Course Overview: Students will have the opportunity to learn, develop, and practice the basic skills for success in high school and beyond.  This course will focus on developing the student's abilities in five core areas: reading, writing, speaking/listening, vocabulary, and grammar.  Within each skill set, we will be focused on helping the students to become more skillful at completing certain tasks.  Specifically:
 
□  Reading Skills:

·         Annotate texts using careful observation and reading strategies

·         Effectively draw on textual details to evaluate literary works

·         Identify structure, style, and theme in any piece of literature

·         Analyze works of literature from several genres

·         Effectively use terms such as imagery, tone, and characterization when discussing a piece of literature

□  Writing Skills:

·         Write literary analysis essays in a 5-paragraph format, including

• ·         Introduction containing a thesis statement
• ·         Body paragraphs developed using MEALS strategy
• ·         Conclusion

·         Compose autobiographical narrative of >500 words

·         Compose original poetry

□  Speaking/listening skills:

·         Verbally articulate the key points of a printed text

·         Use textual evidence to explain the significance of literary selections

·         Expand on statements from other speakers in expressing viewpoints

·         Use appropriate vocabulary for an academic setting

□  Vocabulary:

·         Determine the meaning of above-grade-level words as they appear in context

·         Apply knowledge of roots and affixes to draw inferences about word meanings

□  Grammar

·         Subject-verb agreement

·         Proper capitalization  Proper use of periods, commas, and quotation marks in standard scholastic writing