MONDAY, MAY 14, 2012

Dear Parents,

So many last-minute loose ends to tie up this week!  Please remember to have your studentreturn his/her report card envelopes in preparation for the final card.  Things for parents to remember thisweek include:

• Monday afternoon (today!) is the inductionceremony for Junior National Honor Society, commencing at 4:00 in the GGS Gym.
• Tuesday is Pizza Day; slips will be distributed.
• Wednesdayis GGS's FINAL Open House; please come take a walk down memory lane -- and check out the Spotlight posters! Festivities run from 6:00-7:00 p.m.
• I will be out of the classroom on Thursday,working with the Language Arts Committee; I'll leave plans for the substituteso the day is productive.
• Friday is an early-release day; students will leave GGS by about 10:30 a.m. Enjoy the three-day weekend!
• A very few eighth graders still have not supplied photos for the Spotlight video presentation.  Parents, please look for about five pictures of your darling, from birth through just about now, for inclusion in this memorable DVD.  We need them as soon aspossible!
• FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES:  Strapless dresses ARE OKAY for the dance -- there was some confusion due to a memo shared with Viking parents.  I have word from Mrs. Glickley that strapless but appropriate dresses are fine (because nothing else is being shown!).  The standard we use here is that the hem of the dress must be below the fingertips when arms are extended at the sides.  For boys dress shirts and optional ties, along with dressier pants and shoes, are the norm (boys are just easier).

EIGHTH-GRADE LANGUAGEARTS:  We have nearly finished our discussions of Night and A Separate Peace, and I am delightedwith the depth of understanding of both novels apparent in discussion and in student writing.  These youngsters are truly growing up!  Today we distributed two Agatha Christie novels, Murder on the Orient Express  and And Then There Were None, and students have a fairly stiff reading assignment for Wednesday.  Therewill be some time in class for reading, but these young adults must be prepared for sizable reading demands in the world ahead.  The graphic organizer for use during reading concentrates on the literary conventions common to the mystery genre, along with a well-written summary.  We will start our last spelling/vocabulary unit tomorrow, and on Thursday of this week these students will take a MUG Shot quiz based on the grammar work we've been doing the last two weeks or so.  I hope to begin literature circle novels next week, with the intention of each student's reading one novel of dystopia before our time together ends.  So you know, I intend to let each student have a voice in whether this is possible for him/her, so a few may opt out.  Any student, whoever, who did not previously read Night under my direction will be required to read it now in the literature circle format. This novel is too important for any to skip.

SEVENTH-GRADELANGUAGE ARTS:  We have SO MUCH to finish; I am glad for the extra days after eighth grade is finished!  On Thursday, students will be in the laptop lab with the substitute putting their final copies of research papers together.  Today, we covered introductions and transitions; tomorrow we will cover conclusions and Works Cited pages.  If your student has a flash drive, thisis the perfect time to have him/her bring it, as lab time is at an absolute premium right now.  I am hoping to have these papers in my hands during the week of May 22, so time is of the essence.  Keep in mind I will have read and evaluated, with suggestions for improvement, drafts of all body sections byWednesday, so much of the hard work is already done.  We will be starting our final novel tomorrow -- The Outsiders!  I just love to end our year together with all students' reading of the same novel, the first time we've done this.  We will use the Reader Response format, the least demanding, and use whole-class discussions to gauge comprehension, along with quizzes.  We will start our final spelling unit on Tuesday, testing some time right around the 24th of May. Grammar instruction is ongoing, with a quiz planned for next week.  Have a great week -- and enjoy a beautiful day on Friday!  Cathy Drews