GRADE EIGHT (MYP YEAR 3)



GRADE EIGHT (MYP YEAR 3)

LANGUAGE A: (ENGLISH) 2010-2011

Introduction

The AISM English curriculum in the Middle School follows the guidelines recommended by the IB Middle-Years-Programme. The learning associated with Grade 8 English leads to a close understanding of the three fundamental concepts of MYP: holistic learning, communication and inter-cultural awareness.

The study of English focuses on two main areas. It provides the students with the communication skills and attitudes necessary for reflection, self expression, social interaction and effective learning of other subjects. It also exposes the students to a variety of forms of expression which fosters intercultural understanding, and deepens the student’s understanding of human nature and values. This in turn, influences the personal, spiritual and moral development of the students, and helps them to understand their place and responsibility in the bigger scheme of things. This aspect is very important in the middle school years when the students are developmentally shifting from concrete to more and more abstract operational stages of their lives.

Aims

To encourage and enable the students to:

• use English competently as a vehicle for thought, creativity, reflection, learning and self-expression.

• use English as tool for personal growth, social interaction and developing relationships.

• gain a deeper understanding of their own and others’ culture, human nature, and life through exposure to a variety of texts.

• develop an understanding of themselves and others.

• read extensively for enjoyment.

• understand how the different genres of literature are structured and the devices that each employs.

• develop a critical approach to literature by understanding authorial techniques and devices.

Objectives

By this end of this academic year, the 8th graders should be able to meet the MYP interim objectives for MYP Year 3:

• appreciate and comment on the language, content, structure, meaning and significance of both familiar and previously unseen age-appropriate oral, written and visual texts.

• understand and apply Language A terminology in context.

• understand many of the effects of the author’s choices on an audience.

• compose pieces that apply age-appropriate literary and/or non-literary features to serve the context and intention

• compare and contrast age-appropriate texts, and connect themes across and within genres.

• begin to express an informed and independent response to literary and non-literary texts.

• create work that employs organization structures and language-specific conventions throughout a variety of text types.

• organize ideas and arguments in a sustained, coherent and logical manner

• employ appropriate critical apparatus.

• use language to narrate, describe, explain, argue, persuade, inform, entertain, express feelings and begin to analyse.

• use language accurately.

• use appropriate and varied register, vocabulary and idiom.

• use correct grammar and syntax.

• use appropriate and varied sentence structure.

• use correct spelling/writing.

How we will address the Areas of Interaction

Approaches to learning

During the course of English learning, students will also learn a wide range of personal and study skills such as note taking, summarizing, effective organization and planning, research skills, technological skills, group work, self reflection and test taking. They are also encouraged to use the dictionary and thesaurus to check their spelling and modify their word choices. Students are also expected to use the Modern Languages Association’s format (MLA) to reference the sources of their information.

Community and Service

Through the texts we will be studying, the students will go beyond the academic study of language and use it to understand how the world works, and to strengthen their sense of belonging to their immediate community and to the wider world. The texts we study in Year 3 allow students ample opportunity to reflect on the significance of the communities to which they associate themselves and their role in contributing to it, but also how their roles as students in our school actively determine what we are as a middle school.

Human Ingenuity

Students will be encouraged to create their own posters, pamphlets, information brochures, stories, plays and poetry throughout the year. They will also encouraged to use technology to expand the possibilities for storytelling and accessing new audiences for their creative activities. As a subject, Language A (English) works closely with IT and Fine Arts whenever it can develop interdisciplinary units such as the Midsummer Night’s Dream character study and the ePortfolio unit.

Environment

Chosen texts will expose the students to environmental issues, so that the students will be encouraged to develop a balanced local and global perspective of the environmental challenges of our time.

Health and Social Education

Activities in the English class will foster group and team work along with independent study. Themes of texts being studied will be used to draw attention to health and social issues. Students will reflect on social ills such as, economic disparity, the causes of crime, stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination. Moral issues will be discussed and students will debate, discuss and reflect to discover their view points.

Processes and Procedures in our English class

Our units are generally divided according to literary genres. However, there are some features of the program that continue throughout the year.

1. Book Presentations: Students take turns (two students per lesson) to introduce and evaluate a book they are currently reading or have just finished. They have three minutes each to do this, and in that time they focus on what the book is about, what they think of it and who might like to read it after them. They may also read a small selection based on the interest value, imagery used or importance in the book, and justify their choice for selecting that piece.

2. Peer Feedback Reading: Students are encouraged to present their works in process to the class in order to receive feedback on their writing. They introduce a technical dilemma they are having in a piece of writing and their classmates make suggestions, give praise, or alert them to potential complications. Through this process, the students gain confidence presenting their ideas and learn to phrase and structure their critical opinions.

3. Students are asked to keep a Writer’s Notebook where they will record their writing ideas. This is more like a writer’s scrapbook where-in anecdotes, snatches of interesting conversation, curious observations, poetry, stories, reflections on their own learning, and stimulus for independent writing pieces. The Writer’s Notebook will be established at the beginning of the academic year and continued throughout its duration. The journal is handed in once a week for my response or queries. Although the journal is not an emotional diary, students are not dissuaded from writing personal thoughts and problems if they so choose. Students are consulted before anything from the journal is shared with other students.

4. Students will be working on their Spelling Daemons a list of words which they pledge to learn to spell. The words come from their own writing, which they had misspelled. Once in two weeks, the kids get into pairs, swap contracts and conduct spelling tests for each other.

5. Writing is a process which involves drafting and much revision. To aid this, we use the computer or AlphaSmarts to save each stage of the process before it is printed off for peer editing or teacher’s correction. This enables students to go back to their saved work and change it for the better. Finally, all the stages are put together with the finished product.

6. Vocabulary is taught through the texts being studied. The students are encouraged to build on their vocabulary and to use strong verbs, varied adjectives and adverbs. Students are encouraged to use varying sentence lengths and sentence starters to make their work more interesting.

7. We will use Quick Edits to introduce the necessary grammar and punctuation students need to master in Grade 8. Quick Edits consist of passages or sentences with multiple grammar and/or punctuation errors posted on the board when students enter the class. Students will take a few minutes to correct the passages and discuss them.

English class Activities

In order to sustain student interest and enthusiasm, and also to facilitate maximum learning, a variety of methods and approaches that are appropriate for the lesson are used: conventional or not-so-conventional; group, paired or independent work; Socratic Circle discussions, dramatic presentations and role play or silent reflection; student centered or teacher directed. Student preferences and learning styles are also taken into consideration.

Grade 8 Brief Overview of Texts and Genres

We start the year with some short stories and in-depth analysis of these. Students will be taught to identify all aspects of this genre and to shape their personal responses to express their analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of a piece of literature. The stories selected for this unit focus on the MYP concept of international mindedness and developing a workable definition of the term through stories that draw attention to issues of socio-economic identity and community. Emphasis will be placed on developing response skills during reading such as predicting, connecting, evaluating and clarifying what we read and identifying these techniques in each others’ writing.

We travel back in time to Elizabethan England to the Globe theatre where we will be studying Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. We will explore Shakespeare’s genius and contributions to the English language, as well as his intuitive insight into human nature that have transcended time. We might just sample a couple of sonnets and their structure and rhyming sequence, while we are at it.

Our whole class novel study will focus on human conformity and rebellion in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, before moving into small, self-directed reading groups and working on an independent novel project. Our Grade 8 novel selections include The Outsiders, The Giver, Flowers for Algernon, The Pigman and The Hobbit.

As the year progresses, we will continue reading and analysing essays, short stories and poetry which lend themselves to the themes we explore in our other units. Our poetry unit focuses on the narrative ballad and free verse poetry.

Throughout the Grade 8 year, we will work considerably on persuasive writing. The students will write numerous op-ed articles and continually practice expressing their opinions effectively and defending arguments in the writing, oral debate and discussions.

Assessments

Assessment takes two forms: formative (ongoing tasks based on day to day work); and summative which will usually be in the form of tests or large projects. Self assessment is an important component of the MYP. Assessment rubrics are developed before the task is handed out so that students may aim for their ideal achievement. Students will also maintain ePortfolios to showcase their learning process and present ‘artifacts’ or finished products.

Homework

Homework is used to consolidate concepts learnt, to finish up classwork or to research for projects. Ample class time is given for students to complete work in class, and the due dates of all tasks are issued at the beginning of each academic quarter. Students are expected to read for a minimum of 20 minutes every evening and record their progress in their reading logs and write in their Writer’s Notebooks on a regular basis.

Teaching Resources

Texts are drawn from various sources: Novels, The Scott Foresman Anthology for Grade 8, story books, magazines, travel brochures, comic strips, advertisement and visual texts such as posters, pictures, movies.

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