Middle School

Grade 6

Communication is the genesis and core of learning. The effectiveness of communication is directly related to the skills used in the learning processes. Significant to our Language Arts program are reading, auditory, speech, and composition skills. Our program focuses on developing students to be competent writers. Thus, we stress the six traits of effective writing as students learn the fundamentals of narrative, descriptive, expository and persuasive writing employing the five stages of the writing process: pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading.

Grade 7

Language – written and spoken, read and heard, is central to education and to life. Competence in language serves a variety of purposes: accomplishing the business of daily work, communicating attitudes and ideas, expanding thought, informing the imagination, and thinking critically. In grade 7, students begin more intensive work in writing – not only in terms of mastering skills and conventions, but also in terms of revising to clarify, elaborating upon meaning, and analysis of literature. Communication skills, both oral and written, are reinforced in the context of student performance, with continued emphasis on grammar, mechanics, usage, and spelling. Students will continue to write, organizing their experience and moving toward a greater awareness of the writer’s role in informing, arguing, and entertaining an audience. In reading, students will work to determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarizing the key supporting details and ideas. Additionally, students will continue to study texts and read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences and relevant connections from it; citing specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text while analyzing how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

Grade 8

In the area of literature, eighth grade students continue to develop their critical and interpretive skills, analyzing the history, genres and structure of drama and novels. This awareness of purpose and audience is also reinforced in student writing assignments as students become more skilled in the use of unity and variety in paragraphs and sentences and the importance of appropriate and effective diction. Communication skills are reinforced in the context of student performance, focusing particularly on sentence patterns, sentence clarity and sentence combining, as well as other elements of usage, mechanics, and grammar. In speaking, students practice and deliver a variety of presentations, and projects. Students will also develop their writing through sophisticated vocabulary and a strong command of the English language. MLA-based assessments introduce students to research skills and techniques. Technology will be infused throughout the year in a variety of methods, including Performance-Based Assessments that require the students to collaborate and use 21st Century Skills to determine a problem and find a solution using past knowledge and self-direction. Lessons and assignments will be built upon and assessed using the Benchmarks for Critical Thinking Rubric adopted by the Ramsey School District. The skills of asking good questions, using logic and evidence, analyzing and processing information and making connections and reflections will be reinforced throughout the year allowing students to reach the exemplary level. By year’s end students will be more articulate in expressing themselves and interpreting the world around them.