Course Description
Overview:
The Language A, Language and Literature, Year 2 curriculum continues to encourage students to be confident listeners, speakers, readers, writers, risk takers, and thinkers through an integrated program combining reading/literature, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and composition. Students participate in student-run newsletters.
Writing skills continue to be stressed as an essential source of communication for all students. Students write frequently and receive teacher and peer review of their writing. Students are exposed to an enriched vocabulary program. Using communication, collaboration, and an open minded, balanced approach students are encouraged to become risk takers in their writing. Language A Year 2 encourages each student to develop an enthusiasm for writing, reading, and communication in the 21st Century.
Short Story Unit Including:
- “The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse” By William Saroyan
- “The Laugher” by Heinrich Boll
- “Love Your Only Mother” By David Michael Kaplan
- “The Elephant” by Sławomir Mrożek
- “One of These Days,” By Gabrial Garcia Maquez
- “Harrison Bergeron,” By Kurt Vonnegut
- “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck
- “Gift of the Maji,” by O’Henry
Novels Read:
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Also including – selected poetry from Robert Frost, Edgar Allen Poe, William Shakespeare, and other classic authors and poets.
Grammar – Rules of the Game II from Page, Guthrie, and Sable
-Simple subjects, simple predicates
-Direct/indirect objects
-Prepositions/objects of the preposition
-Subjective/objective complements
-Generative grammar/homonyms
-Noun, adjective, adverbial, and verb phrase
-Participles and absolute phrases
-Phrase vs. clause identification
Vocabulary – Classical Roots B by Flowers, Selected Vocabulary in Context (focus on Greek and Latin Roots)
Formative Assessments: Weekly creative writing exemplars, vocabulary quizzes, literature quizzes/reading comprehension checks, newsletter articles, grammar quizzes,
Summative Assessments: Trimester tests, debates, socratic seminars, essays.
Approaches to Learning:
ATL’s: Communication skills, collaboration skills, organization skills, affective skills, reflection skills, critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, transfer skills
Global Contexts: Identities and relationships, personal and cultural expression
IB MYP Year 2 Aims and Objectives:
At the end of Year 2 students will be able to:
- express a relevant personal response to literary and non-literary texts and demonstrate the ability to approach age appropriate works independently;
- ideas and arguments, both orally and in writing, are presented in a logical way and support them with some relevant examples;
- examine the language, content, structure, meaning and significance of both familiar and previously unseen pieces of age appropriate writing;
- compare age-appropriate texts and connect themes to show similarities or differences across genres;
- be able to express an informed personal response to literary and non-literary texts and demonstrate the ability to approach age appropriate works independently;
- apply correct grammar with appropriate and increasingly varied sentence structure;
- continue to develop skills to read for recreation, research, personal growth, and awareness;
- apply critical thinking skills and problem solving strategies by responding to literature in both written and oral formats;
- apply a variety of comprehension skills, phonological awareness, sight-reading, and context clues to develop fluency and understanding;
- examine the meaning of vocabulary words from related readings at appropriate levels;
- apply grammar rules for usage in written and oral communication both academically (formally) and personally (informally).
Objectives: Analyzing, organizing, producing text, using language
Prior to 2014:
Community & Service: Exploring concepts of identity, community, and culture
Human Ingenuity: Examining the ideas of authors on topics which create fear in readers; and examining the systems of values as themes in works of literature
Environments: Looking at how the environment may be depicted differently in the written word across time and space
Health & Social Education: One World Our Earth: Continue to examine the social impact of literature
