English

In fifth grade, students are embarking on the next step in their educational journey as they enter middle school and continue to grow as readers, writers, and awesome pre-teens; this eye-opening, awe-inspiring, ever-changing aspect of their lives impacts the curriculum of their English class. This is an amazing time in their lives, and they’ll enjoy reading, discussing, and writing about aspects of identity, impacts of actions, and dynamic social relationships to support their development of empathy, understanding, and appreciation of others. In this, students will read a variety of engaging short stories, poetry, all-class texts, and choice novels to explore these themes in the lives of characters and authors in a variety of settings and cultures. Likewise, students will write creatively and analytically to expand on these themes, connecting them to their own lives and the world around them. Students will continue to build and strengthen their writing, improving sentence construction and complexity alongside the depth and analysis of their content, through assignments and projects that demonstrate comprehension, learning, and growth.  

In sixth grade, students continue to explore complex issues of the current world through the texts, discussions, and writings of their English class and curriculum. While settled into middle school routines, these pre-teens are still working to develop their interpersonal skills, their ability to resolve conflict, and their personal sense of place and self in an ever-changing, pretty amazing world. As such, students have fun delving into and exploring vocabulary, ideas, themes, and actions of characters and texts that mirror their own experiences while providing windows into the lives of others, again building empathy, understanding, and the language needed to foster belonging. While still developing and strengthening their writing skills, students engage in more complex forms of creative and analytical writing, adding increasingly nuanced use of grammar and punctuation to effectively and accurately convey their thoughts. Using the writing of fifth grade as a benchmark, students learn additional ways of correcting run-on sentences, punctuating dialogue and embedding quotations, more formally citing their sources, and organizing information in an increasingly clear and transitionally-smooth manner. Students continue to write for different purposes and audiences, gaining an increased understanding of why this is important as they continue exploring the author/audience relationship and the impact their words (and actions) have on others. 
 

In seventh grade, students examine how the English language works and strive to become attentive and artistic readers, writers, thinkers, viewers, and listeners. They broaden vocabulary and hone organizational and academic habits of mind to deepen their facility with and appreciation for the power of words. By studying the works of authors such as Lois Lowry, Reyna Grande, Akwaeke Emezi, Shirley Jackson, and more, seventh graders ponder questions such as “How do we choose what’s good or right?”; “How do our words matter?”; and “How do words act as a connection across experiences, cultures, and continents?”  
 

Words allow us to reach across the mystery of each other and our world. To pay attention and take care to use their words to lead with love, eighth graders examine the conventions of the English language, develop discernment and analysis skills, practice creative and expository writing, and critically read a broad range of literature and non-fiction. By engaging in civil conversations, students question meaning, who they are to each other, and the significant possibilities for their world through the writings of authors and poets such as Art Spiegelman and Maya Angelou and their own compositions. To journey through English 8 is to learn to read, write, think, speak, listen, view, question, and discern in a spirit of curiosity and empathy with new skills, appreciation, and joy.