In this 5-week class, students will meet twice a week to discuss our novel, Hatchet, learn new vocabulary words, and practice important grammar and writing skills.  This novel involves a teen boy overcoming difficult situations.  Students will need to have their own copies of this novel. 

I strive to inspire students' love of reading and writing.  The goal is to have fun while learning; I wholeheartedly believe that students learn more when they're enjoying themselves!  This class will be very interactive with plenty of discussions and opportunities for all students to participate and be a part of the group.  I like to guide students and give examples, but I also like to hear the students' thoughts and ideas.  I like to talk, but this is in no way a lecture course!  

We will use our novel as a mentor text to practice writing, grammar, vocabulary, and literary devices.  Students will read independently with the help of a guided reading sheet.  I will not give students a long list of questions to answer while reading, as I believe they should enjoy the book and focus on the story and its characters.  They may have some short notes to take on their graphic organizers during reading, but these notes are just to help them in our class discussions; they will not need to submit them to me. 

Each week the students will meet twice.  The first meeting will focus on grammar, vocabulary, and writing.  I'll use the book to guide the students through learning important grammar skills, writing clear responses and paragraphs, and understanding new vocabulary words.  This class will cover the following grammar topics: parts-of-speech review, phrases and clauses, participles, gerunds, infinitives, and dashes. Students will also learn how to organize and write a cohesive response to a question using the RACE method (RACE= restate, answer, cite, explain).

The second class of the week will be devoted to discussing the novel, analyzing the characters, and learning literary devices, such as foreshadowing, prediction, similes, and metaphors. Students will participate in lively discussions as well as comprehension and critical thinking activities. 

*The length of the class may vary by just a few minutes depending on the amount of discussion on certain topics*

Week One:  
Day 1- Student/teacher introductions with inference practice and grammar basics
Day 2- Author background, book predictions, and inferences/critical thinking activity
HW: Read the first 4 chapters of Hatchet

Week Two:
Day 1-Grammar skill and practice + vocabulary and context clues
Day 2-Hatchet discussion and review for chapters 1-4
HW: Read chapters 5-10 in Hatchet

Week Three:
Day 1-Grammar skill and practice + vocabulary and context clues
Day 2-Hatchet discussion and review for chapters 5-10
HW: Read chapters 11-15 in Hatchet/short writing assignment 

Week Four:
Day 1- Grammar skill and practice + vocabulary and context clues
Day 2- Hatchet discussion and review for chapters 11-15
HW: Read chapters 16 - Epilogue in Hatchet 

Week Five:
Day 1-Grammar skill and practice + vocabulary and context clues
Day 2- Hatchet discussion and review for chapters 16--Epilogue/Wrap-up analysis