TITLE OF COURSE

Eighth Grade English, Eighth Grade Accelerated English

Ms. Wilber’s Planning Hour

10:00-10:55 AM

Teacher Information

Phone: (810) 591-6245

Email: cwilber@carmanainsworth.org

Course Description and Overview of Content

Eighth Grade English Language Arts is an integrated ELA course that develops students’ strengths in reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing as they relate to text.  Eighth Grade Accelerated English students will follow the same curriculum, but will go more in depth and at a faster pace.

During the course, students will increase their abilities to analyze and synthesize information; practice reading strategies to aid in comprehension; and comprehend both narrative and informational text. They will write a narrative as well as several essays.

The course covers such topics as

*literary elements and structures of narrative text

*Greek and Latin root words; context clues

*organizational features of informational text

*reading strategies

*vocabulary-building strategies

*themes in literature

*writing in response to text

*writing an effective essay

*test-taking strategies

*grammar concepts

*introduction to MLA format

*reading for enjoyment

Course Goal/ Intended Outcomes

Eighth Grade English Language Arts

Students will

*use strategies to figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words

*apply reading strategies to further comprehension and fluency

*analyze literary elements of narrative text

*identify themes in literature and make personal connections

*identify the central idea of an informational text

*analyze organizational patterns of informational text

*use reading strategies to improve comprehension and fluency

*use supporting evidence to back up an inference from a given text

*write in response to literature

*develop an enthusiasm for reading and writing

VIRTUAL LEARNING EXPECTATIONS

*Ask as many questions as possible! I am here to help you to be successful!

*Log into your Google Classroom daily. Be sure to interact with the teacher by answering posted questions, asking questions, completing assignments and attending video meets.

*Follow the appropriate dress code during video meetings.

*IMPORTANT: Copying/cheating and pasting answers from the Internet will result in a zero.

Grading Practices and Procedures

*Points are given for each assignment, project, test, etc.

*Late work will be accepted up to one week past the due date for reduced credit.

Absences (upon returning face-to-face)

Absent students will be given the number of days they were absent, plus one additional day to make up work.  Extended absences will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Classroom Rules and Procedures

Our classroom will follow the CA Rocks Expectations, as well as the class norms that each class has created.

 Supplies

Please bring something to take notes with when we have our video meetings.

REMEMBER…

Ask lots of questions! You can email me, call me, or ask questions during our video meets. This is a new way of learning, and we are all getting used to it. I will do everything I can to help you to be successful!

Parents: One of the best things you can do at home to help your child is to encourage and support reading. Please encourage your child to read at home!  Research shows that students who read independently for at least 30 minutes a day score higher on tests and are exposed to two and one-half million words annually! As little as ten minutes a day of free reading time can help to improve your child’s skills. 

Also, please remind your child to log into their Google Classroom every day!

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader!” – W. Fusselman