The Gilded Quill
Every voice deserves a gilded frame.
This is our classroom salon. We read the writers who shaped the language, talk about what they were really saying, and then pick up the quill ourselves. You will leave this room able to read closely, argue clearly, and write in a voice that is unmistakably yours.
Three habits we practice every day.
In the 1600s and 1700s, salons were rooms where writers, thinkers, and artists met to talk ideas through. Our classroom borrows that tradition.
Slow down and notice.
Great writing rewards a second look. We annotate, reread, and ask why an author chose this word instead of another.
Every voice has a seat.
We build on each other's ideas, disagree with evidence, and leave room for the quiet thinker to finish a thought.
Draft, revise, sign it.
Writing is a craft. We plan like architects, draft without fear, and revise until the piece is worth signing.
Choose your quarter.
Each quarter is one unit from our literature textbook, built around an essential question and ending in a major writing task. Open a quarter to find every lesson inside it.
The Thrill of Horror
Why do we sometimes like to feel frightened? Suspense, foreshadowing, and point of view in classic horror, an epic, and a graphic novel.
Finding Your Path
How do the challenges you face today help shape your future? Perspective, poetry, and arguments about life as a teenager.
The Fight for Freedom
What will people risk to be free? Autobiography, historical fiction, poetry, and biography from the struggle against slavery.
The Legacy of Anne Frank
What can we learn from tragic events? The full stage play, Anne's own diary, and a speech from a survivor.
Your notebook, built by hand.
This site holds the lessons. The Companion holds your thinking. Nothing is submitted online: you save your typed work as a PDF, and you do your pencil-and-paper work in your Companion.
One sheet for every lesson.
Every lesson has a matching Companion sheet. You complete it during class and file it in your 3-ring binder. By June, your binder is a full record of everything you read, wrote, and figured out this year.
- iPick up the Companion sheet for today's lesson.
- iiComplete it with pencil as the lesson directs you.
- iiiFile it behind the correct quarter tab in your binder.
- ivBring your binder every day. It is your study guide for every test.
WICOR is the AVID framework for learning: Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading.
Read ahead.
Titles marked Read free are available in the public domain. Open them on any device, any time, at no cost. Titles marked Textbook are not in the public domain; read them in your literature textbook or through your school’s online resources.
Every title here is named in our curriculum guide. Page numbers refer to your literature textbook, and every lesson page tells you exactly which pages to use. Texts are aligned to the South Carolina College and Career Ready ELA Standards for Grade 8.
How a class period moves.
Every lesson follows the same five beats, so you always know where you are and what comes next.
Aim
Read the targets and success criteria.
Read
Meet the text in the mini-lesson.
Lab
Practice the skill together.
Craft
Apply it on your own in the Companion.
Reflect
Show what you learned on the exit ticket.
[Instructor Name]
[A short welcome in her own voice: who she is, why she loves teaching reading and writing, and what she hopes students carry out of this room.]