In March, we are excited for our middle school ELA teachers to begin teaching our common novel units of study to all 6th, 7th and 8th graders in FVSD!  This is the first time that all students, within their respective grade levels, will be reading the same novel at the same time, regardless of which school a student attends.  A big thank you goes out to our ELA teachers and teams for all of the hard work that they put into developing these units.  In addition, we want to thank our ELA Teacher on Special Assignment, Page Hertzberg, for facilitating and supporting this work.  Well done, everyone!!

A Long Walk to Water (6th Grade)

Based on the true story of one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, A Long Walk to Water follows the story of two narrators, a boy named Salva, and a girl name Nya. Linda Sue Park presents a dual narrative following two threads, both set in Southern Sudan: one in 1985, the other in 2008.

Woods Runner (7th Grade)

In Woods Runner, Gary Paulsen tells the story of Samuel, a thirteen-year-old boy who lives on the frontier of the British colony of Pennsylvania in 1776.  Samuel faces conflict and challenges when his life is changed at the onset of the Revolutionary War. 

Hiroshima (8th Grade)

First published in the New Yorker magazine in 1946,  Hiroshima is a journalistic account of the experiences of six people who survived the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.