Curriculum Overview

Month of August and September

Reading:

We will be reading and studying three short stories from our Collections anthology focusing on the theme of "Conquering Fear". While reading these texts, we will analyze character traits, make inferences from context clues, describe plot elements, analyze point of view, cite textual evidence, and explore figurative language. Our culmination project for this unit will be a narrative essay written from the perspective of a minor character. Students' story will include an exposition, rising events, climax, a falling action, and a closing resolution from the new character’s perspective.

Writing: Students will write about how past achievements and experiences shape who they are today and begin to develop near future goals. Students will be discussing these experiences and goals in a two paragraph short essay. Topic sentences and concluding statements with supporting details will be reviewed.

Social Studies: Our first chapter in Social Studies will cover the findings of early people and ways in which these people adapted to a variety of environments. In addition, we will analyze primary sources and read maps from our text book to better understand what life was like for early human communities.