8th Grade Pre-AP English - Course Philosophy and Objectives
The following is a slightly modified version of the Fort Bend Independent School District course description for 8th grade Pre-AP English/Language Arts. Click the Official Version link here to see the FBISD published version.
The 8th grade Pre-AP English/Language Arts (ELA) course is for students who are highly motivated and interested in a rigorous ELA program. Significant blocks of time outside the classroom are required for reading both independent and instructional-level materials for varied purposes, including mandatory summer reading. The differentiated curriculum prepares students for the Pre-Advanced Placement program in high school.
In 8th grade, the Pre-AP/GT student:
The 8th grade Pre-AP English/Language Arts (ELA) course is for students who are highly motivated and interested in a rigorous ELA program. Significant blocks of time outside the classroom are required for reading both independent and instructional-level materials for varied purposes, including mandatory summer reading. The differentiated curriculum prepares students for the Pre-Advanced Placement program in high school.
In 8th grade, the Pre-AP/GT student:
- refines and masters previously learned knowledge and skills in increasing complex presentations, classical and contemporary reading selections, research and writing in all genres.
- identifies various literary forms and uses different forms of writing for specific purposes.
- learns how to edit his/her writing based on knowledge of grammar, usage, spelling, punctuation, and other conventions of written language.
- organizes ideas in timed and untimed writing assignments
- collaborates with other writers to compose, publish, and analyze published examples as models for writers.
Differentiated Instruction- What Does It Mean and What Will It Look Like in the Classroom?
In its purest theoretical form, differentiated instruction is the incorporation of a variety of instructional methods and environments to achieve the goal of treating every student in class as an individual and targeting instruction to each student's specific needs. In actual middle school classrooms where teachers interact with anywhere from 90 - 150 students each day, numerous differentiation strategies are often utilized in a perpetual effort to approximate the idealized goal of completely individualized instruction for every student.
Our goal each year is to continue identifying and implementing new differentiation strategies, providing as many differentiated opportunities as possible to facilitate student mastery of the curriculum in 8th grade Pre-AP ELA.
Differentiation can occur in 3 main areas of instruction: content, process, or product. To maximize the effect, we make a concerted effort to utilize the differentiation potentials of all of these throughout the year. The following are examples of how differentiation works within each of the 3 areas.
Differentiated Content
In a lesson designed to develop an understanding of theme, a teacher might design 3 slightly modified activities. The first activity would be at the targeted instructional level and ask students to identify and support a theme within a particular reading selection. This would be for students whose instructional level is on grade-level. The second activity would be for students below grade level and would give them the theme and ask them to find text evidence to support it. The third activity would be for students above grade level and may ask them to identify and support a major and minor theme with the possible additional task of pondering how the theme impacts the author's style.
The activities are not designed to accept below grade level work or only push some students, but not others. Instead they are designed to challenge students where they are at without frustrating or boring them. Students with the below grade level activity would receive support throughout the year to achieve grade level standards.
Differentiated Process
This type of differentiation involves varying the mode of instruction, such as allowing students out of their seats for activities, group work, use of audio or visuals in presentations, etc. This method can also include the teachers varying our personal approach (enthusiasm level, tone of voice, level of diction, etc.) when instructing.
Differentiated Product
This type of differentiation involves giving students choice by allowing students alternatives for showing what they learned. For example, we might give students a choice between an essay or a multimedia presentation on a particular activity. The challenge with this method is making sure that all the potential products of student learning involve a comparable rigor/depth in demonstrating mastery of the objective.
Our goal each year is to continue identifying and implementing new differentiation strategies, providing as many differentiated opportunities as possible to facilitate student mastery of the curriculum in 8th grade Pre-AP ELA.
Differentiation can occur in 3 main areas of instruction: content, process, or product. To maximize the effect, we make a concerted effort to utilize the differentiation potentials of all of these throughout the year. The following are examples of how differentiation works within each of the 3 areas.
Differentiated Content
In a lesson designed to develop an understanding of theme, a teacher might design 3 slightly modified activities. The first activity would be at the targeted instructional level and ask students to identify and support a theme within a particular reading selection. This would be for students whose instructional level is on grade-level. The second activity would be for students below grade level and would give them the theme and ask them to find text evidence to support it. The third activity would be for students above grade level and may ask them to identify and support a major and minor theme with the possible additional task of pondering how the theme impacts the author's style.
The activities are not designed to accept below grade level work or only push some students, but not others. Instead they are designed to challenge students where they are at without frustrating or boring them. Students with the below grade level activity would receive support throughout the year to achieve grade level standards.
Differentiated Process
This type of differentiation involves varying the mode of instruction, such as allowing students out of their seats for activities, group work, use of audio or visuals in presentations, etc. This method can also include the teachers varying our personal approach (enthusiasm level, tone of voice, level of diction, etc.) when instructing.
Differentiated Product
This type of differentiation involves giving students choice by allowing students alternatives for showing what they learned. For example, we might give students a choice between an essay or a multimedia presentation on a particular activity. The challenge with this method is making sure that all the potential products of student learning involve a comparable rigor/depth in demonstrating mastery of the objective.
Parent Contact
We are strong proponents of parent teacher contact, but also believe in developing a sense of independent responsibility in students. We work extremely hard on getting to know each student and working with all students to succeed.
As 8th grade teachers preparing students for the high school atmosphere, we first try to work out responsibility issues on a one-on-one basis with students first before calling home to gain parent assistance, especially related to issues of not turning in work, not giving full effort, and difficulty following class rules. If students are having challenges related to these three areas, especially early in the year, you may see a progress report with a low grade. Since progress reports are not official grades and considered warnings, we likely will not have contacted you because we will still be attempting to work the situation out individually with the student.
If we notice a student is struggling with the content, we will talk to the student and request he/she attend tutorials. If the student does not show up or says he/she cannot attend, we will call home to discuss options with parents to arrange opportunities for the student to obtain assistance.
Please know that we will cordially reply to any email and respond to any phone message you send in a timely fashion and we encourage you to contact us when necessary. We would ask; however, for your understanding regarding the time it takes to answer an email in coordination with the fact that we have 160 students, club sponsorship responsibilities, committee responsibilities, and lesson planning/curriculum writing responsibilites for the 8th grade academy. In that regard, we request that you please use this website, the Fort Bend ISD website, the QVMS website, and your student to answer as many questions as possible. If you cannot find the answer to your question in these places or have an individualized question about your student, we are more than happy to assist you.
We look forward to working with each of you this year to ensure the maximum educational advancement for your students.
As 8th grade teachers preparing students for the high school atmosphere, we first try to work out responsibility issues on a one-on-one basis with students first before calling home to gain parent assistance, especially related to issues of not turning in work, not giving full effort, and difficulty following class rules. If students are having challenges related to these three areas, especially early in the year, you may see a progress report with a low grade. Since progress reports are not official grades and considered warnings, we likely will not have contacted you because we will still be attempting to work the situation out individually with the student.
If we notice a student is struggling with the content, we will talk to the student and request he/she attend tutorials. If the student does not show up or says he/she cannot attend, we will call home to discuss options with parents to arrange opportunities for the student to obtain assistance.
Please know that we will cordially reply to any email and respond to any phone message you send in a timely fashion and we encourage you to contact us when necessary. We would ask; however, for your understanding regarding the time it takes to answer an email in coordination with the fact that we have 160 students, club sponsorship responsibilities, committee responsibilities, and lesson planning/curriculum writing responsibilites for the 8th grade academy. In that regard, we request that you please use this website, the Fort Bend ISD website, the QVMS website, and your student to answer as many questions as possible. If you cannot find the answer to your question in these places or have an individualized question about your student, we are more than happy to assist you.
We look forward to working with each of you this year to ensure the maximum educational advancement for your students.