English Language Arts
English Language Arts at Falcon Bluffs Middle School
Falcon Bluffs Middle School primary resource is Spring Board by College Board. SpringBoard takes an integrated approach to English Language Arts (ELA) instruction that helps students at all learning levels strengthen their skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and critical thinking.
Each grade level uses complex, grade-appropriate texts that allow students to examine an idea from multiple points of view while working with a variety of genres. Students progress from guided reading through collaborative projects to confident, independent work.
ELA Sixth Grade - Change
Sixth grade ELA utilizes a SpringBoard resource that promotes the theme of change. Throughout the curriculum, students will write narrative, explanatory, and argumentative texts while learning about specific strategies for planning, drafting, revising, and editing their writing.
In units built around the theme “change,” students will:
- Read and analyze works by Langston Hughes, John Steinbeck, and Sandra Cisneros.
- Write narrative, explanatory, and argumentative texts.
- Learn strategies for planning, drafting, revising, and editing their writing
- Explore the fundamentals of research, including citations and how to evaluate the credibility of sources.
- Deepen their understanding of topics through film and multimedia.
Reading - Sixth Grade
Sixth grade reading focuses on promoting the love of reading, increasing student vocabulary, and using reading strategies to increase comprehension, boosting reading competency and confidence. We focus on reading fiction, nonfiction, novels, poetry, and short stories.
Reading resources:
- Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen
- Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
- Maniac Magee Jerry Spinelli
Love of Literacy - Sixth Grade
The sole purpose of this innovative class is to give students the time and space to ENJOY the process of reading.
- Connect: We read whole class novels together to connect to the characters within our stories. In doing so we see how these stories connect to our lives and the world around us. We are prompted to ask questions as to why characters behave the way they do, which in turn prompts us to build empathy by reflecting on why we behave the way we do as well.
- Reflect: We reflect on the questions authors prompt us to ask by using textual evidence to develop deep-level thinking. This helps us to identify motifs, themes, symbols, character development and elements of the plot.
- Communicate: Once we have our evidence, we share our interpretations of the text by having in-depth conversations and written analysis. We share our insights, by modeling our thinking in how we identify patterns that develop motifs. These repeated motifs and the way characters change lead us to identify the various themes that can be found in the books and our lives as well.
- Create: At the end of every book, we create an enriching project that is connected to the book we read. This allows students to share the creativity that was inspired by the books we read.
ELA Seventh Grade - Choice
Seventh grade English Language Arts (ELA) focuses on reading and writing. Our main units are reading and writing of myths, informational, argumentative, biographical and literary analysis genres.
In units built around the theme “Choice,” students will:
- Read works by Nelson Mandela, Robert Frost, Sojourner Truth, and Shakespeare.
- Learn close reading strategies to discover the explicit and implicit content of texts.
- Write in argumentative, explanatory, and narrative modes.
- Examine how ideas are conveyed in film and multimedia.
Reading resources:
- Springboard Link to Springboard Online Book
- Unit 1 - Short Story Literary Analysis
- Unit 2 - Myths
- Unit 3 - Nonfiction Advertisement Analysis
- Unit 4 - Expository Writing
- Unit 5 - Persuasive Writing
- Unit 6 - Researching an Important Leader
ELA Eighth Grade - Challenges
The theme for eighth grade SpringBoard is Challenges. This curriculum starts with students learning about the hero archetype and the hero's journey narrative in literature. They will be reading works by Ray Bradbury and Walt Whitman, as well as an essay about Civil War heroes, narratives about the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, and nonfiction and fiction examples exploring the challenges of utopia. Students will write narrative, explanatory, and argumentative texts. A multimedia presentation about a researched current event is also included.
In units built around the theme “Challenges,” students will:
- Read work by Ray Bradbury and Walt Whitman, an essay about Civil War heroes, narratives about the Holocaust, and Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
- Learn about the hero archetype and hero’s journey narratives.
- Write narrative, explanatory, argumentative, and other texts.
- Research an issue in current events and then create a multimedia presentation.
- Read scenes from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, then watch the scenes on film and analyze how the adaptation differs from the source.
ELA Eighth Honors
The honors course prepares students for advanced coursework and engages students in enrichment opportunities. Rigor is demonstrated through sophistication and acceleration in terms of thought-provoking learning activities, challenging assessments, and more complex text/materials. Diverse interests, cultures, perspectives, learning styles, and intelligence are cultivated and higher-level critical and creative thinking skills such as interpretation, problem-solving, investigation, and logic are emphasized.
In units that examine the uses of language, students will:
- Read works by authors such as Margaret Atwood, Louise Erdrich, William Shakespeare, Joshua Bennett, and Toni Morrison, as well as selected nonfiction.
- Learn to gather evidence from texts and incorporate it into written and oral responses.
- Write in argumentative, informational, narrative, and other modes.
- Research and present findings around a current issue.
English Language Arts in Jeffco
The English language arts team strives to foster literacy excellence, strengthen the instructional core, prepare students as global citizens and promote diversity and inclusion so students thrive during and beyond their education in Jeffco Public Schools.