Classical Magnet School

English

Drama is a major focus of 8 th grade English at the Classical Magnet School. The students partake in the InterACT program, a series of workshops and performances sponsored by the Hartford Stage Company.
Imbedded in the curriculum are the skills that students will need to succeed on the Connecticut State Mastery Test. Additionally, students will benefit from participating in Paideia seminars and interdisciplinary coached projects.

The major texts that 8 th graders read are:
Medea by Euripides
The Odyssey by Homer
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	March	April	May	June
Essential Questions
History Themes	Collision of Cultures	Thirteen Colonies	Thirteen Colonies / Colonial Connecticut	The American Revolution	The American Revolution	The Constitution and the Bill of Rights	Moving West	Moving West / Civil War	Civil War and American Society	Post Civil War
Major Readings	Medea	Medea	*The Odyssey*	*The Odyssey*	*The Odyssey*	*To Kill A* *Mockingbird*	*To Kill A Mockingbird*	*Merchant of Venice*	*Merchant of Venice*	REVIEW of all literature seminars, coached projects, and writing strategies
Required Additional Literature	Elements of Drama Our Town – Hartford Stage			A Christmas Carol – Hartford Stage		The Bluest Eye – Hartford Stage
Seminars	Excerpts from Medea and Our Town "Troubled Woman,” a poem by Langston Hughes “Woman Holding a Balance,” a painting by Johannes Vermeer (Touchstones Vol C) “Why Angry People Can’t Control the Short Fuse” by Jane E. Brody (New York Times article, 5/28/02) The Koran (from Touchstones vol. A )	Excerpts from Medea “About Revenge” by Francis Bacon ( Touchpebbles , Vol B) “A Speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association 1980” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Touchstones Vol. A) “Mail Rain, Female Rain, and the Awakening,” a poem by Agnes Tso (from The South Corner of Time)	Excerpts from The Odyssey Letters on Education by Catharine Macauley (Touchstones for Middle Schools, Vol A) “About Lying” by Michel de Montaigne (from Touchpebbles, vol. A) “The Wise Man of Wei,” by Chuang Tzu (Touchstones for Middle Schools, Vol A) “The Rights of Women” by Mary Wollstonecraft ( from Touchstones, Vol II) The Judge: A Tale from West Africa (from Touchpebbles, vol. A ) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas by Frederick Douglas (Touchstones for Middle Schools, Vol A)	Excerpts from The Odyssey and A Christmas Carol Cassandra by Florence Nightingale (from Touchstones vol. II ) “For Malcolm. A Year After” by Etheridge Knight “A Eulogy to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” by Robert F. Kennedy The Symposium by Plato (Touchstones for Middle Schools, Vol A)	Excerpts from The Odyssey “Horatius: the Defender of Rome” (from the Magnificent Myths of Man) “The Koran” (Touchstones Vol A) “The Life of Lycurgus.” by Plutarch (Touchstones for Middle Schools, Vol A) A lesson for Kings: A Tale from India, (Touchstones for Middle Schools, Vol A) A Blind Man and a Cripple (Touchstones for Middle Schools, Vol A)	Excerpts from To Kill a Mockingbird and The Bluest Eye Royal Commentary of the Inca by Inca Garcilasco de la Vega (Touchstones for Middle Schools, Vol A) “Lawyer Clark Blues “ by Sleppy John Estes ( song lyrics in McDougal Littell To Kill a Mockingbird screenplay by Horton Foote) Also, one of these texts from the same McDougal Littell screen play edition by Horton Foote: “The Thanksgiving Visitor” by Truman Capote “Strange Fruit” by Lewis Allan “I Want Freedom Just as You” by Langston Hughes “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley (from Touchstones vol. A )	Excerpts from To Kill a Mockingbird The Confessions by Saint Augustine of Hippo (from Touchpebbles, vol. A) Prisoners Listening to Music, a drawing by Käthe Kollwitz (Touchstones Vol C) The Knight’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer (Touchstones for Middle Schools, Vol A) “Those who Don’t, No Speak English, and the Three Sisters” (Tapestry)	Excerpts from Merchant of Venice "What is a Man?” by Mark Twain (from Touchstone vol. II ) Genesis Chapter 22 (from Touch- Stones, vol. II ) The Ethics by Aristotle (from Touch-stones vol. A ) Pensées By B. Pascal (Touch-stones for Middle Schools, Vol A)	Excerpts from Merchant of Venice
Coached Projects								Shakespeare Festival
Optional Additional Readings			The Quest of the Golden Fleece, readers theatre from Greek and Roman Mythology II by Janet Literland, published by Contemporary ?Drama Service, Meriwether Publishing Ltd., Colorado Springs, CI Women Transforming Politics by Jill Bystydzienski; Sisterhood: The True Story of the Women Who Changed the World by Marcia Cohen; Women Artists: Multi-Cultural Visions by Betty LaDuke; Grandmother Had No Name by Alice P. Lin; Famous American Women- A Biographical Dictionary fromColonial Times to Present by Robert McHenry, ed.; The Ladies of Seneca Falls: The Birth of the Women’s Rights Movement by Miriam Gurko; .Articles from Ms, Working Woman, O, Cobblestone, Ladies Home Journal, Business Week, etc.			Before starting to read To Kill a Mockingbird, students read “The Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss or, better yet, show the video. (“The Sneetches” is the tale of how the Star Belly Sneetches discriminate against the Plain-Belly Sneetches, excluding them from games and weenie roasts, and how Sylvester McMonkey McBean bilks the town out of its money by putting on and/or removing stars on the persons of Sneetches to the point that no one can any longer tell who’s who.) Books about the holocaust or prejudice in general,
State Standards and CMT Strands
Reading Strategy Focus	Infer (predict and visualize) Question Clarify Evaluate Summarize Connect Monitor Discrimination of information	Infer (predict and visualize) Question Clarify Evaluate Summarize Connect Monitor Discrimination of information	Infer (predict and visualize) Question Clarify Evaluate Summarize Connect Monitor Discrimination of information	Infer (predict and visualize) Question Clarify Evaluate Summarize Connect Monitor Discrimination of information	Infer (predict and visualize) Question Clarify Evaluate Summarize Connect Monitor Discrimination of information	Infer (predict and visualize) Question Clarify Evaluate Summarize Connect Monitor Discrimination of information	Infer (predict and visualize) Question Clarify Evaluate Summarize Connect Monitor Discrimination of information	Infer (predict and visualize) Question Clarify Evaluate Summarize Connect Monitor Discrimination of information	Infer (predict and visualize) Question Clarify Evaluate Summarize Connect Monitor Discrimination of information	Infer (predict and visualize) Question Clarify Evaluate Summarize Connect Monitor Discrimination of information
Writing Focus	Was Medea crazy “mad” or “mad” with anger? (persuasive writing) Does life imitate art or art imitate life?		Compare/contrast film and novel of To Kill a Mockingbird.		Persuasive writing – current event prompt	Narrative, skits, hero, change of point of view		Compare/contrast Merchant of Venice with another piece of literature
Grammar, Usage and Mechanics	Capitalization Names of people, places, groups, months, days, and holidays Titles of people First word in dialogue Names of organizations, nationalities, buildings, historical events Opening and closing of a letter Punctuation Comma After letter closing In a series In a date With an appositive With parenthetical expression With participial phrase With quotation marks With city and state Quotation marks Apostrophe Contractions Possessive Semi-colon Colon in a series			Usage Subject/verb agreement (number) singular and plural subject with intervening phrase Verb tense (time) present, past, future tenses (simple and perfect) Pronoun reference Comparative/Superlative Special problems in usage a/an they’re, their, there to, too, two good/well its, it’s I/me know/no then/than your/you’re whose/who’s hear/here who/whom were/we’re Spelling Grade appropriate words
Core Assessments

BACK

Medea

Usage

Spelling