Posts tagged Language Arts
4th Grade - Language Arts

Language Arts

Our language arts curriculum utilizes a balanced approach to literacy including reading, writing, and vocabulary study. The emphasis of our ELA curriculum is for our thriving learners to engage deeply in the reading, speaking, and writing process. Through a broad range of instructional protocols we take our students through learning experiences which weave student engagement, discourse, and collaboration.

Students will continue to build important reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in grade four. They will read more challenging literature, articles, and other sources of information and continue to grow their vocabulary. They will also be expected to clearly explain in detail what they have read during collaborative discussions by referring to details or information from the text. They will learn how to take notes and organize information from books, articles, and online sources to learn more about a topic. Students will learn to organize their ideas and develop topics with reasons, facts, details, and other information. They will write research and opinion papers over extended periods of time.

Reading

Our approach to reading instruction enables children to build and hone skills they need to succeed in becoming independent readers. Explicit reading strategies are taught in a mini-lesson format, followed by both small group and individual instruction. We assess each child individually in order to determine his or her instructional reading level at various times throughout the year to provide continued differentiated instruction. Students interact with and explore a variety of genres through notable award-winning novels and teacher-selected informational paired text in a program called Reading Adventures.

  • Students learn to explore, identify, and reflect on themes, character development, problems/conflicts, and mood.

  • Students will learn to locate, evaluate, and interpret literary devices such as foreshadowing, flashbacks, imagery, characterization, repetition, connotations, epilogue, euphemisms, irony, and figurative language.

  • Students will build on prior knowledge and make rich connections to maximize their reading experience and enhance their comprehension.

  • Students work independently and in small groups to build stamina, discuss reading, and understand a variety of texts.

  • Students learn to interpret and analyze a range of written texts, both fiction and non-fiction.

  • Students learn to use explicit information to identify the main idea or primary purpose of a text or part of a text as well as explicit details from a passage to understand it fully.

  • Students learn how to use implicit information from a passage to make inferences about the moods and motivations of characters in order to understand their shifts and developments over the course of the book.

  • Students learn to make inferences about events, understanding their importance and meaning within the context of the book.

  • Students learn how to determine whether information consists of fact or opinion. Within fiction, they will learn whether or not a narrator is trustworthy.

  • Students recognize cause-and-effect relationships among elements in a text.

  • Students categorize and combine the layers of implicit information to make predictions, draw conclusions, and/or formulate hypotheses.

  • Students will employ comprehension strategies to interpret, analyze, and evaluate what they have read.

  • Students will be able to discuss texts well, demonstrating their understanding and growing each other’s ideas.

  • Students will engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, cooperative groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners to discuss topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and express their own ideas, positions, and responses.

  • Students will develop communication and public speaking skills in creation of group presentations using slides or IMovies.

  • Students will learn how to take notes and organize information from books, articles, and online sources to learn more about a topic.

Writing & Grammar

Our language arts instruction not only enhances the mechanics of writing, grammar, spelling, and syntax, but also allow students to express themselves in creative and personal ways. Through weekly growth mindset journaling, students respond to topics that encourage social and emotional growth, personal development, and innovative thinking. Our focus is to create strong thinking through writing. Formal writing is done through a multidisciplinary approach weaving in social studies, science, and reading. It not only helps students make connections but enhances the learning experience.

  • Students will organize their ideas and develop topics with reasons, facts, details, and other information.

  • Students will write research and opinion papers over extended periods of time.

  • Students will learn to properly use conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

  • Students will learn to properly use conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

  • Students will learn to clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

  • Students will learn proper use of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

Students will demonstrate skills through a variety of activities and products:

  • Board games

  • Pop-up books

  • Character journals

  • Scrapbooks

Students will participate in a variety of integrated writing activities utilizing multiple different writing formats:

  • Friendly letter

  • Poems

  • Role-play journals

  • App creations

  • Book reviews

  • R.A.F.T.

  • Formal essays such as informational, expository, and persuasive writing.

Monthly writing experiences allow our junior writers to publish and share their pieces with their peers.

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4th GradeSamantha PennLanguage Arts
3rd grade - language arts

Language Arts

Our language arts curriculum utilizes a balanced approach to literacy including reading, writing, and vocabulary study. Students will think, talk, and write about what they read in a variety of articles, books, and other texts including history, social studies, and science. In collaborative discussions, students will build on the ideas of others by listening, asking questions, and sharing ideas. Students will gather information from books, articles, and online sources to build understanding of a topic. They will write research and opinion papers over extended periods of time. Students will pay more attention to organizing information, developing ideas, and supporting these ideas with facts, details, and reasons in their writing.

Reading

Students will learn the components of literature through novel studies, both fictional and informational, and poetry analysis.

Throughout our fictional novel units:

  • Students will learn to determine the cause and effect of situations, identify problems and resolutions within the plot, understand sequencing within the context of summarizing literary texts, and establish the central idea with suitable titles for chapters within the novels.

  • Students will learn to make inferences, draw conclusions, and make predictions regarding the plot, characters, and settings by identifying details.

  • Students will learn characterization through analysis of dialogue, comparing and contrasting characters, describing character traits and attributes, explaining character motivation, inferring character feelings, determining how characters develop or change over time, and analyzing how settings affect characters.

  • Students will learn how to search for the author’s hidden messages and develop a deeper understanding while examining central symbols and themes.

  • Students will learn elements of the author’s craft by examining mood and the narrator’s tone, the usage of figurative language, how the author appeals to the reader’s senses, and how the author develops their characters.

  • Students will learn to summarize a sequence of events across multiple chapters. This includes identifying the main idea, supporting details, and various conflicts within the text with correlating solutions.

  • Students will learn to identify details that support inferences and predictions, identifying various points of view, and utilizing context clues and visualization with the purpose of enhancing comprehension.

  • Students will learn to identify the author’s tone, how the author establishes various moods and why, what certain figurative elements indicate throughout the story, and how the author uses components such as foreshadowing and flashbacks to enhance the reader’s experience while strengthening the storyline.

  • Students will learn to ask open-ended questions, determine the climax, and compare all novels read throughout the year.

Throughout our informational novel units:

  • Students will learn to distinguish facts from opinions.

  • Students will learn to determine the effects of events within the text.

  • Students will learn to identify evidence to support claims.

  • Students will learn to draw conclusions based on inferences from the information.

  • Students will learn to outline important events.

  • Students will learn to identify the main idea, and distinguish details that support the main idea in informational text through the skill of note-taking.

Throughout our poetry units:

  • Students will learn various elements of poetry such as a poem’s structure, lines, stanzas, rhyme scheme, rhythm, end and internal repetition, imagery, figurative language, sensory details, mood, and tone.

  • Students will learn to use their creative ability and planning skills to compose original, descriptive poems, narrative poems, and simile poems.

  • Students will learn to analyze poetry and determine the author’s purpose, tone, mood, and hidden message, along with inferring assumptions about the author based on their poetry.

Vocabulary

Third graders will analyze select vocabulary words from their novels and expand their knowledge of Greek and Latin root words to strengthen their vocabulary acquisition and usage.

  • Students will learn to identify the correct definition and/or confirm initial understanding of multiple-meaning words with the use of dictionaries and context clues.

  • Students will learn to analyze and apply their knowledge of Greek and Latin affixes as clues to determine the meanings of Greek, and Latin words.

  • Students will learn to employ context to determine the meaning of words in informational and literary texts, implement definitions of roots to determine word meaning or meanings of Latin and Greek roots, and utilize dictionary definitions to confirm initial understanding of words or determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Writing & Grammar

Sentence and paragraph structure are a primary focus in third grade writing.

  • Students will learn to elaborate their sentences by incorporating description and infusing context clues in conjunction with vocabulary words.

  • Students will learn to write three types of writing: Persuasive Writing, Friendly Letter Writing, and Narrative Writing.

  • Students will learn to compose an argument using a hook sentence, three strong evidences from the text supporting their opinion, and a conclusion sentence.

  • Students will learn how to compose a friendly letter with the proper heading, greeting, body, and closing, as well as how to format street addresses when addressing envelopes.

  • Students will create and publish personal narratives using graphic organizers for planning.

  • Students will learn to write a persuasive essay using a catchy hook in their introduction, citing at least three details from the text as supportive evidence, and determining a convincing conclusion.

  • Students will learn to research and compose a research report.

  • Students will learn to use prior knowledge of friendly letter writing to draft, edit, and publish realistic fiction postcards, writing from a person in history.

  • Students will learn to plan and compose five paragraph narrative essays.

  • Students will incorporate their prior knowledge of letter writing and persuasive writing to persuade a character from one of our novels.

  • Students will learn proper grammar usage with practice editing and revising sentences, and identifying and correcting various parts of speech.

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3rd GradeSamantha PennLanguage Arts
2nd grade - language arts

Language Arts

Our language arts curriculum utilizes a balanced approach to literacy including interactive read alouds, guided reading, shared reading, independent daily reading, and word study.

Reading

Second grade is a pivotal year for students as the focus moves from learning to read toward reading to learn. Instruction focuses on multiple intelligences and various learning styles present among students. Students will be reading for knowledge across all subject areas. Autonomy is the main objective. Students are encouraged to become independent, self-reliant learners as they explore multiple genres and expand their reading repertoire.

Reading skills include demonstrating an independent interest in reading-related activities, and listening with interest and purpose to stories and other texts read aloud.

  • Students will learn to listen to mentor texts that model reading strategies.

  • Students will learn to construct meaning from print and interpret stories and short passages.

  • Students will learn to decode new words by using phonics and/or contextual clues.

  • Students will learn to demonstrate an understanding of stories by identifying the main idea and main characters, placing events in sequence, and predicting the outcome.

  • Students will learn to summarize stories.

  • Students will learn to identify the difference between fact and opinion.

  • Students will learn to respond to who, what, when, where, how and why questions and include the same thoroughness in their story writing.

  • Students will learn to identify the main idea and details of a story, including retelling a reading selection.

Writing

Writing is incorporated through a cross-curricular approach. Students are encouraged to focus on the writing process. Focus is based on content and quality over quantity.

  • Students will learn the value of the editing process and how to use editing symbols.

  • Students learn to conduct research and use the information to write detailed stories.

  • Students will learn to utilize a myriad of graphic organizers to generate ideas, show their thinking, and establish a reference point for writing.

  • Students will learn to write a clear topic sentence, focusing on the main idea and including details that elaborate on the main idea.

  • Students will learn to use transition words for sentence variety.

Writing activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Students will use a writing folder to organize writing assignments and to keep track of the stages of writing.

  • Students will write friendly letters, research papers, realistic fiction stories, written responses to reading, persuasive essays, and narrative essays.

  • Students will complete a five-paragraph narrative story.

  • Students will write poetry (including bio poems, haiku, triante and acrostic style).

  • Students will write regular reflections in a journal.

  • Students will develop public speaking skills by presenting many writing assignments to groups.

Grammar and Vocabulary

Grammar and vocabulary will be taught in application. Grammar will be a focus during the editing phase of the writing process. Parts of speech and figurative language are highlighted and practiced throughout ELA class through the use of mentor texts and independent practice. Vocabulary for each subject is reviewed in context. Novel study provides a foundation for vocabulary acquisition and usage.

Handwriting

Cursive handwriting is introduced and practiced regularly. Students continue to use and practice manuscript handwriting. Students practice reading cursive writing and are prepared to write short stories in cursive by the end of the school year.

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2nd GradeSamantha PennLanguage Arts
1st grade - language arts

Language Arts

Reading

Teachers assess each child to determine their instructional reading level throughout the year, and meet with students one-on-one and in small groups to differentiate instruction and ensure the success of every student. Students are exposed to different genres of literature, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Students will learn decoding, making connections within the text, predicting, visualizing, activating their prior knowledge, re-telling, summarizing, evaluating, inferring, and reading comprehension.

  • Students will learn to identify the main idea, explain the problem and solution in their own words, sequence major details or key events in a story, and compare and contrast characters and story elements.

Writing

First grade students focus on three major genres of writing throughout the year – Narrative, Informational, and Opinion Writing.

  • Students will learn to write small-moment stories with a true beginning, middle, and end.

  • Students will be able to recount two or more appropriately sequenced events including details from the story using temporal words to signal event word order, such as first, next, then, and last.

  • In our Informational unit, students will research a topic and use their research to write about various topics.

  • In the Opinion unit, students will write about a topic they are interested in and supply details as to why they feel a certain way.

  • Throughout the year, the students work on sentence structure.

  • Students will learn capitalization and punctuation using nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

  • Students will learn correct usage of present, past, and future tense verbs and contractions.

  • Students will be introduced to commas, common, proper and possessive nouns, and appropriate punctuation.

Handwriting

  • Students will continue improving handwriting with our handwriting program, Zaner-Bloser.

  • Students will learn beginning typing skills.

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1st GradeSamantha PennLanguage Arts
kindergarten - language arts

Language Arts

Reading

Our kindergarten language arts curriculum develops students as readers through:

  • High frequency word recognition practice

  • Phonics skills

  • Comprehension skills

  • Fluency

Reading and spelling inventories are administered three times per year to determine each student’s needs and to assess their progress.

Students rotate through reading centers 4 days per week including:

  • The Listening Center – students scan a QR code to listen to a story on their iPad, after which they complete a comprehension assignment

  • Read To Self Center – independent reading

  • Word Work Center – students meet with a teacher weekly to practice the phonics and spelling skill of the week.

  • Writing Center – students have the choice of writing lists, cards, and working on narrative stories.

Phonics skills include:

  • Short vowels

  • Long vowels

  • Vowel teams

  • Digraphs

  • Diphthongs

  • R controlled vowels

Writing

In our Writer’s Workshop:

  • Students will learn beginning phases of the writing process through development of their personal narratives.

  • Students will plan, sketch, write, edit, and add details to their work.

  • Students will learn to write stories using phonetic spelling, with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

  • Students will learn “How To” writing during where students teach readers how to do something through their writing using “first, next, then, and last.”

  • Students will learn Persuasive Writing where they will write their opinions and provide support for their opinions.

  • Teachers confer with students one on one to establish and work on writing goals.

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KindergartenSamantha PennLanguage Arts
early childhood - language arts

Language Arts

Language arts is a main focus in our early childhood curriculum. Throughout the year we focus on phonological awareness through interactive activities. Students are constantly engaged in projects that interest them, as they build upon their prior knowledge. We base our lessons on the children’s needs and abilities when it comes to letter identification and sounds, building words, letter formation, handwriting, literacy and comprehension. Students participate in Orton-Gillingham based lessons that teach letter sounds in fun ways that have the students moving, speaking, practicing sounds, manipulating, and understanding consonant-vowel-consonant words. We incorporate phoneme review and phonological awareness into all of our activities. Topics covered include writing about small moments, informational writing, fiction vs. nonfiction, poetry, research, character study, and more. Students are assessed individually by teachers to ensure individualized and differentiated instruction.

  • Students will learn to analyze each part of a story as we explore story elements.

  • Students will learn to identify characters in each story, as well as the setting, problem, solution, character feelings, and events during whole-group discussions and shared reading.

  • Students will learn to read new sight words each week and identify these sight words in environmental print, as well as during independent and shared reading time.

  • Students will practice making sentences using sight words.

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Early ChildhoodSamantha PennLanguage Arts