Digital Learning Department

Students will learn to read critically with full comprehension across genres and be able to communicate through effective writing. Students develop critical reading, writing, viewing, listening, and speaking skills as they explore world literature, both classic and modern, and connect it to their respective cultures and their own lives. The NWREL rubric for the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing™ is used as a basis for writing instruction. Students learn new vocabulary, language, and literature skills in each unit. Students are taught thinking skills and are called upon to apply them in learning activities. Language and literature skills are taught with the purpose of personal application, so that students can use the skills to improve their own reading, writing, and speaking. As students complete this course, they will see the relevance that this course has in their daily life and future academic and career goals and begin making appropriate plans.

After completing the course, students will be able to:
• Read new and challenging texts with proficiency across genres
• Understand how literature reflects the culture and history of the people who created it
• Understand and use the writing process for all writing tasks with ease (prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing)
• Recognize and analyze the use of literary devices and identify literary elements
• Conduct research using multiple resources to reinforce a thesis
• Master language usage and rules of grammar in writing
• Master language usage in effective oral communication
• Identify a theme of a text and the author’s purpose
• Determine a writing purpose, audience awareness, tone, and voice, through a variety of writing assignments
• Infer word meaning through the use of reading strategies
• Defend ideas, conclusions, generalizations, and inferences
• Create a multimedia presentation and use a variety of electronic tools

UNIT I: Introduction – Students are introduced to course policies and procedures. They perform diagnostic reading and writing assessments.

UNIT II: Universal Themes – The unit examines the concept of a universal theme by showing how themes in Greek literature (Antigone) have been repeated through history and in the present world.Students look at how Greek roots can be used to understand vocabulary, and they especially look at modern English terms that come from the Greek theater. They read a grade-level appropriate retelling of Antigone and compare its themes with the modern world.

UNIT III: A World in Conflict – Students select a movie dealing with personal conflicts within a real modern world conflict. Students learn about tone as they analyze the presentation and practice drawing valid inferences. They read reviews of the movie and offer their own. Appropriate vocabulary and literary terms are studied and applied.

UNIT IV: Research and Persuasion – Students learn research skills as they continue their examination of the issues presented in Unit III. They are taught effective reading strategies fordifferent kinds of text, and they learn to evaluate the quality and reliability of resources. They learn to make decisions about effective support and organization for a persuasive written argument, using the Ideas and Organization traits of the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing™ rubric as a guide. They are introduced to and apply all aspects of the writing process.

UNIT V: Creating Fiction – Students read a selection of grade-level appropriate translations of selections from world literature as they learn literary terms with the goal of being able to apply those skills to their own writing. Use of effective imagery is emphasized. They learn writing conventions appropriate to fiction, including dialogue. Students are taught common techniques of generating ideas for original fiction and create an original fictional composition.

UNIT VI: The Editing Process – Students learn effective editing techniques as they study common problems with proper use of writing conventions and how to make effective decisions in word choice,using the Word Choice and Conventions traits of the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing™ rubric as a guide. They use these skills to revise their original diagnostic essay and reflect on the decisions they made to improve it.