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Middle School Middle School Language Arts I

Suggested Prerequisites

N/A

Description

Ready to step up your reading and writing skills? In this course, you will examine the past and the present when you study classical and contemporary texts and examine the lasting influence of each. You will acquire a foundational understanding of the reading, writing, language, and speaking/listening skills necessary for success in college, career, and beyond. Become a critical reader and thinker as you dive into rigorous and engaging literary and informational texts by examining rhetoric and purpose through close readings, interactive practice, and formal assessments. This course will give you the skills to become an effective writer of narrative, informational, and argumentative pieces through the repeated practice of planning, drafting, revising, and editing your written work.

Module One: Getting the Big Picture

-Reading comprehension/informational & expository writing/argumentative writings

-Identifying theme

-Recognizing plot pattern

-Comparing and contrasting mediums

-Using context clues

-Developing thesaurus and dictionary skills

-Identifying implicit and explicit meaning

-Finding the central idea

-Writing an effective summary

-Analyzing plot and theme in narrative poetry


Module Two: Relaying Information

-Reading informational texts

-Researching and organizing information

-Avoiding plagiarism through paraphrasing and citing sources

-Expository (Informational) essay writing

-Using formal language in writing

-Using transitions and signal phrases

-Correcting dangling modifiers

-Maintaining formal style

-Revising and editing

-Selecting effective digital media


Module Three: The Power of Language

-Determining relevant information

-Identifying organizational patterns in texts

-Identifying figurative language

-Etymology

-Letter writing

-Analyzing tone and purpose in a text

-Understanding rhetorical appeals

-Analyzing universal themes across time 

-Writing a personal biography and autobiography 

-Assessing digital media


Module Four: Artful Argumentation

-Identifying elements of argumentative writing

-Recognizing logical fallacies

-Identifying elements of an effective claim

-Effectively supporting a claim

-Identifying reliable sources

-Planning, organizing, and writing an argumentative essay

-Using elaborative details

-Revising and editing

-Correcting errors with hyphens

-Analyzing the development of a claim in literature


Module Five: A Novel Approach

-Understanding how figurative language affects meaning and tone

-Reading and analyzing poetry

-Interpreting figurative language

-Finding literal and figurative meaning

-Using context to determine connotative meanings

-Analyzing and identifying literary elements

-Using pronouns correctly

-Identifying verbals

-Creating a commercial with diverse media formats

-Creating a sonnet or villanelle


Module Six: Telling Tales

-Recognizing point of view

-Using colons

-Varying sentence structure

-Identifying the narrator

-Planning, organizing, and writing a narrative

-Using narrative techniques

-Discovering a writer’s craft

-Revising and editing for impact

-Reflecting on the writing process 

-Writing a screenplay based on a narrative poem