Within the next few weeks, 8th graders will begin a blog for readers. They will launch it with To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Please check back to this site for links.

Every year, at least one student asks me, “What if I fail The Constitution Test?” My answer is always the same, “You won’t – if you use the study strategies we teach you.” The strategies I teach in my Resource classes in preparation for the Constitution test are tried and true strategies that you can use any time you are preparing for a major exam.

First, a word about the test. At many schools, passing the Constitution Test involves little more than memorizing facts about our history and the document itself. I give Mr. Katz a lot of credit for making the test more than that. He expects you to be able to think, compare and contrast and analyze information you have learned about the Constitution and its impact on our lives. Of course, in order to do that, you still have to know (that is memorize) the relevant information.So, we use two study strategies that have worked for students over the years: multiple/varied exposures to the content and deep processing of content that may appear on the test.

Multiple/Varied Exposure: In order to learn information, you need to be exposed to it multiple times and in a variety of ways. We begin by having students complete the study guide provided to them. Students then formulate questions based on the completed study guide and put these on flash cards. I know, I know, everyone hates flash cards! But the PROCESS of making the flash cards gives you another exposure to the material and this time writing both questions and answers. Review of the flash cards to mastery follows.

Deep Processing: For the Constitution Test, deep processing of the information involves anticipating and practicing the extended response questions. You have begun to do this when you formulate the questions from the study guide. But that won’t give you practice on the extended response questions – the thinking questions. For these, we have students come up with possible extended response questions they might be asked based on their notes and class discussions. They practice writing answers to those questions, which requires processing and reflecting on the material.

Students in resource who have used these methods have consistently been successful on the Constitution Test. If you are not in a Resource class, you can still use these strategies on your own. Mr. Katz discusses the test, the study guide, and the upcoming study sessions on his blog which you can access here. I recommend that you attend those study sessions to maximize your exposure to the material.

Remember, you want multiple exposures to the information and deep processing of the content.

I wish you many stress-free and confident days of study and reflection!

Ms. Stewart

Pre-Algebra class was completely silent yesterday. As students arrived I put my finger to my lips and zipped them, pointed toward their seats and made the universal gesture for sit down and read (i.e. I put my hands together as in prayer then opened them like a book and stared at them.) Clever students that they are, they caught on. Once everyone was seated and quietly reading, I lightly tapped a desk to get their attention and give them silent instructions.

The silence was because the class next door was doing state required ISAT testing. What came next was because I still had a class to teach.

Silently, with gestures, students were put into small groups. I pointed to the board where the rules for the class were written (e.g. all communication was to be written or with pantomime), along with the 5 activities each group was required to complete. I pointed to Get scratch paper here to write notes on and Pick up activity 1 here, etc.

There were a few grumblers at first, but quickly most everyone got into it. Students worked silently, gesturing wildly to each other and writing notes to each other as they calculated, charted and mapped the increase or decrease in the House of Representatives from each state based on the last census. Silently, they drew triangles on a geoboard when given only the hypotenuse, and then calculated the length of the hypotenuse using the Pythagorean theorem.

As a teacher, it was challenging not to whisper suggestions. But I found it worked better to answer questions in writing and to show or draw errors rather than explain them. It was amazing how carefully students attended to my answers when they had to wait for me to write them out. The best moment came when students were plotting right triangles on the geoboard – points on a grid that they draw lines through to create geometrical objects. The instructions told the students to use a ruler to draw the lines connecting the points. They assumed that they were supposed to use the rulers to measure the sides of the triangles as well. By drawing loops from point to point to point, I was able to show them that they were to compute the sides of the triangles in generic units rather than in inches or centimeters. As I pointed this out to each group (always silently) the response was the same: The look of Ah Ha!

We have this bulletin board in our classroom that says “A Picture is Worth 1000 Words.” Hmm. I am wondering if something else is worth 1000 words…Ah Ha!

Watch these two videos on the Pythagorean Theorem, and tell me which you think is better and why.

I recently passed a book entitled The Uncommon Reader on to Mrs. Kline, with the understanding that she will pass it on to Mrs. Paprocki, who will pass it on to Mrs. Pagakis. After that, we’ll decide where it goes next. It’s not a book I’d recommend for students, only because the allusions would be lost on those who haven’t read a lot of books beyond young adult literature. But it is a book I’d recommend for any adult who believes in the transformative power of reading.

The premise of this delightful, witty novella is what happens when the Queen of England, through a chance encounter with a bookmobile, discovers books and begins to read. As Her Royal Highness delves deeper and deeper into the world of words (biography, novels, philosophy, poetry, etc.), she is slowly changed and ultimately so is the country.

Two of my favorite things about reading are contained within the above paragraphs: transformation and sharing.

No one who reads avoids being changed by what they read.  Even reading a newspaper article about an airplane crash, a bid for the 2016 Olympics, or the historic election of the first African-American president, the reader is transformed. Information, images and ideas are stored, compared, acknowledged or disavowed, connected, incorporated, and evaluated. This is truer still when readers encounter more substantive works.

I think Mrs. Kline, Mrs. Paprocki and Mrs. Pagakis all teach because they believe this, which, of course, is why I wanted to share The Uncommon Reader with them.

The most and only essential relationship in reading is that between the writer and the reader. Yet reading can be and often is a social act. This book is a case in point: a friend of my mother recommended The Uncommon Reader to her, and she passed it along to me. As I read the book, I made a mental list of all the people I looked forward to sharing it with. I anticipated the conversations we would have about it: our favorite allusions, those we missed (Who was Ivy Compton-Burnett?), the laugh-out-loud moments, HRH’s progression through the genres of literature, and, of course, our joy at reading a work of fiction that conveys the passion for reading we try to instill in our students every day.

Even the common reader cannot avoid the power of books.

For those of you struggling with your persuasive essays for English, here is a great website that tells you how to write a persuasive essay step-by-step. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll also find a helpful rubric for evaluating your writing. Good luck and happy writing!

Here is a simple, easy-to-follow video on what we are currently covering in Pre-Algebra.

Welcome to 2009! Yesterday, 6th and 7th period resource students wrote “schoolalutions” – New Year’s resolutions for school. Students were very reflective about what they need to improve on, and the fact that it’s hard to keep these promises to ourselves. So, instead of just making general goals (”Get better grades”), students wrote specific things they will do to accomplish those goals (”I will turn in all of my homework”).  We will work with students for the rest of the year to accomplish these worthy aims.

This year students in the 7th and 8th grade resource classes have chosen to do a service learning project that involves working with the Wilmette Park District and the Backyard Nature Center to improve a local park. The students are particularly interested in learning about and helping to eradicate invasive species of plants, so some of our reading and writing will be focused on that. Today students began a classroom blog about their service learning project. We will use the blog to discuss the project and read and write about what we are learning. While the blog is private right now (so we can work out the bugs and get comfortable with it), we look forward to sharing it with you in the future.

I am finding myself immersed in planning for our students to attend New Trier. I am making arrangements for the placement tests and scheduling and attending multiple meetings in preparation for articulations (the Marie Murphy-New Trier transition meetings). It’s surprising how early this preparation starts and students experience it, too. All this attention to the future must make it challenging for students to stay in the moment. But there is so much left to do in eighth grade! The best advice I can give is STAY FOCUSED! Whether you plan to attend New Trier or will be going to a different high school, there is a lot of learning left to do right here. A strong end to middle school is your best investment in a great beginning in high school.