What I Teach

8th Grade Reading Writing Workshop

This course offers additional support to students who may struggle with grade level reading comprehension or writing basics. Thoughout the year, lessons/units will focus on: 

• Beginning of the year

  • Learning style, vocabulary, and writing inventories 

    • Allows students to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and helps to create individualized instruction throughout the year.  

•  Fiction Reading Skills (Fall/Winter)

  • Notice and Note Sign-posts Fiction

    • A set of reading skills used to better understand a work of fiction by annotating, asking questions, and analyzing author's choices.

    • Close Reading: "The Beans and Rice Chronicals of Isaiah Dunn" by Kelly J. Baptsist

• Nonfictions Reading Skills (Winter)

  • Notice and Note Sign-posts Nonfiction

    • A set of reading skills used to better understand a work of nonfiction by annotating, asking questions, analyzing author's choices, and evaluating argumentative/research techniques. 

    • Close Reading: Various news articles and/or scientific/historical source material. Students choose topics to read about. 

• Whole class Book Study (Spring)

  • Novel: Fire From the Rock by Sharon M. Draper

  • Historical Connection: 1950s - Civil Rights Movement and School Integration

• PSSA Prep (Spring)

  • Practice passages with PSSA style multiple choice questions

  • Practice Constructed Responses

• Year round practices

  • Indpendent Reading

    • Every student is expected to have, and keep up with, an independent reading book. 

  • Vocabulary Instruction

    • Sight words, roots and stems, morphology

  • Grammar/Writing Instructuion

    • Comma usage, sentence variety, etc.

    • Structure of a TDA