Philosophy of Language Arts
Our 5th-8th grade curriculum provides engaging, real-world lessons that foster both academic growth and character development. Students delve into complex texts, write extensively, and explore global issues. The curriculum prioritizes equity and aims to close learning gaps.
Key Features:
-
Character Development: The curriculum emphasizes habits like collaboration, perseverance, and growth mindset, fostering strong social-emotional learning.
-
Daily Goal-Setting and Reflection: Students set and reflect on learning targets, developing executive functioning skills.
-
Culminating Performance Tasks: Students apply their knowledge and skills in authentic, often collaborative projects.
-
Comprehensive Assessment: The curriculum includes both formative and summative assessments, including unit assessments and performance tasks.
-
Rich Text and Reading Volume: Students engage with complex texts daily to build vocabulary, content knowledge, and writing skills.
-
Writing for Understanding: Students write to demonstrate their understanding of content and develop transferable writing skills.
-
Support for Diverse Learners: The curriculum provides explicit support for English Language Learners (ELLs) and students with diverse needs through differentiated instruction and Universal Design for Learning principles.
Assessments
The curriculum features a variety of assessments, including:
-
Unit Assessments: These on-demand assessments assess reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.
-
Performance Tasks: These culminating projects demonstrate students' mastery of standards.
Read-Think-Talk-Write Framework
This framework integrates reading, writing, speaking, and language skills. Students:
-
Read: Engage with complex texts daily.
-
Think: Reflect deeply and analyze content.
-
Talk: Participate in meaningful discussions.
-
Write: Produce high-quality written responses.
By following this framework, students develop critical thinking, communication, and writing skills.
