Language Arts Program Students will read and write everyday. They will learn to listen to each other and share their ideas about novels, poems, and non-fiction reading with others.
READING Students will participate in individual silent reading time, small guided reading groups and whole class mini-lessons and discussions. The guided reading groups are dynamic (students are never stuck in a certain reading group all year long). Each reading unit is taught as a genre study, so even though students may be reading different novels the novels are from the same genre. This allows the whole class to come together to discuss the commonalities of the genre as well as focus on specific literary devices. Our curriculum this year will include the Mystery, Poetry and Historical Fiction genres. The teaching philosophy that will guide the class is outlined in "Guiding Adolescent Readers to Success" written by Julie Donnelly and myself and published by Shell Education.
WORD STUDY/ VOCABULARY Students will also study words chosen by Clague students. In order to prepare them for the future of standardized testing, the vocabulary tests are written much like the SAT. Students will learn to use these challenging words, not just memorize the definitions. The "word wall words" will form a large piece of the curriculum. Students will be studying words almost every day throughout the school year.
WRITING Students will participate in several writing units. They will write a personal narrative, a persuasive essay and a research paper. They will also compose various pieces in response to the guided reading books. Writing is taught in a workshop format which includes mini-lessons followed by time for students to practice and write in class. We will also be including extensive free-writing time so that students will be able to increase their writing fluency. In response to the amount of high stakes, prescriptive writing that is being required of students at an every younger age, I will be making sure we will be including fun and creative writing experiences.
GRAMMAR Grammar is taught in response to student need. Because I meet with my students during the writing process, I can assess the areas they need to work on and address their concerns in the moment or during a mini-lesson the next class period. Many grammar based mini-lessons occur during the writing workshop. We will also be covering phrases and clauses this year.
If you have any questions regarding your ELA class, please e-mail me at [email protected].