We are delighted to present to you your child’s Homework Schedules for 2007-08. This is the second year that we have provided Homework Schedules for Year 7, 8 and 9 in this format and we very much hope that both parents/guardians and students will find them of considerable use. Each of the subjects taught in Year 8 has its own Homework Schedule and they are presented in alphabetical order for your convenience.
Purpose
The Homework Schedules have been designed by Subject Leaders to help both parents/guardians and students to complete homework to the best of the student’s ability. They are intended to provide an overview of homework for your child during the course of Year 8 and will be complemented with materials based on Digitalbrain and the School’s website. These materials may include guidance on specific homeworks, checklists and level descriptions for key assessments, links to useful materials and even on-line testing where appropriate. The Homework Schedules are intended to be a guide and are not designed to provide a week-by-week guide to specific homework.
Key Homeworks
Following a very detailed process of planning and subsequent review it is hoped that we have been able to enhance the homework experience for students at Thomas Adams School. Maths, French and German will continue to set a minimum of one homework every week, although there is an option to set one additional homework per week at the discretion of the teacher. English, Science, Geography, History, RE, ICT, PE, Drama and Music have identified Key Homeworks. These Key Homeworks are very important, often comprising several weeks work, and will be set a minimum of six times per year per subject. Shorter homeworks, which may support or reflect on the Key Homeworks, or be stand alone pieces of work, will also be set. Due to the nature of Technology, Art and LifeStyle, these subjects will continue to set and assess relevant homework at the discretion of the teacher. These Key Homeworks have been timetabled to avoid students having to complete several pieces of work at once. The timetable is intended to be a guide and can be found overleaf.
What Next…?
We would also like to point out that there are opportunities for your child to complete work during school time. The library is available every lunchtime for students to complete work and Room 10 is also available every lunchtime for any student who requires additional help. Moreover, many staff may be willing to offer a lunch and/or after school session on request. In addition, lunch-time and after-school study clubs will be made available to your child this year. We do hope that you find these Homework Schedules useful and would welcome your feedback. You can contact the school on enquiries@thomasadams.net or on the usual telephone number (01939 237000).
This scheme asks all students to negotiate and problem solve both in and out of role in order to explore themes of community, compassion and fairness in a new context. It also requires them to build on the performance skills and conventions they developed in Year 7.
Folk Tales
Folk tales are used as a starting point to create stylised Drama and to explore superstitions and the power of belief.
Units of Work Covered:
Ricky Brown
This scheme is set in the familiar context of a school and aims to expand the students’ knowledge of how to build and develop character. It also seeks to develop students’ ability to structure action and create performances which are believable.
The Greek Village
This scheme further develops and builds on the performance skills students have acquired. It requires students to use a range of conventions to problem-solve and devise dramatic potential in material from another time and culture in order to create atmosphere and tension.
Units of Work Covered:
Vetrotech
This scheme seeks to demonstrate how an emotive issue such as animal testing, can form the starting point for Drama. It encourages students to accept and respect the views of others and to enter into roles that are distanced from themselves in beliefs and values.
Frank Miller
This scheme builds on all of the skills the students have acquired throughout the year. It is an open structure based on an encounter. It places more responsibility on the students for the development of their Drama. All students will have to negotiate and make whole group decisions about narrative, context and character.
Details of Key Assessments
Pupils’ assessment will be continuous rather than focussing on a particular activity and will take into account their contributions to the entire scheme of work. Students will receive a level for each scheme of work as well as being given regular verbal feedback and being encouraged and given time to appraise both themselves and their peers.
Details of Key Assessments
Pupils’ assessment will be continuous rather than focussing on a particular activity and will take into account their contributions to the entire scheme of work. Students will receive a level for each scheme of work as well as being given regular verbal feedback and being encouraged and given time to appraise both themselves and their peers.
Details of Key Assessments
Pupils’ assessment will be continuous rather than focussing on a particular activity and will take into account their contributions to the entire scheme of work. Students will receive a level for each scheme of work as well as being given regular verbal feedback and being encouraged and given time to appraise both themselves and their peers.
Notes:
Much of Drama homework will be reflective and pupils will be asked to consider and explore issues, problems and situations they have investigated in class. Homework will always be practically linked to students’ classwork.
Reflect on abilities as a speaker.
Look at John Agard or Martin Luther King poetry/ speech.
Analyse overall structure of text.
Revise style and structure.
Define protest & propaganda
Find an example of an effective protest
Find an example of effective propaganda
Explain their effectiveness
Hot off the Press.
Recount an experience.
T.V/radio broadcast on topical issues
Trace the development of ideas.
Develop and signpost an argument.
Weigh different viewpoint
Watch a range of news broadcasts & read a selection of newspaper reports on the same issue.
Find 3 similar & 3 different aspects & explain these
Prose
Listen for specific audience.
Read substantial text and interpret.
Written advice.
Based on the set text of the group:
Read the first chapter and be prepared to discuss how successfully it establishes setting & character
Moving Image
Formal presentation of rhetorical devices.
Linking actions and images.
Producing own episode
Individual research.
Explain complex ideas.
Find a definition of “moving image”
Define, through illustration, the following: split screen, superimposition, high angle, low angle, pull back reveal, point of view shot, two person shot, extreme close-up & establishing shot
Drama
Question hypothesis, using talk.
Conventions of literary forms.
Present a case using rhetorical devices.
Find & list the 7 deadly sins from Christian tradition & the colour, animal and punishment representations of each
Find Ghandi’s 7 deadly sins
Are you taking the Mickey?
Recognise different messages are conveyed.
Implied and explicit meaning
Comment and describe in narrative form.
Complete the unit homework sheet on Parody, Satire & Pastiche
Find a visual example of a stereotype & be prepared to explain why this is a stereotype
(3) Famille et copains (Family and Friends) (4) A table! (At the table!)
Units of Work Covered:
(5) Une semaine a Paris (a week in Paris) (6) Visite en France! (a visit to France)
Homework Outline:
Weekly vocabulary test
One other weekly homework e.g.
Written exercises
Dictionary skills
Research
Posters
Puzzles and worksheets
ICT produced work
Drawing and labelling
Pronunciation practice
Homework Outline:
Weekly vocabulary test
One other weekly homework e.g.
Written exercises
Dictionary skills
Research
Posters
Puzzles and worksheets
ICT produced work
Drawing and labelling
Pronunciation practice
Homework Outline:
Weekly vocabulary test
One other weekly homework e.g.
Written exercises
Dictionary skills
Research
Posters
Puzzles and worksheets
ICT produced work
Drawing and labelling
Pronunciation practice
Details of Key Assessments
Module 1 test : October
Module 2 test : December
Details of Key Assessments
Module 3 test : February
Module 4 test : March/April
Details of Key Assessments
Module 5 test : May
Module 6 test : July or Year 8 exam
Notes: During the year all 4 language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) are tested. The Year 8 exam also incorporates all 4 skills.
The Year 8 exam result is a very important factor for setting groups for Year 9 but effort and progress throughout the year will also be taken into account.
Assessment 4: Test on Landforms and Processes of Glaciation
Homework Outline:
Sport, industry and the economy
Football – A population boom
Assessment 5: Shrewsbury Town FC relocation work
World Cup 2006 – The Road to Germany
Environmental issues research
Antarctica – The last true wilderness?
Assessment 6: Local Actions – Global Effects
Details of Key Assessments
Key Homework 1: Based upon the role play held in class, students explore the conflicts and issues surrounding whether or not a limestone quarry should be extended in the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire.
Key Homework 2: Students complete a self-contained enquiry into the processes, landforms and management challenges facing coastal environments in the UK. Students must decide how they feel management should progress and justify their decisions.
Details of Key Assessments
Key Homework 3: Students work in small groups to produce an oral presentation which is delivered to the whole class on an agreed EU country. This work is peer assessed based on stated criteria which encourages the use of ICT wherever possible.
Key Homework 4: Is a glaciation test. This assessment will be undertaken in test conditions on the processes of glacial erosion and transportation along with a multitude of landforms carved by the moving glacial ice.
Details of Key Assessments
Key Homework 5: is based around the relocation of Shrewsbury Town Football Club. Students are presented with a number of scenarios of which they must choose and justify just one whilst at the same time considering the positive and negative impacts of such change.
Key Homework 6: Is a poster presentation on local actions – global effects. This encourages students to think of ways in which they could make small changes to their lifestyles in order to have a positive environmental impact.
Notes:
Examples of students’ work for Key Assessments will be available on the Geography section of the School website and in class, along with examples of written Key Assessments – including instructions and level criteria checklists so students know what they need to do to reach a specific level.
Explanation and commentary for many of the non-Key Assessment homeworks can also be found on the Geography area of the website.
Geography staff are available to help students during break, lunchtime or after school – this can be arranged between staff and students at a mutually convenient time. Please encourage your child to ask their Geography teacher if they require any help.
Finally, we would encourage you to monitor the progress of your child in terms of Key Assessments via the record sheet inside the front cover of their Geography book. This sheet also contains the target level for your child so you can monitor their progress against this target level.
(1) Die Kölner Clique (The Past Tense) (2) Unterwegs (Holidays)
Units of Work Covered:
(3) Topfit (Keeping Fit) (4) Essen und einkaufen (Eating and shopping)
Units of Work Covered:
(5) Los geht’s nach Köln! (Let’s go to Cologne!) (6) Unter Freunden (with friends)
Homework Outline:
Weekly vocabulary test
One other weekly homework, for example:
Written exercises
Dictionary skills
Research
Posters
Puzzles and worksheets
ICT produced work
Drawing and labelling
Pronunciation practice
Homework Outline:
Weekly vocabulary test
One other weekly homework, for example:
Written exercises
Dictionary skills
Research
Posters
Puzzles and worksheets
ICT produced work
Drawing and labelling
Pronunciation practice
Homework Outline:
Weekly vocabulary test
One other weekly homework, for example:
Written exercises
Dictionary skills
Research
Posters
Puzzles and worksheets
ICT produced work
Drawing and labelling
Pronunciation practice
Details of Key Assessments
Unit 1 test (October)
Unit 2 test (December)
Details of Key Assessments
Unit 3 test (February)
Unit 4 test (March/April)
Details of Key Assessments
Unit 5 test (May)
Unit 6 test (July) or Year 8 exam
Notes:
During the year all 4 language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) are tested.
The Year 8 exam also incorporates all 4 skills.
The Year 8 exam result is a very important factor for setting groups for Year 9 but effort and progress throughout the year will also be taken into account.
Alternatives and management of alcohol consumption
Don’t Buy Crime *
Laws and courts
Attitudes to crime
Aspects of justice
Consequences of crime
Notes:
Sex Education:
Please note that these topics may be at different times as Sex Education is taught on a rota throughout the year by specialist staff
Lifestyle will not have regular homeworks but students will be expected to undertake various research assignments and assessments that will require work to be completed at home. Those marked with * are particularly likely to involve work outside the classroom. Assessment is primarily carried out within the lessons and is often based on personal evaluation and self- and peer assessment as the lessons are concerned with skills, attitudes and values as much as knowledge and understanding.
The year eight syllabus is essentially the Framework for Mathematics common to all schools in the country. We study Algebra, Number, Shape and Space and Handling Data and various aspects of these four disciplines are studied throughout the year. The emphasis recently has been on improving problem-solving techniques in mathematics and we would like to continue to develop these skills throughout the period of time that your child will be at our school. With this in mind, we have looked very closely at our homework policy for year eight and have now trialled and refined various pieces of work. Your child will be expected to do one or in some cases two homeworks per week for maths, each one requiring approximately 30 minutes work. One homework, which will be common for all year eights will be based on developing their problem solving techniques. With this in mind your child will be given a booklet each term; this booklet is kept at home until the end of term when it must be returned in order to get the next term’s booklet. If the booklet gets lost then a small fee of 50p will be charged to cover printing costs. The other homework, when applicable, will be on consolidating work started in lessons. It should be emphasised that at no time should any student get overly worried about their maths homework, rather they should consult their teacher at the earliest opportunity.
All of these can be accessed via the digital brain
Homework Outline Autumn:
On a weekly basis:
One homework from work done in class, one homework from the Autumn Term Mathematics Homework Booklet
Homework Outline Spring:
On a weekly basis:
One homework from work done in class, one homework from the Spring Term Mathematics Homework Booklet
Homework Outline Summer:
On a weekly basis:
One homework from work done in class, one homework from the Summer Term Mathematics Homework Booklet
Details of Key Assessments
Competition
Design and make a maze.
Details of Key Assessments
Competition
Research on famous mathematicians. Investigation into defence on a chess board.
Details of Key Assessments
Competition Design a tile and produce an A4 tessellation.
Write a newspaper obituary for Ludwig Van Beethoven.
Research and present a piece of work on the origins & musical features of the ‘Tango’.
Homework Outline:
Complete an annotated map outlining the origins of the ‘Blues’, with particular reference to the ‘Slave Triangle’.
Write a newspaper ‘feature’ article on Louis Armstrong entitled “From Rags to Riches…”
Homework Outline:
Write a magazine article from the perspective of either a young person who is pro ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ or an older person who sees it as ‘evil’. Argue your case. (Persuasive writing).
Plan a warm up appropriate for a sport of your choice
What is a cool down? Give examples to your explanation
Homework Outline:
Design two skill practices that would improve 1 or 2 of your weaknesses within a sport of your choice
Discuss the impact the media has upon a sports role model of your choice
Details of Key Assessments
Pupils will be reminded about the targets that they set at the end of year 7. With targets in mind and knowledge provided, on the importance of a healthy diet, pupils will be able to make changes to eating habits.
Pupils will understand the importance of a healthy diet and the affect that a balanced diet has upon the participation within sport.
Details of Key Assessments
Opportunities will be given to pupils to devise, develop and deliver both warm up and cool down activities for other class members.
Pupils will be informed of specific activities that would be suitable for warm up and cool down sessions within a sport of their choice. Pupils will learn of the key fitness components required in a range of sports.
Details of Key Assessments
Opportunity will be given to devise activities to improve a range of skills. Video recording performance will allow for pupils to assess individual strengths and weaknesses.
Sport in society will be addressed and will include media, sponsorship, money and gender issues.
What is the purpose of celebration and what effects does it have on believers? (Divali and Christmas)
Units of Work Covered:
Are religious teachings about behaviour relevant to modern life? (Poverty) Is life sacred, and what implications does this have? (The Environment)
Units of Work Covered:
Is life sacred, and what implications does this have? (The Environment)….continued How does the religious believer demonstrate their commitment to a belief? (Hinduism)
Details of Key Homework Tasks
Assessment 1 – Diviali test.
This will test students knowledge and understanding of the practices associated with the Hindu festival of Divali.
Assessment 2 – asks students to describe the celebrations of Divali and Christmas, and to account for similarities and differences between them.
In addition, supporting homework tasks (including revision for tests) may be set, at the discretion of the class teacher, which will help students build up to the level of knowledge required to complete these key assessments.
Details of Key Homework Tasks
Assessment 3 – Fair Trade letter.
This asks students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of a Christian commitment to fight poverty by writing a letter promoting Fair Trade products.
Assessment 4 – Spaceship Earth
These questions examine students’ response to a range of environmental issues, and to begin to discuss some more religious ideas associated with creation and stewardship in greater detail.
In addition, supporting homework tasks (including revision for tests) may be set, at the discretion of the class teacher, which will help students build up to the level of knowledge required to complete these key assessments.
Details of Key Homework Tasks
Assessment 5 – Year 8 Examination.
Assessment 6 - asks students to demonstrate their ability to provide a balanced argument about a controversial issue concerning animal rights.
In addition, supporting homework tasks (including revision for tests) may be set, at the discretion of the class teacher, which will help students build up to the level of knowledge required to complete these key assessments.
Notes:
The module titles are taken from the locally agreed Shropshire Agreed Syllabus. Your child has a progress sheet at the front of their book, to which we would encourage you to refer, containing information regarding academic development in RE.
Unit 8A Food & digestion “Bushtucker diet” (numeracy/literacytask)
Unit 8B Respiration “Hayfever” (literacytask)
Unit 8C Microbes & disease “Bird flu” (reporttask)
Unit 8D Ecological relationships “Rats”(literacy/numeracy task)
Unit 8E Atoms & Elements “False diamonds” (SC1/numeracy task)
Unit 8F Compounds & Mixtures “Scratchproof phone screen” (literacy task)
Unit 8G Rocks & weathering “Glacial meltdown” (SC1planning/analysingtask)
Unit 8H The Rock Cycle
“Journey to the centre of Earth” (literacy task)
Unit 8I Heating & cooling “Conductors and insulators” (literacy task)
Unit 8J Magnets & Electromagnets “What use are magnets?” (literacy task)
Unit 8K Light “A bendy subject!” (communication task)
Unit 8L Sound & hearing “What can animals hear?” (numeracy task)
Students will complete 6 of the above 12 activities
Please note: Pupils receive a detailed description of each homework task before they start.
In order that Year 7 Science lessons are effectively resourced, the above Units are taught in different orders for different classes. Therefore, the key homeworks indicated will be completed at different times of the year for different pupils. Pupils in Year 7 will do a selection of 6 activities from the above list of 12; these will be done at approximately half-term intervals. There may be other homeworks set by the Science teacher during the year, and pupils will also be expected to undertake revision for End of Unit tests and the End of Year Exam.
Key vocabulary - Revise and learn keywords and phrases related to unit
Understanding the form and function of familiar products
Increasing understanding and literacy
Textiles
Textiles in the home - worksheet
Research/collect materials for theme board
Initial ideas x4
Generating ideas
Exploring ideas and the task
Product Design
Production flowchart
Material and components research
Planning
Increasing understanding and literacy
Food
Weigh and organise ingredients in preparation for practical lessons
Evaluation to follow tasting ready-made products
Weighing and measuring - numeracy
Evaluating
Notes:
The making of high-quality products is the manifestation of the Design and Technology framework in schools. In Year 8 Technology, focus is placed on the practical element of the framework. Homeworks are designed to increase the capability of knowledge, values, attitudes and skills which underpin the practical outcome. Students take part in a ‘carousel’ system in which they move between each area of Technology as the year progresses. Typically students cover 5 areas in Year 8: Resistant Materials, Product Design, Computer-Aided-Design & Manufacture (CAD/CAM), Textiles and Food. At any one time the year group is engaged on all five areas concurrently. The overview for homework, therefore, needs to be on a yearly basis. Also because of the dynamics of Design & Technology i.e. curriculum change and development focus will continue to be based on the National KS3 Strategy for Design and Technology.
