8TH GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS
Class Introduction:
I am so excited for this year! Many changes are underfoot, and I promise to do all I can to prepare my students for high school and beyond. In keeping with the Common Core State Standards, my Language Arts classes will focus on Reading Literature, Reading Informational Text, Writing, Speaking & Listening, and Language. We will be utilizing our anthology and various novels throughout the year to delve into the richness of both classic and current literature. In that much of the reading we all do in our careers and in life revolves around informational text, I will be engaging students in how to read and therefore better comprehend various types of expository and persuasive writings. This includes using such publications as ASD's 8th grade science and social studies textbooks, newspaper articles, autobiographies, and biographies. We will compose four types of essays this year: narratives, persuasive arguments, descriptions, and expository compositions. For each of these, The Six Traits of Writing will be utilized. We will also target how to write well-thought-out, well-written responses to particular readings. Our focus in these instances will be to prove our answers based on evidence that stems directly from the text we read. Varying types of discussions will take place daily. Students will have numerous opportunities to share their thoughts as well as to become active listeners as others share theirs. Writing well is an absolute in our world. Though there are times and places for the language of text messaging, our focal point will be on correctly using the English language by way of grammar, punctuation, and capitalization.