About the class and teacher

Magnet English  8

Welcome to our class and to our class website!

 

My name is Kelly Shapiro, and I am honored to serve as the 8th grade gifted magnet English teacher at Porter. I have a bachelor's degree in English literature, a master's degree in English literature, and a California Professional Clear teaching credential in Secondary English. Additionally, I attend conferences, workshops, and classes each year to remain updated in gifted pedagogy and differentiation. I am passionate about teaching and learning, and I strive to incite the same passion in my students, while encouraging personal, social, and academic responsibility and integrity. I have dedicated an extensive amount of thoughtful time, effort, and energy into planning and creating a class that will be intellectually stimulating, engaging, dynamic, interesting, challenging, and meaningful for the students. I am excited about this year and look forward to all of the wonderful things that we will experience, accomplish, and learn from one another.

In my personal life, I regularly volunteer for various charities that are close to my heart. I love animals and feel most at peace in nature. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, exploring art galleries/museums, going to concerts, and browsing book stores. I am a staunch social justice advocate and activist. Helping others--humans and animals--nourishes my soul, and I hope to help my students in as many ways as I can!

 

Gifted Magnet English 8 is a Common CORE standards- based course that explores the study of English -- focusing upon reading, writing, speaking, and listening. This course will expose students to various genres of literature, including novels, short stories, plays, essays, poetry, and memoirs. Students will develop cognitive and meta-cognitive skills, research skills, vocabulary skills, analytical/critical thinking skills, and the fundamentals of various styles of writing. LAUSD designates a "Gifted Magnet" class as one in which students are expected to perform at two grades above grade level. Therefore, this course is extremely rigorous, appropriately challenging, and is designed to prepare students for honors and/or advanced placement courses in high school, as well as to cultivate skills that students will need to be successful in college. Thus, it is vital that students keep up with all assignments, put forth their ultimate effort into each assignment, and ask me for help when needed.

 

 

Parents/Guardians: If you do not have a parent portal account, here is the link to guide you through the process of creating one: https://achieve.lausd.net/cms/lib/CA01000043/Centricity/Domain/720/PLS%20Job%20Aid%20-%20Linking%20Parent%20Portal%20to%20Schoology.pdf