August 14, 2017

Dear Parent(s) or Guardian(s):

During the course of this 9 weeks grading period, all of our reading and writing will be focused around answering the following question: What’s Your Story?

Students will be exploring the answer to this question through reading excerpts from Stella By Starlight by Sharon Draper, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson, and Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. Please explore online book reviews or other sources as needed to assure your comfort level with our selections and notify your child’s English teacher if you must choose an alternative text. Students will also read a variety of other short texts from various genres surrounding the theme of narrative writing.

Our extended text for this 9 weeks grading period will be The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Students will have access to a classroom set of the novel, but if your child will need extra time outside of the classroom to finish the text, we encourage you to check out an additional copy from the library or purchase the book from a local bookstore.

Our writing focus this 9 weeks will be narrative writing. Students will be writing in response to the texts read throughout this unit.

We look forward to partnering with you in order to maximize your child’s academic success. The following are videos and additional resources we will be viewing in class:

·  Scaredy Squirrel

·  “A Young Poet Tells the Story of Darfur” (TEDTalk)

·  “I would have, you never asked.” (TEDTalk)

Please keep in mind, these are only a few titles we will be viewing and any other resources that you find to supplement this unit at home will greatly benefit your child.

Sincerely,

8th grade English Language Arts Teachers

Common Core State Standards:

RL.8.1: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

W.8.3: Write narrative texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

SL.8.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions.