Back to School Night

In Discovery English class here at Clarke, we often benefit from technology by ...

  • using quizlet.com to study from or create and use flashcards to learn vocabulary

  • using quia.com to take vocabulary and grammar quizzes and to do writing activities.

  • See a page discussing the usefulness of these sites here.

In terms of Curriculum...

  • We often write a "summer poem." Here's a link for this.

  • We sometimes do a unit on nature writing which we will begin in October.

  • In late winter we will prepare for the English Language Arts MCAS, which involves practicing for the open-response essays and multiple choice questions. (Preparing for the MCAS is, in many ways, something ongoing anyway anyday, since the test involves reading and writing.)

  • We will be engaged in units on grammar involving phrase and clause patterns.

  • Other units in the past have been: poetry, selected fairy tales, and the musical CATS.

  • Texts we read in 8th grade English include many of these modern classics of fiction:

    • the 8th grade usual student favorite: S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders,

    • a choice read during our theme unit, such as Speak, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, or A Wizard of Earthsea

    • John Steinbeck's ever-satisfying Of Mice and Men,

    • the intimate and magnificent The Diary of Anne Frank. We will read in this before we visit The Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

    • Harper Lee's always great To Kill a Mockingbird,

    • an introduction to Shakespeare with the dazzling A Midsummer Night's Dream

  • Thornton Wilder's classic play Our Town,

  • George Orwell's allegorical fable about Russian communism, Animal Farm, (not any more)

  • Lorraine Hansberry's vigorous, amusing, and memorable play A Raisin in the Sun,

  • selections from our reading Anthology: The Language of Literature, and

  • other handouts, poems, song lyrics, and nonfiction articles.

  • We will read as many of these texts as possible in the time we have, while responding to other directives, developments, and initiatives.

Feel free to keep connected and email me at jchamberlain@lexingtonma.org

-- Mr. John Chamberlain