English 8: Language Arts Through Literature - Abigail Adams Biography Unit

Abigail Adams Unit 
This unit focuses on the life of Abigail Adams (1744-1818), wife to President John Adams and the mother of President John Quincy Adams. In this unit, you will learn about the many letters she wrote to her husband that provide great insight into this time in American history. You will also read about the roles she played as an adviser to her husband, a defender of women's rights, and a voice against slavery. Aside from the historical knowledge you will gain, you will also study new vocabulary, learn about the parts of a research essay, practice using active vs. passive voice, and discover the differences among literary genres. For the final project, you will take on the role of Abigail Adams or President John Adams by creating a one-person play to teach others about this period in history.

This class uses the Moving Beyond the Page Language Arts curriculum. As such learners will use literature to learn language arts, develop their critical thinking and creativity skills, and use the 6+1 traits of writing approach (Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions, Presentations). A Summary of Skills will be provided when you enroll that tells you which state and national (US) standards that each unit covers for your own planning and any documentation requirements that you need to submit to your local authorities.  

There are NO live meetings for this course. Multiple posts will be made to the classroom each week which will include: video lessons on the text and language arts/grammar lessons, reading questions on the assigned text, homework post which will include the reading and worksheet/writing/creative project assignment, and question/answer posts regarding language arts, vocabulary, and grammar.