1^st Trimester Sept. 4 – Nov. 30 Spelling Assessment #1 Spelling: Units 1 – 12 Grammar: compound, complex sentences, clauses, independent, subordinate clauses Writing Assessment #1 Writing: Sept. – ideas/description: descriptive paragraphs Oct. – ideas/organization/ voice: “pumpkin” personification stories Nov. – ideas/organization/ word choice: Thanksgiving poetry

2^nd Trimester Dec. 3 – March 7 Spelling Assessment #2 Spelling: Units 13 – 25 Novel: Night by Elie Wiesel or We Are Witnesses to integrate with art and Holocaust Competition Valley Catholic Speech Contest: Jan. or Feb. Grammar: transitive, intransitive verbs, adjectives, adverbs, negatives Writing Assessment #2 Writing: Dec. – word choice: personal narrative Christmas memoir Jan. – word choice/voice: opinion essay; essay for Holocaust Resource Center competition Feb. – sentence fluency/word choice: persuasive essay: famous person who deserves a holiday

3^rd Trimester March 10 – June 11 Spelling Assessment #2 Spelling: Units 26 - 36 School Speech Festival: March 12 Grammar: pronouns, pronoun antecedents; prepositional phrases Writing Assessment #3 Writing March – sentence fluency/conventions: fictional short story April – conventions, bibliography: research report on famous artist to coordinate with Art stool project May – conventions: autobiography

Throughout the year:

SAT vocabulary, analogy work; homophones; prefixes; suffixes; multiple meanings of words; words in context