Throughout the academic year we will be focusing on reading, writing, and speaking. Students will read one main text each quarter.
Quarter One: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhà Lai. This text is told in verse and focuses on the experience of a child refugee fleeing Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon and immigrating to America. We will explore the journey the main character takes while focusing on poetry, writing, and comprehension skills.
Quarter Two: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. This text is told in the form of a play and focuses on comedy and love. We will take on the challenge of reading and acting out Old-English as we discuss word choice, fiction and writing skills, and film to text comparison.
Quarter Three: A Mighty Long Way by Carlotta Walls Lanier and Lisa Frazier. This text is told in the form of a memoir and focuses on the experience of one of the "Little Rock Nine" students during the Civil Rights Movement. We will embark on a journey from the past while making modern day connections with nonfiction text, participate speeches, and practice writing and comprehension skills.
Quarter Four: The Omnivore's Dilemma: Young Readers Edition by Michael Pollan. This text is told in the form of nonfiction and focuses on a journalist and supermarket detective who explores and researches what we eat from fast food and big organic to small farms and old-fashioned hunting and gathering. Throughout this text we will consider the personal and global implications of our food choices, participate in debates and written expression, and maybe even change how and what we eat.
Students will be working towards mastering how to write using ACES throughout all four quarters.
A- Answer the question
C- Cite evidence
E- Explain how the evidence supports the answer
S- Summarize/final statement