6-12 ELA

Grade 6-8 English/Language Arts courses are designed to meet the needs of a variety of learners by utilizing the research-based readers/writers workshop approach to instruction aimed at providing all students the opportunity to authentically develop literacy skills as well as to become critical thinkers. “Workshop” is both a structure for organizing classroom instruction and a vehicle to get students more engaged and invested in content. The structure provides more time during the school day for students to read, write, talk, use effective learning strategies, and explore and respond to the topics and ideas they are studying. As well, it provides more time for teachers to work with individual students and for students to work with one another.

At the heart of the workshop model is explicit strategy instruction, followed by guided practice that leads to the transfer to independence.  Students are assessed both formally and informally regularly to both measure progress as well as to inform instruction. Our workshop classrooms seek to create a balance between the primary components of reading, writing, and word study as well as between whole group, small group, and independent instruction. All classrooms are filled with a variety of texts at all levels so that students have, at their fingertips, reading materials that are just right for them. Student notebooks and Google files are filled with ideas, drafts, and finished pieces that represent a focus on craft and celebrate ownership.

In all ELA classrooms, students will be expected to:

• Read widely and write frequently (in various genres).

• Work collaboratively within a community of readers and writers

• Engage in meaningful conversation to grow new understandings

• Move toward independence.

• Read to develop content knowledge on their own

• Use evidence and think critically.

• Utilize technology as a tool to amplify learning.

The English language arts program is designed to improve students’ awareness of the important role that the English language and its literature play in their personal and career development. Essential to the overall program of studies, the English language arts program emphasizes the development of the powers of comprehension, critical thinking skills, and cogency and fluency in the expression and communication of ideas. While the English language arts program stresses competence in skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, it promotes the selection of increasingly complex texts, a balanced approach to understanding fictional and informational writing, and the effective integration of technology. As well, the English Language Arts program provides experiences and activities that will help students become discriminating users of print and non-print media. Works, selected for both excellence in content as well as relevance to student interest, will promote humanistic attitudes, aesthetic appreciation, and critical evaluation skills while also fostering a true community of readers and writers. Fulfilling this responsibility to our students’ total literacy is the cornerstone of our department’s philosophy.