. Team Sun. Language Arts . 8th Grade .
Course Overview
WHAT <
As students continue in their development of listening, reading, writing, and researching skills, we will also dig into big questions like:
- How does perception shape our view of reality?
- What makes us human?
- How can we learn about who we are by relating to those we perceive as different from ourselves?
- What does it mean to connect?
- What determines worth?
- Why do the past and future matter?
- How do we define words that define us?
HOW < <
We will learn through a variety of practices included, but not limited to:
- small and large group discussions and debates
- grammar lessons and quizzes
- written responses varying from short to long
- reading fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction
- reading as a class, in small groups, and alone
- peer review
- informal and formal writing
- researching
- asking questions
WHY < < <
In a world saturated with information, students must learn to extrapolate necessary information and to formulate a response to or with that information. Understanding the power of language all around them - how others can control it and unearthing their own power to control it - is essential.
Who Am I?
My name is Karen Vogan, and in 2008 I graduated from George Fox University in Oregon with an interdisciplinary studies degree in Writing/Literature and Family & Consumer Sciences. After attending George Fox, I came home to Colorado and enrolled at the University of Phoenix, from which I received my Masters in Secondary Education in December of 2009. I student taught at Mountain Vista High School in Douglas County, and the following school year had the privilege of teaching overseas at an international missionary kid school in the Philippines. In 2011 I had the opportunity to join the staff at Castle Rock Middle School, first as a long-term sub, and then as a full-time teacher. After seven years at CRMS, I sought new challenges and new horizons by journeying to Cherry Creek School District and joined the staff at Prairie Middle School. After a year away, I realized how much I missed DCSD and decided to return, this time to Mesa! The last several years have been a wonderful whirlwind, and I look forward to another phenomenal year of teaching the wide-eyed, energetic crowd known as middle schoolers! If you should need to contact me for any reason, you can reach me at kvogan@dcsdk12.org or use the contact form below.
"We have an obligation to use the language. To push ourselves: to find out what words mean and how to deploy them, to communicate clearly, to say what we mean."
> Neil Gaiman <