To all future Desert Hills Middle School Honors Language Arts students:

Welcome to honors eighth and ninth. We are so excited to have you in our classesnext year. All Desert Hill Middle School Honors students are expected to complete assigned summer reading for their language arts classes next year. Incoming eighth graders are expected to read Dragonwings by Laurence Yep, which may be purchased on Amazon.com for $6.18.

Incoming ninth graders are expected to read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which may be purchased on Barnes and Noble.com for $7.99.

Both of these books may be purchased at various bookstores as well.

These books will be discussed and tested in the opening days of the new school year. Students will be writing an in-class, open book essay during the first week of school. Therefore, all honors students will need to purchase the appropriate novel for their grade level since we want you to annotate them (make notes in them).

Annotations will help prepare students for the first week’s discussions, essay, and other activities and will encourage active reading skills. Attached are instructions on how to annotate a novel.

If you have any questions about the summer reading assignments, please contact your honors language arts teacher.

Eighth grade: Mrs. Shepherd (shepherd@dhms.washk12.org)

Ninth grade: Miss Livingston (mlivingston@dhms.washk12.org)

As we Near the end of the school year, we have many requests by students to check out of school before the last scheduled day for a variety of reasons.  We consider these situations on a case by case basis and try to accommodate where possible. However, we also try to adhere to WCSD policy on the matter.

Thursday, May 16th:  Locker checkout by administration and custodians begins.  All books due by this date.

Wednesday, May 21st: Modified Gold Day Schedule:  Students will go to every class to check out.  Talent show during the last hour of the day.

Wednesday, May 22^nd: Students will report to homeroom to start the day.  Yearbooks wil be distributed and passed out to those who are completely checked out (locker clean, books checked in, and fines paid, if any).  Sutdents will sign yearbooks until school is dismissed at 12:30pm.

Thursday, May 23^rd:  Students may come to school to sign yearbooks.  No classes will be held and no roll will be taken.  Buses arrive to take students home at 10:00am.