Welcome to 8th grade humanities. I am very excited to have you in my class. This year we will be exploring our American history, reading various novels, and writing essays. Please visit this site frequently; it is a tool to help you stay
up-to-date with our class work and assignments.
"Wisdom begins with wonder." -Socrates
Language Arts
Writing
September & October - Narrative Essay - Experience
Novemeber - Literary Analysis Essay - Theme analysis
January - Literary Analysis Essay - Character analysis
Febrary - Literary Analysis Essay on a Contemporary Novel
March - Project Citizen
April - Persuasive Essay and Poety Analysis
Literature
As a class we are reading various novels to analysis and discuss the plot structure. Students will be required to read a few chapters on their own at home. Throughout the course of our reading, students will learn about the various themes such as importance of friendship, coming of age, and the gap between social classes in an effort to write a literary analysis paper on a central theme. Students in addition will take various quizzes, answers analytical questions in writing, identify, discuss, explain, and synthesis each novel's use of various literary devices.
September All Classes: Touching Spirit Bear is the story of Cole Matthews, who "after severely injuring Peter Driscal in an empty parking lot, troublemaker Cole Matthews is in major trouble. But instead of jail time, Cole is given an alternative: a one-year banishment to a remote Alaskan island. This program—called Circle Justice—is based on Native American traditions that provide healing for the criminal mind. To avoid serious jail time, Cole resolves to go. While there, Cole is mauled by a mysterious white bear and left for dead. Thoughts of his abusive parents, helpless Peter, and his violent anger cause him to examine the root of his troubled ways" (Amazon).
November All Classes : The Outsiders is about two social groups of teenagers who are trying to find their place in society. The book centers around Ponyboy. "Ponyboy can count on his brothers and his friends, but not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids who get away with everything, including beating up greasers like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect--until the night someone takes things too far.
Written forty-five years ago, S. E. Hinton's classic story of a boy who finds himself on the outskirts of regular society remains as powerful today as it was the day it was written."
December Period 1-2 and 5-6 Reading My Brother Sam is Dead begins in April 1775 and ends in February 1779...a very volatile period of the American Revolution as it was not clear which side would win the war. Many were either still confused about the issues or unwilling to solidify a position on the issues. As the story unfolds the consequences of the war prove devastating to the Meeker family as the rebelliousness of Tim’s brother, Sam, and the pacifist postion taken by Tim’s father, Life, result in the ironic deaths of both, symbolizing the atrocities and unfairness of war.
December Period 3-4 is reading To Kill a Mockingbird "The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic. Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature" (Amazon).
December reading the Michael Vey Series of Novels. The first book in a seven-book series by #1 bestselling author Richard Paul Evans. At a time when the YA (Young Adult) genre is flooded with increasingly darker and hostile themes, Michael Vey is an adventure story about hope, loyalty, courage and a son’s love for his mother. With strong, likeable characters, genuinely realistic and frightening villains and "high energy" tension, Michael Vey is a series that will resonate with youths and adults alike.
January all classes: Students are reading the play 12 Angry Men to better understand the law and the role of the juror in the American court system. "Reginald Rose's landmark American drama was a critically acclaimed teleplay, and went on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda, for which Rose wrote the adaptation. A blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic belief in the U.S. legal system. The story's focal point, known only as Juror Eight, is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not affected by their personal biases. Rose deliberately and carefully peels away the layers of artifice from the men and allows a fuller picture of America, at its best and worst, to form" (Amazon).
February all classes: Students are reading John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men to build a better understanding of the importance of companionship, and life as a immigrant farm worker in the 40s in Northern California. "They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations of a flirtatious woman, nor predict the consequences of Lennie's unswerving obedience to the things George taught him" (Amazon).
"A thriller, a gripping tale . . . that you will not set down until it is finished. Steinbeck has touched the quick." —The New York Times
March all classes: Students are reading Between Shades of Gray a novel that teaches about life in a labor camp during Stalin's regime. "Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an ordinary life--until Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Separated from her father and forced onto a crowded train, Lina, her mother, and her young brother make their way to a Siberian work camp, where they are forced to fight for their lives. Lina finds solace in her art, documenting these events by drawing. Risking everything, she imbeds clues in her drawings of their location and secretly passes them along, hoping her drawings will make their way to her father's prison camp. But will strength, love, and hope be enough for Lina and her family to survive?" (Amazon).
April all classes: Students are reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas a novel that teaches the The story of Bruno begins in Berlin in the year 1942 during Hilter's regime. "When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.
But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences" (Amazon).
May all classes: Students are reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. "The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. Lois Lowry has written three companion novels to The Giver, includingGathering Blue, Messenger, and Son" (Amazon).
