PIEDMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL

an IB World School

Talent Development News

Volume 1, Issue 30 January 27, 2015

6th Grade Math

As the second quarter comes to a close, we reflect on some great math activities and topics that we’ve covered during these nine weeks. We began the quarter investigating the world of percents namely tax, discounts, and tips. These “real world” percent applications are so easily found in our everyday lives; thus students were instantly engaged as we examined receipts, the varying sales tax rates in different states and counties (and why this is the case), why tipping is customary in America but not other countries; what is an appropriate percent to tip in different situations, and how to calculate the sale prices of clothes, electronics, and other popular goods.

Our classes then moved onto an exploration of algebraic topics. We worked with expressions, solving equations, combining like terms, and graphing independent and dependent variables on a coordinate grid. We examined a few different business models and discussed how a company’s profits are directly impacted by their monthly expenses and bills. We also incorporated some clips of “Shark Tank” into our 6th block Academic Enrichment classes which was a great way to examine these math and business principles. A lot of students have friends and family who own small businesses; therefore, explorations were a great addition to our common core algebra curriculum!

Finally, the most exciting second quarter activity was undoubtedly the 6th grade 2nd annual Culture Meal. This was inspired by the Restaurant Project our students completed in which they created a restaurant menu with items representing their unique cultures. Students also had to create two bills from people who ate at their restaurant, including the correct tax and tip calculations on the bill. Finally, a recipe from one of the menu items was the third part of this project in which the ingredients were tripled and then halved to keep the original recipe’s proportions correct.

Each class’ Culture Meal was a huge success, with students bringing in drinks, appetizers, entrees, and desserts that are a part of their culture and upbringing. We shared the special stories surrounding each dish, enjoyed great food, and learned a lot about our unique cultures and how special this diversity is.

We are looking forward to a great second half of the school year!

6th Grade Language Arts

The 6th grade TD students are learning how to be independent, inquisitive, and principled by using their binders, asking questions, completing projects and turning work in on time. The Area of Interaction lens through which we are looking this quarter is Human Ingenuity, which fits perfectly with our Unit Question, “How do you build a good story?” Human Ingenuity invites us to reflect upon “the ways in which human minds have influenced the world; for example, the way we are, think, interact with each other, create, find solutions and cause problems, transform ideas and rationalize thought. It also considers the consequences of human thought and action.”

While reading short stories and novels this quarter, students are learning how to identify the five stages of plot and to illustrate these five stages in unique formats and designs. Students are also learning how to participate in student-led fiction discussions as well as analyzing how a particular sentence fits into the structure of a text and contributes to the development of the setting and the plot.

In our next two units of study, we will be focusing on analyzing character, point of view, and theme. In Unit Two, students will be able to describe how a story’s characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution and also how an author develops the point of view of the narrator in a text. In Unit Three the focus will be determining a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details. Students will be working on a layered curriculum project for their novels.
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PIEDMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL, an IB world School

Talent Development News

Seventh Grade Math

Why do I have to learn this? When will I use this in the real world? As math teachers, these are questions we encounter on a weekly basis. During middle school we are teaching students the building blocks of math. We are giving our students the skills they will need to do higher levels of math in the future. We are teaching our students skills so that they can later apply them to everyday real world situations.

During second quarter, we were given an opportunity to show students how math relates to real life. Seventh grade students have taken skills learned from first quarter and are applying them to the new skills learned during second quarter and to real world application problems.

Students used skills to do the Shopping Percents Project. During the project, students practiced math skills such as using percents to find discounts, sale price, and sale tax.

Also during second quarter, student worked on ratios and proportional relationships, problem solving with equations and inequalities.

In the coming 3rd quarter, students will work with scale factor, and Geometry (angles, triangles, area and circumference, scale drawings, volume and surface area). More collaborative work will take place as they take on the challenges of scale application.

Seventh Grade Language Arts

Students completed second, Winter MAP Assessment. Teachers are using the Achievement Status and Growth Summary Reports to monitor student growth and learning.

Second Quarter curriculum included an IB Project, Historical Monologue, a Language Arts and Social Studies collaboration. Students prepared a written speech for oral presentation on a chosen historical figure from the Enlightenment Period. The Historical Monologue Project integrated Writing, Speaking and Listening Skills that are aligned with English Language Arts Common Core State Standards.

When preparing written presentations, students wrote about real life experiences of their chosen historical figure and events. The written presentation required well-chosen details, structured sequence of events, and descriptive detail.

When giving presentations, students used multimedia and visual displays to enhance their work. Students found meaningful ways to include posters, props, and video in their speech presentations. Students became more familiar with their own voice and language.

Upon completion of the project, students were given timely feedback and were also able to reflect on their own work, performance, or overall project experience.

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PIEDMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL, an IB World School

Talent Development News
Eighth Grade Language Arts

This quarter, in eighth grade language arts, we studied Greek Mythology, focusing on annotation and close reading. Students read a classic, The Adventures of Ulysses, by Bernard Evslin. Students made huge strides in their ability to ask in-depth questions, make predictions, and identify the main ideas. Their summarizing also improved greatly in breadth and completeness.

After reading the novel, students responded to two analysis questions: “How are Circe and Calypso similar and different? Regarding the main two female characters in the rising action of the novel; how do they represent women?” and “Describe Ulysses as a leader, father, and husband. Use textual evidence to analyze his actions and what he says”. They used their knowledge of composing an argument and of the text to construct amazing literary analysis writing. They will be expected to engage in this type of writing for the rest of their academic careers, and they are off to a strong start!

We were thrilled to see such remarkable improvements and are asking our students to purchase the next text we read—Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This way all students will be able to experience annotating another classic. Though this is an activity normally practiced in private schools and college, we want our students to benefit from annotation and literary analysis before they enter high school.

At the end of the quarter, students began practicing their skills on poetry—a genre that is often challenging to analyze. Students practiced analyzing several poems as a class, with a partner and alone, before participating in the culminating activity—a Socratic seminar. Students discussed the famous Rudyard Kipling’s powerful poem “If,” and were able to talk about the poem using literary terms; they also could relate the profound themes to their own life. We finished the quarter on a high note, and were inspired by the conversations of our eighth grade students. The eighth grade language arts department looks forward to another successful quarter studying Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Eighth Grade Math

Students in Math 8 learned how to solve very difficult equations for x. They learned to distribute, combine like terms and move variables to the left and numbers to the right all in one problem! They also learned that some equations have one solution, others have no solution and still others have infinitely many. After solving for x, students began the unit on systems of equations. They learned how to graph two equations and find the point of intersection. They learned how to use substitution and elimination to solve a system of equations. The most challenging was the system of equations word problems. Students had to define variables, create equations from sentences, determine the best method to use to solve the system and then they actually had to solve for the variables! Lots of work, lots of steps, just to find an answer to a problem.

During second quarter, the half year Math I students completed the course and took the End of Course test (EOC) and did very well. Students learned about polynomials, foiling and factoring, and how to simplify a radical. Students enjoyed an M&M lab to investigate exponential growth and decay. Students are now looking forward to the next math course – Math II which is half algebra 1 and half geometry.

TD students in Math I full year are also working very hard of equations of lines and solving systems of equations. Students created a City Map using their knowledge of slope, y-intercept and equations of lines. They also found the Golden Ruler in the land of numbers using systems of equations and Rescued a Princess using their knowledge of systems of equations and inequalities. Students also learned how important systems of equations are as they applied their knowledge to real world applications

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PIEDMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL, an IB world School

Talent Development News

PIEDMONTMIDDLE SCHOOL

an IB World School

Talent Development News

1241 East 10th Street

Charlotte, NC 28204

Phone: 980-343-5435

Fax: 980-343-5557

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Piedmont … You Know … We Care!

TALENT DEVELOPMENT TEAM

  • Academic Facilitator

Dawn Johnston

  • 6th Grade Team

Language ArtsMath

Karen BaileySarah Harman

Molly McCarthyAaron Kollar

Shelley LyttleSara Suckstorff

  • 7th Grade Team
Language ArtsMath

Patrice FrilotKaren Gorman

David MilliganAngela Davis

Cynthia Alexander-BrownSusie Palgut

  • 8th Grade Team

Language ArtsMath

Elizabeth ImmelCheryl Lamb

Jessica HonJanet Delery

Kelly HansonStacey Callahan