English

6th Grade: The objective of this course is to allow students to discover and delve into different literary genres and their attendant conventions. Students build writing skills through in-class writing prompts and through the additional bi-weekly Writing Workshop. The girls will engage in a variety of scaffolded writing tasks this year, beginning with the mastery of paragraphs and building towards personal narrative and nonfiction pieces. The students will become more comfortable brainstorming and organizing their information, writing an outline, constructing a draft, editing and peer editing, and turning in a final paper. 

Vocabulary is taught throughout Middle School based on the Wordly Wise 3000 series. The program focuses on preparing students with strategies to unlock the meanings of words they will encounter in content area text and literature. Through several meaningful and multi-leveled activities, the vocabulary program develops the critical link between vocabulary and reading comprehension.

7th Grade: Building and solidifying the students’ reading comprehension skills and analysis are the core focuses in this class. The students will read across fiction and non-fiction texts and support their opinions by citing evidence from multiple sources. The students will be able to make strong inferences and connections and determine themes and central ideas across various genres. The students will continue to develop as writers as they write essays, literary responses, and informational pieces.  

8th Grade: 8th grade English focuses on building students' writing, reading, and critical thinking skills. As such, students will begin writing analysis paragraphs and work toward full-length persuasive writing as the year progresses. Students will study a variety of poetry through which they will gain a deeper understanding of tone, mood, symbolism, and figurative language. Through short stories, students will also be able to identify and analyze the setting, irony, climax, elements of characterization, and foreshadowing. By engaging with the language of literary elements, students will be able to develop claims and support them with details and examples in writing and orally. Texts for 8th-grade English include various short stories, a poetry unit, and an analysis of myths, folktales, and legends. Additionally, students will choose their own independent reading (with parental and school approval) and present their Independent Research Project (IRP)’s.