Pacing for Middle School ELA

Pacing for Middle School ELA

6th Grade / 7th Grade / 8th Grade
Unit 1 (Aug-Oct)* / Short Story (oral tradition & storytelling) / Short Story / Short Story (with paired informative/ technical pieces)
Unit 2 (Nov-Dec)* / Nonfiction (advertising & others)
Writing: Personal Narrative / Nonfiction (Biography/ Autobiography [Nov/Dec] & Informative, Persuasive essays & speeches, Technical [Dec/Jan]) / Novel (with related informative/ technical pieces)
Midterm Exam (January) / Short Story, Oral Tradition, Advertising, other Nonfiction / Biography/ Autobiography, Short Story / Short Story, Novel, Nonfiction
Unit 3 (Jan-Feb)* / Research (float)
Writing: Informative / Poetry / Poetry
Unit 4 (Mar-Apr)* / Poetry / Research (float) / Research (float)
Unit 5 (May-June)* / Novel
Writing: Persuasion / Novel / Drama
Final Exam (May) / Poetry, Novel / Poetry, Novel, Nonfiction / Poetry, Drama

* Units can be blended or shifted within the semester.

Float = this unit can be shifted as needed within the second marking period.

See page two for explanations and notes.
Other Notes:

1. Non-negotiable as identified by the state and district administrators: We will have district common assessments. It was the decision of several committees to only have a midterm and final rather than end of unit district wide common assessments.
2. All decisions were made with the team that was present during the first curriculum development meetings in April 2008, content chair feedback, and in agreement with what the committee that met on the February 4th PD day had suggested. Please provide any feedback to your teammates so we can revise this based on your feedback.
3. Within the semester, a teacher may combine, blend or switch around the units as needed to meet the needs of the school and availability of resources.
4. 7th grade Nonfiction – only the items that should be completed within December will be on the Midterm Exam. The remainder of the nonfiction unit will not be assessed in a district wide format until the Final Exam.
5. The Novel units will be assessed on the Final Exam in a limited and reasonable way. There will be no need to be finished a novel before taking the Final Exam. Much of what will be assessed will be a continuation of the strategies that should have been learned during the Short Story unit that are also used when reading a novel.
6. We will have to let students know that the final exam is not the end of the school year. You can give the final as late as you wish in May. Just plan enough time to grade them and have the results available in the first week of June.
7. I wish the exams were ready now so you can plan your lessons to help students reach the expectations. Even though they are required, we will consider them as pilot questions this year (2008-2009). We will revise the questions in future years as needed to give us useful and more accurate data. Otherwise, here is my current thought on the process for exam development:
8. The Curriculum Committee team members will select and type up the Midterm exam and produce an answer key with rubrics or other resources as needed. Feedback on the exam can be given through November. (Oct-Nov 2008)
9. The Midterm Exam will be given sometime in January. Expected amount of time for the exam is approximately three days (as identified by the content chairs). We will try to limit its size as much as possible.
10. We will analyze the results district wide on the March PD day or as a small group. Building wide analysis of the data should happen in February during department or PLC meetings.
11. The process will repeat for the final which will be developed in March. (March 2009)
12. The final will be given in May and analyzed in June or the following Fall. (May-June 2009 or Fall 2009)
13. The Midterm and Final are the district wide common assessments. There is still an expectation that within your building that you have building wide common assessments for each unit. It may be one of the transfer tasks listed in the unit or other items designed by your grade level team that measures transfer of skills. Use whatever gives you information that will help you to improve instruction for all students in your building. If someone were to ask, “How do you know your students are doing well,” you should be able to show them recent scores on building wide grade level common assessments.
14. You still have the freedom to select your own reading pieces. All common assessments should be generic and focus on the strategies for reading.
15. The units being designed are models of a possible way to teach the concepts, help students to succeed on the Midterm and Final, and provide support to new teachers. They will be continually improved and tested through the years, and I expect slight changes or additions to be made to them each summer. Any commonly designed lessons will be submitted for possible inclusion on future versions.