Course Details:

    Students will need to use Google Docs. They also need a folder, notebook, and the class novels. Please purchase or borrow the following books:

    ๐Ÿ ๐—™๐—”๐—Ÿ๐—Ÿ ๐—ฆ๐—˜๐— ๐—˜๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—˜๐—ฅ (๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฐ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€):
    Community & Outsiders–The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
    Coming of Age & Sacrifice–Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
    Legend & Differences–Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
    Courage & Tradition–Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska
    Revenge & True Love–The Princess Bride by William Goldman
    Innocence & Ignorance–The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

    **If you take semester B (enroll here)…
    โ›„๏ธ ๐—ช๐—œ๐—ก๐—ง๐—˜๐—ฅ ๐—ฆ๐—˜๐— ๐—˜๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—˜๐—ฅ
    Friendship & Fate–Holes by Louis Sachar
    Grit & Friendship–Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
    Perseverance & Love–The Cay by Theodore Taylor
    Survival & Hope–Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
    Leadership & Nature–The Call of the Wild by Jack London
    Community & Perspective–The Eyes and the Impossible by Steven Engelfried

    Journey Through Literature A: Core English Knowledge, a Gateway for All Learning

    In a tight-knit community, students study major literary themes by reading novels, various short stories, poetry, and informational texts. This is semester A of a full year’s curriculum, which includes reading, writing, and speech.

    Section Options / Enroll:

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    Description

    Learners discover the adventure of books in this journey through literature with our comprehensive Language Arts course!

    Reading is the gateway to all future learning, and students need to read broadly and deeply to develop reading skills and to build their background knowledge, the key to improving a student’s reading level. The more they read, the more they learn, the more they will learn in the future. This cannot be overstated.

    ๐ŸŒŸ In this Language Arts class, we hit analytical reading hard! It is appropriate for those who love reading AND for reluctant readers, as the regular schedule helps them. Students journey through literature, reading one book every two weeks, and the teacher holds them accountable for their reading. Learners will discover a fresh set of ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€, ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐˜€, ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜๐˜€ that explore the depths of human emotions and experiences. Our purpose remains steadfast: to ignite a love for reading while cultivating essential language skills, critical thinking, and effective communication. As we explore favorite literary works, students encounter themes of ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—บ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†, ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ, ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ, ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ, ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐˜€, ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€, ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ, ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป, ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ, ๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ, ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ป๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ป๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ, sparking reflections and analytical thinking in discussions. In a comfortable classroom environment, students will confidently express their responses to literature with insight. With ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—น๐˜† ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€, ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ธ๐—น๐˜† ๐˜„๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ป๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐˜€, ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ฎ๐˜†๐˜€, ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐˜€, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ, students will have ample opportunities to refine their writing skills and express their thoughts. ๐ŸŒŸ๐Ÿ“–

    With our carefully curated selection of GREAT BOOKS, ranging from timeless classics to lesser-known gems, we hope to kindle a love for reading and a deeper understanding of the human experience illustrated in literature. Our focus on topics and beauty, be it in the author’s craft, theme, or setting, develops a broadened background knowledge in our students, critical for growing as learners, readers, and thinkers.

    See the syllabus for more details. These are the books learners will read:

    ๐Ÿ ๐—™๐—”๐—Ÿ๐—Ÿ ๐—ฆ๐—˜๐— ๐—˜๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—˜๐—ฅ (๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฐ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€):
    Community & Outsiders–The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
    Coming of Age & Sacrifice–Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
    Legend & Differences–Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
    Courage & Tradition–Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska
    Revenge & True Love–The Princess Bride by William Goldman
    Innocence & Ignorance–The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

    **If you take semester B…
    โ›„๏ธ ๐—ช๐—œ๐—ก๐—ง๐—˜๐—ฅ ๐—ฆ๐—˜๐— ๐—˜๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—˜๐—ฅ
    Friendship & Fate–Holes by Louis Sachar
    Grit & Friendship–Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
    Perseverance & Love–The Cay by Theodore Taylor
    Survival & Hope–Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
    Leadership & Nature–The Call of the Wild by Jack London
    Community & Perspective–The Eyes and the Impossible by Steven Engelfried

    ๐ŸŒป ๐™๐™๐™š ๐™‡๐™š๐™ข๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™จ-๐˜ผ๐™ž๐™™ ๐™’๐™–๐™ฎ: ๐‘ฏ๐’๐’˜ ๐™’๐™š ๐™๐™ค๐™ก๐™ก:

    Student Motivation & Accountability–Learners participate in interactive lessons during their homework time, which includes quizzes on their reading. We use “workshop time” in class so students will write while the teacher “visits” them on their Google Document. Once we started using this method, we saw nearly a 100% completion rate in student writing! We implement other measures to hold them accountable for their learning, like asking them to verbally give answers if they stop using the chatbox, or telling them to send an “IDK yet” (I don’t know yet) in the chatbox if they can’t yet answer a question. We want to honor the investment parents make in this class and the time students spend. The goal is to build skills and learn! That means students are working, thinking, and writing. Active engagement is the key to success in this class.

    Public Speaking & Cameras–The instructor intentionally teaches communication skills and norms. For example, the “dominator” will learn to give others a chance to speak and will even learn to involve others to help bring forth their ideas. The quieter students learn to take risks and put themselves out there because they have good ideas and important things to say. These skills are taught through various methods, including speeches, presentations, and Socratic seminars, which often become the favorite for students. We also talk about how an online community is established, and students are encouraged–but not forced–to keep their cameras open. This helps all students feel connected to each other as a community of learners. It also helps the teacher picture their faces when reading their writing. They naturally get more attention from their teacher when their camera is on because the teacher’s eyes are drawn to faces, not empty black boxes. In fact, students who don’t have their cameras on are sorted last in the list of students and sometimes, Zoom even hides them! Keeping the camera on is a learning strategy and improves engagement. Also, we feel closer to each other when we see each other. Trust us. ?

    Homework–Students can expect to have homework after each live class. They will work 15-45 minutes, depending on the assignment and how quickly they work. Students will read for 100 minutes a week (not in addition to our class novels). We want them to fall in love with books! Teachers give authentic and constructive feedback on students’ work that helps them correct their mistakes and fine-tune their skills. Students study grammar through daily mini-lessons and practice sentence writing and using various sentence starters. Students will read for 100 minutes a week. We want them to fall in love with books!

    Graphic Organizers–Students need graphic organizers to help them see the structure of a paragraph or essay and the writing process. We also use them to guide their reading of a class novel. This is how they learn to develop coherent ideas. They don’t figure out how to do this magically; the graphic organizers and the intentional, explicit teaching help them learn the skills!

    Student Mastery–Each class includes explicit, direct instruction with teacher modeling. Students are guided toward mastery of multiple writing skills and understandings so that they grasp the concepts and become independent. Students are held to a high standard of academic writing, including the use of grammar and the construction of sophisticated sentences.

    Teacher Feedback–The back-and-forth work between a student and teacher significantly benefits a student if it is done well. We follow best practices in this area with how we design class time, assignments, and routines. According to Pennington Publishing, effective writing feedback (or grading) is:
    โ€ข Specific, not general
    โ€ข Immediate, not postponed
    โ€ข Routine with a revision / feedback cycle
    โ€ข Explanatory
    โ€ข The right amount
    โ€ข Targeted to the most critical issues
    โ€ข Varied (written, audio, and video comments)
    โ€ข Holding students accountable