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Mr. Ruth's 8th grade ela

That teacher who skateboards...

Welcome to the 8th-Grade 

 This year I will be using CANVAS for most of our work throughout the week.
To access CANVAS go to your RAPIDIdentity app on your iPad, login, and choose the canvas app. Logging in to CANVAS through RAPIDIdentity automatically logs you in.
Otherwise, the rest of this website will be just for information about me and the class syllabus. Over time I may expand this website to involve some weekly reflections and student work. Keep checking in for new content throughout the year!
About Me
Syllabus

What is English Language Arts?


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 As Fry shares with us in the above meme, nothing is clear in English Language Arts. ELA takes a critical mind that is willing to question everything about a piece of literature, an article from an online journal, and the world around them. Because of its unclear nature, it is not an easy task to define English Language Arts. But I am going to try.

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I believe that ELA is an awful lot like skateboarding. It takes creativity, a belief in yourself, trust in your community, and a whole lot of risk. Now, the risk in ELA is much different than the risk in skateboarding--I'm not asking students to kickflip a twelve stair--but it can be just as scary. To put your thoughts out into the world, to write passionately, often about something you may not fully understand, and to then ask someone you barely know "What do you think of this?" can be terrifying to even the strongest of us. That is why building a collaborative and supportive community of peers is essential in this process of growth and success. Much like the community surrounding skateboarding, we push each other to gain those skills, we offer advice, we take that advice, and we celebrate each other's victories. 


There's an intrinsic value in creating something for the sake of creating it, and better than that ... there is this beauty in dropping it into a community of your own making, and seeing it dispersed, and seeing younger, more talented people take it to levels you can never imagine.
-Rodney Mullen
Skateboarding Legend

So on we fight, work, write our way to the top. We build those bridges to the center of our goals with the broken pieces of our defeats. Our defeats  make our loads lighter, our progress quicker. And once we reach that center, stepping on past mistakes, making new ones only so we can better support the weight of our learned knowledge, we can sing and dance and write and laugh and be, together. 

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  • 2021-2022 ELA Home
    • About Me
    • ELA Syllabus
  • Archived Sites
    • 2020-2021 ELA Home
    • 2019-2020 Home >
      • 2019-2020 ELA Home >
        • Google Classroom
        • Week in Review
        • ELA Announcements
        • ELA Weekly Schedule >
          • Reg. ELA Weekly Schedule
          • Acc. ELA Weekly Schedule
        • ELA Student Work
      • 2019-2020 Video Production Home >
        • VP Announcements
        • VP Weekly Schedule (Sem. 1)
        • VP Weekly Schedule (Sem. 2)
        • VP Syllabus
        • VP Student Work
    • 2018-2019 Home >
      • 2018-2019 Creative Writing Home >
        • Weekly Schedule
        • Syllabus
        • Student Work
        • Announcements
      • 2018-2019 ELA Home >
        • Weekly Schedule
        • Student Work
        • 18/18 ela Syllabus
    • 2017-2018 HOME >
      • 2017-2018 AVID Home >
        • Announcements
        • Weekly Schedule
        • Student Work
        • Syllabus
      • 2017-2018 ELA Home >
        • Announcements
        • Weekly Schedule
        • Student Work >
          • 2nd Period Poster Discussion #1
          • 4th Period Poster Discussion #1
          • 5th Period Poster Discussion #1
          • 6th Period Poster Discussion #1
          • 7th Period Poster Discussion #1
          • 7TH PERIOD SHORT STORIES
        • Week in Review
        • Syllabus
    • 2016-2017 Home >
      • 16-17 Announcements
      • 16-17 Weekly Schedule
      • 16-17 Student Work >
        • Per 1-2 Poster Discussions
        • Per. 1-2 Poster Discussion #2
        • Per. 1-2 Poster Discussion #3
        • Period 1-2: Science Friday
        • Per 4-5. Poster Discussions
        • Per. 4-5 Poster Discussion #2
        • Per. 4-5 Poster Discussion #3
        • Per 6-7. Poster Discussions
        • Per. 6-7 Poster Discussion #2
        • Period 4-5: Science Friday
        • Per. 6-7 Poster Discussion #3
        • Period 6-7: Science Friday
      • 16-17 Week in Review
      • 16-17 Syllabus
    • 2015/2016 Home >
      • 15/16-Week in Review
      • 15/16-Weekly Schedule
      • 15/16-Announcements
      • 15/16-Student Work >
        • 1st & 2nd-Research Poster Discussion
        • 1st & 2nd Poetry Poster Discussion
        • 4th & 5th Research Poster Discussion
        • 4th & 5th Poetry Poster Discussion
        • 6th & 7th Research Poster Discussion
        • 6th & 7th Poetry Poster Discussion