English Language Arts

Course Description: In Grade 7, students will focus on building foundational literacy skills and knowledge to read and respond to various types of literature, build their knowledge base, and strengthen existing abilities. Students’ ability to think abstractly increases. Seventh graders continue to examine and challenge the ideas of others and expand their ability to express and justify their own points of view through reading, listening, writing, and speaking.

Course Description: In Grade 8, students will analyze sources of reading span all subject areas, cultures, and formats as students begin to recognize the interconnectedness of their world. These texts also become sources for research. Students in the middle level begin to discern the validity and credibility of information, as well as the importance of employing that discernment in today’s world. Students also learn the importance of citing their sources to acknowledge the work of other academics and to build their own credibility as researchers and writers. Writing in the middle grades becomes more rigorous as the emphasis on organization and textual evidence becomes a daily requirement. Writing is fostered and sustained by both shorter pieces of writing and longer, more challenging works. Students hone their vocabulary literacy by paying attention to connotative meanings, understanding their audience, and their academic and domain-specific vocabulary. They also continue to develop their language and grammar skills as they review foundational knowledge and build upon it with new concepts in their writing through reading, listening, writing, and speaking.

Course Description:  This is an enriched course which dives deeper into the content knowledge of context through a multicultural diversity of text and types of text, and it provides an extension of the regular grade course work in relation to expression and reception. Students will read at least two novels independently with a selection of short stories and other paired texts over the course of the year. 

Course Description: This is an enriched course which dives deeper into the content knowledge of context through a multicultural diversity of text and types of text, and it provides an extension of the regular grade course work in relation to expression and reception. Students will read at least two novels independently with a selection of short stories and other paired texts over the course of the year.