Gretchen Buis - Language Arts

During this last leg of the school year, the sixes will focus on reading some myths, short stories, and Steinbeck's The Red Pony.  The sevens will read Sherlock Holmes's The Hound of the Baskervilles and Shakespeare's  A Midsummer's Night Dream. Writing assignments will be interspersed.  The  eights continue to work on their term papers. Because the focus of this paper is the process involved in writing a term paper, each of the steps is to be completed. Ultimately, all notecards, drafts, footnote and bibliography drafts are to to submitted along with the paper. Please check the timeline syllabus along with your son or daughter in order to remind them what is due when. Class time has been turned over to writing the  paper.  Students at this point in the process have the option of doing other homework during English classes in order to have a larger block of uninterrupted time at home to write their papers.   Despite high school acceptances, students can not afford to slack off on academic requirements.  All high schools require that we furnish them with final grades and complete transcripts.  If a student's  eight grade slide is too great, high schools can either rescind an acceptance or activate ninth grade academic probation. Finally, the eights also will be reading Anouilh's Antigone, Shakespeare's Dream, and/or To Kill a Mockingbird. Their memory work for the exam will be Lincoln's The Gettysburg Address. Half of the eights tried out for and will present short excerpts of several plays, "A Taste of Theater," Thursday evening May 14. This is an enthusiastic, talented group of young people. Hopefully, we can put together an enjoyable but thought provoking evening for parents and friends.