Units of Focus, Year at a glance, not necessarily in this order.
Elements and Themes in Fiction
Narrative Writing
Elements and Ideas in Nonfiction
Informational Writing
Text Structure in Fiction and Nonfiction
Perspectives in Fiction and Nonfiction
Argumentative Writing, Inquiry and Research
August / September 2022
Reading Unit: Character Interactions. We are talking about how dialogue suggests other Thoughts, Feelings, Behavior, Actions, or Relationships. So, students are reviewing how to code and annotate text using codes that go along with these: T, B, A, F, R. Additionally, we are making a big push about the distinction between direct and inferred evidence. Students are learning to recognize the causes and effects of events and of dialogue, in fiction. Additionally, students will begin a side unit that will last all year long, revolving around Literary Techniques.
Further Literature study has students inferring effects of events and dialogue such as decisions provoked by characters, further action propelled, or aspects of character revealed by the speaker.
Literary Techniques Vocabulary study (year-long). Students study 14 major literary techniques, and learn to identify them in their reading, as well as learn to use them in the own writing. Vocabulary study methods include repeated reading, repeated writing, peer scaffolding, and self-check.
Strategy to retain auditory information: Repeat information out loud, faded (in a whisper), silent. Repeat sequence until information is on paper or screen.
PAT = Preferred Activity Time. This is a reward system that students and I are using in order to promote a working environment. When student are in the RIGHT PLEASE, at the RIGHT TIME, with the RIGHT MATERIALS, and with the RIGHT ATTITUDE, they earn increments of time. If classes reach a certain threshold over three weeks, they will earn the PAT day. No classes earned the PAT day after the first three weeks, so we conducted a plus/delta conversation in order to build a set of class agreements.
October
Writing Unit: Personal Narrative-Memoir.
Opening activity will be what is called "Stones in the River." In this activity, students create a drawing in which each stone in a river is labeled with an event from their lives that could become a full-length personal narrative. This is much like the 6th grade unit called "Slice of Life," but it adds more thematic expectations and adds intentional manipulation of time (among other more advanced expectations). GRADING RUBRIC
November / December
Writing Unit: Personal Narrative-Memoir.
Vocabulary study of Greek and Latin Roots, Basic prefixes
January
Reading Unit: Non-fiction. The big push in this unit is evaluating evidence for validity and relevance, across multiple sources.
Vocabulary study of Greek and Latin Roots.
February
Complex and Compound Sentence structure practice,
March
Moral Courage Essay. MLA Works cited, Writing in multiple narrative perspectives, (1st, 2nd, 3rd) Poetry Unit using Explication and Interpretation, Recognizing sentence structure
April
Poetry Writing, CMAS, Reading: Fiction / Film / Cartoon study, Recognizing sentence structure
Grade 8 Reading Dispositions
A big part of a grade 8 ELA teacher's job is to affect a student's ATTITUDE or DISPOSITION, about reading, so, we work on these areas through various assignments.
Disposition #1. Readers dedicate substantial time for reading both inside and outside of school.
#2. self-select materials and feel confident about how their selections support and extend their interests, needs, and skills; develop reading plans, anticipating what to read next, knowing why
#3. refine preferences for genres, authors, and topics, challenging self with a wide range of reading experiences including unfamiliar genres, authors, and topics as well as increasingly sophisticated text structures and craft
#4. share books and reading preferences with other readers and enjoy talking about their individual and collective reading experiences.
#5. Critical readers are open to being changed by reading, including attitudes toward self and others, as well as beliefs about scientific, historical, technical, and/or cultural issues.
#6. Critical readers do not simply reject a text because an author's ideas are disagreeable; they work to tolerate and clarify confusions, letting texts influence thinking. (Reetz emphasizes this one.)
