1. Title page with art and adjectives that describe your year.

2. Decide what learner profile you best fit and give the reasons why. Describe what type of learner you want to be next year.

3. Scary Story October Activity summary: In class we analyzed the story “The Tell-Tale Heart.” We examined the story’s structure and use of sensory words, tone and mood. We then wrote and shared our own scary stories. Skills used: Writing using mood and tone, writing a narrative, using sensory language. Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.W.1.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. My reflection on the activity:

4. All Year vocabulary Activity summary: Throughout the year, we learned more than 200 new words through context clues and the use of dictionaries and glossaries. We created presentations on the words, word posters, and used the words to write. Skills used: Use of context clues, use of reference materials, collaboration, determining the meaning of words and phases. Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.L.3.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases using multiple strategies. My reflection on the activity:

5. Fall/Winter Text-Based Essays Activity summary: Throughout the fall and winter, we studied how to write an essay analyzing reading passages. We read and wrote together in class, used a rubric, wrote on our own, and took the FSA writing test in March. Skills used: Reading comprehension, creating a claim, summarizing text, citing sources, organizing an essay, creating a focus for writing, and using multiple sources to write on one topic. Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.W.1.1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. My reflection on the activity:

6. Spring Children’s Books Activity summary: In the spring we worked with reading and themes, analyzing fables, “The Storyteller,” and “The Lottery” for themes. We then decided on a theme and created our own book for children illustrating the theme. Skills used: Reading comprehension, recognizing a theme, finding evidence that supports a theme, and discovering how a theme is developed over the course of a text. Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.RL.1.2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text.

7. Fall Figurative Language Activity summary: Throughout the fall we studying these types of figurative language: metaphor, simile, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, puns, irony, and personification. We created study books, comic strips, posters, read poems, and the story “Lamb to the Slaughter.” Skills used: Reading comprehension, use of figurative language. Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.L.3.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language. My reflection on the activity:

8. All year Vocabulary presentations Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.L.3.6 Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain specific words and phrases. My reflection on the activity:

9. Writing poster Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.L.1.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. My reflection on the activity: Spring

10. All year Practice essays Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.4.10 Write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of tasks. LAFS.8.W.1.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. My reflection on the activity:

11. Fall Figurative language Idiom, explanation Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.L.3.5 The students will be able to demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. My reflection on the activity:

12. Spring I am From… poem Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.SL.2.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks. My reflection on the activity:

13. Fall Learner profile project Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: LAFLAFS.8.W.2.6 Use technology, including the internet to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas. S.8.SL.2.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks. My reflection on the activity:

14. Winter Original short story Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.W.2.5 With some guidance from peers and adults, students will develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning and revising. LAFS.8.W.1.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. My reflection on the activity:

15. Winter Figurative language (puns) Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.W.2.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. LAFS.8.L.3.5 The students will be able to demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. My reflection on the activity:

16. Spring Poetry projects Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.3.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest My reflection on the activity:

17. Stretch it out Activity summary: In our first unit of the year we learned the importance of repetition and replication when conducting a experiment utilizing rubber band cannons. Skills used: Repetition & Replication Main standard addressed: SC.8.N.1.2 Differentiate replication from repetition. My reflection on the activity:

18. Fall Science Fair Activity summary: Students researched, designed and completed individual science fair projects. They learned the importance of keeping good data and how to analyze the data and present to judges. Skills used: Experimental Design Main standard addressed: SC.8.N.1.1 Define a problem from the 8th grade curriculum to support scientific understanding. My reflection on the activity:

19. Winter I do this periodically Activity summary: In the winter we learned about the parts of the periodic table. We were divided into periodic families and learned about the properties of our families. We created element family albums. Skills used: Analyzing the elements of the periodic table Main standard addressed: SC.8.P.8.5 Recognize that there are a finite number of elements and that their atoms combine in a multitude of ways. My reflection on the activity:

20. Winter Out of this world Activity summary: We learned about the different properties of stars like magnitude, temperature and luminosity. We then had to argue which start was the best star. Skills used: Categorizing Stars Main standard addressed: SC.8.E.5.5 Describe and classify specific physical properties of stars. My reflection on the activity:

21. Winter I have a theory Activity summary: We learned the difference between a scientific Theory and a Law Skills used: reasoning and scientific experiments Main standard addressed: SC.8.N.1.1 Define a problem from the 8th grade curriculum using appropriate reference materials to support scientific investigations My reflection on the activity:

22. Winter Indian cultural region poster Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: SS.8.G.5.1: Describe human dependence on the physical environment and natural resources to satisfy basic needs in local environments in the United States. My reflection on the activity:

23. Winter Lost colony of roanoke Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.W.1.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. My reflection on the activity:

24. Winter Colonial sales booth Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: SS.8.A.2.2: Compare the characteristics of the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. My reflection on the activity:

25. Winter Middle passages activity Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: SS.8.A.2.7: Describe the contributions of key groups (Africans, Native Americans, women, and children) to the society and culture of colonial America. My reflection on the activity:

26. Winter French and Indian war activity Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: LAFS.8.SL.1.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher- led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly My reflection on the activity:

27. Winter Playbill on road to revolution Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: - SS.8.A.3.2: Explain American colonial reaction to British policy from 1763 - 1774. My reflection on the activity:

28. Winter Declaration of independence Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: - LAFS.8.RI.1.3: Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories). My reflection on the activity:

29. Winter Constitution menu project Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: - LAFS.8.RI.3.7: Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.) My reflection on the activity:

30. Winter pygmalion Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: - LAFS.8.RL.3.9 – Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types of myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new. My reflection on the activity:

31. Winter Night hunters Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: - LAFS.RI.1.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. LAFS.8.L.3.4 Clarify meanings of unknown/multiple meaning words My reflection on the activity:

32. Winter fracking Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: - LAFS.RI.2.5 Compare and contrast the structures of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning style. LAFS.RI.1.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. My reflection on the activity:

33. Winter Mayflower- Thanksgiving Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: - LAFS.8.RI.2.5 Analyze specific details in a text to refine the key concept. My reflection on the activity:

34. Winter Holocaust everglades natural selection Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: - LAFS 8.RI.1.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from multiple text My reflection on the activity:

35. Winter thixotropic Activity summary: Skills used: Main standard addressed: - LAFS.8.RI.1.2.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies, or allusions to other text. My reflection on the activity: