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English Language Arts Ms. Francis Eighth Grade Goals
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Classroom Goals: To strengthen student grammar skills in the following areas: Capitalization Punctuation Subject-Verb Agreement Spelling To expose students to a wide range of writing to include the following: Persuasive/Argumentative Narrative Descriptive Expository Newspaper MLA Research
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Classroom Goals (con’t): To encourage reading across a variety of genres: Fiction Historical Fiction Non-fiction Informative Poetry To nurture the creative spirit of students. To allow for individual input and ideas through Socratic methods. To promote organizational skills through the following strategies: Interactive Notebooks Cornell Note-taking Dialectical Journals Concept Mapping
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Classroom Goals (con’t): To cultivate deep-level, critical thinking skills: Depth of Knowledge focus on Levels 3-4 Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels 4-6 Costa’s Levels of Questioning: English To encourage analyzing and synthesizing of text through close reading strategies and annotation. To allow students the opportunity to write for a wide variety of purposes. To review story elements, literary devices, poetry terms, etc.
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Classroom Routine/Rules: Students will follow the same routine daily: Arrive to class in a timely manner Collect Interactive Notebook from shelf and take seat Read the daily standards, objectives and activities for the day. Complete the “Do Now” activity listed on the board. Once “Do Now” is completed, wait until other students finish. Wait for additional direction from the teacher. At the conclusion of class, teacher will remind students to return notebooks to shelf. Class will be dismissed by the teacher. Students will follow class rules: Be Ready; Be Responsible; Be Respectful; Raise your hand.
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Novel/reading list for year: Soldier’s Heart—historical fiction Civil War novella by Gary Paulsen Monster—a young-adult screenplay/diary by Walter Dean Myers The Diary of Anne Frank by Francis Goodrich and Albert Hackett The Devil’s Arithmetic—Holocaust novel by Jane Yolen The Book Thief—World War II Novel by Markus Zusak (Advanced) The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Animal Farm—anti-utopian novella by George Orwell (Advanced) A Midsummer Night’s Dream—a comedy by William Shakespeare (Adv.) Other reading units include some of the following: Poetry unit—including the following poets: Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, Walt Whitman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and William Shakespeare Short Story Unit—featuring the writings of Edgar Allan Poe Greek/Roman Mythological Unit
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Writing Syllabus for Year: Students will write for a myriad of purposes: Narrative “Most Scary Experience” essay MLA research PowerPoint on students’ favorite authors* Quarterly independent reading book reports Poetry booklet: Haiku, Diamante, “I Am” poem, English Sonnet, etc. Descriptive essay—bring item from home to describe Persuasive MLA essay—Holocaust topic Argumentative essay, with partner* Short, constructed, text-based writing responses Compare/contrast essay Expository “How to” essay* Various journaling activities throughout the year *Some papers require an oral presentation to accompany writing.
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Outside Reading Outside reading novel—one report per quarter—some options for book reports are listed below: Traditional summary Newspaper-style report Character bottle Character analysis Convert story to screenplay “Story Plot” diagram Comic Strip Puppet Show Mystery Box Blog/review
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Supplies: The notebook requirement is specific as students will be creating Interactive Student Notebooks (ISN) in which most of their class work will be completed. Notebook One Subject (at least) 100 pages (at least) College ruled (Walmart has a version that costs $1.00; the Mead or Staples brands usually cost between$2.00-$3.00)
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Supplies (continued): Tape Scissors Glue Sticks Highlighters (four colors) Small Post It Notes Pencils/pens (all colors) Suggested supply donations: Loose-leaf paper Tissues Hand Sanitizer Clorox wipes
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