English 8 Full Year (Three Trimesters) Prerequisites: English 7 or equivalent
With guidance from the teacher, students self-select and read novels at an individualized level and pace in conjunction with full-class readings. Students have regular conferences with the teacher to help monitor progress and comprehension, and they analyze and respond to their literature selections through writing. Full-class readings introduce students to examples of classic science fiction, mystery, satire, and tragedy. Important skills and concepts for the course are taught via mini-lessons. Instruction focuses on supporting students to write well-crafted paragraphs, multi-page expository and persuasive essays, a character sketch, poetry, and several other pieces. The grammar focus for the year includes a review of the parts of speech, comma and colon usage, phrases and clauses, and types of sentence structures, while students advance their vocabulary using Membean, a personalized web-based program. Texts: The Hound of the Baskervilles, Animal Farm, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet The Shield One Trimester (Offered First, Second, and Third Trimester) Prerequisites: Seventh or Eighth Grade Student Creative writing, photography, and artwork form the basis of The Shield, a class designed to teach students the fundamentals of design, layout, formatting, and other essential skills to create a literary publication. Using design software products, students develop the skills of image and text manipulation and content organization. Each year, the class will produce one complete issue of The Shield , the Middle School literary magazine, to share with the University Liggett School community. Enrollment is limited to one trimester per academic year.
39 Middle School
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