Week of September 18th

JHMS Open House is this Tuesday, September 18th from 6:15- 7:45. Your student will be given a schedule to fill out for you to use. 8th Grade core content classes are periods 3, 4 and 6, 7. Monday: Today we’ll be with Mr. Poduska’s classes and Ms. Rooks, our literacy specialist. We’ll be examining the genre of historical fiction through a read-aloud of The Unbreakable Code, by Sara Hoagland Hunter. This is a novel about Navajo code talkers during WWII and will serve to both expand our American Indian content knowledge and serve as an anchor text as students embark on researching and writing historical fiction during the upcoming weeks. Tuesday: Yesterday was officially Constitution Day, but we will be honoring it today with a inspection of what the Constitution mandates regarding elections in the United States. Students will examine the Constitution itself, as well as other documents such as Electoral College records and historical campaign propaganda. We will be making connections to this year’s general election. HW – Political spectrum organizer with election vocabulary. Due on Friday Wednesday- Friday: In conjunction with the Jackson Hole Historical Society and pARTners, students will be participating in the annual Flash Fiction, historical fiction contest. Last year, several 8th grade students received cash prizes and had their work on display at the JH Historical Society museum. Here’s how the 3 days will look. • Day 1 – with Matt Daly of pARTners o Intro to contest (Judging criteria) o Model and Share examples of primary image analysis method SIGH o Students select a JH Historical Society photo and do the SIGH process. • Day 2 - Flash Fiction with Matt Daly of pARTners o Model and Share examples (rubric and contest rules again) o Students writing a 1 page “Flash Fiction” piece based on yesterday’s image analysis. • Day 3 - Revision & Reflection Day o Stories to be submitted o Reflection survey - How is SIGH useful to analyzing a primary document? How could you use it in the future? What is your understanding NOW about writing historical fiction? analyzing primary documents?researching a primary document? What do you now understand about how source material influences writing? HW Due at start of the class on Friday – Political spectrum organizer with election vocabulary.