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PIEDMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL

an IB World School

Talent Development News

Volume 1, Issue 31 March 18, 2015

6th Grade Math

In only a few short months the EOGs will be upon us, and then follows the end of the school year. How time flies! As the year progresses, we find ourselves involved in even more exciting learning opportunities and experiences. Currently, our students are working within the Number System Common Core State Standard to apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division, to divide fractions by fractions. Students are extending this knowledge to solve geometry area problems using fractions. To help our students grasp this concept, we have worked with play-doh to create “fraction pizzas”, used real life example of how rooms and objects can be “cut” into fractions, learned a helpful rap/song to remember when dividing fractions, and much more.

Prior to fractions, students spent time honing their skills with decimals. Being able to fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals has turned into skills that the 6th grade math teachers are constantly challenging students to apply to everyday situations. Our 6th graders are realizing that fractions and decimals pop up everywhere: money, time, distance, weight, geometry applications (to name a few)…even in calculating their own grades. Students have worked hard to master these fraction and decimal operations without relying on the calculator on their cell phone…a feat that some adults still struggle with!

Outside of math class, Piedmont students have been busy as ever during the 3rd quarter: working on their Greek mythology Project and the IB Love of Learning Project, finishing up Spring MAP testing, engaging with technology through our one to one Chrome book experience, participating in 6th block clubs, donating and joining our “Piedmont Walk for Ed” campaign, donating cans for our food drive, completing 20 community and service hours, all while working hard in core and encore classes. It is safe to say that students, teachers, and parents deserve some upcoming rest and relaxation during Spring Break!

6th Grade Language Arts

How do I understand and appreciate poetry? Why do humans create poetry? How can words represent ideas and feelings? This quarter’s MYP Unit questions explore the themes of creativity and written expression. Students will reflect on various poems to interpret their meanings and to discuss how figurative language and sound techniques are used in poetry.

We will explore many famous (and not so famous!) poets such as Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Gary Soto, Carl Sandburg, Maya Angelou, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Basho, Issa, and Edward Lear. In class, students will read and practice writing Limericks, Haiku, Concrete, Free Verse, Cinquain, Two Voice, Bio, Ballad, Ode, Narrative, and Acrostic poems. These original poems may be incorporated into the culminating Poetry Slam where students will write and present original poems or recite well-known poems.

Students are encouraged to read as many different poetry anthologies as possible during this unit in order to expose themselves to a wide variety of poems. Active Reading Strategies for reading poetry are to preview the poem (what does it look like on the page?), to read the poem aloud a few times, to visualize the images, to clarify words and phrases, to evaluate the poem’s theme, and to let your understanding grow! Please encourage your 6th grader to practice reading and reciting his or her favorite poems with you.

Do you have any favorite poems you would like to share with your 6th grader?

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PIEDMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL, an IB world School

Talent Development News

Seventh Grade Math

It has been an exciting year, so far! Students just finished their MAP tests to check on their growth since the fall and winter. Our students have done a wonderful job overall and we are proud of their grade level achievements. Their scores will also help determine their placement for 8th grade math. However, we are not through learning just yet…

The 7th grade math teachers are continuing to prepare our students for next year. Currently, students are working on Geometry. The unit is all about angles, perimeter, area, volume, surface area, and more! How do you find the volume of a house? How do you know how much paint to buy if you want to change the color of your house? By the end of this unit, any 7th grader can tell you!

Our students presented “Pi in their most creative way” to celebrate March 14, 2015, or (3.1415…). It was a well-rounded (pun intended) display of our students’ TALENTS. Some students memorized and recited up to 100 digits of pi, others wrote original songs and sang them for the class, while others created informational T-shirt designs, posters, skits, videos, and more! Talent was visible throughout Piedmont on our celebration day! (

To wrap up our Geometry unit, students will complete an IB project where they will be creating scale models of objects and comparing their dimensions, surface areas, and volumes in relation to the scale factor that they used. The final product will be a model with calculations shown and written explanations of their work. This is always a project that does not just impress others visually, but students realize their capabilities in the creation of something and making it relate to math. Our goal is to make this an inter-disciplinary assignment so the students will get to look at it multiple ways. Teachers will be looking for math content and grammar, mechanics, fluency, etc. We believe it is important to use interdisciplinary approaches on our assignments.

Coming up, 7th graders will attend a field trip to Washington D.C. and use their math skills throughout the trip. They will view and discuss various scale models and monuments around the city and compare them to the actual sizes of the real objects. Budgeting their money and time are important skills that all teachers will emphasize as well.

We look forward to ending the school year on a high note. There are many fun and academic activities for students to be involved in the coming months.

7th Grade Math Team (

 

Seventh Grade Language Arts

Students completed the, Spring MAP Assessment. Teachers are using the Achievement Status and Growth Summary Reports to monitor student growth and learning.

Third quarter’s curriculum included reading informational text, class selection novel studies with projects, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Black History writing assignment, all aligned with Grade 7, English Language Arts Common Core State Standards.

Students read “The Noble Experiment” from the Autobiography, I Had made it, by Jackie Robinson. While reading the informational text, students had practice locating, evaluating, and categorizing evidence and linking this evidence to conclusions they made about the text.

Class novel selections during Quarter 3, and/or Semester 2 were The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, Pigman, by Paul Zindel, and Whirligig, by Paul Fleischman. Students used partners, small group and whole group discussion, including Socratic Seminars, to clarify their thinking about the development of the author’s theme within the text. Students were also able to analyze the impact that specific story elements have on a text. Projects, extended assignments, or activities were included in each novel study.

Students completed their first nonfiction writing assignment, in reference to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s early life. They read the article, “Heeding the Call,” by Diana Childress and were to explain how King’s experiences as a young person shaped his beliefs and actions as an adult. They used the Holt Online Essay Scoring that is designed to help students improve their writing, and to help prepare for standardized writing tests. Students were taught the Writing Process and spent significant time planning, drafting, editing, and revising in order to write a clear, coherent composition, and to become familiar with the overall writing process.

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PIEDMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL, an IB World School

Talent Development News

Eighth Grade Language Arts

We have enjoyed yet another successful quarter with eighth grade students in Language Arts. We began the quarter with a close reading of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Students rose to the challenge and used sophisticated reading skills and strategies to decode the language. Students began to use the text as a way to explore inquiry questions: What is metaphorical language? How do I use language to create? How do my creations show who I am?

Students participated in a variety of activities to enrich their reading experience. We conducted an insult competition, where students used Shakespearean language to creatively “insult” each other in a friendly and lively environment. Students created a figurative language scrapbook; they were able to articulate how figurative language can contribute to a text’s theme.

At the end of the play, students chose from several creative writing and acting tasks to demonstrate their understanding and appreciation of the play. Some students chose to memorize and recite their favorite monologue of the play. Other students chose to collaborate in groups to modernize a scene. Their modernizations had to remain true to the characters and theme, but could creatively transpose the piece. Finally, other groups chose to write and perform a talk show skit. Shakespeare’s characters visited Steve Harvey, Oprah Winfrey, Maury and Wendy Williams. They asked thoughtful questions that demanded a deep understanding of the text. It is not easy to get up in front of a room full of peers and to speak in Shakespearean language, but of course, Piedmont students rose to the challenge.

We are closing the quarter with a mini Outer Banks interdisciplinary inquiry unit. At the beginning of fourth quarter, we will bring our learning out of the classroom and travel to North Carolina’s Outer Banks and apply our knowledge to the real world. The eighth grade language arts team anxiously awaits our next unit and our final quarter together.

Eighth Grade Math

Students in Math 8 continued their work on systems of equations. Many feel this was the hardest concept they have learned all year. Then we started our Geometry unit and everything became a bit easier! We have studied angles, and triangles – even learning a new theorem, The Pythagorean Theorem. Did you know this theorem only works for right triangles? We then moved onto volume and learned the formulas for a cylinder, cone and sphere. Our culminating IB activity was to build the largest popcorn container out of a piece of paper and an index card and calculate the volume. We then got to fill our container with popcorn! The next part of the assessment was to figure out the best buy of popcorn at a movie theatre.

During third quarter, Math II students started a new curriculum. They have learned how to solve rational and radical equations. They realized that all solutions are not valid and are therefore extraneous! Students also learned about the logarithmic functions. In our last unit for the quarter students will study all of the functions they have learned so far and see how they are transformed on the coordinate plane.

TD students in Math I full year are almost done! They have studied exponent rules, how to FOIL and how to factor. Students are currently working on the quadratic function. They are learning how to graph and find the axis of symmetry and the vertex. Soon they will learn the Quadratic Equation. This is a special equation that will give the roots of the quadratic function easily.

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PIEDMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL, an IB world School

Talent Development News

PIEDMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL

an IB World School

Talent Development News

1241 East 10th Street

Charlotte, NC 28204

Phone: 980-343-5435

Fax: 980-343-5557

E-mail: piedmontopenmiddle@cms.k12.nc.us

Website:

Piedmont … You Know … We Care!

TALENT DEVELOPMENT TEAM

• Academic Facilitator

Dawn Johnston

• 6th Grade Team

Language Arts Math

Karen Bailey Sarah Harman

Molly McCarthy Aaron Kolla r

Shelley Lyttle Sara Suckstorff

• 7th Grade Team

Language Arts Math

Patrice Frilot Karen Gorman

David Milligan Ellen Bare

Cynthia Alexander-Brown Susie Palgut

• 8th Grade Team

Language Arts Math

Elizabeth Immel Cheryl Lamb

Jessica Hon Janet Delery

Kelly Hanson Stacey Callahan

Happy almost spring to you all!! It’s only March but it is all ready time to think about summer camp! There are many opportunities created especially for gifted students –great ways for students to “keep on learning” all year long! The following list offers just a sample of what is available for summer 2015:

WHAT: Discovery Place WHERE: 301 N. Tryon Street

CONTACT: Phone: 704-372-6261 x 300 Charlotte, NC 28202

Discovery Place camps:

Nature Museum camps:

INFO: Camps outlined by Discovery Place are focused on nature, science and/or math with specific topics in each category. Camps are being held at 4 different locations this year so check it out!

WHAT: UNC-Charlotte Camps on Campus WHERE: 9201 University City Blvd, Charlotte 28223

CONTACT:

INFO: UNC-Charlotte Camps on Campus strives to offer a safe, fun, hands-on, and educational summer enrichment experience for campers in rising grades 1-12. Middle school-age offerings include: Business, Law, Engineering, Robotics, and more.

  

WHAT: Providence Day School Summer Programs WHERE: 5800 Sardis Rd, Charlotte, 28270

CONTACT: , or call for catalog 704.887.7006

INFO: Providence Day summer programs offer something for everyone –sports, arts, drama, cooking, service, science, technology and many more! Browse through program offerings and sign up early using the registration form on-line.

WHAT: Summer Programs at Charlotte Latin School WHERE: 9502 Providence Rd, Charlotte 28277

CONTACT:

INFO: “…promotes a joy for learning and where campers can develop cognitively, socially, emotionally, and physically through growth-promoting experiences. Our coeducational day programs foster a passion for lifelong learning...” Offerings include: sports, cooking, video games, chess, robots and theatre.

WHAT: Summer Programs at The Green River Preserve WHERE: 301 Green River Rd

CONTACT: Phone: 828-698-8828 Cedar Mountain, NC 28718

Fax: 828-698-9201 info@

INFO: Focused on environmental education and located in western NC near Hendersonville and Brevard.  “Green River Preserve is a non-competitive, coed summer camp connecting children with nature. Located on a 3,400 acre private wildlife preserve in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, this extraordinary natural setting inspires campers to have a greater understanding of themselves, their environment, and their fellow man. Designed for bright, curious, and creative children, our program nurtures character development and fosters skills like perseverance, curiosity, communication, optimism, creativity, and GRIT.”

WHAT: Kids for Conservation Summer Day Camp WHERE: Carolina Raptor Center

CONTACT: Huntersville, NC

INFO: Camps include:

Raptors of the Silver Screen, Young Veterinarians Camp and Birds and Beasties Camp

WHAT: All-Arts, Sciences & Technology Camp

WHERE: 1-week residential experience at either participating college campuses- NC State or UNC-Greensboro

CONTACT: or email allarts@uncg.edu, or call (336) 315-7044 or (866) 334-2255

INFO: Designed to give in-depth, hands-on instruction in the arts, sciences, and technology, the camp also includes recreation, citizenship, and multi-cultural entertainment. During camp, each camper attends a morning class and an afternoon class, chosen from a wide variety of course offerings that suit individual tastes and preference. Our class size is small, and the curriculum encourages problem solving and critical thinking, all while spending time on a college campus.

WHAT: iD Tech Camps WHERE: UNC Chapel Hill or NC State University in Raleigh

CONTACT: !

INFO: week-long camps, ages 7-17, focus on STEM, hands-on, high-energy summer computer programs for kids and teens. “Our NC summer camps immerse students in a STEM learning experience unlike any other. Choose from courses in game design, web design, coding, programming in Java™ and C++, Minecraft modding, filmmaking, robotics, photography, and more. With 8 students maximum per instructor, we customize our curriculum around you. You’ll build real-world skills, make new friends, and discover how your talents and passions can lead to a future career.”

WHAT: MarineQuest WHERE: University of North Carolina Wilmington

CONTACT:

INFO: Camps and programs designed around marine science, biology, leadership, diving and coastal environments. To explore, discover and value our marine habitats through week-long camps for ages 10-17.

WHAT: Summer Enrichment Camp WHERE: Ferrum College in Virginia

CONTACT:

INFO: Academics with social and recreational activities, ages 9-13

Select from Two One-Week Sessions July 12-18 or July 19-July 25, 2015

“Located at Ferrum College in the beautiful foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, this residential camp offers an exciting opportunity to: pursue academic interests, explore new ideas, experience campus life, make new friends, and have traditional summer-camp fun.” Classes involve ACTIVE PARTICIPATION with a variety of daily projects and group activities. Instructors are specially chosen for their unique abilities to make learning come alive.

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Mission Statement

Piedmont exists to inspire in its students a passion for learning and a commitment to personal integrity and academic excellence. Students demonstrate self-confidence and creativity, are open-minded and inquisitive, and display a sense of social responsibility and global awareness.

What is Talent Development?

The Talent Development Program for gifted services is based on consultation and collaboration between the talent development and classroom teachers. They work together to meet the needs of the high achieving student.

Program Benefits

• Gifted education and general education are related, connected and integrated.

• Out of class sessions are scheduled when needed most.

• The pace of learning is enhanced.

• High achieving students receive more challenging tasks within the classroom.

• Classroom and TD teachers work together to maximize student learning.

Did you know?

• Research on the TD Program indicates that students receive at least three times the amount of services using this model compared to the old pullout, once a week program.

• The TD model is most effective when high achieving students are flexibly grouped together based on their instructional needs.

• Every school has a Talent Development teacher.

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hE-CJaJhE-CJOJQJaJ-jh5.–U[pic]mHnHtH u[pic]h])Vh·s±CJOThe TD teacher at your child’s school can tell you how they work with your child and your child’s teacher.

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