I love to teach in a “I do”, “We do”, “You do” style, and it has been proven most effective in the classes I’ve taught.  In addition to building on basic reading comprehension skills, this class will ask students to dig deeper into the texts and analyze characters, theme, and much more.  

My English classes are designed like this:
*Appetizer-I start class with a hook, build background knowledge, or pose a thought-provoking question to start the day’s lesson.

*Main Course-this is where we really get into the literature and analyze and discuss

*Dessert-this is a task designed for the students to either do as a class or independently.  This will often be in a form of differentiation, which includes student’s choice and acts as an enrichment to the day’s lesson.  

Week 1: “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl

Weeks 2 & 3: “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell 

Week 4: “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut or “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

Week 5: “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson

Week 6: Introduction to the Characterization Essay/Outline for Writing/Citing Evidence/Looking at exemplars

Week 7: Write the Characterization Essay

Week 8: Finish the Characterization Essay (I will be providing individual feedback for each student once they have finished their characterization essay)


*Students will be using textual evidence throughout the course, and I will teach them how to properly cite their textual evidence from the texts we are reading.  For every reading we do, students will get to choose from a choice of 1-3 enrichment activities they can complete.

Once students have finished this course, they can enroll in the next 8-week class titled Middle School Language Arts: Reading Non-Fiction and Writing an Argument Part B.  

***Note-these classes do not need to be taken in order!