S+Coombs+Kayla

Language Arts **Syllabus**


 * Teacher:** Kayla Coombs
 * Office:** N/A
 * Office Phone:** N/A
 * Office Hours:** Monday-Sunday 24/7
 * E-mail:** kayla.coombs@maine.edu


 * =Summary of Unit= ||
 * Welcome to seventh grade Language Arts class, first semester! This unit will explore the journey of novel discovery. It will demonstrate and outline all the fundamentals of what makes a successful novel. It embraces the understanding of how to analyze an author's characterization techniques through an exploration of the book __Bridge to Terabithia__. An understanding of how events advance the plot and why specific events are contributing in that manner will be achieved. A realization of how key themes contribute to the development of a novel will be found, as well as a basic understanding of how the thoughts, actions, and dialogue of and between characters make the text within a novel. Students will come to terms with the idea of what makes a novel successful and they will be confident in their abilities to have the potential to make a great story. This will be demonstrated through a final product of a music-accompanied E-book, and a final presentation of the E-book and its accompanying music selections. ||

A 2 Literary Text Grade 7- Novel __Bridge to Terabithia__ Students read text, with a grade appropriate span of text complexity, and present analyzes of fiction using excerpts from the text to defend their assertions. a. Analyze an author's characterization techniques including the character's thoughts, words, and actions, the narrator's description, and the thoughts, words, and actions of other characters. ||
 * **Establish Goals:** ||  ||
 * Maine Learning Results: English Language Arts- A. Reading

•characterization techniques make the text through characters' thoughts, words, actions, etc. Jess's internal and external thoughts contribute to the significance of the text. • the development of characters, specifically Jess and Leslie, contribute to the work as a whole. ||
 * **Students will understand that:** ||
 * • gender roles contribute to the themes of __The Bridge of Terabithia__.

• Why is the relationship between the use of literary devices and Katherine Paterson's writing style significant? • How does character development contribute to the work as a whole? ||
 * **Essential Questions:** ||
 * •How do gender roles contribute to the overall themes of __Bridge to Terabithia__?

• Key Factual Information: how __Bridge to Terabithia__ develops, how its character's develop, specifically the characters of Jess and Leslie • Critical Details: character analysis, novel development, gender roles || • describe how gender roles contribute to the overall themes of __Bridge to Terabithia__. • evaluate Katherine Paterson's use of literary devices. • decide how events advance the plot. • analyze characterization techniques. • consider the significance of the relationship between literary devices and Katherine Paterson's writing style. • recognize that events contribute to the development of the novel. ||  || The goal is to create a story based on the knowledge about novel development that students have gathered from the unit. Students will create an E-book with music to accompany the literary devices that are present in their stories. Each student is an author of a book, and they will work in teams of two to create one successful story with music to accompany the literary devices present in their story. Students will present their books with the music selections to accompany the literary devices to their boss. Students have been selected by their boss to work with other employees to create a new product called music-accompanied e-books. Students will do an oral presentation where they present their books and music selections. For the story writing the following are criteria: requirements, action, creativity, spelling and punctuation, writing process, and characters. For the book presentation the following are criteria: preparedness, requirements, posture and eye contact, speaks clearly, enthusiasm, and attire. Good luck!
 * **Students will know:** || **Students will be able to:** ||
 * • Vocabulary: Theme, Character, Setting, Fiction, Plot, Conflicts
 * Performance Task:**
 * Performance Task:**

Students are expected to understand the rules of integrity that are in place, which means that plagiarism is absolutely unacceptable! ||
 * =Expectations= ||
 * Students are expected to come to every class fully prepared. Students will arrive promptly to class with all required materials. They are expected to participate in class discussions. All homework assignments are to be done prior to class and will be checked at the start of each class period. If a student is absent, he or she must notify me prior to class time so that they can be given the lesson's instructions and materials. If he or she does not inform me on the extenuating circumstance, his or her work will be downgraded an automatic ten points per every day that the work is late.


 * =Benchmarks= ||
 * To pass this course, students must acquire 500 points total for all major assignments and expectations. These are as follows:

Participation: 60 points Students must participate in class every day for a total of 60 points, so every class period is worth 10 points. Participation includes showing up to each class period, arriving promptly with the required materials, and being involved in every class activity. Students are expected to take part in class discussions.

Essays: 50 points ||
 * Students will devise five essays through the course of the unit, and each essay is worth 10 points. One will be on the analysis of Katherine Paterson's characterization techniques, and the other four will be informal essays on learnings from the unit. Informal essays are graded more on having the content than grammar and structure, but every aspect of the essay development is considered.

Blog Postings: 50 points Students will post five blogs, each worth 10 points. These posts will normally be self-reflections on unit topics, but one will include students' essays of the analysis of characterization techniques. Self-reflections are done throughout the course of the unit and will focus on specific lesson concepts. Students will use blogs to reflect on things they have learned from the lesson and things they are unclear about, unless otherwise specified.

Projects: 140 points Students will create five major projects, which are as follows: the poem presentation in GarageBand, the newscast using iMovie, the PowerPoint presentation, and the letter-reading in a podcast, and a wikispace (other than the final) that are each worth 28 points. For the poem reading in GarageBand, students will be demonstrating their knowledge of gender roles and how they are portrayed in __Bridge to Terabithia__. They will express their understanding of this theme by creating two poems. one for each gender, as represented in the story and reading them in GarageBand. The newscast project using iMovie will consist of having students take on the role of a news reporter on an important current event and news update. In the newscast students will inform their audience on "updates on Katherine Paterson and her use of literary devices. The PowerPoint presentation will demonstrate students' overall understanding of literary devices, and specifically how events in __Bridge to Terabithia__ advance the plot, I will ask students to produce a lesson to teach the class about the events that advance the plot in the novel, in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. Students will make a podcast in which they will read a letter that they have created using the voice of Katherine Paterson describing the significance that underlies the relationship between literary devices and her writing style. The wikispace project will be the result of students demonstrating their overall understanding of how events contribute to novel development as they produce a display in which they outline the main events in the novel and write a paragraph on how each event contributes to the novel's development.

Final Product and Presentation: 200 points The final product itself is worth 100 points, and the presentation is worth 100 points. The final product will be the music-accompanied E-book, and the presentation will be an oral presentation of the music-accompanied E-book. This will demonstrate how students have gained knowledge about how to create a story and the various aspects of what makes a successful story as they use this knowledge to create a story of their own. ||


 * =Grading Scale= ||
 * A (93 -100), A- (90 - 92), B+ (87 - 89), B (83 - 86), B- (80 - 82), C+(77 - 79), C (73-76), C- (70 - 72), D+(67 - 69), D (63 - 66), D- (60 - 62), F (0 - 59). ||