Introduction Welcome to 8th grade Language Arts! I am Ms. Carroll, and I am excited to share my love for literature and language and help you build the skills you will need to successfully navigate our quickly changing world. I love learning new things and want to help nurture that curiosity in all of my students. Outside of school, I enjoying spending time in the great outdoors, camping, hiking, bicycling, gardening (I even spent a year building trails in Montana with AmeriCorps!) My dog, Henry Jones Jr, prefers when we spend our time indoors, lounging on the couch while I play guitar or video games.
I am looking forward to working with each of you this year! You will further develop the concepts you have learned throughout middle school. Below is an overview of the units we will explore this year.
CURRICULUM OVERVIEW: UNIT 1: Suspense
For this unit, students will read various short stories that utilize suspense techniques. We will analyze the techniques an author uses to develop suspense through class discussions, completion of graphic organizers, and a culminating writing project where students write their own suspense narrative. Major Concepts- Tracing the development of plot and themes and analyzing and tracing character development, identifying and analyzing character perspectives.
UNIT 2: Informational Texts Students will read various non-fiction texts relating to the Civil War; and we will read additional informational texts such as articles, biography excerpts, essays, etc. that pertain to current events/student interests. Major Concepts: Determining and tracing the development of central idea, identifying and analyzing the structure of a text, analyzing author's perspective and purpose.
UNIT 3: Argumentative Texts For this unit, we will employ media and written texts to review the major concepts of the unit. We will focus on rhetoric and continue to review the concepts of unit 2. We will also learn to evaluate evidence for validity and effectiveness. Students will complete an argumentative research paper at the end of this unit. Major Concepts- Analyzing author's purpose and text structure, tracing and evaluating claims
UNIT 4: Poetry and Literature We will review the elements of poetry and the literature concepts of unit 1.