English 7

In this course, students will master the Common Core State Standards in reading, writing, listening and speaking, as they interact with a relevant, rigorous, multimedia curriculum that is differentiated to suit their unique needs, interests, and capabilities. Students will study a variety of literary works from various genres, including non-fiction and informative texts, poetry, essays, plays, short stories, and novels. In coordination with core texts, students will complete a variety of writing assignments, including multi-paragraph essays, timed writings, journal entries, blogs/vlogs and poetry. Study of grammatical concepts and proper usage is an integral focus of the class and is taught in conjunction with the writing process.

Throughout the year students will be encouraged, supported and expected to practice responsibility, as well as their autonomy. This means that they will be provided with ample opportunity to exercise the options available to real-world authors and readers. They will begin to make the choices that author's make-deciding how, when, what, and for whom they will write. They will speak like authors, engage in written and oral discussions everyday, in order to confer with their peers and teacher about their opinions, points of confusion and the choices they make.

As your student's ELA teacher this year, I highly recommend that you encourage your child/children to engage in at least 20-minutes of reading for pleasure each day they do not receive explicit homework for this course. In my experience, students tend to commit to independent reading the most when they are free to exercise choice. For some, this will mean whizzing through one graphic novel or comic book after the other and for others this may mean reading a couple of articles on the official ESPN website. I recommend allowing and encouraging students to explore their reading preferences. Their working vocabulary will thank you later!