Hicks' ELA Explorers

Dear Students and Parents,

Please allow me to take a moment to welcome you to Griffin Middle School for an exciting and eventful eighth grade year. My name is Mrs. Loraine Hicks, and I will be your child’s Language Arts teacher. I received my teaching diploma in English and History from the Mico Teachers' College University in Kingston, Jamaica, my undergraduate degree in Middle School Education with a major in English from Western Carolina University and my Master’s Degree in Literacy and Learning in the Content Areas from Walden University. I am currently completing my Doctoral Degree in Reading & Literacy Leadership from Walden University. This will be my twentieth year teaching Language Arts, and the excitement and anticipation I feel with beginning a new school year never seems to lessen.

I welcome and encourage open communication amongst the parent, student and teacher. Please don’t hesitate to email me with questions or concerns relating to your child or my class. You can email me at loraine.hicks@cobbk12.org. I am looking forward to working with your child and you throughout the upcoming school year.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Loraine Hicks

ELA Course Description

Instruction in grade 8 addresses students’ increasing maturity and the growing sophistication of their abilities, culminating in the development by the end of grade 8 of students who are ready to succeed in high school. Students should be able to comprehend more challenging books and articles, basing all of their analyses, inferences, and claims on explicit and relevant evidence from the texts. Additionally, students in grade 8 are required to write textual based essays in which they articulate a central idea. By the end of eighth grade, they are ready to study and write about literature with complex and challenging themes. In the eighth grade, students will write and read with a more critical eye than they have in the past years. Strategic use of films and videos will also enrich cultural and media literacy. Students will also engage in studies fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and drama.