Welcome to English 8!  Throughout the school year we will be working with different texts. 

The first non-fiction text we will work with is The Long Walk.  The Long Walk is about Slavomir Rawicz and a group of prisoners who escape from a Soviet labor camp in 1941.  They travel thousands of miles on foot.  They start their escape in Siberia, make their way through the Gobi Desert, the Himalayas, Mongolia and end in India.  Their remarkable journey is one to remember.  Throughout The Long Walk we will be integrating Common Core Benchmarks to help all students reach proficiency.

Following The Long Walk we will do a short story and poetry unit (fiction).  We will use the district textbook to learn about short stories and poetry.  Through this textbook we will also be able to continue to integrate the Common Core Benchmarks to work towards proficiency.

Finally, we will end the year reading Night, also non-fiction.  Night is written by Elie Wiesel who survived concentration camps during the Holocaust/WWII.  During his ordeal we will learn of the hardships of the camps, friendships that forms, and hope that never ends.  While this is a topic that is hard to learn about, it will change the way you look at other people.  And, again, we will continue to work with the Common Core Benchmarks to ensure we are reaching proficiency.