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Language Arts - 8 - Parent/Community Course Guide
Adopted by Board of School Directors on February 2023 Grade Levels :
:
All eighth grade English students continue to develop reading, writing, thinking, speaking, and listening skills through the study of various literary forms: short stories, essays, plays, poems, novels, and non-fiction within major thematic units. The course builds on skills learned in seventh grade so that students are prepared to write in the narrative, expository/informational, and persuasive/argumentative modes in paragraphs, multi-paragraph essays, and research papers. To help students understand and use words effectively, the course will follow a systematic approach to grammar study and will examine vocabulary in context of literature. This course will prepare students for the PSSA exams.
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Unit #1 - Short Fiction Unit #2 - Text Structure Unit #3 - Reading Strategies with a Novel Unit #4 - Literary Elements with a Novel Unit #5 - Making Text Connections (Choice Novel) Unit #6 - Vocabulary Unit #7 - Grammar and Usage Unit #8 - Effective Communication Unit #9 - Research Strategies Unit #10 - Narrative Writing Unit #11 - Expository Writing
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MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE:Text: 18 Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe
-"Hop Frog"
-"The Raven"
-"Annabel Lee"
-Read Magazine "The Fall of the House of Usher" play
Non-fiction articles on Poe's life and death
Sherlock Holmes stories:
"The Adventures of the Speckled Band"
"Silver Blaze"
Optional:
- "The Lottery"
- "The Bus Ride"
- "The Last Answer"
- "Fetch"
- "The Stroke of Twelve"
- A&E Poe Biography
- "Hound of the Baskervilles" VHS
- Other stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe such as "Alone" "Dream Within a Dream," and "Conquorer Worm"
ACCEPTANCE AND EQUITY:
Text: Raisin in the Sun Brown Girl Dreaming (excerpts used for extension activities) March: Book One (excerpts used for extension activities)
Optional:
- "I Have a Dream"
- Kids Discover:Civil Rights (magazine)
- Kids Discover:Martin Luther King (magazine)
- Teaching Tolerance Teaching Kit and DVDs
- The Ernest Green Story
- "It Happened Here" article
- Langston Hughes poetry
CONFORMITY & NONCONFORMITY:
Text: The Giver by Lois Lowry
-Lois Lowry Newbery Acceptance Speech
Optional:
- "Harrison Bergeron"
- "The Lottery"
- "Jeremiah's Song"
- "The Pedestrian"
- "Old Glory"
- "The Speeders"
- The Truman Show DVD (excerpts)
INDIVIDUAL VS. SOCIETY:
Text: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
"Nothing Gold Can Stay" and other poems by Robert Frost
The Outsiders DVD
Optional:
- Teacher selected poetry
- Dateline Video segment "Lords of Chaos" from "Schools Under Siege: Stopping the Violence." Dateline. NBC, 25 September 1998.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- TED.com
- AmericanRhetoric.com
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