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 September, our class will start to learn about the different parts of the world that will combine together at the beginning of our country; Native Americans, West Africans, and Europeans. Notes, documentaries, non-fiction reading, a breakout room lesson, and historical fiction will be used to teach about these cultures. The students will also investigate different factors that led to Europeans conquering the area of America and enslaving other people through a documentary. A short answer assessment will be given on this material in the last week of September (specifics will be added later).

Questions to ask your student-

-How were people/societies similar and different in the Americas, West Africa, and Europe?

-Why and how do you think Europeans ended up conquering the Americas and bringing over enslaved people?

updated: 8/27/2024

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