Reading and Writing Grades 6 to 8
Run The Signal, the crew's neighborhood paper: read closely for evidence, theme, character and craft, then write stories, explanations and arguments that hold up, with Rocket, Raven and Nova.
Free, start to finish. No card. Every week opens without signing in.
- Grade
- Grades 6 to 8
- Length
- 12 weeks
- Pace
- 6 short lessons a week, about 20 minutes each
- Price
- Free, every week
About this course
Reading and Writing Grades 6 to 8 is a 12-week middle-school English language arts course that uses only a notebook and a pencil. The crew turns a porch corner into the Signal Desk and publishes The Signal, a small neighborhood paper, and every week's reading teaches a skill the week's writing needs. Students cite evidence from a text, find a theme and write an objective summary, follow how a plot and its characters change, weigh word choice and tone, see how a narrator's point of view shapes a story, read informational texts for structure and central idea, trace an argument and judge its evidence, and compare a poem with a story. They write a narrative, an explanation and an argument for The Signal, then plan, revise and edit for Press Day. Every passage is original fiction or writing about the crew's own neighborhood, apart from two public-domain poems named in the sources. Short daily lessons, a Writing Lab each week and a Saturday Press Day. 100% free, start to finish.
Kids will
- Cite textual evidence for what a text says explicitly and for inferences, and write an objective summary of its theme or central idea
- Describe how a plot unfolds and how characters change, how a narrator's point of view shapes a story, and how a sentence, scene or stanza fits the whole
- Determine the meaning of words and phrases in context, including figurative and connotative meanings, and explain how word choice sets tone
- Read informational texts for central idea and structure, trace an argument and judge whether its reasoning and evidence hold up
- Write a narrative, an explanation and an argument with a clear organization, relevant details or evidence, transitions and a conclusion
- Plan, revise and edit writing for clarity, and use standard punctuation and sentence structure
The 12 weeks
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Week 1
Evidence Hunters
Say what you see, then say what it means
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Week 2
Theme and Central Idea
What a text is really about
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Week 3
Plot and Character
One story, five days, up the mountain and down
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Week 4
Word Choice and Tone
Every word casts a shade
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Week 5
Structure and Point of View
Who tells it, and where each scene sits
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Week 6
Narrative Writing
From the hook to the last line
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Week 7
Informational Texts
How a piece of nonfiction is built
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Week 8
Explanatory Writing
Explain something clearly, section by section
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Week 9
Tracing Arguments
Claim, reasons, evidence, and whether they hold
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Week 10
Argument Writing
A claim, clear reasons, real evidence, and a fair word for the other side
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Week 11
Comparing Texts and Poems
One theme, two forms: how a poem's shape and a story's shape change what they say
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Week 12
Revise, Edit and Press Day
Make it clearer for the reader, make it correct, and print the final issue
Try Week 1 today.
Open the course, pick Day 1 and go. Make a free parent account when you want progress saved for each kid.