Grade 6 (Cilla)

In January, students expanded their personal narratives. They made a “heart of the story” outline to help them balance the outer actions of their story with inner thinking and emotion. This helps to give their story a unified thematic meaning. They are also revising their plot map project this week, and they're beginning to illustrate their plot map on a poster.

I am urging them not to rush into print until they’ve checked that their content is polished and accurate. Some are adding more detail. Others are re-evaluating if their story arc is accurately identified. We’ve also been reading aloud the elegant prose of  R. L. Stevenson’s "The Bottle Imp." After mid-winter break, students will write discussion questions for this story. They'll also participate in a Socratic seminar, a new format for discussion I think they will love.

The new unit on the horizon is a historical fiction novel, One Crazy Summer. In this novel, three sisters attend the Black Panthers free breakfast program and community school in Oakland. This novel lends itself well to a comparison between the Ten Point Program of the Black Panther Party and the Thirteen Principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement. 

Grade 7 (Lisa)

How are we already halfway through the year?! Seventh grade wrapped up a dystopian genre study unit as we closed the first semester. As we read our all-class novel, The Last Cuentista, together, we discussed common features of dystopian literature, the “moral universe” of a text, how to determine themes in a work, and practiced close reading skills and strategies. We welcomed historian (and former EW parent) Dr. Sarah Fox to class to talk about how important it is to uncover and remember the mistakes of our past so we can do better in the future (the exact opposite of what The Collective in our novel has in mind!) and the importance of storytelling in her work.

In mid-January, we welcomed teaching artist Michelle Burce to class, in collaboration with Drama. She’ll be working with us regularly as students study, produce, and perform Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Michelle walked students through a very tangled plot involving hidden identities, a love triangle, and hijinks among the servants. She also shared reading strategies to better understand Shakespeare’s language and last week coached students in acting objectives and tactics. Our students are enthusiastic performers, and I can’t wait to see their performances!

Monday, we began a new unit: a survey of Black voices in American literature. I am excited for this series! We’ll hop throughout history and engage with writers from Phillis Wheatley, the first Black writer to be published in the U.S., to contemporary figures like Kendrick Lamar, Elizabeth Acevedo, Maya Angelou, and more.

As always, thank you for your support of our students, and don’t hesitate to reach out with your questions or concerns.

Grade 8 (Lisa)

Eighth graders enjoyed their criticism unit and dove into a better understanding of what makes for a “professional” review of a film, album, or concert. We read reviews penned by journalists from the New York Times, SPIN, and more as mentor texts and reflected on what made for a strong review. Students then worked hard to capture something as ineffable as music in words and practiced using specific vocabulary and word choice to do justice to the artists we reviewed.

The last couple weeks of the semester were devoted to independent project work. Students chose an aspect of language arts skills they’d like to take a deeper dive into and created work ranging from poetry, to horror stories, to research presentations, to zines. Students wrote project proposals and work timelines, worked diligently on content, and then presented their work to the class.

Next week at this time, our students will be in ROME! Leading up to their trip, we’ve been talking about travel and travel writing in preparation for the Rome memoirs they’ll write when they return. If your student isn’t going to Rome, no worries! They’ll have the opportunity to choose another trip they’ve embarked on to write about. I can’t wait to share their stories with you. Ask your student what aspects of travel writing they’re going to keep in mind to engage their readers as they compose their stories post-trip.

As always, thank you for supporting our students as they learn and grow as readers and writers.