Language Arts (ELA)

APRIL

1 7 th Grade MCAS, English Language Arts (ELA)

2 7 th Grade--MCAS Language Arts Long Composition. Make-Up Day.

2-3 8 th Grade MCAS, ELA; Make-Up Day on April 3rd

4 3 rd term ends, MCAS ELA Make-Up Day

11 Report cards issued

18 April vacation begins at the end of the day