Language &

Literature

In sixth grade, Language Arts students have been working on figurative language and analyzing poetry. They studied the poem "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" by Maya Angelou. Seventh grade students also did a Famous Failures project.  Each student researched someone that has an obstacle or failure that they overcame.  It was a part of the learning about growth mindsets and the power of yet.

In seventh grade, students spent quarter 1 working on the collection, Bold Actions.  They focused on main idea and details and story elements including theme.  They  also read Greek myths, including “The Flight Of Icarus”.  The students had to create a comic strip depicting the major events from the story.  At the same time, students began their writing lessons with a review of expository/informative writing, by reviewing the outline and the Introduction paragraph of this type of essay.  For Quarter 2, students will be reading various informative texts that focus on the effects of technology in our society. Students will be creating projects related to this theme, while still focusing on the essential of writing.

Finally, eighth grade students began the year with a unit on Culture and Belonging. They read stories written from the perspective of immigrants to America and then completed a project that allowed them to research their own families’ cultural backgrounds. Next, students launched into a study of the horror genre, reading a short story by Edgar Allen Poe and then writing their own creative spin-off of the story “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Students also focused on the fundamentals of the expository essay. In the second quarter, students will be reading various slave narratives, writing their own autobiographies, analyzing arguments, and working on persuasive writing.