What's Happening in the Eighth Grade?

Unit 4: Hear Me Out

Welcome to 8th grade ELA! My name is Cheri Omernick and this is my first year teaching at the GET Middle School, and the 29th year of my teaching career. I'm looking forward to a fantastic year! 

STAR Testing:  Wednesday, September 11

Unit 1 Assessment on RL 8.3 Story Elements & RL 8.4 Academic Vocabulary

Materials are on the StudySync app and in a StudySync workbook that is provided.

Language Arts

Unit 1: Everyone Loves a Mystery

Essential Question: What attracts us to the mysterious?

Genre Focus: Fiction

Extended Writing Project: Narrative

Some of the short stories and excerpts within this unit include:

  • The Tell-Tale Heart (Fiction)

  • Monster (Fiction/Drama)

  • Sympathy (Poetry)

  • The Lottery (Fiction)

  • The Graveyard Book (Fiction)

  • The Monkey’s Paw (Fiction)

Beyond the Classroom: ELA

Math

We are officially through September. Welcome to October!

We are finishing up:

Unit 1 (Rigid Transformations/congruence).

Our assessment is taking place on October 2nd.

What can I GUARENTEE I know from Unit 1

  • Rigid Transformations (Translations, Rotations, Reflections)

  • Congruent Figures

  • Properties of Parallel Lines

Unit 2 Topics

  • Scaling/Dilations

  • Similarity of Polygons

  • Slope

The units were reordered to align with learning goals for 8th grade. HERE is the link that takes you to the family version of our online book.

Beyond the Classroom: Math

Social Studies

In October, our class will start to learn about the first settlers to America. We will discuss Christopher Columbus' impact in a mock trial. Then, we will dive into multiple perspectives about the settlements at Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. Students will gather up evidence and develop their own opinions on how historians should view these settlements and their interactions with Native Americans. The final assessment will be creating a poster or a speech and presenting these in a town hall format in the classroom. This final assessment will be due Friday October 18th (the date may change based on the needs of the classes.)

Questions to ask your student-

-How should we view the first European settlers in the Americas? Should we celebrate their bravery and accomplishments? Or should we examine closer the impact these settlers had on Native Americans and be more critical?

updated: 10/8/2024

Beyond the Classroom: Social Studies

Science

September is done...woah!

As October starts, we continue on in our Earth Systems unit (book). Topic 1's assessment is scheduled for Friday, October 4th.

Reminder, within each unit there are Topics which are equatable to "chapters" in a unit. Earth Systems has 4 Topics:

  1. Introduction to Earth's Systems

  2. Minerals and Rocks in the Geosphere

  3. Plate Tectonics

  4. History of Earth

Essential Questions for each Topic: 

  1. How do matter and energy cycle through Earth's system?

  2. What events form Earth's rocks?

  3. How do geological processes change Earth's surface?

  4. How can events in Earth's past be organized?

Beyond the Classroom: Science

Meet the 8th Grade Teachers

Mr. Hagen

Mr. Hagen

Science

Mrs. Omernick

E.L.A.

Mr. Oppelt

Mr. Oppelt

Social Studies

Brenden Klish

Math