Teachers:
Course Overview:
LA 1 centers on the overarching theme of “Empathy.” Essential Question: How does empathy affect our understanding of the world? The entire first quarter will be devoted to reinforcing key academic stills such as reading comprehension, note-taking, summarizing/paraphrasing, and basic expository writing. Novels will begin in the second or third quarter. Students will read several of the following novels: To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, The Call of the Wild, I Heard the Owl Call My Name, The Merchant of Venice, or The House on Mango Street. Students in the CORE program might also read Anthem, Illusions, The Freedom Writer’s Diary, The First Part Last, and/or Zlata’s Diary. Other readings might also be assigned for all classes. Writing assignments include expository writing and literary analysis. The common course assessment is the five-paragraph essay.