Language Arts

Students begin with narrative writing to quickly boost their writing production, to learn the foundational skill of focus, and to become comfortable with key classroom habits and routines they will use all year. Students then apply their new observational focus to some lively readings from Roald Dahl’s memoir “Boy” and learn how to work closely with textual evidence. 

Students read like an investigator to embark on a multi-genre study into the mesmerizing world of scientific and investigative sleuthing. At the end of the unit, students write an essay explaining which trait is most useful to problem-solving investigators. 

The Aztecs used it as currency. Robert Falcon Scott took it to the Antarctic. The Nazis made it into a bomb designed to kill Churchill. The 3,700-year-long history of chocolate is full of twists and turns, making it a rich and rewarding research topic. In this unit, students explore primary documents and conduct independent research to better understand the strange and wonderful range of roles that chocolate has played for centuries around the world. 

Greek myths help us understand not only ancient Greek culture but also the world around us and our role in it. Drawing on the routines and skills established in previous units, these lessons ask students to move from considering the state of a single person—themselves or a character—to contemplating broader questions concerning the role people play in the world and the communities they inhabit within it. 

The borderlands between the United States and Mexico are the place of legends, both true and fictional. Summer of the Mariposas, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall, plants a retelling of the Odyssey into this setting, launching five sisters on an adventure into a world of heroes and evil-doers derived from Aztec myths and Latino legends. At the same time, the journey helps the sisters reconcile the dissolution of their parents’ marriage and find a new strength in their identity as sisters, daughters and their connection to an Aztec lineage. In this unit, students consider how McCall uses the structure of the hero’s journey to create a vibrant story of adventure, and how she adapts the tale to celebrate girl power, her Latino heritage, and a larger definition of family. Students also have the opportunity to compare these girls’ fictional journey into Mexico to a description of one boy’s true journey into the United States. 

Learn how to tell the difference among primary, secondary, and tertiary sources; determine if a given source is reliable; and understand the ethical uses of information. Students construct their own research questions and explore the internet for answers. They take on the role of a passenger from the Titanic’s manifest and consider gender and class issues as they research and write narrative accounts from the point of view of their passengers.