English 8 Literary Genres, Class Expectations, and Preview

What is a genre?

Definition of GENRE 1a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content 2kind, sort 3in art painting that depicts scenes or events from everyday life usually realistically (Merriam-Webster)

What is a literary genre?

Literature, is often divided into three basic categories. The classic genres of Ancient Greece include poetry, drama, and prose. We can further divide those genres into subgenres. For example: Poetry - epic, lyric, dramatic Drama - comedy, tragedy, history Prose - fiction and nonfiction Fiction – novel, short story Nonfiction – letters, journals, speeches And so on…

Syllabus Our syllabus for English eight will include mostly fictional novels and short stories, some nonfictional works, drama, and poetry.

Co-teaching experience Ms Burton and Mr. Zellar will be co- teaching this class. This will be new for us, too, so there may be adjustments and changes as we go. The teachers will alternate presenting new concepts, materials, and literary works; but both teachers will be available to help, tutor, guide, and present the lessons. Please feel free to go to either for help, regardless of which teacher presents the respective material.

Expectations The class will be large so it will be important for you to be respectful to whoever is speaking. We expect students to work hard and put forth a good effort. We expect students to cooperate with the teachers and with each other. We expect assignments to be handed in on time. Late assignments will be deducted 10% each day. Students generally will not fail this class unless assignments are not handed in. Class participation and group work and cooperation are also graded.

Format The teacher preparing a particular lesson will generally begin each day with warm-up exercises – DOL, vocabulary, spelling, literary terms, sentence diagramming, reading comprehension, main ideas, topic sentences, and the like.

We hope you enjoy this experience.