MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. - 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Mr. Brandon Sternod

8th Grade & Middle School Language Arts

Mr. Sternod has been a teacher since 2002. Prior to joining St. Nicholas, he spent six years with the Bremerton School district as both an English teacher at the Washington Youth Academy and as a wrestling coach at Bremerton High School. Prior to that, he earned a PhD in Education from Washington State University in 2009 and spent nine years in higher education, first as an Assistant Professor at California State University Stanislaus in Turlock, CA and later as an Associate Professor at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, ID. 

Mr. Sternod has been a member of the parish since returning to western Washington in 2016. His children, Hayden and Dylan, both attended SNCS and his wife Latisha has been with the church since childhood.

bsternod@sncsgh.org

CURRICULUM

English Language Arts

The middle school English/Language Arts (ELA) class focuses on the four main areas described in the Common Core State Standards: language, reading, writing, and speaking/listening. While each area is addressed every year, one particular area will be emphasized on a three-year, rotating cycle noted below (speaking/listening will be addressed equally all three years):

Year 1: Grammar and Vocabulary

Year 2: Reading

Year 3: Writing

The topics and tasks the students will be working on each year include:

  • Parts of speech (grammar)

  • Figures of speech (grammar)

  • Conventions of Standard American English (grammar)

  • Word choice and meaning (vocabulary)

  • Fictional novels and short stories (reading)

  • Nonfiction texts (reading)

  • Poetry (reading)

  • Five-paragraph essays (writing)

  • Reflections (writing)

  • Daily Journals (writing)

  • Oral presentations (speaking)

  • Note-taking (listening)