Open Door 8^th Grade Students and Honors Students in 8^th Grade

8^th Grade        Honors

·1  Students in 8^th grade Honors will integrate public speaking opportunities such as; historic lectures, debates, panel discussions and reenactments.  This block offers curriculum support from primary and secondary histori     erature sources.  Students will expand on more complex writing and communication skills which will include; comparison/contrast essay, personal opinion essay, speech and debate development.  Students will apply their studies and higher level thinking skills by producing and completing projects emphasizing National History Day competitions.  Students from Housel Middle School will apply to participate in both regional and state level competitions that will incorporate communications and technology skills. 

·2 Fall Semester:      Honors

·3 Two Periods:         Washington State History and English

            Open Door / Honors Block:      This class will integrate literature, primary and secondary historic sources, and civics of the Pacific Northwest in general and Washington State specifically. Students will use writing, artistic, and technology skills to compliment classroom discussions, debates, and essays in a multiple intelligence setting.  Historic exploration along with independent study and research will be the emphasis.  Production of projects used for National History Day competitions will be a final and culminating component for the semester.

·1 Spring Semester:  Honors

·4  Two Periods:         Current World Affairs and English

            Open Door / Honors Block:      This class will integrate literature, primary and secondary historic sources, and civics of the United States and World.  The class will look at the history of the Twentieth Century and the causes of many of today's current world problems.  The roots of terrorism and other world problems will be examined as the students are provided the opportunity to debate these issues as part of a mock United Nations.  Students will use writing, artistic, and technology skills to compliment classroom discussions, debates, and essays.  Individual evaluation of class subject matter will be encouraged in order to develop the students' own self concept of the world around them and how it impacts them and their future personally. Development and completion of projects used for National History Day competitions will be a final and culminating component for the semester.

Open Door 6^th and 7^th Grade: One Period

·5  Utilizing the multiple intelligences, an emphasis will be placed on developing skills that are at the top of Blooms Taxonomy:  Analysis and Synthesis of information and materials, Application of knowledge and learning and Evaluation of results will be used in various class projects as well as competition in the Knowledge Bowl which will serve as a pre-curser to the National History Day competitions in the eighth grade.

·6  Curriculum for the Open Door program will seek to help students develop a positive self esteem through unique intellectual challenges that extend beyond the traditional classroom.  All units will use project based learning which fosters individual creativity, risk taking, problem solving, and critical higher level thinking skills.

·7 Open Door units will obviously evolve and change so as to stay fresh each year and to accommodate students who stay in the class for sixth and seventh grade.   Probable course units are listed below:

·8  Business, Economics and Advertising

o As part of an integrated study of small business, economics and advertising the students will create and run a mock company.  Students will design commercials and ad campaigns, keep track of production expenses, and promote sales while evaluating their company's progress. 

·9 Computer Technology and Video Production

o Students will be provided access to computers, digital cameras, and digital video editing equipment. Using these new skills the class will create a special newscast that will summarize school sporting events and special extra-curricular events such as Geography and Spelling Bees, sporting events and Band/Choir and Leadership presentations.

o Students will be introduced to structured programming with Visual Basic and Web Page design using Microsoft's Front Page.  Students will also be provided access to database management tools and graphic animators.

·10 Scientific and Cultural Investigations with modern tools.

o Space exploration will be considered as part of our astronomy unit. Students will be provided access to telescopes and computer simulations.  

o Ancient archaeology and mythology will be studied as part of a multi class integration with the social studies' western civilization curriculum. 

·11 Modern Communications

o Script writing, stage production, costume design, audio selection, and video construction will be manipulated by students creating original movies.

o Students may rewrite and then produce their own versions of popular myths, fairytales, and historic events using clay, pipe cleaners, Legos, and other household bits and pieces as they generate original animations.