Students focus on the theme of “Challenges,” as they read works by Ray Bradbury and Walt Whitman, an essay
about Civil War heroes, narratives about the Holocaust, and Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech. They learn
about the hero archetype and hero’s journey narratives, write narratives, explanatory essays, argumentative essays,
research an issue in current events and create a multimedia presentation, and read scenes from Shakespeare’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, then watch the scenes on film to analyzehow the adaptation differs from the source.
Grammar instruction includes sentence formation, usage, and mechanics; and students develop vocabulary skills
through a variety of methods.