Coming off of standardized testing this week, we are going into what will most likely be our final units of the year!

6th grade has already begun their unit on the novel “The Outsiders.” This beloved young adult classic has been a favorite of Language Arts classes for decades. In fact, I would imagine that most parents read it when they were their children’s age. We started the unit with some background information on the author and how she was forced to publish under a pseudonym as her publishers didn’t think people would read a story about a rough and tumble male narrator if they thought a woman (actually a teenager) moving the pen. We moved on from that and discussed popular influences of the time, such as Elvis and Paul Newman, and slang of the day which is always entertaining for middle schoolers.

7th/8th grade has moved onto a presentation on authors from minority groups in order to address inclusion in our classroom. Students are working in pairs to research an author from a minority group and introduce them to the class. They are to focus on their early life, the influences for their works, and what works they are famous for. I have a feeling that many students may find a new favorite author as they take in the presentations from their class mates. 

High School finishes up with “Passing” this week. We have taken time to examine its issues in themes in depth and it has definitely offered them different perspectives on the time. As a summative assessment over the past two books, their final unit of the year will be a research paper in which they choose a thematic element present in both texts and compare/contrast that element as it is presented in the texts. I am hoping that this will help them to dive even deeper into the subtext of both books.