Class Information

A Brief Overview: Eighth grade is a transition year. Students will spend this year preparing for high school, practicing independence, and pushing themselves to be more flexible and creative critical learners and thinkers. My expectations are that students will be able to read complex texts proficiently and independently, participate productively and appropriately in class, write and revise frequently and in-depth, and push themselves to improve continuously.

Necessary Materials

These must come to class every day:

A folder or section in a binder
A pen or pencil
Post-it/Sticky Notes
A spiral notebook or loose-leaf paper

Assessment

As of the beginning of the year, the grading scale for this class is as follows:

40% - Projects and long-term assignments. There will be at least one per term.
30% - Participation, which encompasses attendance, class discussion, preparedness, attentiveness and more.
20% - Journal work/in-class writing, responses, and reflections.
10% - Homework and quizzes.

Essential Questions for 8th Grade

Throughout the year, we will be discussing, questioning, and working to answer the following questions:

How does an individual forge their identity despite societal pressures? / How do we establish identities in a society despite societal pressures?
How can empathy for others help us to improve our relationships and interactions?
What is an individual's responsibility to act on behalf of others?
Why do we read, write, listen, and speak?
How can I become a more critical thinker, and ask deeper questions about texts?
As I become a more critical thinker, how can I clearly communicate my thinking when speaking and writing?
How can I become more empathetic in my interactions with others?
How can I deepen my perspective by listening thoughtfully to the perspective of others?
How can I articulate my thinking in ways that an outside listener/reader can understand?
How can I use speaking and writing as tools that have an impact on myself and others?

Extra Help/Extra Credit

I am available to meet for extra help before school, after school, and/or during 4th block. Which days I will have club duties this year have not yet been determined, so for the time being, please schedule meetings with me in advance. I will be available for "drop in" at least two days a week, and will update my schedule here when those hours are determined.

Extra credit will be available for students who are willing to put in significant extra effort and who meet with me to get approval. Extra credit is not a substitute for regular classwork; if you are consistently negligent of your regular deadlines, you are unlikely to get approval for extra credit. Possible extra credit options include:

Reading outside material (novels, non-fiction, etc.) and writing an essay that ties that material to our work in class and our essential questions for the year
Doing community service and/or volunteer work and creating a written reflection and/or presentation about that experience, again looking back to the 8th grade English essential questions
Creating a secondary cummulative project for a unit this year, pulling in outside materials such as related books, plays, articles, and/or documentaries

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