What's in a name?

Those of you who have had students move through the middle school in the past several years may have noticed the seemingly endless changing of the reading and writing class formats and contents.  For many years the middle school had separate reading and writing courses to meet the needs of our students.  When the Common Core Standards were introduced and adopted, the courses changed focus as well as names - Reading/Writing-Literature (where students focused on reading works of fiction and the writing was closely related to those works) and Reading/Writing - Informational (where students focused on reading works of non-fiction and focused more on argumentative and informational writing).  Now that we have a new master schedule we also have a new course.  This year we have fused the Literature and Informational courses into one 80-minute course called English Language Arts or ELA.  And to be honest - I hope this will be the last change for quite a while...

Here is the official course description..

English Language Arts (ELA) in eighth grade calls for students to read high quality, complex informational text and great works of literature. The study of literature in ELA 8 is organized around the study of literary elements, including character, setting, point of view, and plot. Students will learn to cite textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis or critique.  They will become increasingly adept at reading closely to uncover evidence to use in their own writing. Eighth grade ELA students read a variety of genres and text types, including nonfiction books and articles, novels, poetry and drama, and classic literature such as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  Eighth graders also write with increasing sophistication in several modes, including narrative, informational, and argumentative, with a focus on organizing information and concepts into broader categories, as well as using varied transitions to clarify relationships among ideas. Students continue to develop a rich vocabulary of academic words, which they use to speak and write with more precision in preparation for success in college and careers.

The units your child will be working through this year are all based around a large thematic question or idea.  All the reading and writing will connect to these ideas.

Unit 1- Who do you think you are?
Unit 2 - Influences and Choices
Unit 3 - Looking Back on America
Unit 4 - The Civil War Research Paper
Unit 5 - The Non-fiction Book Unit
Unit 6 - Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

Various works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and articles will be used and grammar content will be infused with the writing pieces that accompany each unit.

Hope this helps to give a little focus to what your child will be learning in ELA this school year.  Keep reading for posts that are more specific to each unit and the activities within.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please drop me an email or give me a call!