Colegio Adianez
Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
Department of English
Ms. Carina E. Dimas, B.A.
cdimas@colegioadianez.com
7th, 8th, and 9th Grade English Workshop Syllabus
Course Description: This course consists of reinforcing the linguistic, verbal, grammatical, and reading abilities the students develop on a day to day basis. It is designed to work in conjunction with the regular English course as a practical live language arts laboratory in which students put into practice the theoretical knowledge they have acquired.
Course Objectives: Students will develop the ability to use the English language to, as stated in the Puerto Rico Department of Education’s standards, “interpret oral input, construct meaning, interact with confidence both verbally and nonverbally, and express ideas effectively in a variety of personal, social, and academic contexts…” as well as learning to communicate “to a variety of audiences in all forms of writing through the use of the writing process, proper grammar, and age appropriate expressive vocabulary.”
Course Outline*:
Unit 1- Personal Identification and Classroom
Reading- introduction conversations, classroom vocabulary
Writing- complete a personal information survey, write a teacher/student dialogue, write an introduction dialogue, write a or an with classroom nouns
Listening- follow classroom commands, recognize the letters of the alphabet
Speaking- participate in a role play of greetings, present teacher/student dialogues, pronounce words carefully and correctly
Unit 2- People
Reading: descriptions on people’s appearance and personalities, a short story about a family
Writing: write paragraphs to describe people in magazines and for a police report, correctly conjugate the verb to have, draw and label a family tree
Listening: listen and identify people from descriptions
Speaking: describe students in class using vocabulary for appearance and personality, give a class presentation on a family tree
Content: organize sentences into a paragraph
Unit 3- Nationalities
Reading: a short story about student diversity in class
Writing: label countries and geographic regions in English on a map, write true/false statements about geography, write sentences about student nationalities, make a simple travel brochure
Listening: identify students’ nationality from listening to a video
Speaking: answer geography questions, “Make Friends” project (bonus work)
Content- identify countries in geographic areas of the world
Unit 4- People
Reading: descriptions on people’s appearance and personalities, a short story about a family
Writing: write paragraphs to describe people in magazines and for a police report, correctly conjugate the verb to have, draw and label a family tree
Listening: listen and identify people from descriptions
Speaking: describe students in class using vocabulary for appearance and personality, give a class presentation on a family tree
Content: organize sentences into a paragraph
Unit 5- Restaurant
Reading: read a menu, read waiter/customer conversations, read a simple story about a
Writing: write a waiter/customer dialogue with the verbs want and need
Listening: listen to complete a cloze exercise for a dialogue, listen to a video in a restaurant
Speaking: use want and food vocabulary to order in a restaurant
Strategy: field trip to order in a restaurant for authentic purpose in language learning
*This is a model outline that may at any time be modified by the teacher. Actual assignments, projects, tests, and evaluations will be posted up systematically on the class blog. Please check continuously for updated information. The address will be the following:
Teaching Strategies: lecture, group discussion, small and large group activities, forums and debates, interactive media resource use, and analysis of films, video clips, and documentaries.
Classroom rules and regulations:
1. The ONLY LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN THE CLASSROOM BY BOTH TEACHER AND STUDENTS WILL ALWAYS be that of the course being taught. There will be no exception to this rule. Violating this rule will result in a reduction of the student’s Class Participation points.
2. All cellular phones MUST BE TURNED OFF (ALL MODES) AND PUT AWAY IN THE LOCKERS during class hours. Absolutely no phone calls or TEXT MESSAGES will be tolerated. Students who do not comply with this rule will have the device confiscated.
3. Works handed in late will lose points, 2 points per day late, up to 5 days. Works handed in AFTER 5 days WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
4. Plagiarism or cheating of any kind will ABSOLUTELY NOT BE TOLERATED. Any work in which
plagiarism is found will receive an automatic F (“0”).
Methods of Evaluation:
The evaluation is divided into three equal parts:
• 30 % Major Tests and Projects
• 40 % Quizzes and Assignments
• 30% Class Participation, Attendance, and Conduct (10% each)
This syllabus is subject to changes and modifications according to the teacher’s discretion.
