Commack School District

Excellence in Education

Become effective readers through:

Strategies for acquiring, interpreting, and applying information.
Identifying and recalling significant details.
Recognizing the main idea.
Recognizing sequences of events.
Recognizing cause-and-effect relationships.
Beginning to understand inferences and to draw conclusions.
Predicting outcomes.
Discriminating between fact and fiction.
Reading a selection of poetry, essays, short stories from the anthology.
Reading novels from the following choices: Because of Winn Dixie, The Green Book, Island Books, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, The Landry News, The Giver, Number the Stars,The Devil’s Arithmetic, Nothing But the Truth, The Westing Game, Toilet Paper Tigers

Experiment and become skillful in writing through:

Composing, revising, and editing.
Using of the word processor.
Writing in groups for the purpose of developing feedback on ideas, organization, and sentence structure.
Practicing the following writing modes: friendly letter, poetry (Haiku and other “formula” poetry), personal narrative, folktale writing (myth, pourquoi, fractured folktale) three- paragraph essay, persuasive writing, entries for contests and student publications

Experience listening and speaking through:

Reading aloud original composition drafts and/or journals to share ideas, and to build confidence in public speaking.
Reading aloud original poems, essays, and stories to share and explore the immediate impressions and/or reaction.
Presenting and explaining project work.
Listening to oral readings and/or commercial recordings and responding orally or in writing.
Participating in cooperative groups.
Develop vocabulary skills by... learning about word families, learning about words in context, understanding word relationships and analogies, and consulting a dictionary and using a thesaurus.

Listening and speaking through:

Participating in “Open Forum” discussions or debates in which they attempt to resolve a problem or issue
Reading aloud original composition drafts and/or journals to share ideas, build confidence in public speaking and clarify personal concepts
Reading aloud original poems, essays, and stories to share and explore the immediate impressions and/or reaction
Presenting and explaining project work
Listening to oral readings and/or commercial recordings and responding orally or in writing
Participating in cooperative groups

Literature through:

Reading a selection of poetry, essays and short stories from the seventh grade anthology as well as several novels (for example, The Outsiders, Ransom, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Little Prince, A Wrinkle in Time, Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, The House of Dies Drear, The Call of the Wild)
Develop vocabulary skills by... learning about word families, learning about words in context, understanding word relationships and analogies, and consulting a dictionary and using a thesaurus.
Reading additional works chosen during library “booktalk” presentations for individual appreciation or for Literature Circles (topics include: memoirs, historical fiction)

Composition and writing through:

Composing, revising, and editing
Using of the word processor
Writing in groups for the purpose of developing feedback on ideas, organization, and sentence structure
Practicing the following writing modes: letters, poems, personal and persuasive essays, first- and third-person narratives, book and movie reviews, short stories, dialogues, journals, and entries for contests and student publications

Vocabulary development by studying:

Listening and speaking through:

Participating in “Socratic Seminar” discussions in which they analyze and understand a text
Reading aloud original composition drafts and/or journals to share ideas, build confidence in public speaking and clarify personal concepts
Reading aloud original poems, essays, and stories to share and explore the immediate impressions and/or reaction
Presenting and explaining project work and sharing in Literature Circles
Listening to oral readings and/or commercial recordings and responding orally or in writing
Participating in cooperative groups

Literature through:

Reading a selection of poetry, plays (for example, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), novels (for example, The Pigman, The Chocolate War, The Hunger Games), historical fiction and essays, short stories, biographical and autobiographical excerpts from the eighth grade anthology
Studying the story elements and literary devices used by authors to convey subtle meanings
Reading to identify fact vs. fiction, make inferences, identify author’s purpose/pt. of view
Reading additional works chosen during library “booktalk” presentations (topics include: immigration, WW II, biographies and autobiographies, poetry selections)

Composition and writing through:

Composing, revising, and editing
Using of technology to publish writing
Writing in cooperative groups for the purpose of developing feedback on ideas, organization, and sentence structure
Practicing the following writing modes: literary letters, poems, personal and persuasive, compare/contrast and reflective essays, editorials, first- and third-person narratives, book reviews, short stories, dialogues, journals, critical analyses, and entries for contests and student publications
Reflecting and writing on their journey as an English student

Vocabulary development by studying: