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Status

Open

Estimated Completion Time

2 segments / 36 weeks

Overview

Using a motif of Mystery, Monsters, and Mayhem, students in the MJ Language Arts 2 course will acquire the reading, writing, language, and speaking/listening skills necessary for success in college, career, and beyond. Students will become critical readers and thinkers as they delve into fiction and informational texts within the course. They will also learn to effectively write narrative, informational, and argumentative pieces and present their ideas clearly and cohesively.

 

Note: content varies depending on course version. For currently enrolled students, please refer to the syllabus located in the course information area for curriculum specifics.

Major Topics and Concepts

 

Segment 1

  • Reading Comprehension/Informational & Expository Writing/Narrative Writing
  • Analyzing interactions between ideas in a text
  • Identifying theme
  • Analyzing how theme develops
  • Comparing and contrasting mediums
  • Using context clues
  • Thesaurus and dictionary skills
  • Implicit and explicit meaning
  • Finding the main idea
  • Writing an effective summary
  • Assess internet sources
  • Why writers choose words
  • Reading informational texts
  • Researching and organizing information
  • Avoiding plagiarism
  • Writing an introduction for informational texts
  • Connecting and supporting ideas
  • Writing a conclusion for informational texts
  • Revising writing
  • Using formal language in writing
  • Recognizing point of view
  • Identifying the narrator
  • Planning narrative writing
  • Beginning a narrative
  • Writing dialogue
  • Writing the body of a narrative
  • Using commas
  • Writing effective transitions
  • Identifying active and passive verbs

 

Segment 1 Advanced

  • Novel Study
    • Origins and elements of the novel
    • Analyzing major characters
    • Analyzing historical context
    • Authors’ style and voice

 

Segment 2

  • Reading Comprehension/Argumentative Writing
  • Organization of informational articles
  • How authors express ideas differently
  • Roots and affixes
  • Using apostrophes
  • Interpreting allusions
  • History vs. fiction
  • Propaganda
  • Interpreting explicit and implicit ideas
  • Identifying poetic devices
  • How poets arrange their words
  • How literary elements interact
  • Finding text support
  • Comparing and contrasting
  • Perspective of different characters in literature
  • Plot pattern
  • Identifying and interpreting symbolism
  • Determining theme
  • Writing a book review
  • Enhancing a messing using multi-media
  • Determine an author’s point of view
  • Claims and counterclaims
  • Writing an effective claim
  • Locating reliable sources
  • Refuting counterclaims
  • Eliminating redundancy
  • Writing a strong introduction
  • Building an argument
  • Transitions and signal phrases
  • Writing a strong conclusion
  • Polishing a final draft

 

Segment 2 Advanced

  • Short story genres
  • Elements of suspense
  • Authors’ language techniques
  • Historical context of literature

 

 

Career

Development Executive

Status

Open

Estimated Completion Time

3-4 Weeks

Competency

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the use and development of characters, setting, plot and theme in literature by analyzing a variety of works.

Project

You are a development executive for a movie studio and you have been asked to identify several stories that could be turned into profitable movies. You will create a video pitch that promotes your ideas to a committee of executives at the studio in order to get permission to move forward with the project or, in other words, get the green-light for production.

Career

Magazine Journalist

Status

Open

Estimated Completion Time

3-4 Weeks

Competency

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the writing process by utilizing prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing techniques to write and publish a Problem and Solution informational text.

Project

You are a new magazine journalist who researches, writes, and edits stories, features, and articles for a variety of media including magazines, journals, and corporate publications. You have been asked to write a Problem and Solution informational article for your editor on a topic of your choice that you believe will interest readers.

Career

Emergency Management Specialist

Status

Open

Estimated Completion Time

3-4 Weeks

Competency

Students will demonstrate the ability to write a narrative by using literary techniques such as dialogue, descriptive words, sequence of events, and point of view to create characters, setting, and plot.

Project

You are an Emergency Management Specialist and you have been asked to help a local Emergency Response Team prepare their disaster response training. They have asked you to create three different narrative scenarios that they will use to train their response team for these situations. You are able to create scenarios for a variety of emergencies and natural disasters.

Career

Comparing/Contrasting Texts

Status

Open

Estimated Completion Time

3-4 Weeks

Competency

Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze texts or topics by comparing and contrasting works of two different genres on the same theme.

Project

You an acquisitions editor for a major publishing house. Your supervisor has asked you to evaluate two books, both on the same topic, but one is fiction and one is non-fiction. Your task is to compare and contrast the two books to determine which book would be the better acquisition for the publishing house.

Career

Literary Study

Status

Open

Estimated Completion Time

3-4 Weeks

Competency

Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze a variety of literary works by writing a literature review that includes an analysis of the use of narrative elements – plot, character development, and theme.

Project

You are a literary publicist for an author that is getting ready to go on a book tour. As part of the marketing campaign you need to ensure that the hosts at each location of the book tour have knowledge of your client’s books in order to successfully promote the author and their books.

You will select several pieces of literature from an author of your choice and write a literature review that analyzes the narrative elements each piece of literature. This information will be used to help hosts at each location become familiar with your author’s books.

Career

Sports Writer

Status

Open

Estimated Completion Time

3-4 Weeks

Competency

Students will demonstrate the ability to present a persuasive argument by writing an argumentative essay containing claims, counterclaims, rebuttals, and sufficient supporting evidence for an intended purpose and audience.

Project

You are a sports writer, covering a variety of sports for a media outlet of your choice. You have been tasked with presenting a persuasive argument by writing argumentative essay that uses supporting evidence to identify which of the local professional sports teams you would consider the best team in your area. Will it be a team that has won the most trophies, demonstrated the best sportsmanship, overcome adversity or something else?

Credits 1

Competencies

  • Strategies for Comprehending and Expressing Meaning in a Text
    Students will demonstrate an understanding of strategies for comprehending and expressing meaning in a text by describing connections between the literary elements of a story, comparing mediums for storytelling, explaining tools for comprehending and expressing meaning, and creating a written summary of a text.
  • Informative Writing With Research
    Students will demonstrate an understanding of informative writing with research by describing steps to assess source credibility, explaining plagiarism avoidance, creating a method for organizing research, and creating a five-paragraph informative essay.
  • Narrative Structure and Techniques
    Students will demonstrate an understanding of narrative structure and techniques by explaining the importance of narrative point of view, creating a plan for a well-structured event sequence, and creating a story using narrative techniques.
  • Critical Reading Strategies
    Students will demonstrate an understanding of critical reading strategies by comparing the expression of different viewpoints in texts on the same topic, explaining features of historical writing, describing methods for determining the meaning of unfamiliar words or references in a text, and explaining propaganda techniques.
  • Analyzing Literature
    Students will demonstrate an understanding of analyzing literature by explaining the use of poetic devices, describing the literary elements used in works of fiction, and creating a multimedia book review.
  • Argumentative Writing Fundamentals
    Students will demonstrate an understanding of argumentative writing fundamentals by explaining the purpose of argumentative elements, formulating an organized plan for an argumentative essay, and creating an argumentative essay following the five-paragraph structure.

Pre-Requisites

Recommended for 7th grade or completion of Middle School Language Arts 1.

Honors

Course: To take the Advanced version, please select the course from the"Advance/Honors/AP" drop down during registration.

Project/Experience: Honors is awarded by earning "Exceeds" on all rubric assessments.

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