Students will do the following things throughout the course of this course:

Reading:
- Use skills and practices of close reading

-Use context clues to determine meaning of unfamiliar words
-Use a variety of strategies to determine the meaning of unknown words and phrases in literary and informational texts

-Cite text-based evidence to support answers to questions about text, inferences about characters, and literary analysis 
-Use evidence from a variety of texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
-Use evidence to make a claim about the theme of "Prometheus"

-Make inferences about characters by looking at their responses to challenges
-Describe how characters change throughout a literary text
-Analyze how an author develops a narrator or speaker’s point of view
-Describe how plot evolves throughout a literary text
-Determine a theme based on details in a literary text
-Make comparisons between two literary works
-Determine and explain how themes in two literary works are connected
-Understand the difference between a clarifying and a probing question
-Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the
development of the ideas
-Analyze how an author's word choice affects tone and meaning in a literary text
-Identify the argument and specific claims in a text.
-Explain why an author chose particular details to support a claim
-Analyze the structure of an analytical mini essay

-Cite text-based evidence to support an analysis of informational text
-Determine the main idea of an informational text based on details in the text

Writing:
-Produce clear writing to explain my ideas about a text
-Produce clear and coherent writing that is appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
-Adjust writing practices for different time frames, tasks, purposes, and audiences.
-Use writing process to produce clear and coherent writing
-Use a variety of sentence structures to make my writing and speaking more interesting.
-Use feedback to set goals for myself as a writer. 

-Write a paragraph (with a partner) to describe how excerpts from one text align with another, citing evidence from both texts.

-Write informative/explanatory texts that convey ideas and concepts using relevant, carefully selected and organized information

-Write a literary analysis describing how a theme is communicated in a myth, in The Lightning Thief, and how the myth contributes to the theme in the novel
-Self-assess my end of unit literary analysis against a Writing Rubric

-Write a narrative text about imagined experiences, establishing a context for my narrative and using relevant details and event sequences that make sense
-Explain in writing how my plan for a hero’s journey narrative aligns with the archetype of “The Hero’s Journey.”
-Establish a context for my hero’s journey that engages and orients the reader
-Use precise words and phrases and sensory language to convey experiences and events in my narrative to develop imagined experiences or events
-Use effective narrative techniques, relevant descriptive details, dialogue, pacing, and well-structured event sequences to develop imagined experiences or events and characters
-Use transitional words and phrases to move my story from one moment to the next
-Use my draft to write a final, best version of my hero’s journey narrative.

Working in Groups:
-Use norms and expectations for working in collaborative groups
-Prepare myself to participate in discussions
-Collaborate with peers to determine the theme of a literary work
-Collaborate with peers to create word models for vocabulary
-Use a Writing Rubric to provide kind, specific, and helpful feedback to my peers

Language Skills:
-Use correct grammar and usage when writing (focus on pronouns)   
-Use correct punctuation and paragraph structure when writing      

I'm a certified teacher with years of experience teaching English Language Arts to middle school students. Language Arts content is definitely fully in my wheelhouse! Also, fifth and sixth graders are my absolute favorite ages to teach!