The Pennsylvania Core Standards are calling for an increasingly integrated approach to English and Language Arts (ELA). As students enter the workforce, technical training, or college, they will need to read and comprehend non-fictional technical manuals, complex textbooks, and be able to argue their suggestions for solving problems or promoting projects with relevant reasons and sound logic. To efficiently achieve these daunting tasks, effective curriculum and instruction will need to build on the content and skills throughout the curriculum. Teachers in the fields of Science, Technology, Social Studies, and History will use the skills of comprehension and writing taught in the ELA Curriculum, while ELA teachers will use the complex text available in the science and social studies fields.

 

Grade 7
In seventh grade Reading, students will have skills units, novels (Lightening Thief, by Percy Jackson), Reflections on Civil War, These Shoes of Mine, Tangerine, Hatchet, or The Cay, Old Yeller, or Touching Spirit Bear.    

Grading: District Grade Scale
Full Year:  Everyday

 

Titles included in the eighth grade reading curriculum are: Broken, Pigman, Raymond's Run, Tell Tale Heart, Monkey's Paw, O Captain My Captain, Harriet Tubman, or Face on the Milk Carton, Thank You Ma'am, Diary of Joseph Plumb Martin.

Grading: District Grade Scale
Full Year: Everyday


Academic Support (Tutorial)
Students who have scored, or are at risk of scoring, below Proficient on either the Math PSSA, Reading PSSA, or both will be scheduled into Academic Support for additional mathematics or English/Language Arts (ELA) instruction. The amount of time a student is scheduled into Academic Support depends on the type(s) of remediation that is needed for student success. PSSA Coach books, Common Core Coach books, Study Island, Academy of Reading, and Academy of Math are some of the materials which may be used to address the student’s deficiencies in his/her knowledge of particular anchors and standards.   

Grading: Pass/Fail
Semester – Every other day, all year
Grades 7 and 8