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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Hired last minute for ELA position, could use some help
I was hired very last minute for an 8th grade English language arts position. I got the offer yesterday and the school year starts Wednesday. To further complicate things, I've never taught 8th grade English before. Can anyone recommend any resources for me? They asked me to start off with Lord of the Flies.
Re: Hired last minute for ELA position, could use some help
Does the school have curriculum already written? I know in our MS all of the english curriculum is done and the teachers mainly use that as their base and add in their own extras.
I also teach in MA, right outside of Boston.
i teach ninth grade and i start with lord of the flies. it's a tough read for a lot of kids. i go one chapter at a time. is your class homogeneously grouped? if you have lower-level readers, i'm not really sure how much help this will be for you, as i teach college-prep kids.
i start with "symbolism pictionary," where the kids are divided into two teams, and one player from each team comes up to the board and they're given a slip of paper with a commonly-used symbol from literature written on it (say, an apple, or a pair of glasses, or something--i have enough for each player to play once). then they both draw it on the board while the seated teammates guess what it is. the team to guess it first wins the point. then everyone writes it down in their notebooks, which have a page divided into "symbol" on one side and "could represent..." on the other. they're asked to think about their own experiences with literature and to come up with something that the tangible object that was just drawn could represent. (does that make sense?) then we go over the whole list and talk about where we get these ideas from. it's a fun way to start talking about symbolism, since the whole story is an allegory about mankind and what william golding had to say about all of us and our evil/savage nature.
i also give them a chart i made with five columns on it so they can keep track of the five main characters (ralph, piggy, simon, jack, roger) and all of the things that each of these guys does/says. since each boy stands for something innate within us (ralph is humankind; piggy is our civilized nature; simon is pure goodness; jack is our savage nature; roger is evil), keeping track of what they do and say will lead the brightest kids to figure out what they stand for. it will also lead them to understand what golding is saying about these aspects of us--for example, simon may be our good nature, but he's also small, weak and sickly. once the kids latch on to this idea, they really are able to build on it tremendously. some of the slower kids have a hard time with it, but listening to the more literarily-gifted kids really takes them places.
this is just a starting point, and i'm sure you already know all of this about lord of the flies. if you want some more ideas or actual worksheets and activities, feel free to email me at pamela underscore lindstrom at cocalico dot org. i'd be happy to give you anything that would help. i can't imagine trying to get stuff together in less than a week!
Thanks everyone, I appreciate it! The school is actually in RI, so I'm dealing with all the reciprocity business as well. Lots of paperwork on top of class planning, so not fun! There is some curriculum that is written out, but the school is super tiny so there is only one 8th grade English teacher. The former teacher has lesson plans and so on, but she took the hard copies with her and the electronic versions are in her school account, which is locked and the IT guy hasn't been around. Hopefully I'll have access on Monday.
Pammie, that sounds great. I was trying to think of a good activity to launch from. That symbolism activity sounds like a great way to get them talking about things they will see in the book. I will probably email you, if you don't mind.
2012 Reading Challenge
I teach ELA 7 and 9. Our 8th grade teacher does:
I Had Seen Castles (paired with SS), The Pearl, 12 Angry Men, Poetry and a few more I can't remember.
I teach low-level 9th and I do mythology, The Odyssey, Speak and Monster. I want to add Hunger Games this year.
The first week, I cover lit terms and do some getting to know you stuff. I like to tie in art when I can, so I have the kids make a Creation. I keep directions vague to keep the assignment very open. My 9th graders will be making vanity license plates this year. I also like to give them the Myers-Briggs personality test too. This helps with planning and differentiating instruction. I hang out on BNOTB, but I saw your post and had to respond. Page me over there if you want to chat more. Good luck!