The 8th Grade Report and Meeting: A Cherished Tradition at ACA

On any given spring-semester morning in the resource room, you are likely to find 7th and 8th grade teachers discussing the perfect epithet for an 8th grade student. This marks the third year of one of ACA’s most cherished traditions: The 8th Grade Report and Meeting. Beginning in January, members of the 7th & 8th grade teacher team – led by Ms. Younker, Middle School Dean – meet with parents and their students to review a printed “report” about each student that includes a custom epithet: a 2-3 word summary of the student’s best attributes. These are meant to mimic the heroic epithets in the The Iliad which students will read in 9th grade. On each report, teachers have collaborated to write a message identifying the student’s core strengths, and individual teachers write lengthy anecdotes about their favorite moments with and qualities of that student. At the meeting, teachers encourage students about who each one of them has been in middle school and who teachers imagine they can become in high school if they keep cultivating their talents and growing in virtue.