Lower School

The goal of the Lower School Language Arts program at the Girls' School is to create confident, capable, successful, life-long readers, writers, and communicators. Throughout the lower school, the curriculum incorporates all genres of literature through books, projects, and writing activities. Spelling and grammar skills are reinforced through daily practice and the Writers' Workshop process. Print writing, with emphasis on correct letter formation and pencil grip, lays the foundation for the transition to cursive writing.

Kindergarten

The kindergarten Language Arts curriculum includes reading, writing, speaking, listening, and handwriting. Children explore literacy through play, guided reading, shared reading, read-alouds, and structured activities in a print-rich environment. The girls work in small groups using a variety of reading strategies such as context clues, letter/sound relationships, and word structure. As students gain experience with learning proper letter formation, they are introduced to journal writing activities in which they focus on writing simple sentences to answer a given prompt and express feelings.

First Grade

The 1st grade Language Arts program adds a spelling component to a continued development of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and handwriting skills. The girls explore literacy through play, guided reading, shared reading, read-alouds, and dramatizations. An increased emphasis is placed upon writing complete sentences in response to prompted questions. As the year progresses students are given many opportunities to engage in creative writing with homemade pamphlets, books, letters, and informational posters. Additional enrichment activities and objectives include completing a story map to retell a story, learning blends and diagraphs, distinguishing fiction from non-fiction, and constructing character webs.

Second Grade

Students in 2nd grade continue to build on their foundations of basic reading, writing, spelling and listening skills. In addition to completing units on tall tales, fairytales, and mythology, girls explore reading materials such as chapter books, novels, and Junior Great Books through small group reading and literature circles. Daily writing helps the girls continue to develop and extend their own skills through writing prompts, letter writing, creative writing projects, reading comprehension activities, and a research paper. Through the Writers' Workshop process, students learn and practice correct grammar, punctuation, and capitalization rules. Vocabulary building and spelling are essential elements of this curriculum, and the spelling component is highly individualized through games and daily writing activities that help girls learn and apply spelling patterns. Correct letter formation for print writing is reviewed and emphasized before cursive writing is introduced during the second half of the year.

Third Grade

The 3rd grade Language Arts program integrates reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills within a whole language approach. Students learn to read for different purposes and transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” The program emphasizes analytical/critical thinking and problem-solving skills in daily lessons. Students learn to express themselves clearly and coherently in both oral and written communications. Comprehension skills, fluency, and expression are developed through literacy circles, chapter books/novels, and units centered around mysteries, biographies, and the Artic. Using a Writers' Workshop approach (which includes formal spelling, grammar, vocabulary building, and punctuation components), students develop increased awareness of construction, grammar, punctuation, and clarity, while gaining experience in the proofreading and revision of their written work. Most girls master cursive writing skills by the end of the year.

Fourth Grade

Course content in 4th grade is grounded in a balanced approach to language, including spelling, grammar, vocabulary development, literature, and writing. The reading program is designed to promote lifelong readers through units such as fiction, historical fiction and biographies. The girls explore a variety of literary genres through literature circles, journals, analysis of writer's intent, reflections, and other content enrichment. The writing component primarily follows the Writers' Workshop strategy. Students practice organizing their ideas effectively, as well as critiquing and improving on their writing, revision, and editing skills. Creative and expository writing assignments include poetry, fiction, personal experience, persuasive writing and a research paper.

Middle School

Fifth Grade

The literature-based 5th grade Language Arts program emphasizes listening, speaking, reading, and writing, while addressing a variety of topics in diverse genres. Literature circles provide girls with opportunities to lead discussions, share their ideas, and expand their understanding by listening to and considering different points of view. The unit on A Midsummer Night's Dream is a high point of the year, culminating in a classroom performance event complete with costumes, props, and heraldry banners based on the students' personal characteristics.

5th grade writing activities focus on writing for a variety of purposes: to inform, to persuade, and to entertain. Grammar skills, spelling rules, and vocabulary development are integrated throughout the year so that the students may incorporate a rich background into their writing. Two activities illustrate this range of work particularly well: the Create-A-Sleuth project in which each girl creates fictional characters and writes a mystery story, and a research paper in which she presents a topic that she has explored in detail through the research process.

Sixth Grade

6th grade Language Arts students deepen their mastery of skills acquired in previous years, extend their critical thinking, and explore a variety of learning styles. Literary study throughout the year focuses on the theme of Identity. Across a variety of texts, students reflect on how characters define themselves, how they grow and change, and how they react when their identity is threatened. To parallel the 6th grade Social Studies Global Issues curriculum, the selected texts often have a multicultural focus. Students demonstrate their understanding of the novels, poetry and stories read for this class through written work, performance, and visual art. Students also read self-selected novels during weekly “Silent Sustained Reading” time, commenting on their books in an Independent Reading Log that tracks their choices through the year.

6th grade students solidify their understanding of parts of speech and fundamental writing mechanics through a formal grammar study. They apply this understanding to all of their written assignments, becoming adept editors of their own and others' work. Writing is emphasized throughout the 6th grade year. Students write twice weekly in journals, responding either to a teacher-provided prompt or writing on the topic of their choice. In November the 6th grade participates in National Novel Writing Month, building fluency through the process of writing an entire 12,000-40,000 word novel over 30 days. Over the course of the year, students write brief essays to demonstrate their understanding of literary themes by identifying, citing, and interpreting passages from their texts. The culminating writing project of the year is a research paper. Students work through the research process over the course of the year, utilizing a variety of sources and techniques to produce a well-researched and well-written final paper in the spring. Students also have independent writing time to work on self-directed projects including poetry, short stories, graphic novels, and plays.

Seventh Grade

The goal of the 7th grade Language Arts program is to teach students in-depth critical reading strategies through the investigation of a variety of novels, poetry and short stories. Students learn, practice, and apply techniques for highlighting and annotating by searching a text for patterns, similarities, contrasts, and imagery that deepens understanding. They analyze literature orally in panel presentations and class discussions, addressing real-world problems and considering the possible solutions offered by literature, framing their responses in traditional analytical terminology (plot, characterization, conflict, theme, and irony, for example). They are encouraged to use literature as a lens through which they may better understand their own lives and begin to gain insight beyond their own direct experiences.

The 7th grade grammar study and writing program centers around understanding, constructing, and analyzing complex sentence structure. This includes a review of fundamentals (parts of speech, phrases, clauses, etc.), as well as the exploration of more abstract issues (sentence variety, syntax, composition, structural elements, organization, style/voice, etc.), and experimentation with original forms/structures. Continuing development of the analytical paragraph, improved proofreading accuracy, and complex sentence structure are essential components of the students' research project, in which they develop a sentence outline on a current events topic, then transform the outline into a comprehensive research paper. The girls are also encouraged to write for pleasure and creative expression in their National Novel Writing Month project, poetry, and journal entries.

Eighth Grade

The goal of the 8th grade Language Arts program is to improve students' fluency in self expression and literary analysis. In an interdisciplinary program linking Language Arts and Social Studies, students read primary source material, fiction and poetry of the time period, historical fiction, and historical analysis. They grapple with the ethical issues attendant to periods of U.S. History, from genocide and prejudice to survival and personal responsibility. Students read for literary techniques as well as content and theme. Seminar-style discussions allow students to learn from each other, require them to think deeply about texts, and enable them to practice oral expression skills.

The 8th grade writing program focuses on the finer points of writing, exploring elements such as voice, complex sentence structure, use of pattern, and syntax techniques through a variety of genres. Students become adept editors of their own and others' work, striving for clarity in organization and word choice. Students experiment with original forms and structures in informal assignments, extend their fluency and creativity through National Novel Writing Month, and practice research and formal writing skills in an end-of-year research paper.