NC English Language Arts Standard Course of Study

1. Journals: each day we will write a short journal response. The journal topics will include quote analysis, free write, reflections, and literature based topics. Responses must be at least 50 words in length.

2. Spelling: each week we will focus on a new set of spelling words. Students will receive a new list of words each Monday. They will write the words five times each and use them correctly in sentences. On Thursdays, we will have a spelling test.

3. Vocabulary: Each Monday we will learn a new set of vocabulary words. The words come from literature we will read, tone words that the students will see on the EOC, and words that students might see on other standardized tests.

4. Grammar/Mechanics: This will vary depending on patterns that I notice in student writing. This will vary for each class. For example, if I see in one that almost every student misuses the three "there's", I will create a lesson to address that issue for that class.

5. Reading: We will read nonfiction and fiction. See what will we read for details.

6.  EOC skills: The English II EOC is a skills based test, so we will learn various skills necessary for passing the test. See Skills for details.

This is not everything, just the basics...

Epic of Gilgamesh excerpts

Flood stories

How Much Land does a Man Need?

Poetry from various places and time periods

Night

Dante's Infero excerpts

A Thousand and One Nights excerpts

Each week we will read a nonfiction article onine and annotate.

We will also read nonfiction articles that match current events and themes from our fiction reading

We will addres the following skills/concepts to prepare for the EOC:

characterization

inference

tone/mood

literary devices

context clues

connotation/denotation

close reading

quotes as answers

central idea

focus

key idea

theme

author's purpose

diction

irony

word choice

R.A.C.E method for constructed response

text structure

objective summaries