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