8th Grade Language Arts Syllabus
Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Rapien, and Mrs. Graham
Liberty Pines Academy
2015 - 16
Welcome to 8th grade! You’ve got two years of middle school behind you and only one more left until high school – so let’s make this one count. Responsibility is key – you are in charge of your own destiny! I’m so glad to be teaching you and I look forward to another fantastic year filled with academic and social growth.
Course description: The purpose of this course is to continue the development towards mastery of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and vocabulary skills and processes with the ultimate goal of attaining college and career readiness.
· Students will be able to interpret literature and cite specific textual evidence that most strongly supports their analysis of the text.
· Students will be able to determine central ideas and themes in literature and understand their development and relationship with characters, setting, and plot.
· Students will be able to analyze how dialogue and story incidents propel the action and reveal aspects of the characters in the text.
· Students will use strategies to determine and interpret words and phrases as they are used in the text, acquiring new vocabulary, through utilization of context clues, multiple meanings, meaningful word parts, and reference materials when applicable.
· Students will demonstrate understanding of figurative language and word relationships, and demonstrate independence in gathering new vocabulary.
· Students will analyze text structure, point of view, and author’s purpose
· Students will be able to read and understand complex texts independently and proficiently.
· Students will be able to write with persuasive, explanatory, informative, entertaining, and narrative purposes, utilizing the writing process and all of its elements.
· Students will be able to conduct research projects while assessing credibility of sources and drawing from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection and research.
· Students will practice and work towards mastery of the conventions of standard English Grammar and Usage when writing or speaking, including proper usage of capitalization, punctuation and spelling.
Quarter 1Anchor Text – “My Favorite Chaperone” / Quarter 2
Anchor Text – “The Tell Tale Heart” / Quarter 3
Anchor Text – “from “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”
from “Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad” / Quarter 4
Anchor Text – “The Diary of Anne Frank”
• Citing text evidence
• Providing a summary of the theme/central idea in both written and oral form.
• Analyzing the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text. Understanding how ideas influence individuals and events; understand how individuals influence ideas and events.
• Discussing how the point of view affects a reader’s understand of a text.
• Analyzing the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.
• Recognizing sentence elements (parts of speech, clauses, coordinating and subordinating conjunctions).
• Understanding active and passive voice and use verbs to create mood in writing.
• Writing organized informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information. / • Citing and explaining text evidence to support analysis of what is written explicitly, as well as making inferences from the text
• Determining theme or central idea of a text and analyze how it develops over the course of the text.
• Analyzing how particular elements of a story or drama interact (how setting shapes the characters or plot).
• Analyzing how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.
• Determining an author’s point of view or purpose in a text. Analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.
•Tracing and evaluaing the argument and specific claims in a text. Assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.
• Writing arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
• Understanding and using verbals (gerunds, participles, and infinitives. / • Cite and explain text evidence to support analysis of what is written explicitly, as well as making inferences from the text.
• Determining theme or central idea of a text and analyze how it develops over the course of the text.
• Analyzing the structure an author uses to organize a text. Understand how major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.
• Determining an author’s point of view or purpose in a text. Analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.
• Writing organized informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information.
• Writing arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
• Using punctuation to indicate a pause or break, use an ellipses to indicate an omission. / • Reading and comprehending literature, both fiction and non-fiction, in the grades 6-9 text complexity band proficiently. Determining a theme or central/main idea, identify details that support the central/main idea, summarize the text, and distinguish opinions and judgements.
• Producing clear and coherent writing where development, organization and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.
• Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions.
•Demonstrating command of the conventions of Standard English when writing or speaking.
• Demonstrating command of the conventions of the Standard English grammar and usage when writing and speaking.
• Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibility from a range of strategies.
Class Expectations:
- Students will come to class on time and prepared to learn, bringing the required materials. These materials include – LA Text Book, LA Binder, pens and pencils, highlighter and any additional items provided in class. More information below.
- Students will complete all assignments and bring them to class.
- Students will be responsible for checking Edmodo for communication, assignments, dues dates etc.
- Students will ask questions when in doubt.
- Students will practice the three R’s – be respectful, responsible and ready to learn.
- Students will follow all classroom and St. Johns County rules, policies and procedures.
Textbooks:
Standard and Advanced: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Florida Collections 8
For online access: Go to myhrw.com
Username: 55+S+student number
Password: first initial + last initial + birthday (MMDDYYYY)
Novels: Animal Farm, The Book Thief (advanced), TBA
Required materials:
Students are required to bring the following materials to class on a daily basis: textbook(s), a binder with dividers, pen, pencils, high lighter, college ruled notebook paper and a book to read for pleasure. Occasionally additional items may be required with plenty of notice given.
Grading Policy:
A 90-100% Summative Assessments 80 % of final grade
B 80-89% Summative assignments
C 70-79% include, but are not limited to:
D 60-69% Tests, In-class Essays, Projects, and Semester Exams
F 59% and below
Classwork – 20% of final grade
Classswork assignments include, but are not limited to,
daily grades and quizzes.
Summative assessments – Each quarter students can expect to have a minimum of 4 summative assessments, given approximately every other week. These assessments should generally consist of 3 tests and 1 essay/project in a quarter. A portion of each test will include a cold read to assess the standards focused upon in that quarter. (see pacing guide)
Formative assessments in the form of homework, better described as “practice”, will be assigned regularly and should be finished on time, as one cannot be successful and master the required standards without having completed assignments. Through formative assessment we can better shape teaching to meet student needs.
Late Assignments will be accepted with 10 points deducted for each late day. Zeros will be given when no evidence of work is shown or no attempt made to complete any part of an assignment.
Sixth through Eighth Grade Recovery Policy
· Students scoring 69% or below will be eligible for retesting.
· Students are responsible for requesting a retest by the means of a completed retesting contract.
· All retesting must occur in the quarter in which the original assessment was given.
· Students must complete a review of the material before retest.
· The highest grade entered in the grade book will be a 70% after retesting.
· Students can only retest once. Only specific assessments qualify for retesting.
Contact/Communication:
I can best be reached via e-mail at . To see test dates, homework and project due dates and any other pertinent information please refer to my class website (when it goes live) www-lpa.stjohns.k12.fl.us/teachers/haled/. I will also be using Edmodo as well. Each class will receive a “group code” they can use to join in to see announcements and assignments.
Grades are usually promptly posted onto Home Access and I encourage the students to utilize this access regularly so they can self-monitor their progress. Feel free to send notes in the student planner as well. I am looking forward to a wonderful year! Donna Hale
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I have read and understand the policies and procedures of Mrs. Hale’s classroom.
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