Language Arts
Language Arts classes include a reading comprehension writing program that enables students to express themselves accurately in written form. Using strategies from The Writing Revolution, students develop the skills needed to write clear, linguistically-complex sentences, and well-organized paragraphs and essays. Writing strategies are applied systematically during structured writing time and integrated into the instruction of all content areas. Students are systematically taught to write argumentative, informational, and narrative pieces utilizing outlines and graphic organizers.
In Language Arts class, students read novels and informational text at their listening comprehension level to develop critical thinking skills and increase vocabulary acquisition. Students access audio books for independent reading and teacher led whole class novels. In this way students develop their deep reading skills; the array of sophisticated processes that propel comprehension, that includes inferential and deductive reasoning, analogical skills, critical analysis, reflection, and insight. Students develop vocabulary knowledge, crucial to comprehension, through novel study and root word analysis.