Students will learn to read and write critically while learning history through historical fiction. Students will read the books- Fever 1793 and Wednesday Wars. In each class, students will be immersed in the time period whether it's Philadelphia in a new America or the late 1960s on Long Island in New York.  

In each class, students will watch a video related to the topic of the book, reading comprehension or writing skills. They will then review the book through conversation, comprehension questions and vocabulary study.  

The students will get a lot of feedback on their writing from me. I am easy-going, but also have high standards for writing and will help your student reach those goals by breaking down writing into easily achievable steps. 
 
Students will watch Philadelphia: The Experiment by History Making Productions to learn about the yellow fever pandemic of 1793 that swept Philadelphia.  Students will also watch the Crash Course: The 1960s, Martin Luther King and SLCC,  (a YouTube video series run by renown children's author John Green) Assasination of Robert F Kennedy in WBZ News Archives

The first six weeks of the class will be devoted to reading Fever 1793 and focus on reading comprehension by learning about things such as previewing text, context clues, word parts (prefixes, suffixes and root words) and taking notes as you read.

The next six weeks of the class will be devoted to reading Wednesday Wars. During these six weeks students will learn how to write a thesis, write a conclusion, using topic sentences and supporting details and how to use textual evidence. 

Below is a more in-depth schedule

Week 1: 
Class 1 - An Overview of Historical Fiction, Syllabus and Class Expectations
Class 2 - The Historical Background of the Fever of 1793.  

Week 2: 
Class 1: Taking Notes as You Read
Class 2: Context Clues

Week 3:   
Class 1: Context Clues
Class 2: Root words

Week 4
Class 1: Prefixes
Class 2: Prefixes

Week 5: 
Class 1: Suffixes
Class 2: Suffixes

Week 6:
Class 1: Writing a Summary
Class 2: Revising and Editing the Summary/Finish Fever 1793

Summary Due

Week 7: 
Class 1: The 1960s
Class 2: Organizing an Essay

Week 8:
Class 1: Writing a Thesis
Class 2: The IQEE method of using quotes

Week 9: 
Class 1: The IQEE method of using quotes
Class 2: Writing a Conclusion

Week 10: 
Class 1: Write an essay as a class
Class 2: Essay Assigned

Week 11:
Class 1: Writing Essay
Class 2: Revising Essay

Week 12:
Class 1: Editing Essay
Class 2: Finish Wednesday Wars
Essay Due