English Updates
7th Grade
Just before winter break, 7th graders wrapped up their reading of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. This classic coming-of-age novel is a huge hit with students. Many even enjoy sharing their excitement with their parents, who also read the novel as young teens.
During this unit, students practice discussion skills, study story elements, analyze themes, summarize, and use text evidence to support their thinking. As a bonus activity, students learn a little about how media techniques (such as camera angles and lighting) affect a story, and then they watch The Outsiders movie, analyzing the director’s choices.
In our few school days in 2024, we have begun our next novel unit, a reading of Nothing But the Truth by Avi. This book is written as a documentary novel, and it tells the story of a teacher and student in conflict, each with their own version of the “truth.” Throughout this unit, students will gather evidence to determine who is right and wrong, and where the truth actually lies. Then, they’ll put on their lawyer hats and argue on behalf of one character. I anticipate some heated debates!
8th Grade
Eighth graders wrapped up an argument essay debating whether schools should have a later school start time or an earlier school start time. They pulled in evidence from interviews and articles about the topic and picked a side to focus their essays.
When students came back from break, we jumped right into a group CSI project. The students were handed various documents like evidence reports, toxicology reports, coroner’s reports, witness statements, and suspect interviews (all fiction, of course!). With all of this evidence, the students were to come up with a logical narrative of what happened the night of the crime and use evidence to back up their story. This is a review of the same standards that were used in their argument essay. They got a taste of what real detectives and investigators do every day.
Once this group project is wrapped up, we will dive into an author study on William Shakespeare. Students will explore various plays and analyze different characters throughout this unit.
Middle School Battle of the Books
During January, grades 6-8 kicked off the 11th annual Battle of the Books competition. Students form teams and commit to reading selected books in preparation for quiz bowl-style battles. More than 100 students have joined teams!
In April, all teams will complete a qualifying round, and the top two teams at each grade level will advance to our local competition. At this competition, the six student teams will battle against a staff team for bragging rights. From our local battle, the top two student teams will advance to the highest level, where they will compete against other districts at the AEA Regional Battle, scheduled for May 8 at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center.
High School English
The year is off to a great start in the Central Lee ELA Department. Our English classes are working on core curriculum while learning iPad programs that help prepare them for future endeavors.
English 3 classes are working on a novel unit, while the Honors class is reading a Shakespeare tragedy. The upper level World Literature class has finished several texts with the most recent Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. The Adventures in Reading class has started their Sci/Fi/Fantasy, Historical Fiction, and Romance/Classical book club groups. The Graphic Communications class is learning typography, photo manipulation, and design elements.
This year’s sophomores have had a busy first semester in English II. They started the
school year improving their reading comprehension skills by reading and analyzing several short stories, including Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron, Doris Lessing’s Through the Tunnel, and Edgar Allan Poe’s Masque of the Red Death.
The second unit consisted of writing an argumentative research paper. Skills covered during this unit included supporting a claim with credible evidence, using transition words to link text, and maintaining a formal style and objective tone. Before the holiday break, they read and analyzed John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice & Men, a literary favorite for students and teachers alike.
In addition to refining first-semester skills, students will spend the second semester learning how to critically read nonfiction texts and create a narrative short story. The final unit for English II will be Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird.