Welcome to 8th Grade ELA!
OVERVIEW:
This year in language arts, we will be continuing with the SpringBoard curriculum. Our theme this year is "Challenge." As we know today's kids face many challenges, and in my classroom students will be challenged to not just share their opinion but back it up, as well. We will be doing a lot of writing centered around the art of persuasion, as well as some "old school" grammar.
For books, we will read at least three novels as a class. The first one is Heroes by Robert Cormier and takes place in Massachusetts a couple of years after the end of WWII. All the work around this novel will be asking the students to think about what the word hero means to them and see if that holds true after we're done reading the book. Also we'll talk about whether things are really black and white in our society.
Our second book is The Giver by Lois Lowry. During this unit, we will be looking at utopian societies and discussing whether there could be a perfect world.
The third novel we read is The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen. It tells the story of a girl's survival in the concentration camps of WWII. In this unit, students will be discussing real life challenges. We will look at a variety of challenges during this unit. Students will be identifying what their challenges are and how they will overcome them.
GRADING:
In terms of grading, in ELA we have four separate categories of work. Tests/Projects/Major Essays are worth 40% of the overall trimester average. Classwork is 30%, Participation is 20%, and Homework (which I try not to give) is 10%.
HOMEWORK:
It is my belief that outside of the school day students and their families have a lot going on, so I usually don't "assign" homework. Instead I offer ample class time to complete each assignment. Students can choose to work on assignments at home, if they like to, but some students will create homework for themselves by not using class time productively.
LATE POLICY:
A letter grade (8 points) is deducted for each day a student's work is late. If a student is absent on the day an assignment is due, it is expected to be turned in upon the student's return to school.
ABSENCES:
Students get two days for each day absent to make up any missed work. Students are expected to check in with their teachers to see what was missed and what has to be made up. If your child has been absent, there should be some homework coming home.
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