The Houghton Mifflin Reading series offers six uniquely designed themes that introduce students to literary genre and to reading in the content area. Each theme is structured to build student understanding of the genre and to develop major outcomes and supporting skills through the literature. These experiences with literature through reading, writing, responses, and sharing provide what research has proven develops skilled readers and writers.

Spelling:
TEXT: Everyday Spelling (Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley)

One unit is assigned weekly with a final test on Friday. Penmanship is also part of this program.

Genres o Literature:
Non-Fiction, Drama, Fiction, Poetry, Folk Tales, Short Stories, Mythology

Study of the Elements:
Plot, Theme, Character, Setting, Point of View, Symbolism, Flashback, Allusion, Foreshadowing , Imagery, Personification, Characterization, Irony, Simile, Metaphor, Conflict (Internal and External), Climax, Resolution.

Critical Analysis:
Students learn to critique works of Literature.

Additional selections:
Additional selections: The Pearl, John Steinbeck, The Pinballs , Betsy Byars, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Romeo & Juliet , William Shakespeare, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , Mark Twain, The Red Badge of Courage, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway.

Students learn to read actively and respond to texts personally and critically through their writing. Students are also tested (conventionally) for comprehension skills: recalling, facts, finding details, drawing conclusion and making interpretations. They cite evidence from the novel itself.

Summer Reading:
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor.

Study forms of literature:
Short story, novel, poetry, drama, biography, essay, non-fiction, historical fiction.

Study of the elements:
Plot, theme, character, setting, point-of-view, symbolism, foreshadowing, imagery, personification, characterization, irony, simile, metaphor, conflict (internal and external), climax, resolution.

Required Reading:
Students should continue to read actively and respond to texts personally and critically , citing evidence from the novel, itself, and continue to develop their comprehension skills. Required reading including but not limited to: The Hound of The Baskervilles, The Odyssey, Gulliver’s Travels, and White Fang. Grapes of Wrath, The Iliad, The Mysterious Adventures of Sherlock Homes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, White Fang, Jack London.

Summer Reading:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn , Betty Smith.