Humanities and Language Arts Course Outlines

Humanities Course Overview 2009-2010

The theme for the year is United States History of the 19th century.
Topics include:
• Territorial Expansion from the colonial period through the 1860’s
• United States geography and world geography as it relates to U.S. history
• The structure of the United States government, particularly states rights and federal Rights and the role of the Judiciary
• Issues that lead up to the Civil War
• The Civil War
• Reconstruction
• Industrialization
• Indian “removal”
• The U.S. war against Mexico
• Famous and not-so-famous people during the 19th century
• Other topics as they arise in our studies

Language Arts Course Overview 2009-2010

6th grade:
• Literature studies, including deepening understanding of literary elements
• Literature we study:
Anthony Burns
Collection of memoirs
One or two more class book to be decided, depending on what kids have read already.

Writing
• Memoirs
• Poetry
• Essays – learning the basics
• Literary logs
• Reports
• Paragraph writing review
• Book reviews

Grammar, parts of speech, capitalization, sentence structures

Vocabulary Development
• Wordly Wise
• Vocabulary in class books and readings as well as in history readings

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7th grade:
• Literature studies, including deepening understanding of literary elements
• Literature we study:
Anthony Burns
Night
Collections of memoirs
One more class book to be decided

Writing
• Memoirs
• Poetry
• Essays
• Literary logs
• Reports
• Paragraph writing review
• Book reviews

Grammar, parts of speech, capitalization, sentence structures
Vocabulary Development
• Wordly Wise
• Vocabulary in class books and readings as well as in history readings

8th grade:
• Literature studies, including deepening understanding of literary elements
• Literature we study:
Anthony Burns
Twelfth Night
To Kill a Mockingbird
If time, we’ll read The Absolutely True Story of a Part-time Indian

Writing
• Poetry
• Essays
• Literary logs
• Reports
• Paragraph writing review
• Book reviews
• Researching, writing a 10 to 15 page paper, and creating a significant visual project for the 8th grade project

Grammar, parts of speech, capitalization, sentence structures
Vocabulary Development
• Vocabulary in class books and readings as well as in history readings