Volume 8: Issue 2
    
SBS Blog    
The following new articles relevant to the middle school have been published in the past two weeks:
 
Making History, by Bill Ivey. About the Humanities 7 class, research into learning at single-gender schools, and political engagement.
 
Bookends: Volume 2: Allow Me to Burst Your Bubble, by Alex Bogel. About how metacognition by "Theory of Knowledge" students, with behind-the-scenes support, is breaking down walls between disciplines.
Family Weekend    
We are delighted to invite you to this fall's Family Weekend, to take place on Friday, October 14 and Saturday, October 15. Events will include class visits, student-led conferences, an all-school housemeeting, the performing arts presentation, athletic contests, and a horse show. You may find a full schedule as well as register online on the school's website.
For families who are unable to attend, we hope to be able to set up Skype conferences so that your daughters can still present their work, and reflections on their work, to you. Advisors will be in touch to set up times for conferences, whether in person or via Skype. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible, and to a great weekend!
7th Grade STEM Classes    
The 7th grade math and science classes are off to a great start. We flew through chapter 1 in the Pre-Algebra book and got to make up a fun variable story using random symbols like smiley faces and dogs. We also graphed dinosaurs and played with number lines.
In life science, we started by exploring the woods around the school and asking questions using the scientific method. Then we looked at a sample of pond water under a microscope to reveal some surprising organisms. We are just finishing cell structure and will be moving on to photosynthesis next week. We are very lucky to have been asked to participate in the Mount Grace river water sampling project this year. Davis Brush will be training us on sampling techniques on October 7th and we will even have an opportunity to go collect samples and identify aquatic macro invertebrates. We are looking forward to a great year!
Choral Program    
In vocal music so far, we've spent a good deal of time just figuring out who sings what!  Most of the students aren't sure whether they're sopranos or altos, so I've been testing their vocal ranges one by one during class.  Some are surprised to learn they might be a soprano.  For others, a knowing nod of the head confirms what they already suspected.  The end result is a choir of students singing appropriate parts for their voices.

Of course, young voices are fragile and ever-changing, so I remind students that this is not a permanent diagnosis.  If they are feeling uncomfortable with their part, students are encouraged to come back for a retest.

The rest of our time has been spent learning "This Is Halloween" from Tim Burton's animated film "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  I'm excited to announce that all of our choral groups will combine to perform this song at the Family Weekend concert.  (There may be some additional collaboration within the Performing Arts department for this song, but it's a surprise, so you'll just have to come find out what it is!)  The performance is Friday afternoon, October 14, at 1:00 P.M.

The other news is that I've chosen the singers for this year's Select Chorus!  We've got a great group of thirteen dedicated singers who want to challenge themselves to sing more difficult music, and we're already off to a strong start.  Hopefully you'll get to hear a little preview at the Family Weekend concert!
French II    
The French II class is a diverse group, with three veterans of our French I courses (all very solidly prepared), two native Spanish speakers, one speaker of Creole, and one speaker of Italian. As such, class has been a blend of forging ahead through the standard curriculum and reviewing last year's material in a strategic way that simultaneously introduces it to anyone who might not know it. The class has particularly enjoyed a vocabulary module on using the telephone, and we have worked on many of our other vocabulary modules in this context. It is a tribute to all the students that we are using French probably 98% of the time, and all in all this energetic and fun-loving group is off to a strong start.
Humanities 7    
The Humanities 7 class has been working on its first unit for which the theme question is, "How does government affect girls' lives?" They have completed the novel The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis about a young girl who has to dress like a boy to earn money and buy food for her family when her father is arrested. We have looked at the book through the lenses of both literary analysis and social studies. In response to their questions, we also viewed and discussed videos on the pros and cons of wearing burqas and the status of women's rights in Afghanistan. We read and shared in small groups texts about Pashtun culture, the Taliban, and Islam. Additionally, for "morning reading," I have been reading them the book Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry. Their passion for generating inferences and predictions based on events in the book and other knowledge they all possess has made for lengthy, lively discussions. Indeed, this class has come together remarkably quickly in many ways.
 
The students brainstormed a long list of questions related to the theme question for the unit, and have each chosen (and, in several instances, subsequently revised) a question for individual research which will culminate in a research paper that includes a "Works Cited" page.
 
Finally, the students have begun their independent work. Three vocabulary groups have been generating personalized lists for quizzes (taken every Monday), the students have been engaged in free-choice independent reading (updates recorded every Wednesday), and they have also begun their independent writing (due every Friday). So far, about half the class has chosen to read their work to the group.
 
All in all, this class is lively, thoughtful, and a sheer joy to work with.
MOCA    
MOCA ("Middle school Office Caring for All"), the middle school student government, has had three meetings so far. The first meeting was organizational, to explain how the group works and set some initial agenda items for the year. Returning parents may not be surprised to learn that trying to organize a dance with Eaglebrook headed their list. The second meeting was devoted to electing representatives to the all-school Student Council ("StuCo"). The students had decided that it would be optional for candidates to give a speech, and in the end about half of them did so, all of them speaking clearly, thoughtfully, and convincingly about their ideas. Clara S. (8th grade) and Victoria S.-K. (7th grade) were the two elected representatives. They ran the bulk of the third meeting, reporting back from StuCo that each class was being asked to submit at least one proposal during the course of the year. To no one's surprise, the middle schoolers brainstormed about 15 possibilities in short order, from dress code changes (e.g. allowing hoodies) to schedule changes (e.g. starting half an hour later) to other changes such as "more desserts." In the intervening few days, I have heard other students talking about ideas they want to bring to MOCA, and it seems happily clear that this year's group will be a strong advocate for middle school student interests.
Chinese I    
Chinese I just celebrated two Chinese holidays in September, Moon Festival and Teacher's Day. Students ate moon cake and made a power point to introduce Moon Festival, which is like Thanksgiving to Chinese families. Last week, students learned who the first teacher in Chinese history, Confucius, is. He was born in September 28, 551 B.C. Students made a teacher's card in Chinese to thank their teachers. 

Since Chinese is a tonal language, and Chinese characters are entirely different from the English alphabet, the class used multimedia to help students tell different tones, and used animation to demonstrate Chinese characters. These useful tools are all free online. Students are able to practice the language with computers at home. The students have also done a couple of recordings of homework to imitate the tones. Their homework also included interviewing SBS students who are from China and Taiwan. Later in the term, we will have a Chinese night during the weekend where students will get to play Chinese games and cook/eat Chinese food with native speakers. Family weekend is coming. I look forward to seeing all of you!
8th Grade Science and Math with Andrea Tehan    
The 8th Grade science and math curricula have had everyone pretty busy the first few weeks of school! In Algebra 1, the girls have reviewed the order of operations (our dear friend PEMDAS) and one-step equations with variables. With some difficulty at first, the girls learned to translate word problems from English into Algebra.  Math is a foreign language, you know! It’s nice to tackle word problems in depth so early in the year as the language of math really can be tricky if you don’t read directions and problems carefully.  Over the weekends, the girls got to be creative and write their own word problems which were very good.  Many of those will be shared with you over the Fall Family Weekend in the girls’ portfolios. This week, we are playing with number lines and will round out the end of our first chapter with absolute values.
In Physical Science, we reviewed the scientific method and got to explore the forest behind the school as we attempted our first experiment in the class.  We then moved on to describing the physical and chemical properties of matter.  The girls learned about the properties of mixtures and made a rainbow of homogeneous mixtures that we then used to tie dye some t-shirts which the girls had already adorned with cute and nerdy math and science quotes.  I’m sure some of you have seen the shirts already, and we’ll be doing more with them throughout the year to come as we begin to integrate our math and science curricula.  This week, the girls did a lab where they had to figure out if what they observed was a physical or a chemical change.  One of the challenges was to see how many physical changes the girls could come up with using nothing but newspaper.  It gave them a chance to really bring out their creative sides, and they had a lot of fun with it.  Together with Brittany Gutermuth who also teaches 8th grade science and Algebra 1, we are really working hard to make sure the girls get as much hands-on experience as possible and that they are using their brains in both an analytical problem solving and a creative manner.  I look forward to class every day with these girls; they are a great group to learn with and together we are having fun!
ESL Humanities    
The Middle School ESL Humanities class began with a unit called "Mosaics of Me." Students began the term by writing about their journeys to SBS. Next they brought in timelines from their own countries, interviewed each other about the histories of their countries and wrote a short history of their partner's country.  They have also created timelines of their own lives. They have then interviewed each other, asking one another to fill in the vivid details. Students were then asked to use the timeline and interview responses to write a short narrative history about a classmate.

Students have been busy studying lots of new vocabulary words. They have "acted out" the words, they have "drawn" the words and they have crafted impressive sentences with the new vocabulary words. Wordly Wise is a challenging vocabulary book and students are integrating their new words everyday.
 
We have just begun a literature unit using "Fiction Explorers. " We will continue in Social Sciences by exploring mapping as another important tool. Soon we will jump into  a study of American history and geography - initially accessing the information through the analysis of timelines and maps.
Humanities 8    
What can a community-minded group of 8th grade students accomplish in a year?  Great things, and they have already set a positive course. Courage and teamwork has been the hallmark for this group, from the moment they worked together in pairs to launch one another 30 feet in the air, lending a hand (or thigh for footing) at Camp Becket, to what they have accomplished on the ground at the beginning of semester, boldly presenting their thoughts on six book options from the summer.  By the end of their individual class presentations the girls felt like they had read all the books and even better, they are now eager to share their creative independent writing. Often, they arrive to class begging to read their own writing to each other.
 
Many in this group were a bit disappointed to be separated into two Humanities sections. To address their concerns, we hosted a Humanities 8 “Literary Lunch” where the two sections joined each other at lunch and talked books. We have considered this event a “first” and will try to meet monthly, to have the girls recommend books to each other and perhaps also bring local authors in to share published work/writing tips with the girls. Any offers?

We are concluding our mini-unit on mystery, the girls sharpening their reading skills and creatively trying their hand at writing in this genre which has provided women authors great opportunities for voice – including one of the most widely read authors in the world, Agatha Christie. Understanding the genre of mystery via the Christie collection of Miss Marple short stories has also become a perfect springboard for an 8th grade-focused study of history.

In class, the girls have begun reading clues from their own past to create a digital exhibition of “cherished possessions,” putting their own beloved objects in personal and cultural context. This has prepared us to look at cultural clues from past Stoneleigh-Burnham students to build an understanding of the significance of their all-girls education in light of the past.

Soon we will begin our study of communities in Ancient Greece, planned to dovetail with the work begun in Theater 8 around the Greek play, Antigone. Our study of the past is always balanced with contemporary learning and current concerns and the girls have been navigating a biweekly newspaper subscription (many shyly sharing “I have never read a newspaper before”) to mine the paper for current events, learning grammar, parts of speech and topic sentence/journalistic style tips in the process.

The Humanities 8 students are becoming deep thinkers and are sensitive to their audience in discussions. I am eager to witness them develop these traits in their writing and to compose with their best creative, reflective and analytical voices.
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