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After reading several nonfiction articles about events that inspired Harper Lee, the 8th grade take part in Socratic Seminar. Students come to class with original, high-level questions about the events and articles. While half the class participate in an in-depth discussion, the other half observe and assess those discussing.
While reading To Kill a Mockingbird, 8th grade students collaborate on an activity aimed to help them understand Atticus Finch's words: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." Students are given a scenario that forces them to deal with the same issues and challenges a destitute person faces in contemporary society.
As a culminating project for our Communication and Presentation unit in 7th grade, students presented their 'Bucket List Presentation.' Students set a lifelong goal, conducted research, and prepared a presentation on how they were going to accomplish this goal.
One of the concluding activities for the novel, A Long Walk to Water, is speed discussions. Students discuss high-level questions with a rotating partner. They jot down highlights, insights, or intriguing aspects of their discussions before rotating to a new partner and high-level question.
After the 8th Grade has been introduced to Shakespeare, analyzed sonnets, and written their own original sonnet, the class begins reading Romeo and Juliet. Using their knowledge of Shakespeare's language and the sonnet form, students try to unscramble the opening prologue of the play, which is itself, a sonnet.
As part of the 6th Grade unit on 'Perspective,' students wrote argumentative papers on a topic of their choosing. Here students are collaboratively working, while helping their peers with the writing process.
While reading Lord of the Flies, students collaboratively work to find significant quotes about the fear experienced by the characters of the novel. In doing so, students make connections to one of the unit's guiding questions: 'What makes good people do bad things?'
While reading Lord of the Flies, students collaboratively work to find significant quotes about the fear experienced by the characters of the novel. In doing so, students make connections to one of the unit's guiding questions: 'What makes good people do bad things?'
As part of the 8th grades Justice unit, in order to gain a deeper understanding of experiences presented by the author, Harper Lee, it is necessary to gain some understanding of the challenges and frustrations presented by poverty. Students are given a situation that forces them to deal with the same issues a destitute person faces in contemporary society. In small groups, students device a plan on how to survive a difficult scenario of someone living at the poverty level.
As a culminating project for the 7th grade speech unit students create a presentation based on an item on their 'bucket lists.' Students create a list of goals or activities that they want to accomplish, conduct research on the topic, and create a dynamic presentation about their chosen topic.
In their speech unit, the 7th grade are learning about rhetorical appeals and devices. As a small project, students analyzed some of the best speeches of the last century, found most effective examples of rhetorical devices, and presented them to their classmates.
The 8th grade conducted their first Socratic Seminar of the year. While reading the novel, Lord of the Flies, students concern themselves with whether mankind is essentially good or evil. The class examine several famous quotes on the issue, prepare high level questions for discussion, and participate in a spirited debate.
In the 6th grade Perspectives Unit students create communication boards and attempt to communicate with one another, silently. In doing this, students understand the perspective of a character in the novel Rules.
Before the 8th grade begins To Kill a Mockingbird, students read about historic events that inspired the novel and conduct a Socratic Seminar on the social issues surrounding those events.
In 8th grade, as we begin our unit on Justice, students learn about MLK's seminal work, "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Here students are leaning about the historical context of the letter and begin a close read of the document.
As part of our Speech/Presentation unit in 7th grade we analyze a number of speeches from African American figures, most notably, Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Students conduct a close reading of the famous speech and annotate for rhetorical devices.
In a culminating project for William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the 8th grade students prepared skits that put characters on trial, created prologues and epilogues for the novel, and scripted debates on whether mankind is predominantly good or evil.
In our Perspectives unit for 6th grade, students create their own communication sheets which they use to nonverbally communicate with their friends. In this activity students consider the perspective of people with disabilities and a character in our novel, Rules.
Understanding and recognizing theme is an important skill throughout the year in Language and Literature class. The Junior High hone this skill by discussing possible themes of various works, in a collaborative game.
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